Wednesday, November 26, 2008

19 Days!!!

I can't believe it's been more than 3 weeks since I've posted. Those of you who are here know why. We moved this past week, with the help of some wonderful friends!! It was stressful to say the least, then I had to add a 3 day Christmas Show with my Uppercase Living stuff. And in between that we drove to Atlanta twice, once for an all day Hosting Training, and the other for a 15 minute fingerprint appointment. I know, now, that I am not Super Woman! But we got through it.
Our social Worker came Monday to do our Safety visit, and update our homestudy with our new home information.
We love living in a one story again, love it!!!
Cannot wait for Anastasia to get here!!! Time has flown by, my plan to stay busy is still working.
We may do a seperate Hosting blog while she is here. We have had to tell Cooper that we are not getting to "keep" her, he is heart broken. But Cooper loves to talk. Cody know the truth and that it is a secret. And if this is mentioned in front of her or the chaperones while they are here, we will be in trouble. It's hard to explain why.
Your part in this is that adoption is no longer mentioned in front of the boys. We just talk about how excited we are to have her coming to visit. No more talking about their new sister. I know we had to get them used to the idea for the homestudy and know we have to reverse it. But all for a good cause.

I'll post more later, I've got a little boy with an ear infection that needs some cuddles!

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

6 Weeks till Anastasia is here!

Sorry it's been so long since my last post. Things are moving along smoothly.

We are in between sets of paperwork right now, so I am getting a breather.
We are moving into a one story house in several weeks, we've got military renters moving into our house. This will not only save us a chunk of money every month but foremost it will provide a much safer environment for Anastasia with not having stairs.

Supposedly Atlanta is now caught up on their paperwork, so we got a letter from homeland security saying our INS paperwork should now only take 3 months rather then 5-6. This is great news. And given everything else goes smoothly we have no reason not to beleive that she will be home with us permantly before summer break.

The break in paperwork is nice, but it allows all the everyday concerns to start creeping in. Like, how will the children get along. How hard will it be to communicate with her in the beginning. What if she doesn't like us? How do I take 3 kids into a grocery store-one with Cerebral Palsy? What do put her in when we go places-a stroller, a wheelchair? People ask me repeatedly are you nervous, are you scared, are you worried? I know it is strange but no I'm not. Is Gary- yes, I think a little, but not about any of those things, mostly about being a girl Dad. I tell him he'll be fine, I've seen him with many of our friends' daughters and they all love him.

So during our little paperwork break we will be moving houses! Then as soon as we are in our house we will start the next set, so that way it will all have our new address.

Right now I am really praying about where to go for the financing. We've got over 25,000 in costs coming up. And no I'm not worried about that either! We don't have 25,000 dollars laying around, so we need to get a loan. So I am really praying to be lead to the best loan possible, as far as interest rate goes. We have the resources to pay on a loan every month. Thankfully due to the fact that God has lead us to a debt free life. So since we have no debt, people are more than willing to loan us money so that we can have debt!!! The American way! We had sold our minivan about 6 or so months ago, and bought Gary a little Toyota with cash and I took back the CRV. With all the travel we do, 3 kids will not be comfortable in the CRV, especially if we have a wheelchair to transport also. So the money we save every month by renting out our house, we go toward a car payment.
So for you prayer warriors, we need prayer for some good loans!

Both of the boys are doing wonderful, and are really excited about Anastasia coming, even Cooper!! They are wonderful boys, and will make great brothers for a little girl.
I am curious however how Mr Chatterbox Cooper is going to deal with a child who doesn't speak his language! That should be very interesting!!