PA!!!!

Our agency emailed us today to let us know they received our pre-approval to adopt Kate today!!!! This is a step that the CCAA sometimes skips over, but it happened so fast that we are in shock. We didn't even know for sure that our Letter of Intent had been translated and sent to them, much less that they would have time to Pre-Approve us. We are hoping that our Letter of Acceptance will come just as quickly and unexpectedly. We are praying that they will have time to process us before the Olympics, since we don't know if the CCAA office will be open during the games. Many businesses/offices that are non-essential to the games are being closed to free up transportation and other services to those people who will be going to the Olympics. They are also hoping that this will reduce the air pollution in and around Beijing. Either way, we are so thankful that our PA arrived so quickly and evidently without any kinks. Now if our American paperwork can also be processed that quickly...

In other news, it has been a busy week so far. On Saturday we went to my aunt's house to celebrate my grandmother's 80th birthday. We read a list of 80 reasons we love Ninnie, such as "She makes green beans so good that you want to eat them for breakfast" and "She loves to ask a lot of questions." Some of them were pretty funny. Ninnie is an awesome lady and wonderful grandmother, and it was a lot of fun to celebrate with her. We got to show her pictures of Kate for the first time, and she was very happy for us. Kathryn is actually named after both Ninnie's mother and daughter, and Tim and I have always loved the name.

While Tim is away at camp this week, the boys have started taking swimming lessons. I always swore that my children would learn to swim when they were small, but somehow the busyness of life got in the way, and they were pretty afraid at the beginning of the summer. I have been working with them some to help with the fear, but I felt like they would respond better to someone else. Will still gets pretty nervous when the lesson starts, but Ben holds his hand until he gets used to it, and then he does fine the rest of the class. They have been blowing bubbles and practicing going under the water. Today the teacher helped them to go to the bottom and pick up rings. Pretty big stuff for lesson #3! I don't know if they will be able to dog paddle and tread by the end of the class, but at least they are getting over some of their fears.

Also, for those of you who don't know, Ben has learned to read over the summer. And he is doing an awesome job. It just started clicking for him, and he is learning new words left and right. He will read to anyone willing to sit still for more than five minutes. His favorites are Dr. Seuss books, especially the Cat in the Hat Comes Back and Green Eggs and Ham. But every time I go into the playroom he is sitting there with another book. I love it!!

He is definitely ready for Kindergarten. I know a lot of people think I am nuts for waiting an extra year to send him, but it has been such good year that I wouldn't trade it for the world. He had a great experience at preschool, and he honestly wasn't so interested in reading this time last year. He really needed that year to grow and mature. And maybe it was good for mommy too. But now he is going into school prepared and already ahead of the game. I am unbelievably proud of him. I am also proud of how quickly Will is gleaning from Ben's skills. He pays attention to books and can sound out lots of individual letters. He likes to tell people he is reading Fox in Socks, but he is really just repeating what he has memorized. Still, it is very cute, and it won't be long before he is reading independently. He starts preschool this fall. I can't believe how big my boys are!