The first picture we saw of her on the Advocate's  Website

Her Second Birthday Party, March 15, 2012

The Most Recent Picture of Alexa

I have finally started a blog for our adoption of our beautiful 2 year old daughter.  I'm pretty sure that with Keira's adoption I was in the dozens of posts by the time we got to this point.   In the era of Facebook and Twitter, the whole blog thing is harder for me to keep up with.  Not one of the kids have baby books that are even sorta kind of accurate, and I have never done a single scrapbook or cutesy photo album.  So, this blog is really just to let you follow along on our journey of the next few weeks while we wait to travel, and to let you know how things are going on the trip.   Not a lot of deep thoughts coming your way from this girl.  I recognize my limitations and fully embrace them!   However, we do want to keep those family members and friends who are not fans of social media updated on our progress.   Even if you don't do Facebook, we still love you!

For those who are not quite up to speed, we started the process to adopt our 5th child last October.  In January we requested to be matched with Jiang Song Ke.  We found her on a website that advocates for waiting children in China.  The funny part about that is that the reason that we looked at her file was because the name they had given her file was Keira!  They use pseudonyms to protect their privacy, and out of all the girl names in the world that was the one they assigned her file.    We were matched the first week of January, and we have decided to call her Alexa Jenkins.  Alexa is 26 months old and she is currently living in the Jiang Cheng SWI (Social Welfare Institute- what we would call an orphanage) in Jiangcheng, Guangdong Province, China.  Our adoption is being processed through the special needs program in China.  Alexa does have a history of some neurological issues, but they are issues we feel comfortable we can handle.

Yesterday was a huge day in our adoption process.  We received our Travel Approval from China.  This means that we will be going to China next month to bring Alexa home!  Liam and Cade will travel with us, while Zane and Keira get to stay home and bask in being spoiled by both of their Grandmothers.  We are very grateful to have supportive family and friends that will make sure that the kids at home are taken care of while we travel.   We expect to travel September 6-23rd.  We covet your prayers over the next few weeks and can't wait for you to meet her.