A Quick Update!

We had a wonderful vacation this past week in Chicago. So much fun to see the city where we used to live, to meet old friends, and most of all to introduce Will to Wrigley Field! Will loved Chicago, and Bill & I have to admit that we were a bit wistful in some of our old stomping grounds. It is a fun city, especially in the summer, but I'm glad that God has us in OKC right now. God has had good plans all along for us, and right now we are in just the right place for another little boy to fly half-way around the world and join our family!

We came home to the great news that our homestudy stuff is finished, so we could go ahead and process our dossier documents. Hooray! So, without even finishing unpacking, I've been off to the doctor's office, police department, and notary's office in the past two days. Bill, in his usual style, whipped out his laptop, sent a couple of quick e-mails, and got his entire part finished in about ten minutes. Two days later, the FedEx envelopes arrived with his employment letters and our marriage certificate, and he didn't even break a sweat. I wish that I was as cool and collected as he is sometimes. All the time I spend wringing hands doesn't really get the job done any faster! A great lesson for me to learn at this point in the adoption process! :)

So, I guess when I send off this dossier packet to Dillon on Monday, we have officially hit "The Waiting List!" One prayer request for our extended family who has lovingly prayed us through this whole process is that our fingerprint appointment and I-171H would move along smoothly (and I add somewhat selfishly, RAPIDLY!) The I-171H is the final document that we need to be able to get a visa for our new child. The Vietnamese government wants to see it in our hands before we start trying to get approval to travel. We would love to have it in place so that when we are referred a child, we will have one less piece of paper between us and him. So, the sooner that one happens, the better. Hopefully, July will be a good month for us to get this last piece of the paperwork puzzle in place.

In the mean time, we plan to have plenty of BBQ's, see a bunch of baseball games, take Will to swimming lessons, and enjoy the good ol' summertime for awhile! When I actually get the suitcases unpacked, I'll try to post some Chicago highlights, so check back soon! :0)

Homestudy - Hooray!

We received the completed draft of our homestudy today! Hooray! Thanks to our great social worker and all of the Dillon staff - you guys are the best! They managed to get everything finished for us before we head out on our vacation - an extra treat.

For our friends and family not in the middle of the adoption experience, the homestudy is a critical piece of the puzzle. The homestudy report is done by a licensed social worker, who officially approves us as adoption applicants. This report goes to Vietnam along with copies of a lot of other official paperwork to describe us as adoptive parents to the Vietnamese government. It also is used here by the US Department of Immigration as official clearance to allow us to get a Visa for our new child. (The Visa officially allows us to leave Vietnam and return to the United States with our child.)

So, the moral of the story is that our homestudy unlocks the doors to the next big phase of our adoption process. We are thrilled to be moving that way! Funny, but I've never been so excited to be allowed to fill out more bureaucratic forms! :)

Attack of the Robots!

Well, Vacation Bible School is upon us! As I am writing this post, we have only one more day of robots and spaceships in our Sonforce Kids VBS theme, and we've all had a great time! Bill and Will made the robots in the pictures out of cardboard boxes, spray paint, scrap wood, and some stickers. Great job, guys! I've been teaching a class of 22 boys that are just about to enter third grade, and I have even more gratitude for elementary school teachers than ever before. The kids have been great, but man is it a lot of work to keep up with them!

Will has had a wonderful week and has learned a lot, too. Thanks to his teachers for all their kindness and hard work. One of the highlights was listening to him sing "Jesus Loves the Little Children of the World" and then tell me how that meant his brother in Vietnam! It's nice to know sometimes that our kids really get it! :)

One of our Bible stories this week was about baby Moses' mother placing him in a basket at the edge of the river to try to save his life. (If you don't know the story, the Pharaoh of Egypt had ordered that all infant Hebrew boys be killed in order to subdue the Hebrews and keep them as slaves. Moses' mother made a floating basket and hid her son in the reeds next to the river, where he was found by Pharaoh's daughter. She adopted him, and not only was his life spared, but he grew up in the palace with the best of opportunities. God used Moses' adoption to prepare him for big things in the future.)

So, I thought a lot about Moses' mother this week. How hard it must have been for her to push that little boat basket out in the water, even though she knew it might be the only way to save her son. Would I have been willing to make that choice? It may be that our future son's birth mother is thinking about the same decisions right now. Bless her for loving her son so much. May we never take for granted the love she is showing to her son. May God make us worthy of the blessings that He is pouring out on us.

I also have been thinking about the ways that God is asking me to let go of my own basket a little bit too. Am I willing in faith to let go of my children (both Will & our future son) and let God have control of their lives? Of my life, too? Do I really believe that God has the best plans for all of us, even if they aren't very easy for me? Even if they make my heart hurt sometimes? Yet again, I learn more from Vacation Bible School than the kids do! Thanks, God, that the rewards of Your plans are higher and bigger and greater than we can ever ask or imagine!

Summer Fun!

The blog gang is listing their Top 5 Summer Fun Goals. So, here are ours:

1. Visit the local Vietnamese grocery store and learn how to make at least one recipe in my new Vietnamese cookbook (or have fun trying, anyways!)
2. Eat ice cream while watching the Fourth of July fireworks - preferably at the end of a great baseball game
3. Watch the sailboats on Lake Michigan from Wrigley Field (watch out Chicago, here we come!)
4. Survive Vacation Bible School, and help our four-year-old son to enjoy his first real VBS experience. I am teaching a Second Grade Boys class, and the theme is Spy Kids in Outer Space, so I may well be fed to a robot by the end of the week!
5. Spend our anniversary on the top of a mountain. (We spent our honeymoon nearly 14 years ago in Breckenridge, Colorado, and we are going back - just the two of us!)