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!