Our House of Krause: December 2010

2010 has been a really good year for us. Last December we had pretty much decided to give up on our dream of adoption. El Salvador was not placing children and there didn't seem to be any other options for us. Then a friend of a friend recommended we check into China Special Needs adoptions and Bay Area Adoption Services. She told us she was confident we'd have a daughter by the end of 2010. I was a little skeptical (sorry Misty), but researched it and prayed a lot. Early January 2010 we decided to switch to China. We actually brought our wonderful daughter home in August. We will always be grateful for all of you who have supported us in so many ways.

Christmas was a fun day. The boys woke up at 7 and came into our room. LiLi was still sleeping. I told the boys that they could go down and open their stockings, but they didn't want to. They wanted to wake for their sister to wake up. Andrew said the best part of Christmas was having a sister. (So Sweet!. She has the best big brothers.) We woke up LiLi and went downstairs to open stockings and presents.
Later that morning we went over to my parents' house where my sister and family were. It was a little crazy over there with all the kids, but they all had fun. LiLi loves opening presents. She doesn't care whose presents they are. She just loves to open them. After lunch we had the birthday party for Jesus, Jakob & Grandpa. It's hard to believe Jakob is 10 now. He seems so much more grown-up than last year. Of course there were more presents to open. I think LiLi opened all of them for Jakob & Grandpa., When they were all open, she did her sign language for 'more', but fortunately that was it.
LiLi also had a great time playing with her Aunt Kim and cousins, but she especially laughed a lot with her crazy Uncle Ryan.
We have now decided to meet a surgeon in New York for LiLi's surgery. He is one of the best in the country and has performed this type of surgery many times. We meet with him on January 11th and then we'll schedule surgery from there. Hopefully we'll be able to schedule it late January or February.
We hope you all have a great 2011!
Trisha