Update and some Excitement

We have completed both of our home study visits. Now we wait for the completion of our home study and for the Judge to put his stamp of approval on it. Early last week I mailed our I600A to our local office. I noticed that they cashed our check so hopefully will be hearing soon about our fingerprinting appointment.

We received a call yesterday afternoon from a reporter from our local newspaper. She is coming tomorrow morning to do a piece on our adoption. This is exciting. I will post the article.

Let see what else... the kids are excited for school to start on Monday. I will have a 6th grader, Kindergartner, and Pre-K. What an exciting time. The kids and I went on Saturday to clothes shop. We were able to find a lot of good deals.

Work is going well for both Mr. NWA and myself. Tomorrow afternoon we are having a bowling afternoon or team building session. This should be a fun time and lots of laughs.

Plea For Your Help

We are asking for your help. If you feel the call to assist please read the details below. We are collecting used Cell Phones, MP3 Players, Hand Held System Consoles, Digital Cameras, and Ink Cartridges to raise funding for our adoption. Here is where your help comes in. We are hoping that if we sent the word out that "just maybe" each of you would consider distributing the attached flyer to your social ministry contact at your church. Each church would have a collection box and the word would be spread to each member. After a couple weeks of collection, we would provide each person with a pre-paid Fed-Ex delivery label for shipping. There is no cost to you or your church. All funds received will go towards the adoption of our little girl in Russia. If you need further information please e-mail us at ddhefty@yahoo.com.

Where we are

Last week we had our first home study visit. This Thursday we will have our second home study visit. We have sent in our I-600A. I had forgotten how everything is driven off of your home study. It will be nice to have this completed document in our hands. It seems that our new state is a little bit slower than our previous state. I hope that the moons align and we will have our home study sooner than later.

I have been attending more training classes this week away from my family. It seems so quiet in the evenings, I do not know how to act. Luckily my good friend from work is with me. We have so much fun together and have so much in common. We remember a lot of the things from the 80's. What a great time period:) We usually have something to laugh about. Thanks Y.

The kids will be starting school on August 4th. It is hard to beleive this time is here already. The summer has went to fast.

The first time we met...

Do you remember the first time that you laid eyes on your new born baby or newly adopted child. Each one of these moments are vivid in my mind. I remember thinking when I held my new born children for the first time - "How can something amazing this come from me?"

When we adopted our two boys (at seperate times) waiting for them to bring Draysen to us. When we went to meet Devin for the first time they took us into a room of several little children, as I scanned each child to locate our Devin.

These memories make my worries go away and prepare me for the next step in our lives.

Another truly amazing thing is when my children are asleep:) Of course it is nice and quite around our house at that time and that is the only time it is quiet. But, sometime in the middle of the night Draysen decided to come sleep on our floor in our room. Mr. NWA gets up way early in the morning to go to work so when he left he laid Draysen beside me in bed. It is so amazing to see them sleep and it reminds me how truly blessed I am.

Things to Ponder!

1. Did you know that by rubbing Vicks Vapor Rub on a child or an adult's feet for that matter and then putting socks on will break a fever.
2. Did you know that you can use shaving cream to clean your table and counters to get the scum off.
3. As we all know kids do say the darndest things. We were in the elevator on our vacation and Devin announces to the other family in the elevator that this is his dad's peepee. Great.
4. Draysen now calls everybody by their full name (including middle name). Of course this is quite the feet as Draysen and Devin have two middle names. The middle name that we gave them along with their Russian first name. My husband (Mr. NWA) is pretty simple with John. Well Draysen must be in a Pirates of Caribbean mode as he calls him David Davy Jones Locker.
5. Gathering paperwork for an adoption home study can give a person a heartache. We have not even gotten to the good stuff yet.

That is enough for today but, there will be more to come.

Vacation Fun

I hope that you enjoy the following photos. Great fun was had by all. We traveled from our home to San Diego - which included San Diego Wild Life Park and Sea World. Then off to LA to Universal Studios, California Adventure, and Disneyland.

California Adventure

We are off this afternoon to California. Everyone is very excited. This morning Draysen comes running down the stairs saying - we are going on our trip today. It will be good to get away from the heat for awhile and to relax. I will post pictures as often as I can.