DTE!!!

FIRST DAY OF 6TH GRADE!

We are now officially DTE! If you are wondering what DTE stands for, it means Dossier (fancy term for our life in papers) to Ethiopia! This really basically means we are now officially waiting! I prayed we would get our DTE date by the end of August and we did just barely! Thank you God! Our prayer now is that the wait time stays where it is which is 5-9 months from DTE date. Wow! It is hard to believe that we could be holding our baby by the end of the school year. Once you get your referral it takes 2-3 months before you travel. We hope that God's perfect timing is in alignment with our perfect timing. We know that this is not always the case, as we found out with our China adoption. We however trust God and His infinite and perfect wisdom and timing.

Nothing else really to report except that things are going well. I have a large, but loveable class. They are quickly growing in my heart. I still get to see my babies from last school year, as they stop by often after school to visit. Baylee is having a wonderful 6th grade school year so far. She is in band, playing the clarinet. She does Safety Patrol before school starts and after school. She has also recently gotten involved with Wednesday night church activities. I am very proud of her. She is a super kid!!! Brian has luckily been home the last few weeks, but will have to travel again before too long. Phoeey! I hate when he leaves! We have acquired 2 more dogs. We are trying to find a home for the loveable things, but we aren't having any luck! If you know of anyone that would like a couple of sweet, country dogs, please let us know. We have our hands full and our pocketbook empty already with the 4 we have!!!!

I will keep you updated!

Back to School and other stuff!

Whew! You can sure tell around here that school is back in session! We have been so busy getting back in the groove of things. Baylee is much happier when school is going on. She is such a social butterfly that she needs to be in the middle of friendships and happenings. Right now, her daddy is taking her and a friend to Fifty-Six, a church service for 5th and 6th graders at our church. She is also debating on taking band or not. I will let you know how that turns out. As for me, well, I am just tired! I always forget how tough the first weeks of school are. My class is delightful, but we have a lot of work to do to get in a good routine. They will get there. It just takes awhile. It takes me awhile to get in a good routine as well. It doesn't help with the millions of beginning of school year things to do. Enough with that already!! Brian was in Iowa last week. It sure is good to have him home. He sure helps take some of the stress off, with helping with things around the house. I told him that I wish I made enough money to make him a house husband!! He wishes that too! As for our adoptions.............China is still moving at a snail's pace. It took them 7 months to get through one month of the waiting list. They just finished January of 2006 people and we are September of 2006. Our Ethiopia adoption is going much smoother! I hope it stays that way! We sent our dossier (paperwork) to AWAA, our adoption agency, yesterday!! Boy, that was a wonderful feeling! I pray now that it will get there by Monday of next week and that everything looks good and they can forward it on to Ethiopia. Once it is in Ethiopia, the wait has been between 5-7 months. Hopefully, it stays that way! Once you get your referral of a baby, it is about 2-3 months before you travel. We are so anxious! Well, that is what is going on around here!

Adoption Update!

Well, our home study addendum is complete, notorized, and should be at the OKC USCIS office right now! Hopefully, they won't take long to change the country and get it back to me. The next step is taking it along with all our other dossier (adoption) documents to the Secretary of State and getting them certified. Then we will mail the dossier to AWAA, our adoption agency, for them to go over and then have authenicated. The final step is sending it on to Ethiopia where we will officially begin the wait! The wait currently is taking between 5 to 7 months for a baby boy. Hopefully, that won't change, and if so, not by much!!! We are so excited! Please join us in prayer that we can have our dossier in Ethiopia this month!! We will keep you posted!