Wordless Wednesday

Sunday Brunch

I have been wanting to link up to Stefanie's "Sunday Snapshot" for, well, quite a while now. But with the dwindling time and energy I've had for blogging lately, it just seemed to never happen. This week, I figured it was time. I really do want to stay on top of all these "everyday" happenings and record them in some way, before they're all just long lost memories!


A favorite family tradition since we moved to Japan has been Sunday brunch at the Club. We would probably NEVER go to brunch, considering there are 7 of us and it is NOT a cheap meal. We went once when we first moved here and promptly decided that, although it was definitely a scrumptious treat, we would most likely not be going as a family again. Date? SURE. Family affair? Not so much.

And then we discovered the BRUNCH COUPON.



Everything changed.

Once a month, club members get a coupon for the ENTIRE family to enjoy brunch for $45. It was over twice that much for our group if we were paying full price. And, they don't put a limit to how many are in that entire family, so you know, if Sonia or Stefanie happened to get stationed here, they could love the coupon a whole lot more than I do!


So, guess how often we go to brunch these days? Yep, once a month! Everybody loves it!! My favorite part? Hard to decide between the made - to - order omelets, pasta bar, fresh fruits, or the incredible desserts. But probably, my favorite part really is that I don't have to cook AT ALL on brunch Sundays. Because once we walk out of there, no one is eating anything else. For the entire day.







Guess who the best eater of the bunch is? Yes, she probably eats more than Daddy at the brunch. I just don't know where she puts it all!

And what better way to work off a meal like that than an exciting game of Killer Bunnies?

Check out all the great posts for "Sunday Snapshot".

More Stalling

Heard back from USCIS. Except I knew from the moment I saw the envelope laying in my mailbox that it wasn't what I was hoping for. I could see the pink paper right through the white envelope, and I knew pink from USCIS is NOT good news.

We received a "Request for More Evidence". Basically, they wanted to see background checks from all the states we lived in since the age of 18 - no easy feat for a military family. The thing is, we did all this for Abby's adoption, and obviously we have not returned to live in each of those states since then - so obviously we're still cleared. Our homestudy agency seems to think that as soon as USCIS understands that they won't require them to be done again. I have my doubts.

God continues to grow me in big ways here. This is so incredibly frustrating and completely out of my hands!! I have to 100% rely on Him and Him only - and trust that if I am crazy in love with Evie already and want nothing but to shower her with love, He wants her in a family just as badly.

One More Baby Step

Fingerprints are on their way to USCIS!!!

I looked at the charts on RQ, and approvals are averaging around a month, with a recent wave of approvals coming in less than a week.

As long as we avoid the dreaded request for more information letter, I'm good!!!

The Saga Continues

The adoption saga, that is.

I don't know how they could possibly make the adoption process more difficult.

I guess by the time you actually get your child home you have if nothing else proven to yourself that you really did want to do this, because nobody would stick this out without 100% commitment.

I finally called USCIS, because they've had our paperwork since Dec. 23 and we had not heard from them. The next step should have been a fingerprint appointment, and I was really unsure about how that would work being overseas. Recently I found out that a family here at our base, who just adopted from China in December, had mailed in their fingerprint card along with their I800-A application without waiting for an appointment. Yet I figured that someone would certainly have told me that by now if it was that simple.

Tonight I made myself stay up 'til midnight so I could make the phone call (the fun part of being all the way out here is those business hour phone calls have to happen at crazy hours). The wonderful USCIS officer assigned to our case tells me that, no, we will get no appointment and can just go to the Military Police to get our fingerprints done and send them in.

Very glad to hear that, but I'm left to wonder when they were planning on notifying us of that. It's not like we didn't pay them big $$$$$ to have this paperwork processed.

I'm having flashbacks to two years ago. The only difference is that I now have a daily reminder that this can actually have a happy ending!

High School

This is what high school at home looks like.


I waked past my darling sophomore around 10 o'clock on a recent morning, when I had to do a double take. I stared, dumbfounded for a minute, and then recovered enough to ask "Please tell me you're doing school on that iPod.

He grinned sheepishly and replied "Of course, Mom. I'm studying my Bible!" He really was, too. Trust me, I checked!

Gotta love homeschool!

2 Year Celebration

We have a big celebration coming up.

Two years since Abby joined our family.

I can hardly believe it's been that long.

She's made some huge strides, and we've made some huge strides as a family.

Frankly, it's still a learning game most days.

But, because God extends His grace every.single.day, we are truly, and amazingly FAMILY.

Not because a piece of paper says so, but because we're bonded the way family should be.

Just the other day my 15 year old said - "I cannot even imagine life without every one of us here." And I knew what he meant.

I can't either.

I still haven't decided exactly what we'll do to celebrate.

Almost half of us will be gone on a snowboarding trip on the actual day. But I will be here, and Abby will be here, and so I might make it a special JUST THE TWO OF US celebration. We never, EVER, do anything just the two of us, so I think that would make it pretty special.

I guess I'd better get planning. I have exactly one week.