Two months 'til his bday

We are still waiting for our LOA. Hopefully it will be just one more month for this step. Pray with us for God's timing. WE know He has perfect timing and we are excited to be a part of that.

Today makes just two months until our boy turns 4 years old. Originally my biggest prayer is that we would be there to celebrate with him. We'll see if that happens.

Here are a few pics of what the rest of us are up to while we wait.

We were blessed to go to Tahoe this summer with my mom, step-dad, brother and sis-in-law. Ok...I love Tahoe! This was the first time IN MY LIFE I have ever come home from a vacation or out of town trip that I was sad to live in where we do. HAHA. It was hot and dry and yuck! Oh well. The people are totally worth it.

On our way to Tahoe we got to spend some time with long time friends! We just love to see the Madsens! (missing our Jumping Joy in this pick makes me sad)

Our first few days in Tahoe...

One of my favorite things is to take a picture of all of us stuffed in the car right when we leave.

I remember a picture that my parents took when we went camping and I was hard to find in the backseat because of all of the items. I think I was 18 months. Maybe I love that picture and love to recreate it with our growing family.

(JJ went up with my mom and step-dad, that's why she is not in any of the pictures so far)

 It was much warmer that I expected. We started out all bundled up to walk to town (about 1 mile) and shed layers was we went. It turned out to be a beautiful week in the 70s.

I love this twisted bark!

This is the city we stayed in. Amazing! So beautiful!

We headed to Virginia City, NV for an old-west feel. Lots of fun.

 Crystal blue sky with white puffy clouds all day.

A train ride on the restored old steam train.

The guide was so knowledgable. Turns out that he and some friends relaid 4 miles of track themselves to restore it to what it was. Pretty cool that he is now the guide.

Lightning Baby slept through the whole thing.

This is the train we go to ride.

We (all except baby girl and I) enjoyed a gun-fight comedy show. After two shots she was DONE!

We toured a real mine. That was cool but simultaneously creepy and stuffy. No thanks! Check that off our list.

We followed up those activities with some good 'ol fashioned ice cream! Always a winner!

We said goodbye to Uncle Henry & Auntie Abby the next day. It was so fun to have four days of non-holiday related time with them. We laughed, played games, hiked, visited Virginia City, did make-up with the girls, star gazed...

Fun in the woods. Fun-husband bought a sling shot on the way up and we shot cans and water bottles in the woods. (with safety glasses on of course)

Sugar Pine Point with friends

Little girl LOVED the water. She came out a popsicle though.

The big kids learned how to hunt crawdads. C-dub is hooked (or should I say snapped). After catching about 9 the girls were so excited to take them home to cook for dinner. They looked up a recipe and cooked those little guys with dad. So fun!

 There was a pier at Sugar Pine Point that had NO JUMPING OFF signs posted. Of course there were lots of people jumping. We didn't feel comfortable letting the kids jump after swimmer-husband scoped it out. Luckily there was a ladder that lead off the pier into this beautifully clear lake water. It was freezing though! The all lasted about 15 minutes.

Thank you Downey family for meeting up with us. How cool that we were up there are the same time. Crazy!

We are already looking forward to the next time we get to visit Lake Tahoe!

We are LOGGED-IN!

LID

In just 3 days we have been Logged-in with the CCCWA (China). Now the countdown really begins. We wait on China to invite us to come get our boy. What an exciting end of summer. Ty's 4th bday is three months from today!

The time line they give from here (could be sooner):

2-3 months for LOA (Letter of Acceptance)

9-12 weeks from then to TA (Travel Approval)

2-3 weeks from then before departure

CRAZY!

In other news we go back to Shriners this coming Wednesday to get our Lightning Baby a lower limb check up and hopefully molds taken for a new and larger set of "feet". She gained three inches and three pounds in the first 9 months with us. The ones she has, the first set, are already getting too small.

Baby girl became the long awaited "Dancing girl". She likes it...sometimes. So far for both classes she has fallen asleep on the way to class! Not great for a two year old to get a 20 minute nap. Anyhow looking to go with a different strategy this coming week. But she is DARLING!

C-dub hosted his baseball team for the end-of-the-year swim party. He had such a great year, with great kids, families and coaches!

Fashion-Faith (track) and C-dub (baseball) each enjoyed some camps so far this summer while Jumping Joy did some extra work in gymnastics.

Another package off to our boy! I feel like it is important this time around to send him packages more frequently because he is older. I really want him to know we are thinking about him, praying for him, anticipating him and COMING! I think we can still get in two more packages before we travel.

Happy summer y'all!

THANK YOU!!!

Thanks to all who shared, prayed and donated to our

$2 Tu's-Day fundraiser!

It was great success in that the word about orphan care was shared (over 1,000 visits to our blog in 10 days!) and we raised some money for Ty's orphanage.

Stay tuned. Our paperwork continues to be processed. We pray that it is off to China by the end of this week and that we are Logged-In (LID) in early July. That should put us 2-3 months until we travel.

blessings to you! erin and fam

In other news we have a busy summer with camps and visiting family for various celebrations.

