A few check marks

I love Claire's style. She is always on the cutting-

edge of fashion! (Takes after her dad!) She's posing

with our Immigrations paperwork.

We've been able to add a few check marks to our adoption "to-do" list lately. The following pictures show us holding some important paperwork before sending them on their way to our adoption agency. Please note: They are not the best pictures of everyone. For some reason, almost all the pictures we've taken like this have a grumpy child in them. It's kind of funny that they think these grumpy faces upset us~~~in fact, they give us more laughter than anything else!

Here is a picture of Sophie being grumpy

the morning we sent off our draft dossier to

CWA. We are now waiting for them to proofread

and edit. After that step, off to Ethiopia it goes!!!

(.......and the wait begins......)

(Sorry for the poor lighting.) Here's Evan's pouty face with our USCIS I-600A application (advanced processing for orphan petition).

One thing more:

I would like to reiterate our stand on all this "hard" paperwork. These are children we are fighting for~~~someone's precious babies (God's children, nonetheless!). If you've ever heard that the adoption paperwork was hard or you've thought to yourself "That's too much work for me," imagine what these mothers and fathers have had to do to give these babies a chance at life. Can you imagine for a moment what they must feel the moment those children leave their embrace for the LAST TIME????? The Rust family work is nothing compared to those honorable birth parents. We are thrilled to be part of God's plan to bring these children home. I would hope someone would work "hard" on all the paperwork to take care of my children if they would ever be abandoned due to death or illness or poverty.

Point: These children are WORTH IT!