I'm pleased to announce...

We have officially accepted the referral of Miss Tarikwa! We received the paperwork yesterday and have it all signed and filled out. It will go to the post office today along with her precious and adorable gift bag! We are so excited for her to be able to receive it. I wrote a 6 page letter to her which is included in the gift bag. It's a funny thing to introduce yourself and your family to your new daughter who knows absolutely nothing about you. It was really fun to write it! Included in her gift bag are: a really cute t-shirt with faces of all 7 of us on it that she will be presented with when she is told she has a family. She'll wear it around to show all the other kids 'her new family.' We also sent a photo album of all of us and the house (before the fire, of course!), some stationary and envelopes so she can write to us, a comb, a headband for her hair, lip gloss, a journal, pens and a card that you can record your voice on and then it sings, "My Girl." Super cute!

Please continue to pray for Blaine as he is finding coming off the steroids is quite unpleasant. Don't get me wrong, we are thrilled to have him get off of them but the journey is difficult. It's a weird way that they wean him off. One day he takes 60mg, then 50 the next, then 60 again, then 40, then 60 again, then 30, then 60 again, then 20 (get it?). Well, the last few days he's been on 60mg then 0 the next, then 60 again and 0 the next. The days that are 0 are the bad ones. He looks and feels like he's been hit by a city bus. He's completely worn out with no energy. He has lots of work to do and unfortunately he doesn't have any wiggle room. So pray that he would have just enough energy to complete what he has to do.

Not sure if I mentioned this or how much I said previously but his office building (the one they own) was undergoing getting new siding a few weeks ago and when the siding was removed, they found that the structural posts (18 of them) were completely rotten and the building was literally in danger of falling down! Can you say, "Catastrophe"? Anyway, God has been so good and the process is going smoothly but there are some things that Blaine must do to meet deadlines and he needs strength and energy to get up on scaffolding and do them. Also, the doctor told us that this is the time that Blaine must not get sick since he's coming off the steroids, his body can't fight off things. Boy, we really can't wait until the steroids are all done. I really understand the love/hate relationship of steroids now!

I have to post some pictures of the house when I get a chance. The sheetrocking is done and they are working on mudding and taping it!!! The house looks so much better...we have walls inside! We have 5 more weeks until we move in. Things will go very quickly now and lots of progress will occur. It's fun to go out there now and see it.

Pictures tonight!

Blessings,

Laura