Summertime

Yesterday was the official first day of summer break for us. Since I teach, I get summer break too. But, how do I keep all three (Emma, my niece, JD, and Jules) busy all summer. We dont do a big family vacay in the summer-its just too hot! Right now, we have a schedule of sorts. I go for a run before anyone gets out of bed, take a shower, check email, etc. Around 8, if the kiddie aren't up, I'll get them up (except Monday's, our do what you want day). We have breakfast, brush teeth, and put on some clothes. Then, we have about 15 mins of "school work." today we used kid college for the oldest two, and Jules did a couple math worksheets from her workbooks from school and practiced writing her name. Today was errand day, so we went to get the oil changed, waited on the air guy (because it's 9000 degrees upstairs). We planned on going to the library, but the air guy had to come back. Tomorrow will just have to be our library day for the week. Thrown in the mix is laundry and picking up their rooms. We have some crafts planned for Friday and maybe some free bowling on Thursday. I love summer break!

Wishful Thinking...

Just an update on the adoption from how I know it. It's what I've gathered from talking with Judy at Global, reading on the internet, and talking with friends. My timeline may be a little (maybe even a lot) off, but I'm trying to look at the positive:

We have sent off to get a fingerprinting appointment. Should have that back in a couple of weeks and approval a couple weeks after that. From what I understand, we don't have to have it on our first visit, just by the second court visit in EE. Still not sure on this one. We'll just play it by ear.

We have finished our homestudy and are in the process of compiling our dossier(a big chunk of paperwork) -we have three documents that need both of our signatures and to be notarized still-- that has to be notarized, county certified saying that the notary is legit, and then apostilled at the state department in Nashville saying the county certification is valid (hoops, hoops, and more hoops). We send it to EE for translation and to register with the courts that we want to adopt a fairly specific child (we've identified her "special needs," age, sex, other characteristics that we know of). It takes about two-three weeks to get registered, then we get the call that we are matched with our daughter and start making travel arrangements. So, best case, we could be traveling to EE around the end of February/first of March and possible bring her home end of March-sometime in April. This, of course, is if everything goes PERFECTLY as I have planned. If you know anything about adoption, you know nothing goes as planned. But, we have faith that we will be in EE at the perfect time; even if it's not our perfect time, we know it is in HIS plan. 

Just thought i'd let you guys know. Keep praying for us as we go through this. It's almost out of our hands and in the  EE and US Government's (scary!!).

Now, these are my wishes, hopes, dreams. I know this is probably not reality, so don't burst my bubble people. I know that we could not get her until the end of the year (of course I hope that's not the case) but I know that is the reality of adoption. So, right now, MY plan is to have her home by Spring Break and take the rest of the school year off with her and enjoy the summer learning, holding and kissin' my three babies.

I'll keep you posted as our timeline gets adjusted... : )