What a day!

What a day! Actually...what a week! I posted something yesterday noting our clearances that came through on Wednesday. Well, a couple of weeks ago we filed for our I-600a which is an application for adoption of an orphan from another country. This is one of the main forms that has to be cleared through INS to allow Isabella back in the US. We received a notice that we had to go to the Immigration office in Birmingham to get our fingerprints remade. We were a little concerned about the timing, they do not allow for appointments, they simply tell you when to be there. So, our situation was complicated, not only by Holly having to take off work, but she would have to take off work during SAT testing, the cardinal sin of teaching. We found out though, Friday is the makeup day for SATs, so, Holly was given the all-clear and we headed down to Birmingham.

If you have never sat in an immigration line, you must experience it. You meet the most incredible people. We got to Immigration this morning at 10:15 for our 11:00 appointment. (For those that know us, this is a miracle in itself.) While we were in line we made friends with three other families that are adopting internationally. Two of the families, beside Holly and myself, are adopting from Guatemala, one was adopting from Mexico and one from China. We found out two things that people adopting from Guatemala have in common: they are all teachers (the females that is) and they all like PF Changs. Believe it or not, we actually had a good time going through the INS stuff.

When we got home, we found out some good news: our passports finally made it through! They were a couple of weeks behind schedule, still, they made it here and for that we are happy. We also went this week to get the first round of our shots for the trip down to Guatemala. Between the shots, passports, and homestudy clearances, we feel like we're on our way! What a crazy day...but wait...there's more! We got all of the yard sale stuff priced and ready to go thanks to some help from Val, Heather, Ann, Damon, and Vickie. I will have an update tomorrow about the yard sale. We're not sure if we'll be able to have it. The reason can be found on the radar picture above. We had a very interesting night watching tornados dance all around our house. We are all ok with no damage, we're just very tired of watching the news. We'll keep you posted of the yard sale progress. Like I said, WHAT A DAY!

Shalom.