bullets.

I can think of no better way to get these random thoughts to mesh together into a somewhat cohesive-sounding post than to use…you guessed it, bullets.
Here goes.

• We sent off our fingerprints to the FBI to run our criminal history checks on January 11th because they told us it would take 12-14 weeks to get them back. We got them back January 24th. What is this insanity? Something that is actually happening smoothly and quickly?!
• Brandon is quickly transitioning between two jobs right now so that puts off our home study for just a few weeks. It's definitely for the best, so no biggie. What's a few weeks when you're looking at a 24-month-long "big picture?"
• Brylie is convinced that she is going to get a little sister named "Africa." It's so darn cute to hear her talk about it that I don't have the heart to tell her that we simply cannot name our child that.
• AGCI is changing up a few things so we've been assigned a new caseworker. I can already tell that I heart Soojin. She's going to be with us for the long haul, so how happy am I that she's awesome!?
• Still trudging along with the paperwork…it's madness, I tell you.
• Finished our online adoption education courses! There was lots of information about, well, a lot. Including common infectious skin diseases in orphanages. Like, a lot of information on this. Too much, perhaps. (Praying against that junk for our baby - and ALL babies). Sheesh.
• We should be getting closer to having a t-shirt design soon! I'm hoping we can get this done pretty quickly since we have to write the Ethiopian government a big, fat check in June. As soon as we get things set up we can start pre-orders! 

the ups and the downs.

I've been seriously fighting the urge to write a whiney post. Maybe that's why there's been 0 activity on here in two weeks - right now I am seriously overwhelmed and, well, whiney. Finally I remembered that we started this blog in order to document the ups and the downs so *sigh*…here goes. 

For the last few weeks we've been working like crazy people to get this home study paperwork done.  Order this, sign that, print this, go here, get that, notarize EVERYTHING. It seems never-ending. And this is supposed to be the easiest part of the whole deal?? Oh mylanta. 

And to top it all off, the only thing I seemed to be able to get done quickly and have almost complete control over is now royally out of control. I ordered 12 birth certificates total (3 for each of us) and, get this…

my NAME is misspelled. 

On every last one of 'em. 

Really. 

And for the life of me I cannot get anyone to answer the phone at Austin Vital Records so that they can print me up a few new ones. I've now spent 5+ hours on the phone trying to get through and calling a few other places (including the agency from whom I placed the order who assured me that they can do nothing and wonders, "Are you sure that that's not just how your name is spelled and you've been misspelling it for 26 years?").  I am resorting to the only thing I know to do now. Cry. And tomorrow, when I call all of those numbers again the first unlucky soul to answer the phone will be bombarded with the only thing I have left - a good, hard sob. 

Poor guy. Or girl. Preferably a guy…and we all know why.

On a brighter note, here's Brandon drawing a picture of what he thinks our baby will look like. 

We had to do this for one of our adoption education courses.

I would post the picture of the final product but it's really pretty comical. 

(think: football player shoulders on a baby girl.)

hmm, maybe I will post it. :)