Tick-tock, tick-tock

The time is slowing ticking by. After 14 months of waiting, you'd think that these last few weeks of the adoption process would seem like a breeze. Definitely not true, but we have managed to keep ourselves very busy over the past week or so since we got our good news. When we found out that the birth certificate had been issued, we were actually at our friend, Ruffin's, birthday party. It was kind of nice, actually, because several of my friends were there. They have been an amazing support to me during all of this, so I loved getting to share the brand-new news!





Later that weekend, we spent an evening at the Raineys. I might have mentioned this before, but our friend, Jodi, is seriously the most incredible hostess I know. As always, everything was perfect. We loved visiting with our friends and getting to watch all the kids play (and eat!) together.

Gussy, Ruffin, and McConnell:



All three of these little buddies are in the same preschool class:



Louie went to college with all of the parents of these children (except for Roy's mommy):



Last Friday, Louie had a business meeting in Miami. At the last minute, we decided to join him for the quick trip. We stayed in a beautiful hotel, the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables. The weather was gray and rainy, which was unfortunate because the hotel had a huge, beautiful swimming pool. The kids still managed to have a great time!

The view from our room:







I love this picture!





On Sunday, we went to a little farm in Ruskin to get our pumpkins. The kids had fun, even though there weren't many to choose from. It was almost impossible to get Gussy off the tractor once he got on it.







Also on Sunday, we put baby Max's car seat in our car, so that the kids could get used to the change over the next couple of weeks. We had a special guest with us on the ride to school Monday...Cati's scarecrow, which was her show & tell project from last Friday (she missed it because of our trip to Miami). It definitely made the kids excited for the new car seat. Oh, and they were also excited because there was a chill in the air. It was our first day of long sleeves!!







Well, that brings you up-to-date with us. As for our baby Max, we heard on Friday that his DNA sample was collected and probably reached the lab yesterday or today. Results should be back to the Embassy in about a week, which could mean traveling by the end of next week. Maybe. It's hard to get my hopes up. We'll definitely let you know when we hear anything.