Homestudy done and spring is coming

Lennah and Delylah giving Charlie a big hug

Cribmates Delylah and Meron

Delylah and Emebet

Last week we met with our social worker and finished our homestudy. It should be approaching the USCIS office any day now. We also had our fingerprints done a week and a half ago so hopefully it will be about 2 more months until we get our approval. From there we will finish off our dossier and go through the several rounds of state, country, and embassy seals we need. We also made another change and decided to leave our gender open. As much as we think a son would be great another girl would also bring joy to our lives (plus the cost would be less since we are a house full of girls with lots of girly things). So we are excited. We are still thinking that we will have our paperwork to Rwanda by the summer, wait about 5 months for approval, another two months for a referral, then a court date two months later, and travel a few weeks after that. Hopefully, it will correlate with the end of the school year so I would just roll into summer next year. Plus we need this adoption to happen after January next year in terms of travel because I will have more paid time off accummulated and Keith will finally be at 3 weeks vacation time paid.

On the homefront we have had some great times recently. The weekend before last Emebet our lawyer from our Ethiopian adoption was in town. It was wonderful seeing her again and getting together with the other Illien families who are locals. She helped bring our family together and just to see how much she still loves all our children was wonderful.

I took the girls to have their Easter pictures this weekend and meet the Easter bunny. Lennah was very cooperative but Delylah was not having any part of the Easter bunny. She did not want to take one single photo with him. Oh well there is always next Easter.

It was also a beautiful weekend here in Georgia and we had a nice day outside with the kids yesterday. This year we have had some crazy weather here in GA and I am kind of sick of it. THe fall was full of rain and the winter was cold and for this part of the country a lot of snow. I am ready for spring.