Yeah!  I’m so excited, I have blog followers!!!  Yes, I’m easily amused as you all can tell.  I just wanted to say Hi to everybody – so HI :)

I haven’t found a soundtrack for our adoption yet.  I had a couple that were suggested to me (thanks C!) but I already have both of those.  I am thinking maybe of getting a Sara Groves CD. 

I am waiting to hear back from our social worker about our homestudy.  We have everything done and are just waiting for him to get our background check from North Carolina.  We have one meeting with him that’s scheduled for the 13th and hopefully the next week we will have the signed homestudy!  The next step after that is to submit our I-600A and request for FBI finger prints.  The I-600A will cost $670 and the finger prints are $80 each for Mike and I.  I’m glad we have all that money set aside.  I’d rather just pay for things than have money in my bank account – it just tempts me to spend it. 

I am hoping that in the next couple of weeks we will get new pictures of our sweet Naya girl.  There are two families going to her city to get their children (Hi Jodi and Nancy!).

I’ll try and make a post with pictures soon, I’m not sure where our camera is right now.

Additionally, if you have a Biblical girls name we are taking suggestions.  It can’t end in an A sound though because her middle and last name will both end that way.  We are open to Biblical names that aren’t used as names in the Bible such as Jubilee and Hosanna.  Yes, we are stuck for a name so help please!

Are you out there?  Is anybody out there?  Does anybody even read this blog?  If you do leave me a comment and say hi because I’m feeling a little discouraged right now that nobody is reading my blog (well, except maybe Carrie – Hi Carrie!!!)

     Well, the title pretty much sums it up.  It was a long day.  It feels like I’m just spinning in circles sometimes which makes time just drag on.  It’s hard not to get discouraged when things don’t seem to be moving forward.  First thing this morning I got a blank e-mail from our social worker for the home study.  I e-mailed him back to tell him all I got was something blank but I still haven’t heard back from him.  I did talk to the receptionist or helper he has working in his office and got a few half answers.  I was told they were still waiting on one reference and the back ground checks from Wyoming and North Carolina. 

     The older children walked the dogs this morning.  They have three in our neighborhood they walk Monday though Friday for a dollar each dog.  It is a good, not too stressful, job for them.  I hate that I have to sometimes remember to send them over to walk the dogs though and I hate that sometimes I have to juggle their dog walking with the things I need to get done in the day.  But, I’m glad they have a job that they can learn about responsibility with.  I like that they are able to make some spending and saving money that I don’t have to provide for them.

     After the children walked the dogs we did some school.  I ordered some new school books that we really need because the older children are nearly finished with what they are currently working on.  I also called the second hand home school store near the Taylor’s and found out that I have a $25 dollar credit.  Yippie!  I am hoping it’s enough to buy Spelling Power.  I will probably pick up a few other things that are on my school list there that I’ve noticed they nearly always have.  I’m planning on packing up a few things to take down when I go to the doctor on Tuesday and hopefully kill two birds with one stone.

     We had lunch and then packed up the van and headed for band and choir.  I must say, I am MUCH happier with this bank program than the one we were part of for the past two years.  The children have learned so much and the programs at the end of the year sound awesome.  I’m happy to be sitting in my seat enjoying the music and not cringing because it sounds like nobody even saw the music before. 

     While we were waiting for some of the children to be done with band the phone rang.  I picked it up and the lady on the other end was asking if it was the Taylor’s residence.  I thought it sounded like Betty, the secretary/helper from the home study agency.  Sure enough it was.  I guess she was trying to figure out where to file our guardianship paper.  It turns out that they got the back ground checks from Wyoming today and the last reference.

     When I got home we had a lot of mail.  We got birth certificates for Mike, our marriage certificates, and an overpayment check for our mortgage. 

     Mike is working late and Titus isn’t feeling the best so I guess I need to hit the publish button and get myself into bed.

      I have a soundtrack to my life.  Does that sound strange?  When I hear certain songs I remember where I was and how I felt when I first heard that song.  So there are songs I associate with my first son being an infant, songs I associate with living in Germany, and so on.  I love the fact that my life has a soundtrack.

     So, I’m looking for a CD to start playing now so that I will always associate those songs with this special time in my life.  The songs that will make me remember all the joy, anticipation, and paperwork that makes bringing Naya home so special.  Do you have a suggestion?  Let me know of the CD you think I should buy and start playing in earnest that will become Naya’s soundtrack.

     The last week I’ve been busy doing paperwork for the adoption.  There are so many papers it makes your head spin.  There are papers for the home study, papers for the dossier, papers for passports and papers just because they think you have nothing else to do.  I have everything for our home study done except the second doctor’s appointment and sending away the verification of Mike’s employment.  I filled out all the passport forms and sent mine away.  Mike and I will have to go in person to request a new passport for Elisha and a passport for Titus.  I sent letters this week requesting our marriage certificate and a copy of my birth certificate as well as applied for Mike’s online (New Hampshire totally beats Wyoming in the area of requesting certified documents.)  Tomorrow it’s back down to the bank to have more things notarized and then send all the forms away to make sure they are right.

     I hope our social worker gets back from his time away and is ready to work next week.  I want our home study done!  I need to check my HUGE list of things to do and find out what the next steps are.  Some of the steps you can do at the same time but then sometimes you just end up against a wall and have to wait for things, like the home study, to be done before you can do anything else, I think I may be at that point.  I know as soon as the home study is done I can send it to USCIS and request our fingerprinting appointment but then it’s back to waiting. 

     There is a family that has been at Naya’s orphanage the past couple of weeks.  We are really hoping they were able to see Naya and get some pictures of her but for now we don’t know.  We are praying for their family to get their court date soon.  They got stuck in the middle of some things and had to come home to wait for a court date.  I can’t imagine the pain of having to leave your precious child in another country.  I am praying that Hunter is in his Momma’s arms where he belongs before too many more days go by!

     On another note our children have been sick.  Jubilee has an ear infection.  Her nose looks like it is a green sludge factory.  Now Beth is running a fever and overnight has picked up Hosanna’s croupy cough.  I hate to hear my little girls coughing.  Hosanna sounds nearly hoarse so we stayed home from speech this week.  I hope next week brings healthy children!