Hep A shots

We will be traveling to Sioux Falls (on Monday) to get Yellow Fever and Typhoid shots. Our local clinic is able to order the Hep A shot, but it can only be purchased in lots of 10. We would need 4 since it is a 2 shot series. We didn't know if we should take the chance and just not get the shot or if we should get shot number 1 in Sioux Falls not really wanting to make another 4 hour one way trip back there in 6 months. I have been in contact with a wonderful lady from Sanford in Aberdeen. We have picked a pediatrican to help us when we return with out little one. Under the circumstances, we want our child to be seen by someone who specializes in children. Anyway--I emailed the lady that I've been in contact with about the pediatrican. She has been wonderful!!! Well, they are going to give us the Hep A series. Sweet!! That means we only have to go to Aberdeen for it. The lady talked to the doctor to get the okay. The nurses know about it. All we have to do is show up. :) We will get our first dose on Friday of this week. It warms my heart so much to have people that don't know us go out of their way for us.

Calling all faithful blog followers....prayer request

Wow! I don't even know where to begin. I have held off posting anything and hoping my feelings would pass. It isn't happening so it is time to call on my faithful blog prayer warriors. I knew that I have been too calm for too long about everything. My personality was bound to win. :) I'm SO overwhelmed with everything going on right now. We are in the middle of adding on a bedroom due to the newest addition that will be joining our family. We have a friend that used to be a carpenter. Jason just wanted some verbal help from him to make sure that Jason was on the right page, etc...Turns out that Jason didn't really know how much work this was really going to be. Thankfully, Mark has been here and helping out lots. What an overwhelming feeling in itself. We are so happy that Mark is willing to help us out. It is even more humbling of an experience b/c he isn't expecting any payment. That saves us quite a bit. To think that someone is willing to give up so much of their time and talents for us. It is yet another way that God is showing us that He will provide. They have 2 sheets of plywood to put on the roof, then they can put the tar paper down and then shingles. After that, Jason will be on his own. I feel bad b/c I'm not able to help more. I'll be able to help more when we get to the sheet rocking, painting, etc....For now though, I feel so helpless. If we get the roof finished, the electrician can come yet this week b/4 he leaves town to start a big job. So--needless to say we really want to be able to get the roof finished SOON so we can continue.

School will be starting soon and that is creating some extra anxiety too. Jason is head volleyball coach and his time for working on the house will be limited. I'm currently working 2 nights a week at a 2nd job. I had hoped to go down to one night a week while volleyball season was going on. It isn't going to happen. The extra money is nice, but I'm not sure the stress will be worth it. I am going to work the next 2 day shifts as well as my already scheduled night shifts b/c she is in a bind. Yet she isn't willing to take one shift away from me. I know it puts her in a bind for only being able to work one night a week, but I'd think it would be better than finding someone for 2 nights a week that she would need if I quit. Micala will be in junior high this year so she will have practice for sports until supper time. This means, I'll have to find a babysitter for Lexi 2 nights a week. Plus try to get 2 kids' homework done and ready for bed, etc...after I get home at 8pm. I just don't know what to do. I said I'd try it to see how it went.

We will be leaving for the weekend. We decided to make some time for our families before we start school. We have to be in Sioux Falls on Monday for fingerprints and shots anyway. Tuesday, Lexi has surgery to remove a cyst on her cheek. It is minor and they don't think it should be cancerous. However, we have never had a child of ours have any sort of surgery so that will be a bit trying for us.

I usually don't go so in-depth with my postings, but I felt if you had a better idea of what was actually happening here you could pray more specifically. I'm impressed that we have held up this well so far. We know this is all in God's time. We know it will all work out. We just are a bit overwhelmed right now. We are excited to be on the wait list. Yet it is disappointing to know we have 9-12 months yet to wait in order to be matched up with our precious little one. Then we still have court and our 2 trips, etc...So it will be a long time until we are home as a family of 5. It seems so far away which is making this harder. I thank you for your prayers and support. We couldn't do this without you.

