The past week

We've had a busy week & I thought I'd share a few pictures. A week ago we had a huge tree fall in our back yard, I was so thankful no one was in it's path as it came down! I took some pictures of Emmaline on it for a size reference...Chad definitely has some work cut out for him now! On Saturday Emmaline was the flower girl for Chad's nephews wedding. She actually ended up being the "sign holder" for the country themed wedding that took place in a big barn, it was really cute and made for some fun pictures! As far as adoption progress, we completed our required education last night. We learned a lot and now have a lot of references to turn to as we go through this process. We survived our individual interviews! They were actually very laid back and we have an excellent case worker that we are working with, which makes it much better! We've scheduled our home visit for next Thursday (the 31st). After that she will complete our home study assessment so we can submit it to our agency and submit our first set of immigration paperwork! All this means one step closer! Thanks for all of the prayers!

Adoption Homestudy

Today we have our 2nd of 3 adoption parenting classes. Last Monday was the 1st and next Monday will be the last one, that will give us the 10 hours of required class hours for the homestudy! We also have our second meeting with our caseworker on Wednesday. This is "individual interviews", I'm anxious just to get this behind us, I don't know what to expect! When we go to our interview on Wednesday we plan to take our completed packet of required homestudy documents!!! As long as everything looks ok and we pass our interviews, we will be ready to schedule our last meeting, the "home visit"... also a visit I'm not looking forward to! At this visit they will inspect our home and interview Emmaline, so basically anything could happen! Wish us luck and I'll let you know how everything goes!

Happy Half Birthday Emmaline!

I love love love the tradition that my Mom began when I was a kid... The celebration of half birthdays! The best thing about half birthdays are the fact that there are no presents and no parties to stress out about, just a day to celebrate you & eat cupcakes! We celebrated Emmaline turning 4 1/2 today with: breakfast @ McDonalds ("going in" which is such a treat!), getting coffee, spending the day at the zoo, eating at sonic (also getting out of the car to eat), going to Gigi's for cupcakes, riding bikes at home and choosing the favorite meal, pizza & popcorn for supper! Please don't judge me on nutritional content of meals today!!! I can't say how many times Emmaline has said, "we're having such a big day today!" That makes it all so worth it! Happy half birthday sweet princess!

Training!

Emmaline is riding in a "Trike-a-Thon tomorrow for St. Jude! She just had to "practice" at 6:45 this morning...that's dedication! ;-) Now the big dilemma, scooter or bike!?!?

Emmaline's road trip!

Emmaline got to spend "seven days" with Nauna and Papa last week! That translates to...Chad and I had an entire week at home, just the two of us! It's amazing that a regular work week actually felt like a vacation week for us too...not that we don't absolutely love spending time with our little sweetie pie, but any of you who are parents understand what I mean! So, while Emmaline was taking boat rides, visiting butterfly houses and being completely spoiled, we were working on homestudy paperwork! I'm so happy to say we both have our autobiographies done and our adoption and marriage questionnaires completed!!! That's progress! We also got our TBI clearance back (neither of us have a criminal record, at least in the state of TN ;-) Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers!