still pluggin’ away

Not much more to report. I’ve been taking full advantage of having the Austins here. They are helping with the kids while I clean and pack. Whew! I had conveniently forgotten how much work it is to move!

This week I’ve cleaned all the drapes, washed all the windows, scrubbed all the blinds, and cleaned the bathroom literally from top to bottom, ceiling to floor. I’ve used the “magic eraser” to remove most of the marks we’ve put on the walls. Today I’m finishing up our room. We are moving to the basement tomorrow, so everything will need to be ready down there by then. The Brands (who are renting our place) are moving in with us on Saturday. I’m also trying to pack the kitchen today. Not getting too far yet, but there’s still time.

Kind of boring blog with still no more pictures. Maybe soon I’ll actually take the time to take some pictures. There is some exciting news coming soon, but I’ll make you wait a bit longer.

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the first goodbyes

Saying goodbye stinks. As our departure comes ever nearer, we’ve already begun to say our goodbyes. After helping us a LOT for six weeks, my mom and step-dad said goodbye to us on Saturday. Then we spent about 24 hours in Columbus with our closest friends (who are much more like family than friends). They are one of our miracles in this adoption journey. They volunteered to watch our dog, Macie, for the entire time we are gone! Now that’s a good friend. On Sunday morning we said a tearful goodbye to the T family as well as to Macie. As we were leaving, G and I decided that sometimes obeying God really stinks.

We arrived back home about two hours before Graig’s parents arrived from PA. They will be with us for the week, and then we’ll have to say goodbye to them. Yuck! We know this is part of the journey that we are on, but we don’t like this part at all.

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nesting

You know how most women who are “with child” get an insatiable desire to clean and prepare for the impending arrival of a new baby? This often happens somewhere in the last trimester, often in the final month. Well, I’m nesting. This also happens to coincide with the fact that we are moving soon. Our good friends who are renting our place while we are gone are actually expecting their first baby VERY soon after they move into our place. I am nesting for both of us. I don’t want our place to be dirty when they move in, and they are going to have enough to do without worrying about cleaning the curtains or cleaning behind the refrigerator.

I cleaned behind and under the fridge about two weeks ago. Oh. My. Goodness. It was dirty. I didn’t take a picture because I don’t want that memory preserved. Now it is spotless. Feel free to pull it out and check behind it if you come over. I also scrubbed our oven inside and out, under and behind. I learned that I really should move it and clean behind it more often than every three years. It shines like a new penny now.

Next on my list is our microwave cart and the curtains and the baseboards and the windows. We leave in less than four weeks, so I better get busy. Thank goodness my mom is here for a couple more days then G’s parents come for a week. Little do they know what cleaning projects I have planned. (Well, I guess they know now.)

I guess adoptive moms also get the nesting bug. Can’t wait to meet my new kids!

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favorite pictures from the week

M had a special week at school. She celebrated the 100th day of school AND Valentine’s Day, one right after the other. She chose to bring 100 tiny pinecones for her 100th Day collection and 100 mini-marshmallows for her contribution to the 100th Day snack mix.


Here is K wearing my favorite pair of her pjs.

But this is my all-time favorite picture from the week. Sweet girls.

AND . . . .our dossier made it to Kenya. Another step closer. Everything has fallen into place, just like we knew it would, except for housing. Still looking for something in our price range. God has to come through, just like He always has.

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happy valentine’s day

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almost there

Just found out today that our dossier is on it’s way to Kenya. It seems like this is actually happening. Girls, we’re one giant step closer to bringing you home!

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stepping it up

At the suggestion of her physical therapist, K has been practicing her walking at M’s school. Pam, the PT, allowed us to borrow this cute wagon to help K gain confidence and endurance in learning to walk. A few times a week, I take her to M’s school to walk the long hallways. She really loves it. Everyone passing by comments on how cute she is and how small she is to be learning to walk. A few times, I’ve had the chance to briefly explain what a miracle she is.

K really likes walking around, and sometimes she gets a bit distracted. She gets so excited and says “hi” to a snowman or points to a smiling frog.

It really has worked. She wants to practice walking almost all day long. Keep up the good work, K.

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it’s official

G booked our plane tickets today. We will be heading to Kenya on March 16! We still don’t know where we’re going to live, but we know when we’re leaving. And some really good news (another miracle!), we were ALL able to use our air miles to get there! We only had to pay taxes (which was a very hefty fee), but our tickets were free! We don’t know how we are going to buy tickets to come back, but we don’t have to worry about that for quite awhile.

Only five and half weeks until we leave! Yikes! I have a LOT to do. Better get back to packing.

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on it’s way–hooray!

After speaking with our agency this afternoon, we finally got an accurate number of how much money we need to send to our agency with our dossier. It was worth the wait!! I won’t bore you with the details, but the news is good, friends. We only needed to send them $2,410 instead of $7,910. Now that’s a big difference! We will need to send them more money in the future, but not for awhile. Because of this, it looks like we have most of the $6,000 we need to take with us to Kenya. Amazing! On this journey we’ve learned that unexpected expenses do tend to appear when we least expect it, but we are celebrating today!

We mailed out the dossier this afternoon. The lady at the post office tried to be excited for me when I told her today was the culmination of four years of work.

We celebrated by ordering pizza for dinner. Woo Hoo!!!

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still here

Yep, that’s the all-important dossier sitting on my counter in the middle of our breakfast mess. It’s still here. Right after I posted the last blog entry, I received our new fee agreement from our agency. This is the form that tells how much money we owe and when we need to pay it during the adoption process. Well, there were further changes to be made to this document before we could sign it and send it back with the dossier. It’s a long, boring story, but basically, there are a few more details that need to be worked out before we mail in the dossier. The good news is that it looks like we will not have to send such a big payment yet, but the bad news is that it’s taking a few more days to figure it out. I feel sorry for our agency. Our case is a bit complicated for several reasons, but I’m still hopeful that I’ll be able to mail it out today.

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