Adoption Update....

The latest on the adoption front, is that our dossier is back from the US Department of State and the Embassy. (they check to make sure everything is notarized right & stuff like that) Everything checked out! Which is great, b/c I was sure something would be notarized wrong or something wouldn't work, but hey I'm all for this moving right along! :)

Our dossier now goes on to Ethiopia where it will get translated. We are just waiting on our approval from the government. (Probably another 4 weeks) Once we get that we can officially start waiting for a referall! Yea!

Help IJM win $100,000

Go to http://www.rezoom.com/ABETTERWORLD and sign up. Then vote every day on an organization of your choice who you want to win $100,000. Of course we are partial to IJM, but really vote for who you want. There are a lot of neat organizations out there doing some really cool things!

Trip to Nebraska - Part 2

I'm finally getting back to blogging. Last week I was at youth camp (more on that later), and now this week I am sick. :( My throat hurts terrible & I've completely lost my voice. I went to the doctor today, he said it's not strep, but probably just some sort of virus. So hopefully I'll be better soon. My house is a mess but I'm just not up for cleaning yet...so I'll blog instead :)

I never got around to putting all our other Nebraska pics up so here you go: The rest of the week we went to Jesse's mom's place. They have recently built a house on a lake. It's a small lake, but they are the only ones on it, so it's perfect! We had a lot of fun just hanging out in the water. & of course Jesse & my brother-in-law, Matt had great fun trying to kill each other on the tubes.

Here's Grandma & the granddaughters:


Here's Rachel/Daddy, & Shane/Zari Tubing:


Bumper Boats!


Keri in the bumper boats!?!


Rachel & Daddy jet skiing



Melanie (Jesse's sister) was so kind to throw Rachel a birthday party as well while we were out there. It was so fun, because we are never out that way during her birthday so it was nice to be able to have family be apart of her special day!


I'm ready to go back! :)

Busy, Busy, Busy

This past week has been really busy, so sorry that i haven't posted, and it won't change for a while. I'm off to youth camp for a week. We are headed down to Ocoee, TN. I'm just going, Jesse couldn't get off work, and so Gina (my great mother-in-law) is here to take care of Rachel. So I'll have lots to post when I get back..still have to finish posting about my last trip. : )

Hope you all have a great week!

Trip to Nebraska- part 1

Our trip was a lot of fun! The first couple of days we were out at Jesse's dads. We went to Grand Island for fireworks. Jesse and I were amazed at how many people buy their own fireworks. We actually thought at one point we were missing the main show, but when we pulled up to the park, we realized that it was just another family putting off their own. Here in Virginia not many people do their own fireworks...and definitely not to the scale that they do in Nebraska. Here's Rachel with her cousin Kohl.


Rachel got to go fishing for the first time as well. & she actually caught something! She really enjoyed fishing with Grandpa & daddy. She even avoided getting chiggers (daddy & grandpa weren't so lucky).


& I did something for the first time too. I shot a gun. I know, I know, this is not like me, but I promise I wasn't shooting at anything alive...although Trapper (their dog) almost got shot a couple of times. It was actually pretty fun trying to get the cans. Here you can see the damage I did on one can.



& here's a picture just for you Julie :)

We're Back....& I'm exhausted!

After leaving Jesse's parents house at 2:30pm, we finally got home this morning at 9:30am! What a day :) Our flight was supposed to leave Nebraska at 6:30 Monday evening, but there was a storm hitting Chicago, where we had a lay over, and so we didn't leave till about 10:00pm. We arrived in Chicago around 11:30pm, and obviously missed our connection flight home. Since it's weather related the airlines don't put you up in a hotel, but they gave us a number to call to see if there were any hotel rooms available. There were not. So we tried to get comfy on the floor of the terminal and tried to get at least 5 hours of sleep before our morning flight. Thankfully Rachel was able to sleep. I don't know how...it was freezing, and we had no blankets. Jesse slept about 3 hours, I think I got about 1 1/2. (since having Rachel I've become the lightest sleeper!)


We were able to get on the first flight out to come home. Jesse had a busy day today. He ran home to take a shower and had to run to work. He has to be dying by now. Hopefully he will be able to come home early and get a good night sleep.

But besides the plane trip home we had a great time! I'll write more later, and I have lots of pictures! :)

And We're Off

We leave early in the morning for Nebraska...thankfully we are flying so will definitely be there in time for fireworks!

Hope you all have a wonderful 4th of July!

...and you thought Nebraska wasn't beautiful. : )

(I don't think I'll have Internet there, so probably no blogging until I get back next Tuesday)

Strawberries

Rachel had a major fall Saturday night. She was running on the sidewalk and completely wiped out. Her check is really scratched up, and she had a huge lip that night. Her front tooth is a little loose, but amazingly she didn't lose it or even chip it!
Before she went to bed she wanted to look at it, I was hesitant b/c I thought she would freak out and start screaming again. But she just looked in the mirror and started to laugh. While I was tucking her into bed she turned to me with a big smile and said, "it looks like someone put strawberries all over my face." Gotta love her!

We leave on Wednesday for Nebraska, and we just found out today that we are having family pictures on Saturday. Those will be keepers :)

& It's Gone....

Yeah! Our Dossier is in the mail! It should get there tomorrow...pray that it doesn't get lost in the mail! We've heard of horror stories of people who have lost their dossier for a couple of days in the mail. horrible!)

It feels so good to send it in. Now the real waiting begins. :)

For those wondering what goes into a dossier, here's our list:
1. Two power of attorney forms (notarized & state certified)
2. Statement of reason to adopt from us(notarized)
3. Passport photos of Jesse & myself
4. Photos of the family... 2 of all of us, 1 of Jesse, 1 of Amy, 1 of Jesse & Amy
5. Photos of our home
6. The finalized homestudy
7. Jesse's letter of employment (notarized)
8. My stay-at-home letter (notarized)
9. Financial Statement (notarized)
10. Birth Certificate of Jesse
11. Birth Certificate of Amy
12. Certificate of Marriage
13. Medical Letter for Jesse (notarized)
14. Medical Letter for Amy (notarized)
15. Police Clearance for Jesse (notarized)
16. Police Clearance for Amy (notarized)
17. Two letters of Reference (notarized)
18. Obligation of Post Placement Reports (notarized)
19. 3 copies
20. and $ :)