I have been talking with so many moms about the Congo. It helps to have such a support group. They answer all my questions and I am even starting to answer some questions myself for others. I still feel lost in this process. I am so overwhelmed. We have a meeting with our Milwaukee adoption agency on Tuesday. They are the agency that is completeing our homestudy for the Congo. We have to get some paperwork notarized and finalized. We are waiting for our I600A form to be completed so we can go to Homeland security in Milwaukee for fingerprinting. It should be another week before we hear from them.
I am also talking with a mom that is telling me about a 9yr old orphan Avery. I saw pictures of her and she is adorable. The mom is telling me she is the sweetest girl at the orphanage. This mom is worried they won't keep her because she is getting older. I would love to bring her home with us if Dan would let me. I have so much love to give and we have so much to offer these children that have nothing. I believe that what is meant to be is meant to be. Maybe there is a reason for this. I would love to bring 2 or 3 home but it isn't in my hands right now.
I am hearing terrible stories of people waiting forever to travel to the congo. This is heartbreaking for these moms and their kids. All we can do is wait and pray.

Dan and I are HIV negative and TB free. We had to take these tests to go any further with our adoption. We sold many t-shirts and sweathsirts and sales are still coming in. The shirts are wonderful. Dan, Sommer and I wore our shirts today. I felt very proud. This adoption paperwork is very overwhelming for me so I'm now having Dan getting involved in some of this paperwork. I get a little worried when it gets to be so technical. He is better at that stuff than me.

While all this is going on pray for my sister. She is in stage 3 kidney failure. This entire adoption process is very exciting but in the big picture my sister needs to get better. I would put this entire adoption on hold to make her healthier.

Thanks to all for your support. We love you all

Yesterday Dan and I had off of school, conference offset day. We got so many things done for the adoption. We got Dan's passport paperwork sent in, we had to order all raised seal copies of our birth certificates & marriage certificates. We went to see our t-shirts and they look so COOL thanks to Mr. True for designing that for your family and givng us the design. I have been on the Congo blog trying to get as much information as I can about the wait for a referral. We want one now but we have waited so long already whay is another month or 2.

Hunter and Sommer have been so sick this year. They have had colds and fevers. They are so excited about having a new brother. My goal is take them with me. They never leave my side I can't go without them. I also want them to see what life their little brother came from.

T-shirt sales have been great. So many people are helping us. How can we say thanks to anyone for all this help. Once we get that homestudy we will be writing grants left and right. That will be about 4 weeks.

Well we have nothing much to do now since we sent in our payment. We are now waiting for our referral. This could take 0-6 months. Not sure why it will take this long when it seems like they have so many children at the orphanage. I looked at some pictures of a mom that just went down there. Her husband is the one that designed our t-shirts. She took so many pictures of the orphange and I loved looking at every single one of them. we have waited so long to adopt a child now I want things to go so quickly. I guess now I know it is happening.

Dan and I have parent teacher conferences this week so we are working until 8:00. This is good because it takes my mind off of this adoption.

We mailed out letters yesterday to all of our family and friends asking for their support. I hope we can get the support we need. We also sent out letters to some businesses asking for help from local businesses. We can't do this adoption without help.

All I can say is thanks for all the prayers out there. We also want to say thanks for buying a t-shirt. All of this will help so much.

Thanks for reading

Again I have been so busy. Where does time go? We had our first homestudy interview. We had a meeting this afternoon and Dan had his physical for the adoption. We have to mail in our $3200 payment today...OUCH. We are working on our t-shirts. They look really cool and I hope and pray that this will help us with part of the cost. I can't sleep at night thinking about all these things going on. I worry about money. I worry about all this paperwork and filling it our all correctly so it doesn't get returned. We want this to go as quick as it can and go very smoothly.