WHEWWWW-HOO HOO, WE'RE MOVING!

That is a direct quotation taken from Kim when we recived the call from our realtor today at 12:43 p.m. that an individual has agreed to our counter offer and decided to purchase our home!

So, what does that mean?

Well, for starters, we get to begin the paperwork signing, appraisal, inspections and all that fun stuff. After that, we'll be calling some of you for fun, fun, fun! What's more fun than helping your best buddies move right? Put your hands down, nothing beats that.

We meet with our realtor on Tuesday to sign the offer and get the process started. It looks like we'll be shooting to close/move to Liberty on the second to the last weekend of June.

Needless to say we could really use your prayer as we continue the process, but this has really been (yet another) praise God weekend.

On the adoption front, we still have yet to hear from our contact at Christian Family Services, but Marc will be following up with them the first of next week in the hopes of getting the second phase cooking. With everything else going on, Kim is okay with holding off on completing phase two until after the move in June and our Hawaii vacation in July. Still, we are excited to now get to complete our home study in our new home and hope to be able to share a picture of a new little one with you by Christmas this year. (God willing. . .)

Tomorrow is Memorial Day, and it's especially significant to us because our father's both served in the military fighting to help us keep the many freedoms we take for granted. We also have several good friends who have served as well.

So thanks. Your choice to serve is awesome, more than you'll ever know.

If you know of someone in a branch of the service, national guard or who is a retired veteran, make a point to take some time tomorrow to remember them. Heck, contact them, pray for them, make a difference.

Thanks for your continued love and support. These are very stressful times for us right now. God continues to bless us, we're just seeking His will as we make some heavy decisions in the coming months.

More soon. . .

FINALLY. . .Phase one complete!

Thursday we received a letter in the mail from Christian Family Services:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Marc and Kimberly,

Thank you for returning your Preliminary Application. Our next step is to schedule you into an orientation meeting and an adoption workshop. We generally like to schedule these meeting concurrently. We have the orientation meeting prior to the beginning of our adoption workshop. However, should you desire to come in earlier for your orientation meeting, you may call to discuss this option.

As you've probably already been informed, we schedule these workshops periodically throughout the year. The timing of these depends upon when we receive a sufficient number of applicants to attend a workshop. We try to give you four to six weeks of prior notice before a workshop to help you with your scheduling.

Should you have any additional questions or desire any additional information, please let me know. We look forward to working with you.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Needless to say, this was more than great news.

This news also came on the same day we received our tax refund from our friends at the Federal Government. With us having our home on the market and continually needing to have it presentable, we've had much fun cleaning most every day. Recently it became clear our vacuum no longer "sucked" (which is not a good thing. . .irony) and we needed to buy a new one. Ah, the joys of unexpected costs in realty. Vacumm's aren't cheap!

Also, last night Marc and Chris Heil went to the final loss (no irony here folks) of the Kansas City Brigade arena football team at Kemper Arena. On their way home they were hit from behind on the driver side rear bumper/tail light by an SUV merging to exit. Everyone is fine, and the driver was just glad no one was injured. However, it looks like Chris' Corolla won't survive the insurance audit; although the two did have a good time seeing the inside of the yellow police station off Barry Road and 169. While he's considering a Honda hybrid, we're trying to get him to see the benefits of owning a convertible Mazda Miata.

God continues to be amazing. Now we just need a buyer for our home. . .

More soon.

Something's missing, but we still have praises galore

In our last episode, we informed you that we had finally completed the paperwork for the adoption process through Christian Family Services, and we were still in the process of finding a new home in Liberty. We also informed you of our upcoming trip to Hawaii (with Marc's work), and how God has worked it out for us both to go.

We promised you updates and we've got some. . .some good, some frustrating, some awesome. Sort of like the buffet used to be at Ryan's Steakhouse.

First, after having our first packet to The Light House lost in the mail, we decided to follow up with Christian Family Services to see if the packet we sent to their northland office had received. They emailed us that no packet had arrived to the main office and our contact would be checking with the individual northland office to see if they had received it and not passed it on. Strike two. Infertility is frustrating enough, and now it appears the patience learning game continues as we TRY to begin (again) the adoption process. Did we mention this is frustrating? We'll keep you posted on how things progress in the upcoming days.

We've booked our travel to Hawaii and Marc continues to be busy at work making arrangements for the events he will be helping to oversee at the conference in Honolulu in July. Kim is counting the days until summer and looking forward to time off from teaching. She will have a few days off before she begins summer school and then have most of July and part of August off to get some much needed R and R.

LIVE, LATE-BREAKING: After an offer and counter offer submitted, our contract has been accepted by the home owner in Brook Ridge (just off 291 in Liberty). We're very excited, but now are praying like mad to have God bring us a buyer for our house soon! Ideally, we would like to be moved into our new home prior to July so we can get things situated before our vacation. Needless to say, Kim is already envisioning paint colors, furniture options and how long it will be before she can enjoy the whirlpool tub. Marc is still enamored by the surround sound that is already hooked up in the basement. Are you ready for some football?

This Friday we'll be having dinner with Marc's parents to celebrate Cinco de Mayo followed by what will hopefully be a restful weekend. . . of mowing and yard work. Marc will have an oasis on Saturday as he has tickets to the Brigade game. Yes folks, the KC Brigade, the second losing-ist team in Kansas City.

Sunday, we'll be heading back to Northside again. Things there continue to be better and better and we're glad God showed us the way back. Amazing things are happening there and we're looking forward to being a part of them as the months roll on.

Thanks for your continued prayer and support. It is greatly appreciated.

More soon.