The Rwanda Embassy - it was a clear beautiful spring day! I caught the flag mid-furl

Wasington Dc!!!

First of All, HAPPY EASTER! Let's thank Jesus for his gift to all of us, and for leading us on this wonderful journey. Secondly, thank Him for getting us to DC and the State Dept- where we almost were turned down since we had more than the 15 documents allowed in one day, but we told the nice woman at the counter that we drove from philly and it's for an adoption, and I think God changed her mind for us and she let us do all of them at once. Then off to the Embassy, but they told us we needed a cashier check and we also forgot our pre-paid return box so we drove on a wild goose chase for those 2 things, then back to the embassy! We dropped off everything and walked away with a smile, Paper Labor is in full swing! The final step now is get dossier returned with letter of no objection, and Mail it to Rwanda!!

Getting closer by the minute...

Well, we are getting closer despite the sudden twist of needing to get all of our papers stamped at the state level in harrisburg, and then DC, we now have the harrisburg approval- sort of. i missed a few documents and have overnighted them to our family who, conveniently, live in harrisburg :) so hopefully we'll have themby wednesday then - We're going to DC! We have always wanted to see cherry blossoms so this will be perfect timing, God's timing is always perfect of course ! Another family adopting frmo Rwanda got their approval letter the *SAME DAY* but we're not counting on being so lucky...but we can hope and pray!
i''ve been getting nesting instincts a little more, thinking of how i'll orchestrate 2 babies at lunch, where to fit 2 babies in our bedroom (yes, we are crazy overindulgent parents with our toddler happily sleeping in her toddler bed, just east of our bed, north of the dog bed, and south of the cats' bed...we currently have, on average, 6-9 living things peacefully snoring, snoozing, tossing, turning, talking in their sleep, barking in their sleep, purring, hissing, knocking down picure frames, burowing, sometimes sleeping, crying for bottles-still-, whining for binkys, wide-eyed with insomnia, dreaming, waking, or hitting the snooze button on any given night-- whew, but i digress) 2 car seats, a double stroller... but it's thrilling to be thinking in 2's now! twice as nice, probably 4 times the chaos, but 100 times welcome, welcome, welcome to our world, little one. we're gonna love it.

Paper progress!

Just got an email from our adoption agency that we have US gov't approval for our adoption and the paper should arrive in the mail in a few days! Yippee! One day soon that mailbox won't be empty! Praise God, I was getting impatient!! I also talked to a client today who just adopted a baby from Ethiopia and she lives 5 mins. from us! I hope they can have playdates very soon!

Empty Mailbox, full hearts

I feel anticipation every day when I open the mailbox, and while I've got a great coupon or two, a free pair of underware at victoria's secret, and my sping mail order chicken catalog, no magical approval letter to bring our son or daughter home. I had the notary come again last night to do our W2s and a few other extra copies of papers so I can hopefully drive them home next week to harrisburg for approval, then ship 'em to DC while we wait.
Tonight is a bummer since we sent our little girl to grandma and grandpa's for 2 nights since I have a conference to go to tomorrow, and I loathe the thought of any extra daycare days since she despises it so much. This is only the second time we've spent a night away from her. It's funny, peopel think it's good for a new mom to "have time to herself" or "get away" or "have a break" from the kids. Maybe this will be true someday, but even now the thought of being away from her is like saying "oh, you must need a break from your legs, you walk so much" or, boy, you're eyes are tired from working so hard, you should just go blind for a few days to give them a rest" I feel like a vital organ is missing. Sigh, I'd rather miss her than send her to day care. we're thinking about re-hiring a new babysitter, since she's done so well with them in the past.

Plus, we have to start grooming the new nanny for #2! Soon I pray!