Dossier

For those who don't know we are in process of adopting a little girl from Ethiopia. Adoption has been on our hearts for a long time so we finally started the process this past January. After a lot of researching and praying we applied with AWAA (http://www.awaa.org/) It is a Christian organization and they been so helpful and supportive in this whole process.

Anyway, after

22 Official documents (all notarized and authenticated with the official seals from Secretary of State) from a total of 5 states (NH, MA, VA, CO, TX)

A total of 79 pages (times 3 since we had to make 3 copies) (Yes that would be 237 pages in total)

3 sets of 20 pictures of our family

4 visa pictures

6 pages of passport copies

3 visits from a social worker

4 trips to the USCIS (fomerly INS)

3 trips to the state Capitol

(Lenka is on first name basis at both of these places and they all know our kids and what they are up to)

Many trips to the Dr. office and I don't remember how many phone calls

I don't even remember how many trip to the post office

and

one trip to the FedEx office

we got the paperwork completed. We still have another 6-10 months of waiting ahead of us.

Sam, Nate and Emma holding the packet a few seconds before we sent it overnight to our adoption agency. (By the way the kids are so excited and they are so encouraging when we feel down. And there are many ups and downs in this process.)
All the papers we worked on in last 5 months.

And here are the official seal from five states.

NH
VA, this one we liked the most. It was also the biggest one in size. When we first saw it we were wondering what size the TX one will be. We were hoping for a really big one since everything is big in Texas but as you can see, we were very disappointed.
MA
CO
TX

May pictures

It seems that the month of May if always filled with lots of activities. Here are some pictures of what has been going on with our lives. But we have even bigger news so check back soon to see what is going on. I love our house in the spring time. (well I love our house all the time) it is just that in the spring with the nice green grass and flowers it feels a little bit different after the long winter.
Fil's mom planted whole bunch of tulips and other flowers around the house last fall. They turned out so beautiful.
Emma with her dolly. She loves all of hers dolls. (As you can see)


This spring the boys are playing soccer. (instead of baseball) for few reasons. One is that we missed the signups and the other that the soccer league is easier to follow in the spring with everything else going on.
AWANA

Also in May the boys are done with Awana. Nate finished his second year in cubbies and will be moving onto the Sparks. It is hard to believe that we just finished a third year in all.

Sam got award for his first book in his first year of Sparks. He (and mom) worked very hard on all those Bible verses.
Emma at the ceremony. What a doll.


Emma with Charlie Taylor. He is such a boy. He is a year younger then her, but weighs much more then her.
Jacob, Jonathan, Emma, Sam and Nate playing together after church.
One of our projects. We built a train out of boxes for their bears.
Our trip to Ikea with Joshua and Sarah Litman.
Spring also brings a lot of work around the house. This year we had three helpers to get the work done.

Also in May we finished our school (Hooray) and the boys already asked when we are starting next year. We all learned so much this year and even thought we are officially done we have been working on some stuff already. I guess with homeschooling school never ends.