Stump removed! :)

About 7 years ago, we had to cut down a huge tree in our back yard b/c it had Dutch Elm Disease. We had made the stump the center of a flower bed since it was so big. Now that we are adding on, we need the dumb thing removed. (or have it as the night stand) Well--today we had a very determined neighbor that thought a tractor with duals could pull it out. The first attempt and the chain broke without the stump even budging. We then had the one of the City guys bring the pay loader. One pushed and one pulled. We weren't sure if that was going to do it. Finally it was successful!!!! Thanks to Justin, Shane, Lawerence, Jon, and Stan for your help. It was pulled out by the roots so we don't need to wait to have the stump ground out. :) Jason will be filling in the hole and we hope to have cement poured by next week. We are so thankful for people being so willing to help out. We appreciate it so much!

Travel shots

We have to get certain shots in order to travel to Ethiopia. We will not be traveling any time soon, but I wanted to get these shots taken care of. With both of us being teachers, it is much easier to do it now during the summer. We will have to go to Sioux Falls for these shots. There are only 4 clinics in SD that even give these shots. (3 in SF and one in Rapid) We were hoping that we could get these shots when we went to SF for our fingerprinting appointment. I called one of the places today to see how far in advance we would need an appointment. They are currently booking for July! I don't know how much warning we will get for our fingerprinting appointment, but I don't think it will be that long. I was kind of disheartened thinking we would have to make 2 trips to SF. (4 hours one way times 2...yuck) I called another one of the numbers I had. There you don't need appointments!! YIPPEE!!! I love getting good news and love it when things work out! :) I was able to leave a voicemail with the main nurse. I told her that we would need shots for Ethiopia. I told her I'd let her know when we know that we were coming. God provides for us once again! I didn't even have time to get myself into a tizzy. :)

Approved!!!

Our Home Study was APPROVED!! (pending fingerprint results) Yippee!!! So, now we just wait for the fingerprints to come back so the date can be added to the Home Study. It would be awesome if our prints came back before next Friday as that is the last day our case worker is working. I'm not counting on that though. It took 6 weeks for the other couple she was working with to get results back. I think we are only at 3. Time will tell. What is meant to be will be!

Home Study revisions

I got an email from our case worker yesterday. Since she is going on maternity leave after next week, she is trying to get our Home Study finalized. The date our fingerprint results come back will have to be included in our Home Study. Our case worker will come into the office to add the fingerprint date, run copies, notarize all of them, and drop them in the mail. How nice of her to do when she is on maternity leave. Anyway--she had sent our Home Study to AGCI for approval. They needed more information about a few things. We got right on it and sent it to her. She was going to make the revisions as soon as she could and get it sent back to our agency.

The construction begins (kind of)

We have made the decision to add a bedroom on to our house. We could always have our girls share a bedroom, but that doesn't sound fun with them being the ages that they are. So--Jason now has "building a bedroom onto the house" as a summer project. He tore off the siding of the back part of the house for the new addition. We have a huge tree stump that needs to be removed. We had the tree cut down a long time ago, but didn't want to pay to have the stump removed. Well--now we must get the stump removed unless we want it for a night stand. :) We thought we were going to be able to pull or push it out. No luck. So now it will have to be cut out and then ground. Bummer. :( Jason removed the sidewalk from that side of the house too. So--the progress has started, but it will be slow. Someone is coming on Monday to give us a quote for cement. Jason is going to try to do most of the work himself. He has many other commitments in June so we'll see how far or how fast he progresses. Thanks bunches to Justin and Sarah for allowing us to use your tractor. That sure has made it much easier. We are truly blessed with great friends. Stay tuned for more construction updates. :)

Home Study

Our Home Study was today. I really wasn't worried about it, but did manage to get a tiny bit worked up over getting the house in order. (even though I knew it really didn't matter) Our case worker is AWESOME!!! It is great that we feel so relaxed with her. She will come back to our house for post placement reports at 3, 6, and 12 months after bringing our little one home. It sure has made this journey so much easier with someone that is so easy to work with. She is going to add the stuff from today into the partially completed Home Study. She will then send it to AGCI for approval. Then we wait for our fingerprint results. She will come into work during her maternity leave to put the fingerprint date into our Home Study, sign it, and get them all off in the mail. Too bad we have to wait for these fingerprints. Oh well. I plan on getting all of my things ready so as soon as we get those results back, we can send in our Dossier. Hopefully by the end of June we can be on the wait list. I know the waiting is all part of the bigger picture. We might have to wait a little while longer than we would like to get these results back, however....it also helps to have things fall into place. Maybe we will get a younger child b/c of it. No matter what....it is all part of the bigger picture. It is in God's hands and in His time!

Pediatrican chosen

I've been doing some research on pediatricans in the area. By saying "in the area," I'm meaning basically an hour away in Aberdeen. I did some searching on the Internet. Man what a tool. What did people ever do without it? I emailed a couple of people via the Sanford and Avera websites. I inquired about if any of their pediatricians had worked with international adoptions. None. :( However, the one lady from Sanford was amazing! She was very helpful. Here is the deal. When we get our referral we will have a couple of days (if that) to decide if we accept the referral or decline it. In this time, we'd like to have a doctor look at the medical information we have on our child. They might see some possible red flags. They certainly will know way more than we know. When we return home with out new child, we will take him/her to a pediatrician. We want to have someone that specializes in children to examine him/her to make sure we get a totally accurate report. So--I emailed this lady and asked her if she would ask their pediatrician if she would be willing to look at this information we'd receive. The lady told me that the doctor had some questions and that we should call her. I was so totally impressed. Not very often do you get to call and talk to the doctor. I called her today. What an experience!!! She wanted to know if we had put in for a healthy child or a child with special needs. We have requested "as healthy as possible." She also asked where we were in our process. Even though she hasn't done any medical work with an international adoption, she is familiar with the process as her sister just adopted from China. Crazy!! :) She is more than willing to look at our medical information at the time of referral and she knows it is a time sensitive case. She was concerned about what might happen if she was gone for the weekend or something. They are getting another pediatrician in their office this summer so hopefully b/t the 2 of them we will be just fine. What a huge relief!!! I know it isn't needed for awhile, but it is great to know we have someone on board with us. I'm to contact her when we get closer to the top of the wait list and then we will get a plan in place for when that referral comes.