free outing!

The kids and I, along with our good friends, went on an outing today which didn't cost me a dime! We rode the city bus using free tickets the kids earned through a summer reading program. We went and got free cookies from Great Harvest Bread Co. which they had also earned. And then we went to the library and checked out some books. For free! My favorite kind of outing.

team teaching

Patrick and I make a great teaching team. I'm in charge of the curriculum choices, planning, purchasing, implementing, etc. He rocks at the - "in honor of Neil Armstrong, go get the kids out of bed and let's look at the moon" stuff. In other words - I'll make sure our kids graduate - but Dad is way more fun.

**Thanks for the telescope Nana and Papa!**

day camp

Miss Audrey has been at her very first day camp this week. We drop her off at 9am and don't pick her up until 5pm! (VERY long days for this homeschooling mama.) But she is having a blast. Swimming, climbing, zip lining, and getting very dirty. Like black boogers kind of dirty. And loving it!

home visit

Our home visit for our home study is scheduled for this coming Monday. I've known about it for five days now and we've gone a little crazy getting our house ready. And by crazy I just mean we've been doing all those little things that have been on my to-do list for years now. Like paint the kitchen. And the stairwell. And the front porch. And have the carpets cleaned. And organize/throw-away-tons-of-stuff from every room in our home. All in addition to some good old deep-cleaning. (By the way - if anyone wants to come visit us - now would be a good time. My house is really clean!)

From my phone conversations with our social worker I think I'm going to like her a lot. We have to pay for her time and travel to come up from Olympia so she's agreed to do all 6 hours of our home visit in ONE day. So while it will be one very long day - it will save us time and money in the long run. And for that I am very grateful.

So I'm off to paint. And clean. And paint some more!

summertime fun

After spending most of July with sick kids, we are fitting as much summer fun into August as we can. In fact Audrey and I added it up and we have spent 12 days in Chelan in August - and it's only the 17th day of the month! My parents have been VERY generous with their home - and are probably enjoying the quiet tonight! My brother joked that pretty soon they would have to add my name to their mailbox. Funny, funny man that brother of mine.

It's been wonderful. And here are a few pictures to prove it!

while we wait

Audrey has started making bracelets and anklets for the whole family in the colors of the Ethiopian flag. We will wear them while we wait for our little girl to come home. Courtney and Abe came over for a visit and they got in on it too. Nothing makes me feel more loved right now than to see our families come along side us in this adoption. Our sweet girl has lots of people anxious to welcome her!

twenty years later

I attended my 20th class reunion this weekend in Lake Chelan. We had a great time! My mom had told me that the 20th is better than the 10th - and she was right. Everyone is more relaxed - less trying to prove themselves and more just reconnecting with people we haven't seen for a long time. Wish more people could have come - but really enjoyed seeing those that did.

adoption update

Things are moving along quite nicely. What started out as a mountain of paperwork to complete has been reduced to a small hill. I sent off our final packet of documents for the home study piece yesterday. We should begin our home visits soon. Little nervous to have someone delve that deeply into our lives - but we'll survive. And it's just one more hurdle to get to our girl. All five of us had, and passed, our medical exams this week so I can check that off our list too.

After the home study is complete, then we compile and submit our dossier (the large packet of documents that gets translated and sent to Ethiopia). I've started working on this group too so I'm hoping to have it ready to go about the same time our home study has been completed.

So that's it from here. Just lots of paperwork. I'm glad that I have things I can be doing to move this along. Once everything has been sent to Ethiopia we wait. And wait. And wait. I hear that's the toughest part.