Happy weekend!

This weekend was a really fun weekend for us. I graduated from college!!! Yay! Now I get to mark that little box on random questionnaires that says "college graduate" instead of "some college". Happy day :) The graduation went really well - I didn't fall down on that long stage and shook with the right hand, accepted my towel and diploma with the left hand. For those who don't know what the towel is - Crown presents a Servant Towel to remind us of the servant leadership Jesus taught us while He lived on earth.

After the graduation we had a party with our family and friends, and I had such a good time!! It was great to have all of our nieces and nephews running around playing with each other (at one point Dave's niece, Hanna, went up to my sister, Carissa, and said, "Auntie Rachel?" - that cracked me up!!!) I absolutely adore being surrounded by those that I love, so Saturday was the best day I've had in a while. Thank you to everyone who made that day so special!!!

On Friday, Dave and I went to St Paul and got our fingerprints taken at the USCIS. That office is the only place to go to in Minnesota for immigration services, except for an office in Duluth, so it was a busy place! Crazy enough, we ran into another couple who we've been doing our adoption training with. The timing had to have happened just right for us to have appointments on the same day around the same time! We got to sit and talk with them for a little while, and we filled each other in on how far we've gotten with our dossiers. We are in almost exactly the same spot right now - working on getting our autobiographies written before we can schedule our home studies. The timing seems to be working out well right now to get our dossier in on my 27th birthday - July 11th.

Our friends from the Philippines, Andy and Tyler came to visit us a few weeks ago. They have been such good friends to us, and we have missed them very much while they have lived over there so that Andy could attend school over there, and Tyler trained as a midwife. We got to catch up with them on their new endeavors, and while they stayed at our house they presented us with beautiful pictures of children from the Philippines!!! What a special gift!! Andy asked us if it made it harder to see these pictures, and in some ways it did - it makes me a little more impatient to go over there to pick up our children, but it also puts pictures in my mind while I pray for the children over there. They told us that it would be okay if we shared some of those pictures on our blog with all of you, so please enjoy the pictures of these beautiful children.