A week in the life of a paper pregnancy

I haven't posted in a few days and thought I'd give an update. I'm not feeling very funny today or poetic or anything of the sort, but I do have some progress to report on our adoption as well as some amazing news from America World Ethiopia's program. I'll start with our progress:

Our second homestudy was this past Wednesday with Ruth. I really wish I had taken a before and after picture to post here. The house was as spotless as possible with three small boys and my sanity still in tact. That evening, the house was back to its normal "pitiness." The sad thing is, I love cleanliness. Like my mom, it brings me peace. This, however, is not the season for that, I suppose. Anyway, I digress: back to the homestudy. Despite the spotlessness, we did not hide three basketfuls of clean laundry like our new friends at AW who also had their homevisit recently. Our laundry room counter was only half as full as usual with clean, folded clothes. I figured since the number of times I had laundry done up and put away in this house (going on 2 1/2 years here) I could probably count on one hand, I could leave it! ANYWAY, our visit was wonderful. Once again, Karl was here and she interviewed us individually while the other entertained Owen somewhere else--and Kole once he got home from preschool. This means the final required face-to-face visit will probably be done next week and only I will be needed (she thinks she has the required info already based on the two extensive interviews as well as our extensive pre-interview biography and parenting information). To give you an idea of what this "paperchasing" takes, here's what else we did this week:

1. Make copies at the library of MORE forms
2. Sign and send more stuff to America World
3. Write our letter we plan to send out to family and friends sharing our heart and FAQ
4. E-mail Laurel (our family coordinator at America World) MORE questions
5. Order both of our birth certificates (two copies each, just in case) from Indianapolis
6. Order and pick up two marriage license certificates
7. Take sample employee letter to Crossroads
8. Beg Dad for a fax/scanner/copier/printer for my birthday!
9. Talk to Dad (my boss) about the sample employee letter for CSS
10. Karl's doctor's appointment (drop off new dossier medical forms)
11. Karl's doctor's appointment again (TB test)
12. Schedule MORE Karl and Danielle doctor appointments
13. E-mail social worker (Ruth) guardian information
14. Keep in touch with new friends at America World Ethiopia's Yahoo Group
15. Celebrate with families from AW on their REFERRALS!

Do you get the point?!? Number 15 leads me to the last thing I want to mention: yesterday, after much prayer and some divine intervention (one--or two? people actually had dreams this would happen--exact numbers and everything!), four more families got referrals for their children. There were five children (that we know of) in all. I just cried this morning seeing the posts and feeling the excitement and overall emotion from these families...and the way the other families celebrated with them. GOD IS SO GOOD!