We're officially on The Grid..

We finally have our I-600A in the mail!!

For the past month, we've been waiting for a random document from a little, bitty town in Texas. It FINALLY came in the mail Saturday and this morning we Express Mailed our packet to USCIS.
Now we just wait to hear back from them with (hopefully!!) our approval (aka 171-H) and our "invitation" to be fingerprinted for the FBI. Niiice!
When Stuart heard that part he said- Well, I guess we are officially on the grid now :) ...I guess we are!



There are so many documents that we are still working on, trying to pull together all of the random jazz for our Dossier to Ethiopia..

Passports should be en route to us.
Went to the police station this morning to get our background checks and get that
notarized.
Waiting for my doctor's letter.. already have Stuart's.
Waiting for both of our employers' letters.
Waiting for our non-relative reference letters.
Already have our "Authenticated" birth and marriage certificates back from the Secretary of State of Arkansas and Oklahoma.
Have one bank statement.. supposed to wait til the last minute for the other one.
Have most of the photos we'll send of our house and us.. still need to take one of the nursery and the outside of the house since it looks so cute and happy with our summer flowers and stuff.
Still have a bazillion things to get notarized but that can wait til we have everything.. might as well only go once, right?

There are so many other documents that I'm certainly forgetting to mention at this moment but we do have progress and we're not there yet..
but we're closer than we've ever been before!
Thank you, God!!! :)

Passports, Paperwork, and Penny-Pinching

The amount of loose paper in our house is at a ridiculously high level.. At this very moment, the desk, dining room table, coffee table, and guest bed are completely covered with stacks and piles of forms for our I-600A, our Ethiopia Dossier, US Passport applications, and just a ton of other random stuff from our adoption agency.
It seriously is getting a little crazy in here.. and if things don't start coming together soon, or at least looking like they're coming together, I may possibly have a minor freak-out.
The clutter is wee-bit claustrophobic, especially in our (cute but..) tiny house!
Although this could all be some really good practice for having a toddler someday?? :)


In other news, on Sunday we had an incredible evening with our local 'families of African adoption group'. It was absolutely amazing!!!!!
Stuart and I couldn't have imagined it being better.
The wonderful people there were super-nice and open about their lives and experiences. It was a blessing to get to know some of them.
And it was a big group.. I would guess 60+ people. Tons of kids, tons of parents, future parents, hopeful parents, and even some just interested in possibly becoming parents someday..
Hopefully we didn't scare anyone with our bazillion-questions! ;) We are looking forward to the next event!

And now to the "penny-pinching"/cheap-skate part of my post title...
so clearly this whole adoption thing is not for the faint of heart... or wallet ;) Thus, our quest to live on as little as possible for the next 12 months. We'll see how it goes!
First on the agenda: Cancel Cable TV ASAP!!
Stuart says he'll be fine but I am aware that this will be an adjustment... Let's just say that as I'm typing this, he's downstairs soaking in Spike TV and History Channel like they're oxygen.
Anywho.. trying to crunch the ol' budget down in many other ways too.
If anyone has any interesting or obvious money-saving tips, do tell!!
I'm discovering the greatness of coupons! ;) It is a whole world, isn't it?? The coupon-junkie weirdos! I love it. I aspire to be one of them!! haha.

So that's it.. Just all of that jazz. Oh and I'm also attempting to journal. It couldn't hurt in a time of so much emotional craziness and also it might be something nice for a child to read someday.. how exactly our adventure to meet them unfolded day to day. I don't know, when I put it that way, it sounds pretty boring and annoying ;)
I'll give it a shot though. But sheesh, between facebook status updates, blogging, journaling, saving money, and somehow finding time to work full-time, something is bound to suffer... (this is my way of saying- don't expect another blog for awhile ;) Sorry but I'm nothing if not honest!

Love to you all!!!!! I'm grateful for your continued interest in our lives and I keep up with yours as well.. even though I totally flake on commenting most of the time!