Adoption Update

"So is anything happening with the adoption?" Yes, things are happening, but the process is still very slow. On Friday, we had our "biometrics" appointments. This was our appointment to have our fingerprints taken for U.S. Immigration. That process is still very slow as a result of the regulations implemented in April. We did hear good news that USCIS intends to speed up processing. However, at present we are being told to expect 90 days. This is much longer than it took when we applied with Anna. We are praying we will be included in the sped up process. From what we hear, the processing is still very backlogged. Maybe our home study will be one of the few that doesn't require revisions! We had an unexpected blessing at just the right moment today. See the "help bring him home" link for details!

Dancin' Shoes

Yesterday Pete's niece, Jessica married Isaac! All of our children had a part in the celebration. Mark had fun waltzing with the bride and then trying out his own dance moves. Anna managed to find some dance shoes too!

Fall

Some of the other things happening around here! This summer, Anna turned four and Rachel turned 16! (Ignore the dates above, I'm a bit technically challenged and just realized today my camera date was wrong!) Anna's birthday was 6/26 and Rachel's was 8/18. We had a very fun and busy summer. We visited my sister and family in Nevada, worked around our property (finally got a bit of a garden in this year!) and had back yard camp fires in our fire pit. All of the kids won blue ribbons at the county fair. We think fairs are so much fun, we visited two different county fairs this year! Above is a puppet show production from last week. We officially started our fall routine last week. In addition to our academic studies at home, we have various children involved in music lessons, Spanish class, German class, Speech, Apologetics, Science co-op and Tae Kwon Do. Our entire family is involved in our soccer league. Even Anna is playing this year with coach dad!