Apparently it's time for another update...judging from the number of inquiries that we have received in the last couple weeks! I hardly remember what the last one said and am too lazy to check it out. Guess if there's repeated info you'll have to skip over it!!

What all has happened since the last time? Hmmm. July 6th we went to court here in town to re-adopt our children. I know. Sounds a little odd. Basically we had to re-adopt them in order to get their US birth certificates. They already have their US passports and SSN's, but supposedly their birth certificates could be of benefit someday. If we ever choose to enroll them in our public school system, they would likely need a US birth certificate. If anything ever happens to their Russi*n birth certificate, we could have lots of fun trying to get it replaced, whereas a US birth certificate is quite simple.....pay a little money and you can get how ever many copies that you want (speaking from experience). Why we put it off this long is anyone's guess. It really wasn't too dificult. Filled out a few forms, paid a little money, and showed up in court on the appointed day. Court lasted all of about 15 minutes and they were officially ours once again!! Poor Addie was quite confused. Of course, she knows that she was adopted, so she thought that we would get to bring home a little boy or girl from court. Would be nice, I must admit.... Now we just wait on the birth certificates to show up in the mail. Wait. That word is way too familiar.

On to the current adoption. Several weeks ago, a kind lady from the USC*S office called me. Not something that happens every day, thankfully. She ever so kindly informed me that our homestudy was not accepted and that as it stood we would not be approved to bring an orphan into the United States. How handy. Considering the fact that all our paperwork was on its way to Russia for the sole purpose of bringing home an orphan, it would certainly be nice to be able to bring him/her home with us. I believe that long distance parenting could be difficult. I asked her what we could do to make the homestudy acceptable and she pointed me to the final paragraph on the last page....to a simple sentence that states, in essence, "The Garbers are aware that the child/children could come home with some health problems." Okay. That is true. She informed me that the sentence needs to be a little more informative and should state, "The Garbers are aware that the child/children could come home with some health problems but would prefer as healthy of child as possible." Of course. That seems totally logical to decline a homestudy because nine little words were excluded from the final paragraph. Never mind the face that those nine words were stated elsewhere in the preceding eight pages!! "All we require is a new homestudy, Ma'am", the officer told me. No problem. We'll get right on that. We hung up and I immediately e-mailed our agency, though it was five o'clock and I knew that nobody would respond until morning. Wrong. They called me immediately and asked for a little clarification. Interesting that our homestudy was declined this time around when it was worded the exact same way last time!! Last week we received the amendment (they didn't do a whole new homestudy) with just that one little sentence on it. Seems like a waste of paper, but we'll see if that makes the USCIS officer happy!!

Last Wednesday we had the privelege of driving to Cincinnati to be fingerprinted for our CIS fingerprints. You know it's bad when you walk into a government building and the man at the counter recognizes you from the last time around. Guess that's what happens when you get to keep going back!! We should have our official approval to bring home an orphan sometime in the next six to eight weeks....depending on if Officer ..... accepts our amendment, I suppose!

This morning I got a little nose problem and e-mailed our agency to see what the progress is on our paperwork. Really nothing new which I knew before I ever asked as she said she would let me know the minute she found anything out. (Could I really be the culprit of teaching my children that impatience thing?) The paperwork is being translated and then we will be registered in Russia. Hopefully anywhere except Vlad. We requested to not go there due to taking our children back with us...thought it may bring back some not so pleasant memories....but we shall see. Guess we'll head whereever God thinks we need to go!! Currently they are thinking that it could be 4-6 months before we receive a referral. Mainly due to the return of the little Russian boy this past spring. When we started the journey in February, the referral wait after sending the paperwork in was about 1-3 months. The little boy was sent back to Russia in April and now the process is slowing down. Does this sound familiar?! Wait. Patiently. We are so thankful that this time around we are busy with our two children and don't have as much time to just sit around and wonder what is happening. God alone knows which little boy or girl will join our family and stressing about it won't do us any good! In HIS time, not ours.

I must go. The children are napping and Jason will be home for lunch in 30 minutes. Perhaps I should figure out what we are going to have?!

His blessings to you all~