$2 Tu's-day

We got an update a bit ago on our darling boy Tyler!

We were so excited to receive this update as we did not request it. What a fantastic surprise!

His orphanage seems very excited for his future with a forever family. Isn't he just sweet?!

We were so relieved to see these update pictures. He looks SO good...and he's even wearing blue. (Many times they put the kids, both boys and girls, in whatever they have and it's not uncommon that's it's pink.) He seems to really like the person behind or beside the camera. He looks relaxed and engaged. And look how clean he is and his surroundings. It's a funny thing getting attached to someone you've never met who is so far away.

As our adoption continues...and the paperwork continues...we find ourselves blessed by contributions from friends and family! THANK YOU!

A number of people have asked how they can join with us in bringing Tyler home. One of the last fees is the Orphanage Fee. This fee is $5,700-$5,900. Our hope is to raise enough money with this last fundraiser to pay the Orphanage Fee and bring extra supplies to Ty's orphanage. They have cared for him for almost 4 years. We are so thankful for the time they have spent with him and the care they have given him! Our prayer is that this money (and supplies) would care for children in his orphanage and that it would be a tangible expression of God's giving heart.

The reason we are naming this fundraiser $2 Tu's-day is that our boy's Chinese name is Tu Yan. I (Erin) came across his picture on a Tuesday (Dec. 2nd to be exact) and we said YES to our agency on a Tuesday the following week. Tu is also our 2nd adoption. Tuesday and the number 2 seem to be all over this process.

This is how it works:

1. Donate $2 or $22 and so on...Tuesday, June 2nd through Friday, June 12th! Click the red DONATE button on the top right corner of our blog page.

2. Snap a pic and spread the word. One of our hopes is to the spread the word about orphan care to as many people as will listen. Please snap a pic holding up two fingers (or a creative way of showing the number 2).

3. Share! Take your picture and send it to {us and} as many people as you can think of... We hope to make a book for Ty with all of your pictures. We can't wait to share our journey with him of how God placed him in our family.

{you can add this blurb to what you share}

The Obwald family is adopting for the 2nd time. Tyler (Tu Yan) is 3 years old and has lived in an orphanage in China his whole life. They are so excited to bring him home and make a donation to his orphanage. Read their story and help them reach their goal by donating here www.itsanobwaldlife.blogspot.com

4. Prayer. Please join us in prayer! So many children sit in orphanages and foster care around the world. They are vulnerable in that situation to all sorts of horrible. Please join us in praying for their safety, adoption into loving families and their adjustment into a family setting. They are just as precious as any other child!


We are so thankful for each and every one of you! We can already tell that he is a special boy with a life ahead of him full of joy, hope, overcoming obstacles, sorrows, difficulties and LOVE!

Video post...

I wanted to share these fun videos of our Lightening Baby getting her new feet!
How fun! We were a little nervous as to how it would go.

Would she like them?

Would she refuse them?

Would they rub?

How long would it take her to adjust to having a longer foot?

Here goes...

Here we are with the Orthotist. He is measuring them with her shoes. She's nervous but trying to be her helpful-self. Funny girl.

Baby girl's first moments trying out her "new feet" in the small room. She seems pretty excited. We all are!

The Orthotist asks us if we'd like to go into the hallway. He says that in the next day or two, at home in her comfortable environment, she will probably start to run...or now!

She's such a go-getter! #aintnothinstoppinthisgirl

Shriners: Getting her new FEET!

THIS HAS TAKEN FOREVER to post (sorry...life)

We set off for our third trip to Shriner's Hospital in northern California. This has been the most exciting trip thus far. (And I hope that with each trip our girl will get more comfortable with medical professionals)

It was Jumping Joy's turn to accompany her little sis. The hubs stayed home to work hard on finishing our back deck. Nonna also joined us to have some good conversations to keep me awake on the one day trip.

Here is the Orthotist with the special made little shoe-fillers for our girl. She has done much more than we ever thought or imagined already but with these she should be on her way!

The outer white is a very thin leather material to cover the firm foam. He measures the fit and LOVES it. What a relief. We were worried about her little curvy toes that they might rub causing lot of problems. Nope, we're good. Now he says to come back in about an hour and a half while he shaves the toe area to fit in her shoe.

We try to get a quick bite and head to IKEA. This is a new store experience for both of these two. Baby girl went last time, of course and enjoyed her first soft serve cone bites.

We were called back right after that picture so in the car we went. The "feet" were ready!

While we waited we ran into these friends from Fresno, again! Crazy!

Back to IKEA for our, now it's a tradition" soft serve cone. What a great day!

The Orthotist wanted her to wear them just one hour the first day or so then work up to regular wear to make sure they don't rub.

After just one week we could tell such a difference. She loved them right away but it took some practice to get smooth.

She loves her "new feet" and brings them to me. She also definitely has shoe preference. She loves her Easter shoes. They are a light silver with rhinestones on the toes. Girls ;)