We're BACK!

Well, after a whirlwind adventure to IL, KY and OH, Hunter and I are finally back and trying to resume life as "normal." We had the opportunity to visit with my family and actually spend some time with them which was wonderful. After being in IL for a few days we headed to the Cincinnati area to meet up with a sweet friend of mine and her two amazing kids. It was an extra special treat because it had been TWO YEARS since I saw her and during that time she had adopted a little girl from Ethiopia. Hunter is in love with her! :) Then we headed to Ohio to see Ben's family and attend his youngest brother's wedding. It was a beautiful wedding and we are sooooooooooo excited to have Karli as the newest member of the family. Anyway, then it was back to IL to return the rental car and now we are finally home! It was a great trip, but it sure is good to be home!

The night before we left on our adventure we began our home study. We are very excited to have this process well on it's way although I will certainly NOT miss the paperwork part of it! I think that I must have scanned and emailed about 60-70 pages yesterday! And that was certainly not all of it!

As I mentioned in my last post, it seems like things with the little boy we were hoping for aren't going to work out. Although I haven't heard anything more from his mother, I am assuming that the silence means that she isn't interested in us and has asked another family to parent him. However, we have had THREE other leads in the past couple weeks! One definitely isn't going to work (not-yet-born twins that have already found a home), but the other two still have some glimmer of home. Please be praying that God will make it clear to us when we have found our newest family member(s)! We have definitely already been feeling the roller coaster of emotions that is characteristic of adoption and we know that it is far from over! One thing that we have been soooooooooooooooooooo aware of during all of this so far is the overwhelming support from family and friends. We are so grateful to each of you for all of your prayers and encouragement. You have no idea how much it means to us!

So, today is kind of an "up" day for me concerning the adoption. Friday was definitely a "down" day. I know that we are going to have so many more ups and downs, I just pray that God will give us the strength to handle each day as it comes.

Love all of you and thanks for joining us on our adventure! :)

B, E & H