Not where I thought We'd be

Here I am trying to get ready for a week long "vacation" to work at camp. I am thrilled to be spending another week at Celebrate Me (http://www.celebrate-me.com/)! But unfortunately, I had hoped to be celebrating the Dossier (all the paperwork sent to Ethiopia-turning it in puts us officially on the waiting list) as well during this week, but alas, that is not to happen.

We have been tying up the loose ends of all the paperwork for our dossier for the last month or two. As of today, we have everything notarized and ready to go!

Our amazing notary, Sylvia!
She has been SUCH  a blessing to us! Working with us at odd times and never turning us down.

But, and this is a big BUT - we STILL do not have our homestudy! We were told that by the beginning of May, at the latest, we should most likely have the homestudy paperwork in our hands. However, over two months later, we are still IMPATIENTLY twiddling our thumbs, waiting for the paperwork to arrive. Some of you may ask, why is this an issue? - our dossier has to have all documents be within the last six months. Therefore, the fingerprints/background check that we had done in January, the ones we felt we were being so efficient and timely getting done, well those now are about to "expire" according to dossier timelines and if we don't get our dossier in soon we will be looking at another couple hundred dollars and another month to get a new background check - this, would not, not, not, not make me happy.

Moral of story here - for those who are looking into the adoption process, really do your homework on your agencies! I chose our International adoption agency because of so many people giving them high credit for being efficient and timely, and they were right! I always get answers by the end of the day and I adore working with All God's Children International! However, due to them working out of Oregon, we have to use a different agency for our homestudy. Although they have been pleasant people to work with, I am not at all impressed with their efficiency, and I am just overall very frustrated.

So. *BIG BREATH*. We are trying to take this all one day at a time.

I have gathered everything in order and all checks are made out and ready to go, so that if the homestudy does arrive next week, Jon can send it all to our International agency while I am away at camp. Unfortunately, I have this feeling I will still be the one to send it - after camp is over. I don't have very high hopes that our worker will completely follow through in a timely manner, as we have yet to see her do so - but maybe I'll be surprised this week.

Prayers are much appreciated at this time. I know so many of you are praying for us daily, and I can't thank you enough. There are days when I really feel like my prayers just won't be enough, and I think this is one of them. Yes, getting the dossier in won't get us a child any time Really soon, but just being on the waiting list will finally give us the chance to be paired with our children. We need to be on that waiting list!

And now I leave you with some random pictures - we had to put a bunch in our dossier documents to send to Ethiopia, so I thought some of you would enjoy them...

   

                                       Two Family Photos

Front & Back views of our home

 Indoor pictures: Dining room/Living room

 Indoor pictures: Kid bedroom & Kitchen

 Individual Parent Photos

Photo of the Parents together... Taken by Caleb!!!

And last, just to end my night with a smile... this picture was not put into the dossier, but Caleb wanted his picture on the rock outside of Sylvia's office, and he wanted to hold his "minion" (from the movie Despicable Me). 

Love this picture!

 Good night all! I'm now off to do a little camp clothes packing before hitting the bed!

In Christ,

Mara