Summer is in full swing and we are enjoying a relaxing 3 day weekend. The longer days mean more time to spend in our yard. Clarke is hard at work making our yard beautiful and I am proud of the work he has done. We both spend time battling the weeds in our garden and it has become quite productive. It is so much fun to walk out to our patch in the evening with my basket and search for "dinner" - some evenings we have fresh beans or zucchini, cucumbers are almost always ready to be picked, we have even tried some of our swiss chard and found it to be pretty good.

The first 6 months of our adoption journey were hectic, filled with paperwork, appointments, home visits, classes, preparation. Now, here we are on the next phase of the journey where the key seems to be patience. We wait, and we wait, and there is often nothing new to report. Occasionally we receive an e-mail from the agency asking if we are interested in having our profile shown with a brief synopsis of the birth mothers unique situations. Often we say yes, but sadly there are situations that seem so far beyond our capabilities, and we say no. The process continues. Having our profile shown does not mean we are the only "match" for this mother. Ultimately it is the choice of the birthmother to choose for herself where she will have he child placed.

On the South Africa front we continue to trust that God will provide the resources needed for our missions trip. At this time we have raised about 1/4. For those that expressed interest in a letter, and yet have not received one - it will be coming out shortly (we had to buy a new cartridge for the printer).