A little of this and that...

Here's a little update of what's happening in our world, mostly related to the adoption.

We have our first homestudy visit tomorrow! I'm a little nervous about it...the kind of nervous you get when you're doing something new. I've been cleaning like a maniac! I think everyone does this before the social worker comes to your house; it's normal to want to make a good impression. We don't have time to do everything that we would like to do. We moved into our house 6 months ago and we still have a lot of clutter and rooms filled with stuff. But, our house is clean and safe and I know that's all that really matters. I even bought two new plants to put by the front door which is a big deal for me because I have the opposite of a green thumb! On Friday I'm planning on taking pictures of our house while it's clean, for our dossier. We need to include pictures of our house and neighborhood and I can't think of a better time then right after it's clean and before the cat hair takes over (we have 3 cats!).

We're slowly making our way through our adoption education. We still have 10 hours left! I'll be honest, I'm finding the online education a little boring and tedious. I feel like I'm back in college taking a general education class that I'm not too interested in. It's not the subject matter, but the way it's presented. I've already read quite a few books on adoption that were much more interesting...But, I have learned a few new things and I guess that's the point.

I got an email from the U.S. Department of State and my new passport is on it's way! I was just thinking last night that maybe I should have expedited it...but no worries now. I didn't have it expedited because Justin had renewed his earlier this year and it only took 3 weeks. And it looks like mine will be 3 weeks as well from the time they received my application. It seems like I have been waiting for much longer! I think there's something called "adoption time" where everything seems longer than it actually is.

A few non-adoption happenings...
Last week we traveled to Tucson to visit my mother-in-law. We celebrated our Angel Abby's birthday on July 19th. It was a relaxing day of remembrance for us and I shared the Facebook memorial page I started for her. We're planning to make Abby's birthday a family day of celebration and remembrance of her every year.
The highlight of this trip to Arizona was our overnight to Sedona. Sedona is a an extremely beautiful place and many find it to be spiritual as well. I personally feel that most of nature is spiritual, as there is something magical about being surrounded by God's creation. I would love to post a few pictures, but they're on my phone and we're using a new computer and basically I have to figure out how to get them off my phone!

That's all for now! I'll update with how our visit goes with the social worker.