Everyday, its a getting closer...

This has been a crazy couple weeks in Baby Roth's Journey Home! Our individual homestudy meetings went really well. Then, last Monday the 17th, we had our home visit. It truly was a relaxed evening simply talking about our future child, how we'll ready our home for Baby Roth and learning more about the process. The great news is that our homestudy is done, written and we've already sent in our I-600 immigration paperwork!!! I think we've experienced the world's fastest homestudy ever- just 12 days from start to finish. And, on day 12, we sent the sealed copy to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Office (USCIS). This is extremely fast and we are incredibly grateful to our local office and especially Renee for working so hard on this. We are simply amazed at how smoothly this part of the process has went. Praise the Lord!! : )
So, here's a recap of where we are and what comes next- our homestudy is done. We are required to get preapproval, from the US government, to bring a child into the country. So, we've sent our homestudy along with a few other documents to the USCIS office for approval. This has been taking between 5-6 weeks. In the meantime however, we will be working on getting our dossier ready. Our dossier is our paperwork file which will be used by the Ethiopian courts for the formal legal adoption process. The goal is to have the dossier completed by the time our immigration approval comes back. Once that happens....we get the SD 'Great Seal' on it and then, send it to Ethiopia. Truly, everyday its a gettin' closer!!!!!
In other news, school's almost out for the summer and the house projects have begun. After church, this afternoon Wes killed a bunch of dandilions & weed eated, and Kim made an attempt at patching the leaky shed roof with some roofing cement. By then, we were both exhausted and reward our hard work by making a run to Dairy Queen. Ahh, life is good!!
God Bless everyone- don't forget,we serve an awesome God!!

Have Your Cake and Eat it too!

Hi everyone! Its been a crazy busy week- but, for good reason : )
Sunday was Mother's Day! Kim's parents came up for church and lunch to help celebrate the day. We had a great time catching up and just sitting on the deck in the warm sunshine.
















Tuesday was a great day for two reasons- it was Kim's 30th Birthday and....we had our first homestudy interview. Our interview/talk with Renee went wonderfully! We are continually reminded and so grateful to be working with a Christian agency. Its nice to work with someone who appreciates and supports the importance of raising a child in a God centered home. The questions were great topics to discuss and to be prepared for as we grow into our role as future parents. Wow- what a crazy sentence that is....

And, as for the big birthday.... it was a great day! I was truly spoiled- flowers arrived at work, kids at school baked me brownies, and so many friends and family sent their well wishes. Wes even baked me a birthday cake and we celebrated our exciting day with dinner at Red Lobster. Gotta admit, I just love their coconut shrimp and Wes even got a bunch of shrimp with grill marks! Thanks to some gift cards, dinner was even free! Thanks Uncle Steve and Bob & Bonnie
















We were also excited to schedule the other three homestudy interviews. This morning (Thursday) Wes had his interview- he said it went great. And, I'll meet with Renee tomorrow morning at 10am. On Monday evening- she'll come up for our home assessment visit! We can't believe how quickly our interviews have come together. Thanks to everyone for praying for us, we really do feel that God is smoothing the path ahead of us in order for Baby Roth to be here before we know it.

At school, the kids did some fun cupcake decorating. They did a great job so I figured I'd share some fun pictures. Their favorites were the panda bears, pool balls, and fish bowls- all from some cupcakes and basic supplies.

According to the weather outside, it looks like summer begins tomorrow. So, it'll be a busy weekend of mowing, yard work, a few last minute house things, a wedding shower, Wes is probably running a 5k and who knows what all else. Its never boring around here but hey, we like it that way.

Homestudy Here We Come

Great news and prayers answered- we were able to schedule the start of our homestudy today! So, what does the homestudy involve? Well...first we will do an interview with both of us together. Then, we'll each do an individual interview with our social worker. The last step is a home visit where we'll get to meet again with her, she'll check out Baby Roth's future room, home, etc. and all that fun stuff. Hopefully, everything goes well. We're pretty normal people but its a little intimidating to know someone is evaluating you to determine your ability to parent. We'll be praying that all goes well and nothing crazy happens! : )

Just a little thing...

We've got just a little thing to pray about for this week....that our background checks and the last of the reference letters make it to the Bethany office. Thanks for praying and we'll keep reminding ourselves that this is God' plan we're walking through in order to meet the child that is meant for us!

Hi everyone! Its been a crazy busy week here. Last Saturday we went to our first Bethany Adoption class. It was very informative and we really enjoyed the morning. We talked about attachment, helping our child grieve the changes in his/her life and also dealing with issues related to transracial adoption. It was a lot to take in but we're so glad to have met some fellow families moving through similiar experiences.
Since then, its been a crazy busy week for Kim. After our adoption class I drove to the Berry Ranch Saturday night and then on to Sioux Falls on Sunday morning for the State FCCLA Meeting. It was a busy week but the kids did great! We got home on Wednesday night just in time for us to meet Dad at Red Lobster and then the three of us went to the PBR (Professional Bull Riding) event!! It was a lot of fun and a great time : ) We LOVE the PBR!!!
The weekend is off to a great start- catching up on sleep and getting life organized again, post State FCCLA. Yesterday we got our Police Clearance Letter taken care of and my updated passport came in the mail too! Little by little, we're making progress. Now, we just need the last two references to show up and....we can schedule our Homestudy Interviews. Hopefully Monday... please, please!