Ryan is 5!

Its hard to believe but it is true. My oldest baby is FIVE years old today. He is going to kindergarten in a couple of weeks. I know it is cliche but time really does fly. We have probably hit the 1/4 mark for the time that we will have that sweet boy in our home [trying not to cry now]. We have a tradition in our family, when the birthday kid wakes up, they crawl into bed with us and we tell them the story of the day they were born. This morning I was thinking about our baby girl... and what we will have to do to modify that tradition for her. We are coming up on the one year mark since our paperwork was recieved in Addis... September 1st. I called the adoption agency this morning to find out if there has been any movement on our file. There are still a couple of outstanding placements to make for families from July... sigh. She said it could be any day now, or it could take another couple of months. In other news, we ripped apart our bathroom. Yup its gutted... completely and utterly. We have finished re plumbing all the fixtures. The toilet is back in (huge relief). The bathtub is installed but not tiled (no showers) and the sink still remains elusive. This whole process was a MUCH bigger undertaking than either of us thought. We thought we would be a couple of days without the bathroom and everything would be back to normal. HA HA HA. My mom has been gracious enough to let us stay with her for the last TWO WEEKS (thanks mom) Not only has it been a more intensive project than we originally anticipated, it has been much MUCH more expensive... and then there was the flooding incident... which we are still too close to to laugh about. Ask us in a couple of weeks about the river we created flowing down our tenants bedroom walls... Anyway, I think this process has just sealed the deal for me having to look for full time work. With any luck, I will find a job and work until the baby arrives. Then perhaps we can all take some time off together as a family and just BE. Until then, it will be a fine balancing act. Be patient with us. Soon we will emerge from the bathroom victorious and I will have more time to post blog updates!