I Love America!

I never knew how much I loved America until I was in Russia for a week. Again, I'm such a woosie, but it's just so good to be where people smile and speak my language. I went to Costco & Savemart tonight and felt like a celebrity with all of the people I knew in the stores and because of all of the friendly people that talked to me. It was so great! Did I tell you I love America?

We had Me-n-Ed's Pizza for dinner tonight. We couldn't help it. We needed to taste good pizza again! Tomorrow will be back to the grindstone of making homemade meals, but it will be so great to make and eat the things we love!

Nate went back to work and I went back to being full-time mom again. I kind of got thrown right back into it because our youngest one is still sick and The Talker has quite a fever. Apparently while I was gone, it was "Top Secret" that our littlest one was really sick. My trooper of a friend that watched her 6 kids plus our 4 while we were away, swore everyone to secrecy so that I wouldn't worry about him. What a good friend. Thank you to everyone who kept that secret, but yet prayed for her while she managed a full house and even consoled and cleaned up after our littlest one.

Also thank you to everyone who pitched in with our kids while we were away. Whether it was watching the kids for a little bit of time, driving my kids to their regular activities, delivering pizza, doing laundry or even cleaning my kitchen while I was gone--THANK YOU!!!! I've heard it said that it takes a whole village to raise a child and it couldn't have been more clear this week. Everyone rocks!

Now the big question is, "When do we expect to return for our daughter?" Well, when we left Russia, our Coordinator said, "We'll see you in a month!" It could be sooner or later, but for now, we are planning on returning in a month. Please be praying for us as we prepare for that yet, at the same time, get our home back in order. Pray for the health of our family. Pray for our daughter as she waits each day for our return. And don't forget to pray for that 10 day waiting period to be waived!

In the meantime, we have more paperwork to do or re-do because some of it will expire before our court date. We have one particularly tricky document to be done by our doctor and psychiatrist this week. This one document requires 8 different notary stamps. Please pray for it to be done seamlessly. That would really be a pain to re-do! The paperwork is less now, but yet there is still some to do. I have to keep in perspective that it is almost over...one more month of this insanity and then we'll have our daughter in our home--to start a new kind of insanity--adjustment to our home, but I'll take that any day compared to all of this tedious paperwork!

II Corinthians 5:7 "For we walk by faith, not by sight."