We are on the wait list!!!!! :)

We got our numbers! :) We are number 86 for a girl and number 53 for a boy. Wow! Those are some high numbers. However, we do not need to be in the number 1 spot in order to get a referral. I figured the girl number would be high as another blog that I'm following recently got on the wait list at 76. I can't put my feelings into words right now so I won't try. Of course we are excited to actually be "expecting" (minus the throwing up) without an actual due date. There is some relief to actually being at this point. Our agency told us that the current wait time is 9-12 months until referral. Part of me thinks that isn't bad and part of me thinks that is still so far considering we have travel time, courts, etc...after the referral. All in God's time. All in God's time. There have been so many things happening in regards to adding on to our house that my brain is swimming. So much to sort out. For now, we need time to soak in the fact that we have cleared a huge hurdle. Praise God!! Everyone has a fun way to post their numbers. I was drawing a blank, but did manage to come up with something.

Construction

Major construction has begun on the new addition to our house. It feels good to be getting it started. We have a friend who is a carpenter helping Jason out with things. What a great resource!! We appreciate all of his help. Any place we can save some money is good. Thanks, Mark!

One more paper needs to make it to our agency. We are hoping tomorrow is our day for the wait list. :)

Changes to fingerprinting appointment

We heard back from the SF office regarding our fingerprinting appointment. Jason was scheduled for 8am and mine was scheduled for 2pm. I sent them a letter requesting for our times to be closer together. We are both now at 2pm. :) That will make things so much easier. Now I can schedule our shots. It is nice when things all come together and work out.

Always something to do and something to think about

So we got our fingerprint appointment. I was thrilled to find out #1 it was so soon #2 that it was before we started school. I didn't look at Jason's letter right away. Silly me assumed that we'd be scheduled for the same time. I guess I should have learned by now that things in the adoption world don't always make sense. Jason's appointment is at 8 am and mine is at 2 pm. I could handle an hour or two apart, but 6 hours?! I tried to call the office and of course there isn't anyone there that deals with the scheduling. So, I wrote a letter requesting that we get our times closer. Who knows if it will work, but it is worth a try. I just hope and pray that they don't change our appointments to a different day. If we can't change the times, leave the day. We will see what we find out. I've been in contact back and forth with our agency making sure they get the proper revisions for our Dossier. One paper we need to fix. Both of our references have something to fix. Our case worker that did our Home Study has something to fix. What a mess! It could be much worse as the things that need to be fixed are very minor. The biggest problem is with my name. Some things are Angela and some things are Angie. I never gave ANY thought to it. They are confident that as long as our Home Study, our letter that we had to write to the Ethiopian government, and our 2 reference letters say Angela (Angie) on them that we will be okay.

Since we have our appointment for our fingerprints, I'm trying to get things lined up to get our travel shots. This has required lots of phone calls too. We want to only make one trip to SF and not two. It will work out. :) Just so many things to check on and people to check with.

Our case worker has sent her revisions in. Jason is gone so our letter can't be notarized and put in the mail until tomorrow. One reference letter was fixed and resubmitted only for them to find more wrong with it. :( It will all come together when it is supposed to.

Fingerprinting appointment!

Yes you read that right. We need yet ANOTHER set of fingerprints taken. This time it is for immigration stuff. We don't quite understand why we need so many. We just do what we are told to do. We have to have SD clearance and FBI clearance for our Home Study to be completed. Yet--we can't do our immigration fingerprints until they have a copy of our Home Study. Government....you figure it out. :) I sent in our Home Study to USCIS on July 8th. They already mailed our appointment date to us. Our appointment is scheduled for August 9 at 2:00 pm in Sioux Falls. I will be checking with a travel clinic to make sure we are still able to get our shots while we are down there. We are so thankful this appointment came so fast and we won't have to take a day off of work to be able to go.