One blessing after another

I wish I could post some new pictures but my sweetie has taken my camera with him on his weekend fishing/work trip to the cabin. But let me tell you, changes are taking place at our almost complete home. The entire basement is painted. One the main level, the dining room, laundry room and a bathroom is done. So far, I'm pretty happy with the 8 colors which have been put on the walls. I'm definitely driving the painter nuts. He asked me if he could bring his wife out to see the colors I picked. I told him only if he quit ripping on all my colors! He said he liked most of them but didn't like the fact that the dining room is 2 different colors, there are arches which get 2 different colors and the ceiling in there is a different color than the walls. To this I say, "What's the problem??" I told him I painted the entire house when it was new before and I'm just a mom, not a professional painter like him:) And it looked perfect! So buck up.

Glad he has a good sense of humor!

The cabinet maker is there installing today. All I can say is...beautiful!

Last week we received our approval for our I600A, Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition. We have officially been approved for 1 child, female, 9-15 years old. Perfect! Sounds like Tarikwa to me. This means Blaine, Blake and my fingerprints were a-ok with homeland security. They forward the approval to the National Visa Center and to the embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. So we should be all ready on that front.

I have read on some blogs that court in Ethiopia is not opening the beginning of October but a couple weeks later, so mid-October. People who have court dates scheduled for the beginning of October are being rescheduled for later. I'm guessing that will set us back, as well for getting set up for a court date. My shot in the dark is late November.

We are also getting very excited at the prospect of our daughter receiving her gift bag this week. I know we already went through this but it's just as exciting the second time around! This time it will really happen, I'm convinced! We cannot wait to see her with the t-shirt we had made for her on her cute little self! And just knowing she knows about us...priceless.

Mihiretu had his soccer game this morning...in the rain and 46 degrees, so no pictures! The score was 11-1, with my little athlete scoring 5 of those 11. Man, he loves sports! I also got an email from his teacher this week telling me that he is working VERY hard in school. We're so proud of him and his progress, but even more so, we're proud of his hard work and good attitude. I know how hard it is for him to sit still and focus but he's doing it for his wonderful teacher, so thank goodness:)

We feel so blessed on so many levels. Our insurance company has been very fair with us in terms of our contents and the re-build. The good news for me is that I don't need to keep receipts for anything that is perishable. This means that all our food, lotions, shampoos, medicine, make-up...they pay us 100% for these things whether I re-buy them or not. How it works for everything else is that if we choose to re-buy any given item, we submit the receipt and they pay 100% for that item. It we choose not to repurchase an item, they give us a reduced amount of money.

Here's an example:

Shell shrimp cocktail bowl-I had a price of $35 for it. It's depreciated value is $26.25. It has a life expectancy of 20 years. It was a wedding present so that means it was 23 years old and therefore actually 'dead'. Who knew a shell shaped shrimp cocktail bowl had a life expectancy? But it does. So since we're not planning on replacing it, we get the $26.25. The way I see it, it was living on borrowed time anyway. Not a bad deal for us:)

Seriously, it will save me lots of time not having to do this with all the food, lotions and all the other items. We though that the insurance company would probably only give us 30% or so on some of the depreciated items but it looks like they're giving us more like 70%. So we are thankful for this. It helps a lot!

We also didn't think a week ago that our house would be done in time for us to move in Oct. 15th, but now it looks like it will.

God's goodness to us never fails!

Blessings,

Laura