Wow...that was fast!

I mailed the documents for Jay-R's I600 form (the authorization form needed by the US government for international adoptions) on October 30th. When we got home last night, Kory went to get the mail and the form from the USCIS was here already! Wow...less than a month. That truly was quick. Now, we are waiting for the visa. My gut instinct still seems to say early January due to Christmas holiday, but we'll see! We really need to get his room finished!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! We have so much to be thankful. As I count down the hours until turkey time (I love Thanksgiving), I reflect on the many things I am thankful for...family, friends, my church, a job I love, my country, even my ever whiny dogs, and most of all, my faith in Jesus Christ. I am also thankful for little Jay-R. God is teaching me patience thru the wait. My gut instincts seem to tell me mid-January, but I'm not sure. We just keep waiting...

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

A message from Ashleigh: Leave a comment to tell us what you are thankful for!

Halloween Fun

The nursing home where I work always participates in community trick or treat. Everyone there loves my little terrier Franklin so I dressed him up as a pumpkin and he trick or treated with Ashleigh, the doctor. I even let him eat a Smartie which he loved of course!

Fingerprints & Paint

Fingerprints & paint...that's the news in our life right now. We received a notification letter that we have our fingerprint appointment scheduled on Tuesday, Nov. 4th in Cleveland. Finally. It seems like it took forever to get that appointment letter. Before we leave for Cleveland that day, Kory and I will visit a potential preschool for Jay-R (after we vote, of course!). We are looking into our options. With it being the middle of the school year, that makes it a little tricky. We want him to have some preschool and some socialization with children he will attend kindergarten with in the fall.

And paint...we've been doing a lot of it. We got the paint for Ashleigh's room at a certain store in town. When Kory went back to get more paint, the results were awful! The colors did not match at all-it was like 6 shades off! They did give me my money back and we went across town to Ace. They matched it perfect. We only had to repaint 2 walls instead of the whole room. We love Ace! (The picture is Ash painting her room. I'll post pics of his room as soon as I clean it!) My father in law painted my kitchen and back hallway for us Saturday. It's a deep, autumn red color and I love it! I'll have to post pictures later.

We'll keep you posted as we find out more!

Legals have arrived!

Today, I got the mail from our mailbox. Bummer, no letter from the USCIS yet with a refingerprinting date. We have to have our fingerprints done again before we can travel. I reached to open the door, looked down, and was like, what's that under the doormat? As soon as I saw the UPS envelope, I knew what it was. Jay-R's legal paperwork! Yeah! Now, we need to send everything into the gov. so we can get our I600 approval and his visa. More waiting, but one step closer!!!

We painted Jay-R's room last weekend. And right now we are in the process of painting Ashleigh's room. I will send before and after pics as soon as they are done.

What's the Hold up?

Everyone keeps asking me what the hold up is and why we can't leave now to go get Jay-R. We are waiting for his legal paperwork. We need that before we can get the visa squared away and then we will have a travel date. We are hoping he can spend Christmas with us!

While we wait, we are keeping busy with soccer games, getting his room ready, finishing the painting on our house, and the routine things of life. Our house finally got finished from the hail storm last year. Both our roof and siding were damaged so we resided our home and reroofed it. We love the new colors-cactus (a greenish gray & cranberry)! It used to be this faded yellow that we hated with green door, awning, shutters. We've been doing the green thing since we were married so we're kind of sick of green. But, we've created a lot of work for ourselves with all the painting to do due to the color change. Oh, well!

So much to do!

Well, it's been 4 days since we found out about Jay-R. We've been on the phone spreading our exciting news, milling over paperwork we must fill out (those gov. forms are so confusing!), and making lists of the many things that need done. I have a list for home and a list for work. Since I am the Activity Director, I have a lot of things I need to get done ahead of time before my leave. I plan to take up to 3 months off work. Can't wait to hug that cute little boy! We received the color pictures yesterday. He is so cute!!!!! Last night, we looked at boy comforter sets. Can't wait to start decorating. If anyone has any ideas for a boy's bedroom, share. Til, then, we keep waiting!