Bryan Lehman - 6 Days Old

Here is Bryan (our new nephew) at 6 days old. We cannot wait to meet him!

We Are Waiting...Again

We got my birth certificate in this past week along with Troy's birth certificate certified by the Secretary of State in Iowa. We also got in what was suppossed to be the certified copy of our marriage certificate, BUT we got somebody elses DIVORCE DECREE!!! AAAAGGGGHHHHH! I am going to mail it back and email the sender to have them expediate our MC. Once we get it in, my BC and our MC will be sent to Texas's Secretary of State to be certified!

On a more positive note, we have our first homestudy visit tomorrow! I also FAXED some documents to CCAI to see if they were done right before we have them notarized and they were GREAT!!! YEAH! We have also had a lot of rain this week which is always appreciated. Troy and I dug up some grass around our deck for our latest landscaping project and replanted the grass in some spots that needed some TLC. Luckily, they are taking great. We are just waiting for the yard to dry out before we add the plants and rock! Now I understand why you pay landscapers the big bucks, but there is so much pride in saying you did it yourself!

Introducing...

Bryan Reed Lehman!

Happy Easter...Happy Birthday!

Happy Easter to all our family and friends...Happy Birthday to Bryan Reed Lehman, son of Michael and Tiffany (Amy's brother and SIL) and big brother, Patrick. Bryan was born April 15, 2006 at 6:16 p.m. and weighed in at 8 lbs. 1 oz. We cannot wait to see him!

We have been enjoying the coming of Spring and seeing all of nature coming alive! This is one aspect of living in the midwest that I really like compared to Texas. God has a great way of giving us 4 seasons! With that, we have been enjoying this new season with a storm door for our front door, new patio furniture and flowers around our barn. Next weekend, we plan to landscape around the deck, weather permitting. You can see some of the before and after pictures of our barn and the tree in our front yard which has beautiful blooms!

Going...Going...Gone!

We FINALLY sent our homestudy material in the mail today! It was quite the chore to gather and complete all the necessary documents! We had to send in the adoption application, DCFS application, bio's on both Troy and I, floorplan of our house with all fire exits (we had to draw it), document from our health insurance stating they will cover an adopted child, Jack's immunization records, financial statement, copies of our physicals, copy of our marriage certificate, copy of 2005 tax return, and all the questions we had to answer about our marriage, spouse, parenting, feelings on adoption, etc. It feels great to have it done and in the mail! We also got our police clearnance reports done yesterday (we are without a record!!!) and our I-600A (petition to adopt an orphan) along with the money order went in the mail on Wednesday! WWWHHHEEEEWWW! Now we are just waiting for our certified copies of our marriage certificate and birth certificates to come in the mail. From there, our adoption specialist will complete our homestudy. We have 2 face-to-face meetings and 2 visits in our home. It is our goal to have the homestudy process completed by the end of May, early June, if not sooner! I just saw that the wait now is 10-14 months after you receive your log-in date (LID- once all your paperwork-dossier-gets to China) to get a referral. We were told to be patient, so our patience is being tested. Please keep us in your prayers during this time and that the process may speed up! It is great that so many people want to adopt orphans, but it just makes our wait even longer!

Fingerprinting! Done!

Well, we got the first round of finger printing done today. In the state of IL, each adoptive family has to be DCSF certified as a foster home. Our DCFS application will go in the mail on Monday and it is our goal to have our homestudy paperwork in the mail by Wednesday! I think I have spent over 7 hours just on the homestudy paperwork alone. In the meantime, we are waiting for our certified birthcertificates and marriage certificates to come in. This whole process is doing a lot of paperwork and then waiting! It is exciting though to know their is a wonderful gift waiting for us in the end!

On another positive note, I passed the 2 teacher certification tests for the state of IL!!! I have one more to take at the end of the month! I told Troy we better not be moving for a LONG time!

We also survived the tornados that went through the Midwest last Sunday evening. Luckily, no damage was done to our property. We just had our electricity out for 8 hours! About 1/2 mile from our place received lots of damage! Thank God Jack is OK, especially since we were not home! He is such a big boy!