So....changed our background to zebra....hmmm, might be changing it again if it is going to keep making my eyes hurt.

Spent all weekend getting ready for our homestudy visit. Cleaning and organizing was the name of the game. I was able to escape for a while to go shopping for a bit with my Hubby, so that was nice. Found my two new favorite stores...so exciting...World Market and Peter's Gourmet Outlet. Love em!

Today we will venture out to the health dept. to catch the kids up on some immunizations. Fun stuff!! NOT. I think I will have to offer up rewards for this one. All of the kids have doctors appointments this week too, so this will be our week of torture (with way too much basketball thrown in for extra added excitement)! Oh, and for those of you who were wondering about my doctor's appt---he said I am going to live---I knew you were so worried. I passed inspection and got the AOK for adoption....I'm still healthy enough to be a new Mommy. :)

As far as things still needed for the first big step in our adoption process:

*Immunizations--updates for kids
*Kids & Hubby's doctor visits
*Letters from doctor stating good health/no communicable diseases--signed and notarized
*Home study visit and individual interviews with Me and Kids
*Individual H Study interviews with Hubby and #1 daughter (she can't make the other scheduled visit)
*Letters of reference...hopefully our social worker sent them out so our references can work on them and get them returned. :)
*Background check paperwork from the state

After we have all of this info our social worker can write our Home Study and it can then be sent to our agency and if they ok it, it can be sent in to the government with our I-600A application. This is to receive our advance ok to adopt a foreign orphan. From what I just learned, it is taking at least a month here in Michigan to get this approved. While we are waiting to receive this last piece of the puzzle, we will continue to work on our Dossier paper work, which is close to being all together too.

So, for the good news....and long story short....we hopefully will be able to have everything ready to go by the first of March!! Hurray!! That means that our Dossier will be on it's way to Ethiopia and we will be put on the waiting list for a referral!! Finally! (I say finally, but actually it's only been about a month and a half since we decided that God was leading us in this direction...definitely seems longer though)

Have a great week!
Wendy