Beautiful song about adoption

Family Welcome Album

I finally finished and shipped the family welcome albums for the girls. I made one for each girl. They will be sent over to Ethiopia and the care givers will show them to the babies. Even though they are still very young, I think it will help them to become familiar with our faces and our house. I took pictures inside and outside of the house and also included pictures of the grandparents. Here is a little sample of the albums.

Fingerprinted and Waiting to Go.

Tim, Kirsten, and I headed up to Portland last Wednesday to USCIS (United States Citizenship & Immigration Services) office in Portland to be fingerprinted. Because Kirsten is now 18, she needed to be fingerprinted as well. We left early Wednesday morning, Tim driving and Kirsten and I sleeping. It worked out well because Tim was supposed to be in Portland for three days to meet with his business partners, and our appointment was on day two of those meetings. We went to where Tim was staying and then Kirsten and I headed out for a day of fun. We had called some friends of ours that we met through our speech and debate tournaments and went to lunch. After lunch we did some shopping at Powell's (coolest bookstore in the world), checked out the Goodwill store (not so good), and then headed over to IKEA. After a snack of meatballs and Princess Cake, we checked out the baby section. I managed to make it out with only one pack of baby bibs...oh yeah, some tealights too. After IKEA, I took Kirsten and her friend Joelle back to their house where Kirsten got to stay overnight and headed out to stay with Tim at a place called Edgefield. Thursday morning, after picking up Kirsten, we headed downtown to try to find the USCIS office. I am very thankful for the GPS feature on our phone. Took us right there. I think we were all expecting somewhat of a TSA experience there, but we were pleasantly surprised. Greeted by large pictures of President Obama and Homeland Security Director Napolitano and a very nice receptionist man, we were quickly checked in and before we knew it we were being fingerprinted. Tim got a very talkative, older Hispanic lady who wanted to know all about the babies and the adoption. Kirsten and I got a very...very quiet, efficient fingerprinting specialist who had both of us fingerprinted before Tim's first hand was done. It was overall a fun experience.
So now we wait.