Visit with Mom and Dad

On Thursday, my parents came over for a quick visit. They had been vacationing in Vero Beach and celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary. The same day our coveted notarized Home Study came in the mail! Mom and I mailed the Home Study to Immigration and to our dossier assistant, Kate, (along with our CPA's 4th letter-poor guy!) on Friday and then we headed down to the outlets in Ellenton to celebrate! In the words of my dear friend Erica, "we went crazy!"

Mom could not resist these cute swim trunks with matching hats and T's for the boys from Gymboree. They are going to look precious.

As you can see, we scored some great deals and found some really cute outfits. I bought clothes for once they are forever home and clothes to leave at the orphange with them after our first trip.

Friday evening, we all went to Bern's Steakhouse for a fabulous dinner.

I always have food-envy when dining with Isaac...he almost always orders a better dish than me so I let him pick dessert. The Bananas Foster prepared tableside was awesome!

Notice that I am very happy with Isaac's choice.

We enjoyed our coffees and desserts in an old wine barrel in the dessert room.

On Saturday, we went down to Anna Maria to enjoy the beach. It was a beautiful day.

Isaac, Dad, and Mom chilling under the umbrella.

Adoption update: We expect to be "Gladney Approved" this week which means that all of the paperwork for the adoption agency is finished. Immigration will probably take around 3 weeks to approve us to bring international orphans into the USA. Once approved by Immigration, our dossier should be complete and ready to send to Ethiopia by way of Washington, D.C. And then finally, we will be on the waiting list where we will remain for the next 8-10 months approximately, maybe longer. That means I have plenty of time to do some more shopping!