Below is an outift I sewed for my niece, Elizabeth. My sister and her husband John are adopting her from China and are set to travel June 25th. Here is their blog. The top has a zipper in the back and has a swing top shape and front pockets. It comes with a matching set of bloomers. This set is available for $50. It is also available in other fabrics.

Now for a little family news. About a week ago we decide to teach my 5 year old to ride his bike with no training wheels. He rode a loop around the drive while I held onto his seat. We paused for a moment so I could go in and change into my tennis shoes. I came out the front the door to find him riding his bike on his own with no training wheels and no help from me. He was very proud of himself and we were very proud of him!

This past weekend we had a "family day" at the Tennessee Baptist Childrens home 5K fundraising race. Below is my oldest running in the 1 mile kid race. He finished his mile in 9 minutes - no bad for 7 years old. He has always loved to run and enjoys running in races. Way to go Graham!

My 2 year old neice also participated. She is the little girl in the pink bow h0lding her dad (my brothers) hand. They had a 100 yard dash race for younger kids. "C" wasn't sure about racing, but did enjoy hanging out with her cousins.

Here is a picture of my brother finishing his race. He is the runner in the family. He ran the 1/2 marathon a few weeks back and runs in 5ks throughout the year. He also runs very fast. This race he finished in a little ver 21 minutes. For those of you bad at math this means he averaged right under 7 minutes a mile.

Last year I brought my oldest to this same race so he could run in the 1 mile race. I remember thinking how nice it would be to be in good enough shape to run, but never really consider doing anything about it. This spring I got a wild hair and decided I need to start running. So I ran in my first 5k this weekend and absolutely enjoyed it! I was happy with my time and finished in 27 minutes. My brother and I are going to run in a second run this weekend. Below is a photo of him running with me. After he finished the race he came back and ran the last 10th of a mile with me to encourage me to finish strong. Thanks Todd.

wrapping up the dossier

This week we finished getting our paperwork authenticated. Currently it is DC being authenticated and whatever else is done there. Our last adoption I knew all the terminology and process backward and forward. This time I feel like I am "winging it". I am not even sure if the right word is authenticated or certified. I guess that is what happens when you are busy with 3 little people and wrapping up a homeschooling year. Hopefully we will have our paperwork back from DC the end of next week and have it sent to China shortly thereafter. Our LID for Corinne was 5/31/2006. Funny if we end up being Logged in on the 31st again.