This is Summer?

Since receiving Claire's referral at the beginning of the summer, the time has been flying by.   I'm really glad this all happened in the summertime because we've had so much to do!   We had a busy summer planned anyway and this just kicked it all into hyperdrive.   Here is just a short list of what we've been up to for the past 6 weeks or so: 

• We had a huge garage sale / adoption fundraiser.  We got rid of a TON of stuff and made almost $800 which was a huge blessing.   
• We've sold a lot of things on Craigslist too... a futon, crib, changing table, Connor's old powerwheels, an old pair of studio monitors I had, and some old Thomas trains.
• We've made 2 trips to Nashville to have documents state certified for our adoption.   Every document that goes to Taiwan has to be notarized, then taken to the county clerk's office to be county certified, then driven to Nashville where it is state certified.    From there, we send the documents to our agency in Kansas who then sends them to Atlanta to be TECO certified (TECO is kind of like the Taiwanese embassy) and TECO sends them back to Kansas where they can then finally go to Taiwan.   If that sounds like a headache, trust me... it is! 
• We're preparing for a third trip to Nashville in a couple of weeks to be re-fingerprinted for our Department of Homeland Security clearance.   Yippee.
• We've taken a room in our home that was literally covered floor to ceiling with clothes, boxes, junk, and more junk and cleaned it out entirely.   We're now painting the room pink and soon it will start to look like a little girl's bedroom... we hope.  
• We've bought most of Claire's bedroom furniture... we've been scoping out good deals and that has gone pretty well.   We got a great deal on a bed and mattresses on Craigslist from a girl who told us "I spend the night with my boyfriend like, every night anyway so I don't really need this."   TMI!
• Jessica has been trying to build a wardrobe for Claire (I mean purchase clothes... not physically build a wardrobe like in Narnia) and it's been tricky... we don't know exactly when she will be coming home (fall?  winter?  early spring?) and we also don't really know how big she is so it's all kind of a crapshoot.   Jessica's been getting great deals hitting garage sales and consignment shops and slowly but surely it's coming together.   I think Claire already has more pairs of shoes than Connor and I combined... 

So that's just a little of what we've been up to trying to get ready for our new arrival.   Jessica starts back to work in 2 weeks which is why we've been pushing to get this all ready now.   We'll post some pictures of Claire's room when it's ready.

Comments

[Jessica]

We made $850 from our garage sale!!! Correction : )

And, she has more shoes than Connor because I have NO IDEA what size she is! A few sizes in every color is necessary! I'll sell them if they're too small, and she'll grow into them if they're too big. Boys just don't understand!!

[Jesse]

Just as I read this, my dad sent me a text message saying that my older sister owns 40 pairs of shoes. I don't know how that compares to most people, but it seems like a lot to me. Claire still has a way to go!