5 Months Later!

It has been five months, to the day, that we applied to Small World Adoptions to adopt from Lesotho!
Today I picked up our home study from Adoption Associates! This is a huge step. It fees so good to have that in our hands!! Seems like it took forever to get this part done. People keep asking us if there is any news on the adoption. My response for the past 5 months has been, "Nope, still doing the home study." I don't have to say that anymore and it feels sooooooo gooooood!!!!! We are moving on to phase #2!

Our next step is to file an I800a application with the US government. Tomorrow I will send all that paperwork to Dallas, TX. They will then, review it and send us a date for Jeremy and I to go to Grand Rapids to have our fingerprints done. That could take 3 weeks to hear. After fingerprints it is another 2-4 weeks until we recieve our approval in the mail. That will be the end of phase 2! Slowly but surely we are making progress.

This holiday season already seems different to me than in the past. I have had a hard time getting into the spirit of things in years past. In some ways it seemed like just another day, save for the great food, and presents. This year is different. Different in so many ways. We have some great plans for our family for this year. We will be doing a Jesse Tree! If you haven't heard of this you should go to Ann Voskamps website. www.aholyexpierence.com. She is selling a book called The Greatest Gift. It sets the birth of our Savior in the context of the whole bible. Each day from Dec. 1 to Dec 25 there is a devotional and an ornament.  You put that ornament on the tree and it will remind you all month that the promise of our Saviors birth was there from the beginning of time! Excellent!!!!

I really pray that our Holiday season is filled with the presence of Him. I pray we don't get caught up in the hustle and bustle of parties and lists and forget what its is all about. I would love to turn our holiday season upside down (thanks Ann Voskamp for that analogy). Change how we "do" Christmas. Think about the poor, hurting, hungry and lost and not so much about ourselves. Maybe your Christmas can look a little different this year too?

Family Picture Preview

We had a family picture session this week! One of our dear friends was kind enough to go out on a chilly evening and snap a few pictures for us. Here are a few for your viewing pleasure!

Needless to say we are very excited to have an actual 4th child in that picture someday. For now, the pumpkin will have to do.