Getting closer

We are back from a road trip this weekend to grand island for my ten year high school reunion. the kids had a fun time with grandma and grandpa and craig and i got an evening out to visit with my friends. i didn't know what to expect, but it was really good to see people again. i am finding myself very thankful for the great group of friends that the Lord surrounded me with in high school. . . the kind of friends that you can not see for a while and then when you are talking with them it doesn't seem like ten years has passed. anyway, i hope to keep in better touch with them now that i have their contact info. on the adoption homefront, craig and i conspired last night to get a little more agressive with the IRS this week - Ha! still no word on the one official paper we are waiting on in the mail. it is just a copy of a few pages of our income tax form which we forgot to copy after we had signed it and it is taking a LONG time for them to process our request. according to our timeline it could take until july 20th, but our goal this week is to at least confirm that they recieved our request and that they intend to send us the requested papers. NOTE TO SELF - never ever ever ever again overlook the importance of recordkeeping (hee hee!) i am becoming more and more impressed at how hard this whole process would be if craig or i had ever had any legal issues - the Lord has been so gracious to us to keep us out of trouble when we were younger! Hmmm...funny how if we just open our eyes there are so many things to be thankful for, not to mention the little detail that He has offered atonement for our sins that we might know and love Him.

Nervous

This morning i surrendered some pretty important papers to the United States Postal Office...i never would have thought i would have been so nervous. Did I address them correctly? (even though i quadruple checked it...after craig quadruple checked it!) Did I mix up any of the papers from the two envelopes i put together while wrestling two small ankle-biters in line at the post office? Well, my only choice now is to rest in the sovereignty of the Lord . . . a great place to be :) We mailed off two important packets of papers today - Yay! One was our homestudy and Power of Attorney documents to the Secretary of State in Lincoln to be "authenticated". The second packet was our completed I600A form along with a bunch of other documentation that goes to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Omaha. We will get the "authenticated" documents back this week to be included in our dossier. The USCIS will process our I600A form sending us back another very official form (171-H, i think?) as well as a date and time to appear at the USCIS office in Omaha for another fingerprinting session. Still no sign of our tax form...please, come soon little form!

Home again

We're home! It was a great week out at the ranch with the Merrihew family. It is so neat to have such a unique place to get away to. The Nebraska sandhills are beautiful...I will try to find a better picture to capture what the scenery looks like. Craig is in the first and third picture. He spent the first day roping calves and the next day got in on some calf wrestling action as well. The second picture is of another roper on his horse and the guys on the ground have wrestled down a calf to be branded. The last pic is of our neice and it cracks me up every time i see it : ) On the adoption homefront we will be working on a support letter and sending out thank-you's to garage sale donators. We need to learn about the I-600a form this week as well. So far I understand it is an immigration form for the baby that takes forever to process. Still waiting on the copy of our tax return. Oh yeah, Evan learned to use a spoon this week and also shakes his head no surprisingly proficiently. He is getting steadier on his feet and will be running around before we know it.

It's branding time!

It has been a few days since I have posted b/c we are out of town this week. We are currently at the Merrihew family ranch in the Nebraska sandhills for their annual branding. For those of you not familiar with ranch life, branding is where they put the brands on the calves so that the calves are identified as your own. It is quite a big get together for family and a lot of work as well. The actual branding takes place thursday and friday so i hope to put pics on soon...if you don't see them in the next few days i will get to them monday or tuesday. We are having a good time getting a break from our "ordinary" and it is so great to see the kids have fun with cousins and grandparents. Oh yeah, and the homestudy went smoothly and we anticipate no problems : )

Twas the night before homestudy...

Of course, it had to happen the night before our social worker is to come..ha ha! Evan conked his head and scratched right under his nose in an incident with the Scollard's lion scooter. I think the scooter won. It was nothing a chocolate frosting covered brownie couldn't fix anyway :) I LOVE those dimples!!!

Watch and Enjoy!

I almost forgot!

Yet another extension of grace during garage sale weekend...My friends Andrea, Makayla, and Cassie had come to help us set up Saturday morning. By time they arrived things were pretty well underway. Instead of wishing us well and going home, they stayed and helped me clean the whole house while Craig manned the front porch pay table! This was such a HUGE blessing! My house was in complete disorder when they arrived and when they left I had not one dirty dish, my floors were all vacuumed, the loads of empty boxes and trash were hauled out of my basement and my kitchen sink was beautifully bleached shiny sparkling white! Yay! I had so not been looking forward to tackling the aftermath of the sale and what a blessing it was to sink into bed that evening at a decent hour without having to shut out the chaos of a house out of order. Thank you girls - i will be looking for ways to return the favor!