NCFA training finished. . .

This may not be a big deal to you, BUT we are totally excited to be finished with our NCFA training, and having read the Adoption Parenting book, and having that test out of the way is a blessing. Thank you Lord! Another step closer. . .

We got it! We got it!

Today as I spent time with the mothers at our homeschool co-op sharing our prayer requests, I did note that I would like to get our USCIS approval paperwork soon. I am just so anxious to get our paperwork moving to Russia. We (the moms and I) prayed about that together, and then as I got into the car with the girls to go home, I said, "Wouldn't that be neat if the immigration paperwork were in the mail today?" (According to the timeline we had been given, it would take until the end of the month, or mid-March.) So, we came home, and the mail hasn't arrived yet. No big deal. Then I had to leave @ 4:45 and didn't get home until 7:30 for a brief moment, before heading out the door again. But before we left the house, Hannah came to me, and said, "You'll never guess what we got in the mail today!" I had totally forgotten about the mail. But, I knew what it was~~I was believing God sent them today. Yes, it was the USCIS immigration paperwork. Praise God! ! ! What excitement and joy filled my heart to know we are that much closer to getting our boys! I can't wait~~ We have also joined a Yahoo group for people adopting/having adopted from Krasnoyarsk, our new region in Russia. We have heard so many good reports about the baby homes there. It is very encouraging! So, as they say, we will get our paperwork there, and then we will wait. It's hurry up, and wait! Hurry up, and wait! So we are in the hurry up mode now, getting the rest of the paperwork together!! YEAH! I love pressure. hehe I work better in pressure mode. I don't think Diester likes it though.

Practical ~~Practical

Well, here we are into the month of February, and do I have any new news about the adoption? Well, no! But I have to say that we did get a really nice additon to our home a couple of days ago. It is probably obvious with the picture I have posted that the 'addition' is not a living breathing being, but a few pieces of dead wood. I do think the 'dead' wood has been made very good use of. It was used for the new~~ta da~~table and chairs set that we have gotten recently. It is a table that can sit up to 10 people (maybe a bit on the snug side), but COZY! ! ! and we can actually keep our food on the table with our plates, drink cups, etc. instead of having to find a place elsewhere for our food, or leaving it on the stove to go back to if we wanted more. Diester now has a captain's chair to sit in, which he enjoys, and I am happy for him. And we have now eaten a time or two together at the table. ~~Funny story~~I decided to make a special breakfast the morning after we got our table/chairs set up. I wanted our first meal together at the table to be something nice. Well, I am making breakfast (pancakes with our normal eggs) and Diester gets home at around 8:10, and I invite him to eat with us [sidenote-normally he does not eat right before he goes to bed after working all night]. He is happy to join us. Well, we sit down to eat, and Diester says a blessing over our new table/chairs, and the food; AND the tow truck shows up for our van (we had a brake line go out on us the night before), so he had to leave the table and go take care of that. Then he got back, sits down to start eating, and immediately Mallory and I had to leave at 8:30 for a Dr's appt for her at 8:50. Talk about a crazy morning. So much for enjoying our first meal together! ! ! What happened there? Anyway, we are blessed to be prepared with a bigger table we can all sit at to welcome and share meals with our little guys once we get them back here. God is so good! We are bringing the table to life with our living~~