WHAT A WAY TO START THE WEEKEND!!!!!

OUR PA HAS ARRIVED - JUST TODAY!!!!

As many of you have already guessed - YES! - we once again have been chosen to be the parents of a child waiting for us in China...and as you can see - IT IS A BOY!!!!

It gives us extreme pleasure to introduce to you...

Benjamin James Zi Leonard
(his Chinese name is Dang Zi Zhong)

He is currently 18 months old and is living in a foster home in Luoyang Henan China.

We actually received an email from our agency, CCAI, asking us if we would be interested in reviewing a file. Seeing how we just updated our MCC this past April (originally filed in December 2008), we were so very excited! The email came in late on a Friday evening...so we waited all weekend long speculating on whether it was a boy or girl... it wasn't until Monday morning when Deniece called me and gave us all the details...that we found out it was a boy. Once we got his file reviewed and everything looked right on target, we called our agency back on Wednesday with a YES - HE IS OUR SON! So since that overly excited & happy phone call, we have been up to our necks in paper work. We must once again, compete a dossier and work with our social worker on new home study. We also have to deal with all the new regulations that took place since our last dossier was LID (April 2007) and receiving our referral for Annabelle back in June 2008. But for us...it is SO WELL WORTH IT!

To answer a "statement" that I have been getting since announcing this referral to family & friends is..."I guess Keith is finally getting his boy." And to answer you truthfully, it was ME that longed for a little boy...a son...to add to already blessed family. After visiting Hope when we traveled for Annabelle, I grew very attached to a few of the boys that were there waiting for their families to come and bring them home. After arriving home, I quickly started talking to Keith about the possibility of a son. He was on board, but as he would say..."I would love to have another daughter...I know my way around little girls." (seeing how Annabelle is his fourth daughter). So we decided to mark off "boy" and "girl" on our MCC and just wait to see what happens. When we finally found out that it was a little boy, we were both OVER JOYED with excitement that we were once again chosen for this child, a precious little boy...that will soon be our son. After a lot of discussions, Keith finally decided on a name. Knowing we already have two beautiful names for our girls, I just couldn't let our son's name no stand out too. So Benjamin James it is.

I promise, once I come off this cloud I am riding one...I will give you all more details.

As I am sitting her typing this, I am truly wondering, "How did we ever get so blessed?" My friend, Sara at Football & Fried Rice summed it up perfectly to me when I started panicking about child #3, doing another dossier, and traveling to China - again. She said to me, "You guys are truly incredible, loving, and faithful people. For God to hand you this gift again...you guys are doing something right." In my opinion, it isn't me that is doing something right...if anything it is my husband who is being blessed. If you ever get a chance to meet Keith, you would soon see that this man is amazing. He is kind to everyone, never judges, always see the good in people, and will bend over backwards for anyone he comes in contact with. I do believe that it is he who has brought all this blessed joy into our lives. And from the bottom of my heart, I thank him every day for all that he has done, given, and encouraged. Without him, I would not be the person I am today...I can only hope that our son will embrace the same qualities that his father has and want to display them every day of his life....

Thank you all for for hanging in there with us while we waited to share our news with you all...and I hope that you all will stick around will we paper chase once again for child #3 and travel to China to bring home our son.