Summer 2012

The school year has started and our summer went by so quickly. I'm so thankful to be able to homeschool our son. He's such a quick learner and I love being able to witness his breakthroughs. I also love the fact that we can put school on pause as the adoption moves forward. Even though I'm excited about our first homeschooling year, I'm really going to miss summer; 90 degrees and all. Here are some shots of summer 2012.

Summer is my favorite season and I love to celebrate it.

  

I planted my first veggie garden.

We had a really good lettuce harvest. It was delicious!

Daddy and son built a cardboard boat.

The boat turned out great and it actually stayed afloat on the river.

VBS was a blast this year! They even had legos.

The guys hiked Schloss Mountain and had a great time.

Peaceful fishing with Daddy. He actually caught one.

We made a human board game in the drive way.

We had a great field trip with friends to an awesome park.

The garden got much bigger and we got tons of tomatoes and cucumbers. 

Besides the face painting, carnival games and free books, we also learned about waste management at the end of summer carnival at the library.

Moving On

We have recently had a delay in our process. The details of the delay are private but God knows why all of this has happened and I am trying my best not to question His plan. I am thankful that we are now moving on.

We had our fingerprinting appointment yesterday. It wasn't at all what I thought it would be. In and out. Bam, we were done. Things are looking up! Don't know if the rest of the process will be that flawless or not... It would be awesome but, either way, we're up for the journey.

Where We Are in the Process

We are still shuffling papers. This stage of the process is commonly referred to as the "paper pregnancy". Our Home Study has been approved!! So now we can apply for grants. Hallelujah! We're also finishing up our Dossier. That's the second chunk of paperwork necessary for adoption. We're waiting for a few of the required documents to come in. You can see the process in detail on our adoption agency's website here. 
Lots and lots of paper folks but we know it will be well worth it!!

I'm Back

It has been a great couple of months. We’ve had awesome time with family visiting our nation’s capital, enjoying Easter and enjoying the break from school. Now it’s time to get back to normal. Things are moving along on the adoption home front again. We just got everything lined up to get our physicals signed and notarized today!!!  Now we can turn in our Home Study and keep trudging on. During our hiatus from the blog, my husband and I both read this blog post http://jenhatmaker.com/blog/2011/09/06/after-the-airport and really want to encourage everyone in our lives to read it as well. Jen Hatmaker is an incredible author and she’s so very real. I love it. The post is so phenomenally revealing.

She really tells it like it is and after reading her post, it’s amazing that we’re not shaken, we still want to do it. We’re excited because we know we’ve been praying for God’s best for us. And we know ultimately, that’s what we’re going to get.