Whew…. Finally getting a chance to update!!

Our last few weeks has been so busy.  I can’t believe how many things need to be done before school starts NEXT week!  Ahhhh…  So I will give you a rundown on what’s up at our house.

On the adoption front:  Our I800-a should be approved in the next day or two.  We have the same officer as we did previously.  Officer L is AWESOME and she even has visited our blog to see Landon and Evelyn.  She said that it was nice to see as typically they only deal with the paperwork and don’t get to see the faces attached with all those papers.  That was cool.  So as soon as we get that approval, it will be sent to the US Embassy in Sofia.  Then we will have a Visa appointment that our AWESOME attorney – Toni will attend for us.  We will then be issued an Article 5 letter and then I believe our documents will be sent to court, where they will sit until at least September 1st.  Courts in Bulgaria are closed until September 1st and have been since mid July.  Nice vacation huh??   So my best guess is that we will travel end of October to pick up the kids.  SUPER EXCITED about that!!!!  We still have a lot of money to raise, so if you are looking for something to do with a couple buckets of money, we have a chip in on our side bar or our Family Sponsorship Account with Reece’s Rainbow!

Home Front:  Tomorrow we are having two of these delivered: (well since I am late in getting this posted, this was actually today and I will get pictures up tomorrow!!)

and set up in each of the kids rooms.  We have been blessed beyond belief to be gifted these beds.  Some gracious people who shall remain nameless have been so kind as to purchase these for our family.  Also, the man that made them gave us a huge discount as well for our adoption.  He is coming to our house tomorrow to set them up.  We are super excited to have these beautiful beds in our home.  Praise GOD!!!

Today we were also gifted two full size mattresses for them.  I can’t tell you what a God thing that was.  I can tell you though it was an answer to prayer for sure. 

We painted these rooms this weekend and I will be taking pictures tomorrow of the empty rooms as well as with the beds so stay tuned.

The kids:   We are getting ready for school that starts AUGUST 15th!!  UGH!!  I am not quite ready for summer to be over and for ALL my kids to be in school!  Makes me sad in fact.  I will be alone here at home on the days I have off work. It will be strange, but I am assuming that I will get a lot accomplished for the first few weeks and then I might be a little bored.  We’ll see.

Josie will be in second grade, Katie in first and Owen in Kindergarten.  Jake will have another year of full time preschool.  We have all the backpacks packed and ready for the meet and greet with the teachers on Monday.  Here they are, sitting at the ready and I have caught the kids sitting and staring at them since I have told them they are grounded if the even so much as think about touching them to please keep their hands off the school supplies. 

Our summer:  At the beginning of the summer, we purchased a pool pass for our family.  This is the first time we have done this, however with 6 of us at $3.00 each every time we go, it adds up.  We weren’t sure we would get our money’s worth, but boy we were wrong.  We were at the pool nearly EVERY SINGLE DAY this summer.  We spent the days of 100 to 103 weather we spent having fun in the water!  I must say it’s the best money we spent and we made some wonderful memories there this summer.  I must say as well, that it has been much easier taking all 4 kids to the pool than it has been having them at home.  Not nearly as much fighting and they got some serious exercise there.  Here are some pictures from our time at the pool.

Stay tuned for summer part 2 post in the next couple days!!!!!