We just got a call this morning that our home study is done!  Adoption Connection will be sending it to Children's Hope and CIS by early next week.  I am so glad another big step in the process has been completed.  My mom, who will most likely be traveling with me to Ethiopia, got her passport photos done yesterday.

I keep trying to map it out in my head and see if I can come up with a rough estimate of when we will meet the baby in Ethiopia, but of course I can't.  I am thinking it will probably be in the fall.  Maybe October or November?  It's so hard to wait.

Hurray for the home study!

Bret left for Canada yesterday.  There is a man there named Tyler who is doing a documentary on colon cancer, and Bret is essentially the star of the movie.  He is a colon cancer survivor and has a huge network of cancer survivor friends who Tyler also ended up featuring in the movie.  Bret will be up there for the week helping with some last minute edits and voice overs.

I went with my best friend Carrie to the notary yesterday to have her letter of reference notarized.  I didn't notice until I got home that the notary's commission expires next month!  That is not going to cut it for our dossier, so we will have to make another attempt.

We are waiting on the final of our home study so that we can send it over to CIS.   I am starting to get a little antsy.  Up until this point there has been lots of paperwork to keep me occupied, but now things are slowing down, and I want to keep the momentum going.

Here is another picture from our wonderful weekend in Tahoe.

Hello!  We are the Martin Family!  This is my first experience with blogging, but I want to give it a shot.  We are embarking on an amazing journey to adopt a baby from Ethiopia to add to our family of six.  We are thrilled, and have been so moved by all the stories and families we have been able to follow online going through a similar process.

Let me start by introducing the family.  I am Hollie, my husband is Bret, Lauren is 16, Avonlea is 8, Olivia is 7 and Jordan is 4.

We have been working on our international adoption since November, and have just finished our home study.  Yeah!  Now it is just a matter of putting the finishing touches on our dossier and waiting for CIS approval.

We just got back yesterday from a weekend in Lake Tahoe playing in the snow.  The kids had a blast.