Annual Holiday Letter

The long, long path to adoption is almost complete and we have seen photos of our daughter, learned some things about her, and have made final plans (at last!) to go to China to bring her home. Thinking back to that afternoon in early November when we finally got “official” word on our adoption referral, it’s hard to believe all that’s happened since then, much less the all the events of 2007. Here is a sample what our year has been like, and the challenges and adventures we’ve faced and expect to come…

We rang in the new year with our friends, as in previous years, playing cards and games to keep our eyelids from dropping faster than the ball in Times Square. Grandma R stayed with us through the holidays and returned to Arizona as the kids returned to school. P-Mac volunteered to chaperone a fifth grade overnight field trip to Ozark Natural Science Center, complete with late night and early morning hikes. Snow days didn’t come until January and the boys passed the winter by continuing to advance Karate ranks.

For spring break, we joined friends for a trip to Dallas and became season ticket holders for Six Flags. P-Mac discovered his back was too old for the Texas Giant, but did his best to keep up with the kids on the rides (K-Mom and Grandma D see roller-coastering more as a spectator sport). Our 2007 “Zoo Tour” began at the Dallas Zoo, followed by the city’s World Aquarium, and then, once home, the first of two trips to Gentry, Arkansas’ wild Safari. Cousin M from NC came for a brief visit during her Spring Break the following week and then we celebrated Easter by coloring, hiding, and finding eggs.

In May we made our annual trip with P-Mac’s sister’s family to East Texas for the Hightower reunion and Antioch cemetery day. We watched two white tigers celebrate their birthday at the Tyler Zoo and the extended family, crammed in the Honda, watched P-Mac try (unsuccessfully) to talk his way out of a speeding ticket near Marshall.

On a trip to Washington, D.C. we celebrated Fathers Day with a record crowd at Six Flags America. Also, we were treated to a tour of the Capitol courtesy of Senator Blanche Lincoln’s staff and got to sit in the Chamber while Senator Susan Colins from Maine spoke about energy legislation. Other “monumental” highlights of the trip included the view from the top of the Washington Monument, a midnight visit to the Jefferson Memorial, and reading the words of the Declaration of Independence directly from the ink Thomas Jefferson put on the page. The Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and the National Zoo were just as awesome as last time and we decided that D.C. is one of our favorite family places; it’s just too bad it is so far from home. (Little did we know…)

After the annual McSplosion party on the 4th of July, there was another visit from cousin M and another trip to the Gentry Zoo to play with baby lions and baby lemurs and K-Mom got to hand-feed a Giraffe. P-Mac agreed to let our family zoo grow with the addition of a cat, so K-Mom, the boys, and a visiting Grandma R brought home two. Grandma R was also on hand for the boys’ return to Kid’s College to learn about business, rocketry, and culinary arts.

In August, P-Mac was offered a promotion at W-Corp that involved relocation to Richmond, Virginia. After living in Arkansas for five years we have become attached to this place and it’s people like no other. But the prospect of a great new job and a great new place is too hard to resist, so we will soon be moving for the fifth time in fifteen years.

Life has been a whirlwind since we decided to move. We quickly readied our house for sale and prepared ourselves for a drawn-out listing period in this soft real estate market. To our surprise, however, we sold our house in four days to a wonderful family moving here from Albuquerque. We were able to find a great neighborhood in Richmond and as of this writing the framing of our new house is nearly complete.

W-Corp agreed to let us stay in Arkansas so we could complete the adoption to avoid delays related to changing state residence at this point in the process. This meant that we had to find a place to rent until we move to Richmond and that P-Mac has to spend much of the time away from home. We had to cancel McToberfest, but K-Mom made a stress-releasing trip to Vegas with friends. The majority of our things have been sent to a storage facility in Alabama and we are now enjoying a “high density lifestyle” in a modest-sized rental house with a view of our former back yard.

The day we moved to the rental, we got the FedEx envelope with the baby’s dossier (in Chinese) and her picture. It was love at first sight. K-Mom went to Philadelphia for pre-travel meetings with the agencies and other families in our adoption/travel group. This week we got our Chinese visas and plane tickets in the mail. The four of us will depart in early January, and the five of us will return at the end of the month.

We hope your enjoyed this update as much as we enjoy hearing from you. We hope 2008 and the “Year of the Rat” brings you prosperity, happiness, and good health.