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We received word from our agency that we are #7 on the waiting list! We're thinking that means we will receive a referral in the next 2 batches, and usually the batches come once a month. I say usually, but because our agency's program is new, we really don't have a lot to base that on. It's been that way so far, but I'm trying to keep in mind that things could change. Still, it's getting exciting!

Congratulations!

. . . to Brandon and Sunshine who live down the street from us and just received a referral for twin boys, 11 months old. They have been so patient, waiting for a sibling group and finally had resigned themselves to the idea that they would have just one child, and then this happened!

Caution - Preschool ahead

Aidan will be starting his 2nd year of preschool on Tuesday. His teacher requested that the kids practice writing their names neatly with just the first letter capitalized, before school begins. Aidan was practicing yesterday and as he was erasing a letter and talking to me, he somehow jerked the pencil up and stabbed himself in the face, hard. He bled a lot and ended up with a Spiderman band-aid across his cheek but told me quite seriously, "homework can be dangerous, Mommy."

Adoption update

Well, I got an email from the Addis embassy that confirmed that our I-600A (approval to adopt) was received there, so all of our paperwork is finally in Ethiopia. That means that whenever we get our referral we won't have to do any extra waiting/stressing to get everything there and translated.

I also heard from our program director that the estimated wait time for us is 5-6 months from our dossier submission which was June 20th. So I'm estimating that we'll get a referral in November or December (rather than September or October as I had originally thought) and maybe travel in February or March. We would love to go earlier, but this way we don't have to worry about traveling over Christmas, and we have some time to raise some money. We're hoping that some people from our agency will get referrals this week though, which is always exciting!

More . . .

Check out Eric's post for some more cute pics from the wedding. The Black Widows were fantastic entertainment.

Wedding, briefly

I'm sure we'll have about a million more pictures soon, but for now here are a couple of pictures from the wedding the kids were in on Saturday. It was Stefan's brother's wedding and the whole weekend was basically one big party (we literally had 5 parties in 3 days!) I didn't take very many pictures, but the photographer was crazy about the kids, so there should be a bunch when those get done. In these pictures Aidan and Bridget are enjoying the snacks I brought, before the ceremony. I'll write a huge post later, I'm sure, detailing everything that happened, but I'm still recovering from the weekend right now . . .

Counter-culture(s)

I have been wanting to begin making sourdough for the past few months. After reading about how much more nutritious it was than commercial yeast, and learning how much better soaked grains are for you (and that sourdough bread combines both of those good things), I knew I had to try it but I didn't know anyone who made sourdough and would give me some starter.

I read about this website where you could send a self addressed, stamped envelope and they would send you a starter. Not only that, this starter came west on the Oregon Trail and was kept "in the family" for generations until it got to a man named Carl who decided to give it away to anyone who asked! I sent away for the starter and got it a few days ago.

Today I made my first loaf of whole-grain sourdough bread. I used a "No-Knead" recipe (really it's low-knead) and it turned out pretty good! I think my starter needs to get a little more bubbly so that it will rise a bit more, but it's supposed to be a flatter loaf anyway. I'll try another recipe for a sandwich loaf tomorrow and see how that goes.

Also in the picture is my second batch of kombucha (I bottled the first batch last night and we've already drunk a couple of bottles), the sourdough starter and some kefir. It's my "fermentation lab" according to Stefan :)