a little progress

i finally figured out how to upload pictures from another website onto the blog! we found this oar with pegs on the pottery barn kids website. we have been thinking about how we might decorate the baby's room after we had to answer a question in our autobiography (part of our homestudy) about it. originally, we had thought about doing a safari theme with pictures done by children's artists of animals one might find in africa. then we thought that might be carrying the africa thing a little too far. then we thought a nautical theme would be great since jamie has a love for rowing. i stumbled on this oar, and now i want it for our nursery! seriously, it's probably a little too early to buy anything, especially since we're watching every penny these days, but there's certainly nothing wrong with daydreaming. the nursery at our new house is already painted yellow, which we really like since we have no idea what gender any of our children will be except for baby number one (who you should obviously know now will be a boy). our plan for decorations is to find stuff that can be easily hung and taken down so we can change out the decor if the next child is a girl. our new house also has a great sunroom that extends most of the length of the back of the house that the previous owners used as a playroom for their three kids. we've also found some great children's art that we want to put in there so it really feels like a children's area. we kind of got obsessed with this company called oopsy daisy that produces these huge canvas murals. lots of them are cute but educational such as this one:

anyway, enough about our future decoration plans. we had dinner with another couple at our church adopting from ethiopia. they just sent their dossier off, and they are officially number 16 on the wait list. we continue to be so blessed by hearing other couples share their story about how they decided to adopt, and to hear how God has provided for them financially through the process. it's also really nice to have someone who can answer our questions about homestudy paperwork, which we are muddling through at the moment. earlier this week, i finally sat down and finished my part of our autobiography. it ended up being over 50 pages long, namely because i felt the need to be verbose on every single question to ensure that our social worker wouldn't need to ask for more details later. we're also going to the clerk of courts office on friday to get criminal background checks, and we're planning a trip to see a notary early next week to have a bunch of papers signed. i also called our doctors today to set up appointments for us to be examined so they can write a statement saying we are in good health and fit to be parents. we are eagerly awaiting a loan check that should arrive in early july that will allow us a bit more freedom in our bank account, enough to write a $1200 check that covers all homestudy fees. our plan is to get most of our paperwork done, so that our social worker can visit us in early august when we close on our house and complete the homestudy for the most part (there will still be some other papers and such to finish). once the homestudy is done, we can start working on our dossier, which is all the paperwork that gets sent to ethiopia. please keep praying for us to be wise with our time and especially with our money, and that we would continue to learn patience throughout this process. oh yeah, and you can also pray that the government allows the $8,000 new home buyer tax credit to be used towards a down payment. this is going through congress, and we're waiting to hear if it will pass in time to apply to our house. if it does, all the money we've saved for our downpayment could go towards our adoption.