The waiting is over....and will soon begin again.

I received good news today. Mike from ICM called to tell me our approval letter for our home study showed up today!!! He offered to mail it to me, but I told him no way, I would send Darren to St. Joe to get it. So off Darren went to pick it up. I met him in Champaign to get the approval letter and have him sign a few papers. Rushed back to Monticello, made copies, got our dossier cover letter notarized, mailed the home study and approval letter to USCIS in Chicago. Whew. My heart was racing. Came back home to organize all the paperwork to take to Springfield for the State Seal. Well, bless my husband, he came home to say he would take the papers to Springfield today!!! I love him. He totally knows that things like that make me so happy. I don't want flowers or candy, clean the bathrooms or do the dishes and I am a happy camper. Anyway, I got all the papers together, wrote Darren detailed notes on what to do, poor guy, and out the door he went. I am shaking right now. I told him if he lost that dossier I would seriously hurt him, I mean it. That is precious cargo. If Darren has time, he is even going to Express Mail our dossier to the Assistant Stork today. Assistant Stork is a wonderful husband and wife team out of Virginia, that run a courier service for people who are adopting. They hand deliver your dossier to the State Department and the Embassy of Ethiopia. There is a fee but is is sooooo worth it. They will then send it on to our Agency in Florida. Once our agency has authenticated dossier in hand, we will officially go on the referral list. YEA!!! Hopefully, a week or so. Then.......the waiting begins again. I'm afraid that wait will be much harder than this wait for the home study. But at least we are on to the next step.
I have to confess, I was having a bad week last week. I wanted that home study so badly. So I calmed my frustration by going shopping.....I bought the cutest diaper bag. Darren just shook his head. He said, "we don't even have a baby yet, why buy a diaper bag?" Both Hannah and I replied at the same time "because it's cute!!!!"

And it is isn't it??? :)
So I've had a good day on the adoption front. Thank you all for your kind words and support. We so appreciate it.
I've done some moving around of rooms. The boys are now in Owen's room in bunk beds. We repainted and got new bedding for the boys. They think it's really cool. Once it's all put together I will post some pictures. Then on to decorating the baby's room..... I can't wait!!!! There's that word again.....wait.