WE ARE SUBMITTED!

We received word this weekend that our dossier has been submitted. YAY!! Now we are in the waiting period to find out when our appointment will be. From others that have been submitted this year, I assume that our appointment will be around mid to late July at the earliest. So I guess we'll be there for the warm, sticky summer months with the bugs and everything...believe me - I am not complaining though!! I am so thankful that we will be given a chance to travel to find our son!!

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We had an open house yesterday with a limited turnout of only 6 couples. The only complaint was the hill in the backyard, so that is encouraging. No offers though, but we're optimistic that one will come. If it doesn't though, we wait until next spring to try again. Damon really wants to get it done now, where it doesn't matter as much to me. I just worry about taking on too much before the adoption.

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I am again fighting an upper respiratory/sinus infection. This is the third one since Christmas, and it is getting old! What is bothering me now is the deep chest cough. It is bothering Damon too since I am keeping him up at night :) I think I am going to head off to bed now to see if I can get some rest!

waiting for the submission news

I haven't heard anything to the contrary, so we assume that our dossier has been submitted. I am sure it has been, but I will feel much better once we get official word from our facilitator. I have been told that she is unable to email right now, so that's the reason for the silence.

I'll let you know for sure soon...hopefully :)

No word as of yet...

I haven't received an email from our faclitator yet!! I am sure that everything is fine, but I am running through all the various things that could have gone wrong with the submission in my head...I am making myself get off the computer because I keep hitting "send and receive" on my email every five seconds (andyes, I know what time it is in Ukraine right now (around 2:00a), but maybe the email is delayed). I will post if I hear anything later...

4 days to submission...

I cannot believe that we only have 4 days until out dossier is submitted!! It feels surreal, and I am trying not to get my hopes up too high in case something happens. I really have no idea what could happen, but in the event that something does happen I will be a little better prepared. Our facilitator says that we have everything ready to go, so I trust her.

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I have decided that I better get my behind in gear...I was so gung-ho reading books, doing research, and preparing when we first starting this adoption journey, but in the last six months I have slacked off. I am not sure if it is because I was upset at how slowly it felt like things were going or what, but I have been trying to motivate myself! The good news though is that in the last six months I have been very diligent in saving money. I really wish I had been this attentive to our money for the past 5 years! I cannot imagine the amount we would have in savings now! I guess it is best not to think about it :(

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Our house is also for sale right now. We are trying to move before the adoption because once we get home, we won't move for a while to create stability for our child(ren). I feel like we haven't had enough interest in it, but the weather here in Ohio recently probably has something to do with it. We had a blizzard two weekends ago and since then it has been raining almost nonstop. I am happy to report though that today was a beautiful sunny day! It's amazing how much better you feel when the sun is shining :) Hopefully things pick up in the housing market, but if not, then we won't move. We are really looking to move to be closer to our jobs. We both drive at least 25 minutes to get to work, and we would like to be able to spend that time at home rather than on the road. We'll see what happens.

Here is Duke staring out at the snow from last weekend. I had to shovel the back porch so the dogs could get outside. And yes...Duke is wearing a sweater because he was spending so much time outside that I was worried about him getting too cold!

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What else to talk about...I am super-psyched for the Celebrity Apprentice tonight! I am a country music fan, so I am excited that Trace Adkins is doing so well! I think he and Piers Morgan will be the two facing off for the finale. I think Trace will win though!

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So apparently the basketball season is wrapping up because Damon had me fill out a basketball pool. He knows that I don't even like basketball, but he wants me to pick these teams that I know NOTHING about. Then as I pick teams for various reasons (like the fact that I like the name of the school), he makes fun of me! What is that about? then as I have done for the past five years, I pick Duke to win it all. I pick them because that is the name of one of our dogs, even though he is not named after the school. One of these days they are going to win, and thus I will finish somewhere above the bottom three in a pool...

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Our niece Julie got married last weekend to Isaac. It was a very nice ceremony and reception. Damon walked her down the aisle since her father passed away about 18 months ago, so that was nice. Here are a few pictures from the happy day