ALMOST HOMEstudy

Since the last adoption update, we successfully passed both our fire safety inspection and (finally) our water test. We ended up getting a UV light to purify the water from our well. Quite a pain, but at least we have healthy water now. :) We received the rough draft of our homestudy report, sent in our editing suggestions, and are now awaiting the finalized version. That's all very exciting! A little disheartening is that we thought the next step (approval from USCIS immigration) was a quick one. Unfortunately, I remembered the time frame wrong, and it's actually taking 3-4 months! So I'm pretty bummed about that. But, in a couple months we should be close enough that we would be allowed to request a specific child from the waiting child list. (We have to have our entire dossier to China within 3 months of requesting a specific child.) So, maybe by the end of the year we can start watching the list for our little girl! Your continued prayers for finances, wisdom, patience, and God's blessing, are greatly appreciated.

Ethan's 5th Birthday!

Ethan turned 5 on Tuesday. We had a wonderful party planned for Saturday . . . we were going to go to a nearby farm, have an outdoor party enjoying pumpkins, corn mazes, tractor rides, pedal carts, corn cannon, etc. Planned more than a month in advance. Everything ready to go. And then. . . it rained. The day before and the day after were 60 degrees and gorgeous, perfect fall weather. But THAT day was a torrential downpour. The farm closed, so we couldn't have even had the party in the rain if we had wanted to. So, with all our guests planning to come to Frederick (and the fact that our house wasn't ready to host a party), we didn't want to move the party home. So what else is there to do nearby? The only indoor last-minute activity we could come up with was Chuck E. Cheese. Heath and I had once vowed never to go back there, but alas, that's where we ended up. Along with every other child in the county whose party got rained out. The place was a madhouse! But rather than rant about the nightmare it was for the adults, I'll just say that the kids had a very fun time, and Ethan really did enjoy his party. I know that's what matters. (Though, I must admit, the 5 year old in me had quite the temper tantrum about it.) The girl in the picture with Ethan is Miranda, one of his cousins. It's hard to believe Ethan's a five-year-old already! He's growing fast, and tells me he'll be as tall as me by the time he's six. He's starting to learn to read, he's learning so much and is so curious about the world. Most of all, he loves to be working outside. He enjoys hands-on projects just like his dad. Lately, his favorite activity is cutting down weeds and small trees on the hill behind our house. He'll spend hours out there working on it, and it really has made it look nicer up there! Ethan is a wonderful blessing in our lives, and I'm looking foward to enjoying this last pre-school year with him!

Wedding #1

Heath's brother Matt got married on October 4th to Rebekah Laughman. They make a very sweet couple, and the wedding was beautiful. Heath, Ethan, and Jesse were all in the wedding party. The boys did well, but by the end I was exhausted from trying to keep Jesse out of trouble all day! He added some entertainment to the wedding I guess, and fortunately Bekah really likes kids and enjoyed having all the kids' "contributions" to the ceremony. :) We'd been a little worried about how Ethan would do, since he didn't want to walk down the aisle. But at the rehearsal he made friends with the flower girl he walked with, and that helped him overcome his fears. He did a great job and ended up having a fun time. One wedding down . . . three more to go!