4th of July

We had a wonderful turnout last week on Friday for our "More on 34" yard sale, making a little over $300 in one day. Unfortunately, Chad and I both unexpectedly had to work on Saturday so we were unable to have it on that day too. This week we have been moving items from our garage to the Tin Shed here in Cameron to prepare for this weekend's big yard sale. Back in January when we formally began the adoption process, I had imagined holding a yard sale on Cameron Days because there are so many people here in town. We are really hoping the weather holds out so we can have a lot of people stop by the sale and add to our savings for the adoption. We are continuing in the "Waiting Game". DCFS still has our homestudy at this point. Apparently there is only one person in charge of reading all of the homestudies for families in Illinois. The turn around time has been rumored to be six to eight weeks. I have our grant applications completed but must send a copy of the homestudy with them. Thus, everything is waiting until we receive the approved homestudy from DCFS. Until then, I have been doing a lot of reading and researching on parenting techniques with internationally adopted children. It has been very interesting, and has caused me to consider doing my own research in this area. I have also been attempting to learn some simple Russian phrases to use while we are traveling and also to help communicate with the boys during our visit to the orphanage. Samantha attended church camp where she received the "Positive Attitude Camper" award. While I was picking her up, three different camp counselors approached me to state how helpful and bright Sam was and they enjoyed getting to know her. Someone even said Sam was very responsible in managing her diabetes! Callie missed Samantha quite a bit, but didn't waste any time enjoying being an "only child". Callie enjoys being the center of attention, that is for sure! Samantha celebrated her 11th birthday today; it was a momentous day as she woke up with her first zit on her chin. She asked me to wait until she is sound asleep and then pop it for her! She surmised that since she is such a sound sleeper she wouldn't feel it sting. We are still hoping to travel to Russia in September, but I will not be holding my breath either. Our adoption has been like playing dominoes, one misstep and everything seems to fall apart. You don't lose the game, just have to reset the dominoes and start over. We hope to see some of you at Cameron Days this weekend! This is my favorite time of the year!

Garage sale part deux

Our next yard sale is on June 18th and 19th. If anyone has any items they would like to donate, please let us know. We are hoping there will be a great turnout for the Cameron yard sales that weekend! We have been working hard to complete our dossier. Chad and I have completed online courses regarding international adoption and we have been notarizing several documents for our dossier to send to Russia. We are fortunate that Chad's bank (Midwest in Monmouth) notarizes documents for FREE for customers. We have been in three times already and will probably be in several more before this process is over. Thanks to Connie for all of her help with notarizing! Today I returned to campus to meet with students for our summer clinic. I will be supervising Monday through Thursdays in the mornings. We are thankful I was able to do this to help us continue our saving efforts. I am beginning to get pretty concerned how we are going to financially pull all of this off; the dollar figures I look at seem unattainable. We are praying that the grant applications I completed this week will be successful. I know there are so many other families who apply for the grants as well; I would not want to be on the committee to decide who gets the grant and who does not. Chad and I remain optimistic that we will continue to find ways to make everything come together. The faces of the boys on our refrigerator are extra special incentives to think of extra ways to scrimp and save! OK, so this is where we are at NOW in the process. Susan, our lovely social worker, has completed our home study report and forwarded it to DCFS. They have to approve it then we can send it to the federal government who will then give us the green light to adopt "officially". The homestudy report will also accompany our dossier to Russia. Once our dossier gets to Russia, it will be reviewed for accuracy and then we will be invited to travel to our region in Russia to meet the boys. Anna, our worker at our agency thinks we will travel for our first time in September. Let's pray that the weather stays dry so that Chad can work as much as possible... his overtime pay is AWESOME! The girls had a great Memorial Day weekend since the weather was superb. They were able to swim in Nana and Papa Mike's pool with their cousins and aunts/uncles. The girls truly are blessed to have so many people in their lives who love and care for them. Please continue to keep us in your prayers as well as the two little boys who have yet to know us.