I-800A (adoption update)

We have submitted our I-800A to USCIS (immigration) for approval. This is what gives us permission to bring a foreign-born orphan into our country as our child. Unfortunately, this step of the process is supposed to take 3-4 months! Good ol' government at work. But, anyway, it's good to know that our part of it is done. According to USPS delivery confirmation, USCIS received our application on Wednesday. Within a few weeks they'll process it, and we should receive instructions for getting fingerprinted (yes, AGAIN). And then we continue to wait.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could have the virtue of patience without actually having to use it? =)

Jesse turns 3!

Jesse turned 3 on the 7th, and we had his party on the 8th. We just had a small group of friends and family over to our house. He had a great time! (Here he is playing with "Mater", his gift from Ethan.) He wants everyone to be sure to understand that he is now a BIG BOY, NOT a baby. The morning before his party he woke up crying, and I went to comfort him and made the mistake of singing "Hush, Little Baby." He got all upset and started crying, "I'm NOT a baby!!!" So I guess he's too grown up for lullabies now. He's growing fast in so many ways, and it's exciting to see all that he's learning. He's very expressive, so we get to hear his thoughts on things, which is lots of fun at this age. I'm sure this year will be full of excitement as he continues to grow.

Fun Day at the Farm!

Today we had a very fun family day! Since Ethan's party at Summers Farm was rained out, they gave us four free tickets! So, after church we headed to the farm. It was quite cold, and none of us had sweatshirts with us, but despite the cold we had a great time. Ethan shot apples out of a cannon, they raced rubber ducks using a water pump, we pet pigs . . .one big, three tiny, and three that must have been toddlers because they never stopped running, goats, mini horses and donkeys, and Jesse even attempted to pet the turkeys. We got his hand out before he lost a finger. :) They had slides, a pumpkin "train", hayride, pedal carts, corn maze and other various mazes, and even a giant bouncy thing that all 4 of us enjoyed (see picture). I think we'll try to make it an annual family tuition.

Wedding # 2

November 1st was Heath's youngest brother Joey's wedding. He married Danielle Clark, whom he met on a missions trip to Malawi (Africa) this past spring. For this wedding, Ethan and Jesse had a break from "service"; Heath ushered, and I played the piano. Everything went well, and it was a very nice day. Jesse, once again wore us out with his energy, but since I was playing piano Heath was the one who had to control him during the ceremony. :)

That completes Heath's family's marriages. The picture is of his family, everyone except his brother Josh, who is in Cuba for the Air Force right now.

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!