We have been BUSY !!!

We have been so busy and trying to squeeze everything in these past few days. Chuck has been working round the clock on a big video shoot for the past week. He is beyond tired. The girls and I helped him out on Saturday at his shoot. Needless to say, it was fascinating. I loved watching him in action, directing and organizing all the chaos. He does such a great job and it was a treat to be involved.

God provided the money we needed to press ahead on the dossier and we have been busy trying to get those documents done and notarized (click the peapod for updates). It is a paper chase. We spent most of yesterday in the car going from office to office getting the last few things done. It is amazing to see God's mighty hand at work in all of this.

We have had construction workers in the house for almost a week working on our bathroom floor and shower. There has been a major leak and water has built up and caused a mess. I can't get into my closet so I have been wearing the same outfit for days. =)

I am teaching my portion of our keepers group today and we are taking a field trip of sorts to the library to learn about the organization system that is used there. I am also working with a friend on a junior naturalists club that we formed this fall. We have that meeting on Thursday and I need to squeeze in preparing for that lesson. I have left it all to the last minute. I hate that about myself.

We finished our last class of education on Monday night for our adoption training. Glad to have it done, but we have learned so much and appreciated all the education we have been able to take part in. My mom has faithfully helped us out with watching the girls all those Monday nights as we have had to travel to the "city" to take these classes. We are SO thankful for the support.

So...all that to say, my house is a MESS. With running in every direction, I haven't had the time to get it cleaned, or put away, or hardly made a meal for my family. I will be happy to have all the paper chasing done before the holidays approach. My sister and her family will be here for Thanksgiving and I can't wait for that. It will be such a treat to get together again.

In the spirit of keeping it real. A tiny peak at the mess around here.










When you don't sort through the mail in days, it can really pile up. Working on our paper work for the dossier.









I haven't been able to get to my closet and put any clothes away. So...they just keep piling up.

big week

The rest of the week will be a big week here. Today is our last homestudy meeting. This time the case worker comes over and visits our home and meets our girls. Nothing to be nervous about, she has already warned us she isn't coming to look in every closet, just a nice visit. This is nothing compared to having your home ready to show for real estate. Been there...done that.

We also need to decide the age range of a child we are willing to accept. That one has been a hard choice for us. We have decided that we will accept boy or girl (which most likely means it will be a boy). It has seemed unnatural for us to pick the gender of the child. At the moment, we are thinking one child zero to 18 months old (at the time of referral).

Once we have this last homestudy meeting, it takes the case worker about 2 weeks to write the report then we have a week to have it approved by the international agency before it is printed and notarized. Then we just have a few more things to finish up for our dossier. The dossier is the pack of information that is country specific. Once the dossier is sent in, it goes to Ethiopia and is translated and then we are placed on a waiting list. The problem for us is, when we send it in, we need to send it in with our next large payment. We are still waiting on the funds. That is why we have been working hard on the call-me-cards (HERE) and the yard sale. We have worked really hard to cut our own budget back to the bare bones, and we are praying that God provides the needed funds when we have our paperwork done.

Another big thing this week is oral surgery for me. I am having my last 2 wisdom teeth removed tomorrow. Needless to say, it will be a big deal. The doctor was reminding me of all the complications that can take place and warned me that it is much harder to recover when you are in your thirties. Yikes. Trusting and praying it goes smoothly and there are no complications. I am putting my faith in God on this one...He is sovereign.

Like I said, it is a big week. =)

Oh...BTW, I was trying to make the blog into 3 columns and it didn't turn out quite right and had to go back to a generic design. Not sure what I was thinking, I don't know a THING about Html codes, but for some reason, I thought I could figure it out.

We have been at the doctor every day this week and we aren't even sick.

Seriously...every day to the doctor for some adoption physical or testing.

MONDAY - Girls had their physicals and their arm test for TB (a requirement for the homestudy process).

TUESDAY - Chuck and I had our physicals and our arm test for TB.

WEDNESDAY - Back in to have the girls arms checked out for TB. Arms started to look like a positive result, scheduled to go back the next day to check again.

THURSDAY - Back to the doctor to have them look at the girls arms again. Sure looked positive for TB. Went over to a lab and had chest x-rays done to see if it was active TB. (It was NOT).

FRIDAY - Chuck and I went in for our blood work and had them look at our TB arm test. Those results all came out just fine. No worries.


So...all that to say, we have been to the doctor every day and we aren't sick. Of course sitting there in the waiting room as they mention that the arm TB test was positive made everyone there give you freaky looks. Like we are some kind of diseased family. Yep...I felt like I had to justify to everyone "We are not sick. We don't have TB, it just means we have been exposed to some TB sometime in our lives. We are not contagious."

As you can imagine, we were washing our hands every time we walked out of the waiting room.

On a positive note, we just got back from a fun play date at the park with other families in our area that have, or are in the process of adopting from Africa. I found out one of them lives in our neighborhood. How cool is that. What a neat area to be in and find such neat support. I love how God works out those details.

You will also notice, I have put up our adoption time line to help you get an idea of the process and how we are progressing. We just had our second and third (max of 4) homestudy meetings. And we have been really busy getting ready for a HUGE yard sale tomorrow as a adoption fundraiser. Please pray with us that it doesn't rain.

This and that

• We hosted a little get together for Tally and her tween age friends on Friday night. We did a movie and pizza and popcorn and candy. It really was a fun party and I will post some pictures and details soon.

• I resisted the urge to school my kids yesterday. I feel like it is so hard to take a day like that off, but at the same time it is needed to enjoy down time as a family.

• We all dressed in Chuck's team t-shirts and took part in the free chicken sandwiches at Chick-fil-A. It was yummy!!

• I recently found some errors from both our bank and a different organization that accidentally charged us too much for a few different things. It pays to pay attention.
  

• I have noticed some trees already starting to turn color. OH...I am going to love it here this fall. I haven't had a real "fall" feeling fall in several years.

• Our first homestudy meeting was today. It was successful and we came home with LOTS of homework type of paper work. I will have to be very diligent to getting all these things done in the next few weeks.

• Got our finger printing done today and I will mail those documents off tomorrow.

• I couponed for the first time this week. I am hooked. My bill was about $120 and I saved $61 and paid $59. That's right...I saved more than I paid. Just what I need to help us save some more money around here.

• I love praying for this new child that will someday join our family.