Ellie is FIVE

After a quick trip to Illinois Saturday to pick up Els, returning Sunday, life is ramping up another notch.

During the car ride home Nathan and I planned out the next 8 days or so in great detail. We're working towards the goal of leaving for Albania on June 28 or 29 so the remaining days of June seem to be rapidly vanishing. If Monday is any indication of the days' velocity, then we're in trouble!

Yesterday was Ellie's fifth birthday. She's got the 'birthday' thing figured out. We didn't tell her, but decided to sprinkle her gifts out during the day. She got a wonderful cash register with mic, cash drawer, credit card scanner, and bar code reader from Nonna and PaPa. She's also received a wonderful collection of puzzle books, small games, and other activities to take overseas. At one point in the day after hearing the 'birthday song' sung for her again, she repeated something she said in Illinois, "I LOVE birthdays!"

We're so proud of our growing girl and marvel at her expanding mind. Her verbal abilities continue to grow more sophisticated. She never forgets a thing. She's showing an interest in learning geography (which thrills us), and for the hundredth time, I remind myself that we need to get her a globe. (Do they make them in girly colors that would match her bedroom?). In the past month she's begun going to sleep by herself in her room (without us lying on the floor until she fell asleep, though she still asks us to on occasion). She's also begun expanding her pallate too, which is a great relief to us. I keep telling her they do not have peanut butter and granola bars in Albania!

Last night she told me she wanted her brother to stay in Albania and not come home with us. I think this whole idea of a fantasy brother who lives in Albania has become a permanent part of her reality (for now). Or maybe she just senses that we're getting close to leaving?

Before going to sleep she stood up on her bed and said, "I'm growing taller, Mommy! I'm going to be as big as you!" Thankfully not for a while yet, but our leggy girl is growing and we couldn't be more grateful to be her parents. Her birthdays have a way of bringing that home.

At the end of the day we finally discovered our mail had arrived (it wasn't delivered as of 4:45 so we gave up checking for several hours). It was worth the wait as the day's mail included our I-800A approval. Thank you, Jesus! You continue to watch over us! A concern of mine was that getting our fingerprints taken ahead of schedule would make it difficult for them to connect the background check with our renewal request (which might have a unique application number from our original). Anyway, it came and now we await our I-800 to be approved which will allow Bethany to schedule our court date.

I-800s take about 2-3 weeks to be approved, and ours was received on June 7, so we hope to hear something around the end of next week. In the mean time, we would like to proceed with purchasing tickets in the next 24-48 hours. Unfortunately ticket prices are insanely expensive this summer. It's not just us, but everyone is telling us they're seeing the same thing. My family buys tickets to travel to Albania at all times of the year and we've never seen prices this high before (typically around the $1200 range, they're now $1800-$2200 with horribly long layovers). It makes buying tickets an even heavier task as we try to select dates and routes and itineraries that won't waste any time and will be good stewards of the adoption funds with which we've been entrusted.

Thank you for your continued prayers and interest in our journey! We see them being answered and hope that you can sense our appreciation for them and share in our joy as we see answers like today's I-800A approval. How grateful we are for the body of Christ!