So what happens now?

Well, for the moment, we are living in "adoptionville."  So much of our life is centered around that right now.  It won't always be this way, and things should slow down, but this weekend we worked on...

Paperwork: 50+ pages of forms for our main adoption agency in Colorado. (who has handled adoptions from Kolfe in the past)  15+ pages of forms for our homestudy agency here in Arizona.  This is Agency and forms #2, since we will be firing our first homestudy agency.  Why?  Well, 2 weeks later, we still have not heard from them about the paperwork I hand delivered.  We have heard from our home agency that this is already a sign of trouble, because we will not be "waiting" for a child, like parents who choose to adopt infants and toddlers.  There is a real boy, sitting and waiting for us to finish our end of the process... so goodbye agency that is just taking our money and just sitting!!

Furniture:  Well, because of the cost involved with adopting, we are choosing to stay in the home we are currently in, and just find a few ways to make if fit our growing family better.  This means my homeschool room will have to go.  We now have an enormous cabinet by the front door.  Please hold your comments if you come over. :o)  Not all of the changes we will make will be pretty ones!  We also have a really cute 6 seater table for the kitchen.  (Yes, room to grow, if God has that in His plans.) More changes are coming, but that was what we accomplished this weekend.

Classes/books: John and I are working our way through a mound of on-line adoption classes and books.  So far, it has been both enjoyable and informative.  Saturday's classes backed up what I have been saying all along about our big boys.  Emnatu and Ayal, because of their life in an orphanage (since ages 2-3) may physically look 21/22 years old, but their real/emotional ages are closer to 15/16.  I have to say, realizing I wasn't crazy in thinking this, was a huge relief.  It accounts for a lot of the struggles we have (even this week) with Emnatu, in particular.  Being part of a loving, nurturing family helps the growth and development of children so much more than any of us realize.