Southern Living Photo Shoot

Slowly but surely we are inching our way to the completion of our Dossier. This is the most exciting thing so far because we are actually sending this to Russia to be put on the waiting list for a baby. Please say a prayer for us that Portia gets the draft of our home study to us because without that we are in a holding pattern. I don't know how long that usually takes, but I am trying to be patient (not by best quality) and keep things in perspective- it was only a week from Saturday that she actually visited our house. The good news is that we've raised enough money to send with our Dossier- almost $12,000! God is so good and you have been so good to us too. Without your generosity we could have never realized this dream. Now we are on to our "second round" of fund raising, another $11,000 or so to cover the second half of our Russia expenses and travel expenses. After we get our home study in writing we can apply for a few grants and even a loan if necessary. However, the grants require MORE paperwork and documents to be sent, and I don't see how that is possible. Also- the Pampered Chef fundraiser is in place, Daddy is making crosses like a madman, and we have had a few people mention making contributions to our C.W.A. family builders fund, so maybe we won't have to fill anything else out! That would be an answer to prayer and a savior to our sanity.

Anyway- today we got together our 12 pictures depicting our home (inside and out) including where the baby will eat/sleep/play, pictures of us, and pictures of our immediate family to send with our Dossier. That was easier said than done! It's hard boiling down thousands of pictures into 5 personal pictures 7 house pics AND I don't know why, but for some reason I didn't take pictures of our house when it was squeaky clean for our home study. So I had to straighten things up for my "Southern Living" photo shoot of the exterior of the house, back yard, baby's room, baby's bathroom, kitchen, living room, and dining room. Luckily, photographs hide a multitude of little sins- tumbleweeds of dog hair and dust bunnies are not visible on the 8 mega pixel camera (thank goodness Chad's parents didn't go with the 10 mega pixel- I might of had to dust! Yuck!) I opted to leave out the ones covered in snow because I figure since St. Petersburg is always covered in snow- Spartanburg will look like a balmy vacation retreat if I chose some "springy" pictures. I think I think about this stuff too much. If my day job doesn't pan out, Southern Living here I come..... "just throw this blanket over this stack of paperwork, dahlin' everyone will think it's the latest trend in home decor!"

Shhh.... Don't tell but 5 minutes before this picture was taken you couldn't actually see the top of the table for the pile of adoption papers!