Weekly Update #?

Ok, I know I said I'd do a weekly update, but with 4 littles, homeschooling, cooking, cleaning, and all the adoption stuff to keep up with, time is a precious commodity around here. So here is a quick overview of what's been going on in the Rector family.

We're all (except Richard) sick with a nasty cold and my voice has been pretty much gone. Being voiceless has made for some interesting times while trying to keep our home running smoothly and trying to home school: ) My son has to cough after every third word he reads and my daughter is constantly having to run to the bathroom with a runny nose so all that translates into an extra long session of school lessons. I guess it's just that time of year, but it does seem like we've been sick more this season which probably has something to do with all the sugar we've eaten between Thanksgiving and Christmas and January and... well, you get the point. We've not been very disciplined about staying away from not-so-healthy foods, but are starting to get better since we want to be done with all this sickness! I just received our Vitacost order in the mail and I'm looking forward to getting our herbal tinctures in us on a more regular basis to get our immune systems up to par.

I found out yesterday that our dossier will not be submitted this week as the govt of E's country of birth has decided to wait for the first full week in February to start accepting dossier submissions. Dossiers for children under 5 can only be submitted on a certain day of the week so that means our team should be submitting it next week, Lord-willing. Although this may seem minor to some, this means one more week she's in the orphanage. Every day she spends there is a day without her here in our family and we're hoping there aren't too many more of those!

On a more positive note, Richard and I are learning the language so we can at least be able to read labels and signs while we're over there. This has been fun for me as I enjoy learning foreign languages and it seems to come somewhat easily so when we get over there I will let you know how it's going on that end!

We have to bring a photo book with us to show the judge and any other govt officials that want to see where our baby girl will be calling home. Most families seem to have theirs done by now or at least close to it and we haven't even started. So, my plan this weekend is to work on getting a snapshot of our life together. Shouldn't be too hard, right?

Richard has started planting some seedlings for our garden and we are looking forward to a (hopefully) bountiful supply of our favorite veggies and a few fruits. He is the gardener in our family, and he enjoys teaching the children about how our food grows and having them work the ground with him. The kids are fascinated how a seed can become food that we eat. I'm thankful for the work and time he has put into our garden and hope he will be greatly rewarded with lots of yummy produce this year!

Well, that's a bit of what's been going on with our family! Please pray that our dossier will be submitted AND accepted next week. After that, we wait for a travel date!! I'm also working on getting an email sent out about our garage sale to raise funds for our adoption expenses as well as raise awareness about these precious children.

Pray that God will open eyes and hearts to the world of orphans here and around the world and Christians will start praying about how they can carry out the biblical mandate to care for orphans and widows!