Still working on it...

I just can't believe how extensive the home study application/questionaire is! We are reviewing in detail our personal history, finances, discipline methods, etc...it seems endless!! All-in-all I think it's around 30 pages of forms!

So we are wading through this...hoping that this is the most extensive part of our application process--but we are probably fooling ourselves. All the government forms are yet to come--then there will be Embassy visits, government office lines, extensive correspondence with the States...yikes...I'm just going to turn my eyes back to the home study--that seems to be the most do-able right now.

We had a great time in Germany, but inevitably brought home a grouping of bugs we caught. It seems we are always dealing with small, strange sickness. So, as this again works through our family, we are using this in-house time to do as much as we can on our Process.

It's been good for Jared and I to sit down, once-again, and really review our parenting philosophies and discipline methods, our relationship with each other, our relationship with our kids, and our motivation to adopt. As I've been going through all of our insurance information and benefits with our company I have been encouraged and so thankful at the way we are taken care of--we've even found that we have adoption leave in the amount of 30 days--this is an extreme blessing, since we are looking at taking a massive trip in a few months!

That is something else that has changed as we've been reviewing what this is actually going to look like. We had initially thought that Jared and I could go to Ethiopia when it's time, leaving the kids with friends for the 5-7 day trip and then bring our daughter home to Rome before taking the big trip to the States 6 months later for citizenship proceedings. But now, we've found out that Italy has been known to turn children away on temporary visas because their citizenship is incomplete. You must be on American soil to complete the citizenship process and while we have up to 6 months to get this done according to US regulations, Italy does not always recognize this grace-period. So now we are looking at two scenarios: the first is to take the whole family to Ethiopia as well as, hopefully, a helper to watch the children while we are at our important meeting at the Embassy, and then going straight from Ethiopia to the US. The second scenario is, with the help of a 3rd party, we will send our older three on to the States from Rome while Jared and I head to Ethiopia alone, spend the 5-7 days collecting our baby and figuring out the legal matters and then go from Ethiopia to the States, stop in DC to obtain citizenship for 24 hrs and meet up with the rest of our family in OKC.

Both scenarios seem extremely difficult so begin praying for us now please...that God would orchestrate all the details and flights and people and money for this crazy event that will hopefully happen in 6-9 months!