Submitted

I just received an email from our placing agency telling us that our dossier was successfully submitted!!  I can't really explain my feelings.  I feel excited and anxious all at the same time.  The closer our adoption gets the more real it feels.  Before it seemed like this event that is happening way in the future, but it is not way  in the future anymore..it is approaching rapidly!  Now that we are submitted,  (For those who are in the "know" about Ukraine adoption) we wait too hear if we are approved and for our appointment date.  That date could be anywhere from a month to a month and a half from now if our timeline is consistent with the other timelines I have seen.  I have been obsessively following blogs and I always look for their timeline to find out how long things take.  I am hoping and praying for an appointment in the middle to later part of August, because I really would like to start the school year out and meet my new students before leaving them in the hands of an interim.  That is going to be tough for me too....trusting someone else to take care of my Special Education kiddos!! 

Praise report on the fundraising front!!  We went to visit our BBQ competition friends..we call them family..this last weekend.  We told them about our adoption timeline being much sooner than we thought and some of the teams and one of the reps donated some of their money from the contest to our adoption!!  We were soo touched and I had a hard time not bawling my eyes out!!  We really love our BBQ family.  We have missed not seeing them this year, because we haven't competed in order to save money for the adoption.  They are precious people and we are praying that God blesses them above and beyond anything they can imagine.  They were able to raise $1075.  We are so thankful to them and to God for putting such generous awesome people in our lives.  We can't wait to introduce our kiddos to these special people.  Thank you, Billy from Do Rag Q, Joe and Voncile of Smokey Mountain Smokers, Ron (our very favorite KCBS rep.), and Jeff of Grog N Hogs. You all are awesome!!  
Please continue to pray for us.  We still need to raise about 17,000 more and we need God's continued guidance in the rest of the process!!