Care Packages!

We got to send care packages to the girls this month.  Since you can't send them packages directly in the mail, you have to wait till someone from our agency travels over there and takes them with.  My sweet sister Kristin bought most of the items to send to them, and cousin Maddy helped with donating 2 outfits as well.   

 



 

Our little African princess's package

 

All of it has to fit in a gallon bag.  I packed it full!

 

Our older princess's package

 

It was much harder to fit a larger dress and shoes in the bag!

Summer WI trip

The kids loved my dad's church's new indoor playground

 

Guess who loves to be naked?  At least we  have been able to get him to keep his swim trunks on at the public pool.  The first time at the YMCA pool this year he kept trying to take his trunks off the whole time yelling, "I just want to be naked!"

Little brother pulling big brother

 

Riding on the zoo train with Grandma & Aunt Nancy

My parents have Go Carts.  The kids loved riding in them

Isaac & Auntie Kristin

Cousin Maddy & Isaac

 

Auntie Tammy & Isaac

Cousin love.  Micah loves playing and following cousin Maddy around

They visited an alpaca farm.  We even got to try some alpaca meat that week.  Isaac loved it!

We Accepted an Adoption Referral!

We accepted an adoption referral for two girls from DRC this past month.  On May 31st we decided to take a referral for a sweet girl on the waiting child page that tugged at our hearts.  She is older than we had planned to adopt, but know God has bigger plans for our family than we have.  We have been secretly kicking around the idea the past couple months of accepting two referrals, and decided to go for the second referral.  About 2 weeks later we got a call about another referral for a sweet little girl that was with our same lawyer.  Unfortunately we cannot share information or pictures on public sites for the girl's safety for awhile. 

Our case is submitted to the courts in DRC.  Once we pass court and are legally the girls' parents in the eyes of the DRC government we will be able to share some information and maybe even post a picture!
 The court process will take 8-12 weeks, sometimes longer.

After court, we file our I600 which is the US process to declare the girls a close relative.  After the I600, we have our investigation period, and then after that we can get the girls' visa and travel to pick them up.

So we still have a loooong way to go.  Our estimated travel time is April-July 2014.