Thankful for a break!

Today was SUCH a crazy day!

Our "Adoption Home Study" is happening in 5 minutes... I am happy to report that Mike and I (with a lot of help from Heavenly Father, my Mom and Mike's co-worker Carol) were able to accomplish all that we needed to!

At 7:00 am Mike dropped Andy off at school, then headed for Olympia to get a copy of his birth certificate. For whatever reason, both of ours came up missing. This was important - we had to have these today! He was home by 9:30, birth certificate in hand, and we were off to the doctor to get a "health report" signed off by our doctors... Then it was off to the County building for finger printing (these have to be sent to the FBI, processed and sent back "cleared" by Dec. 4th). When we got there, there was one guy in line ahead of us, and a few people filling out paperwork. (we had filled ours out last night!) When we got done though, the line of people - the line that WE would have had to wait in - was a good 15 people deep! If we'd gotten there even ten minutes later, we would have been in the middle of that! Just one of the many miracles delivered to us today....

As we were leaving the county building, Mike's cell phone rang... *bringgggggg* it was the doctors' office. My report was ready, which was amazing in and of itself, because they usually require a 24 hour turnaround. As luck would have it, Mike hadn't had a physical in the past two years and would need one in order for the health form to be filled out. We started to panic, thinking NOOOO!!! Physicals as you know, can take weeks - even months to be scheduled. Again Heavenly Father was already opening a window... Within seconds, the receptionist was back on the line and asked Mike if he could be there at 11:00 am - TODAY - it was currently 10:38... He dropped me off at the house and made it to the doctor on time! By noon, we had all the appropriate forms, except for my birth certificate. I was born in California, so getting it the same day was gonna be tricky. My wonderful mom was willing to drive to Ventura (she lives in Carpinteria / Santa Barbra) and get a copy for me. She fought parking, lines and traffic, and was successful!

In the midst of all that, I had an appointment at At 3:00 today. I was invited by Romeo to come and watch his classroom play. I was really concerned that I wouldn't make it with everything else going on. I had already told Ro that I would be there a week ago and he was counting on me. Romeo is an honorary Brinkerhofff. He spends each Tuesday night with us while his Mom works the midnight shift at work. We have all grown very fond of Romeo and love him as if he were part of the family. Kaylee calls him her "brother from another mother"!

I just had to get to this play. Disappointing Ro was not an option. Well, Kaylee and I made it along with Romeo's Mom Nicole.

The play was so sweet, titled The Ugly Pumpkin. The kids were really cute with their lines and so proud of their work.



They served up Pumpkin pie afterwards which was enjoyed by all...



But the best part for me, was seeing Romeo light up when we all walked in the room.



We were successful with getting everything done, and I am so glad that I made Romeo's play a priority! It was a wonderful break from the day and gave me an opportunity to slow down and be thankful for all the little blessings in my life.

Oh, and we passed our home inspection, so keep your fingers crossed that our prints will make it back in time for our court date a week from Friday! (Yes, the same day that Danee's being born!)