i am still in awe that neiko is ours!!
i feel like a weight has been lifted off of me :)
kinda like after you have a baby- you are in the hospital and all the nurses are monitoring everything.
you have to keep track of feeding and changing, and just generally feeling exposed.
then you get to go HOME.
and for the first time the baby actually feels like YOURS.  with no one else involved.

it is WONDERFUL.

i've already had a few more conversations with neiko's birth mom and it is so freeing to be able to talk about him with her without any kind of reservations or cautiousness. amazing.

we are still hearing from lawyers about bills and such but that surely can't go on too much longer, right??

so-
the house is almost finished.  i think after tonight we will have things finished enough to call for our final inspection.  and if we pass then we can close on our loan.
and the adoption is done.
2 major things to cross off our lists of things we have going on!! :)

i'm thinking our lives will seem quite a bit more manageable after this!!!!

but unfortunately even though we are done, most of my family is not.
i have 2 brothers building in my neighborhood- my parents are building out at the lake- my sister will be starting her house across from our subdivision as soon as she can- and my youngest brother just bought a house right next to hers.
so we are- and will be for quite sometime- spending every saturday and a few weeknights here and there helping everyone else get settled.
wish we had a little time to enjoy a slower pace but i'm SURE it'll come at some point.  i mean pretty sure....

and for those of you who only read this for the pure entertainment of the chaos of life with a big family, this is for you-
this morning i was awakened by the sound of a male voice in the kitchen.  i hurredly threw some clothes on and walked out to find my cousin here looking for a chainsaw.
very typical with brothers building close by.
after i found a chainsaw for him we had 30 minutes until it was time to leave for school.

and then little wren in her little purple night gown and her crazy morning hair informed me that tekoa needed me upstairs.
which meant that tekoa had wet the bed.
sigh.
i got tekoa in the tub and went upstairs to gather up the wet bedding.
which is when neiko found his chance to climb into the tub with her.  in his pj's.  sigh again.
not so cute anymore.

i used up all of our time getting those two taken care of.
and while i was on my knees getting neiko dressed wren came to give me a hug.  she hugged me, and her hands stuck in my hair.  they were covered in syrup.
and now so was my hair. and her nightgown was covered too.

after cleaning wren we were about 5 min past time to leave.
i quickly herded everyone out the door and did a 2 min search for shaeya's missing shoe.  found it.
ran to the van, threw it in reverse, and backed right over shaeya's bike.
double sigh.
don't know what her bike was doing halfway under our van!

i didn't have time to assess the damage, i just pulled out and shut the garage door.
i got out onto the road and noticed the garage door hadn't shut.
i tried and tried and eventually had to run back with the opener and it still wouldn't shut.
there was nothing in the way.
i wiped off the sensors and tried again.  nothing.
i then ran back to the van amidst all the many questions about what was wrong with the garage door and are we gonna just LEAVE with it OPEN???

we did.
and, of course, we were late to school.
i just hope their school understands that i'm doing the best i can! :)

BUT- only two more weeks and we are DONE!!
praise Jesus i am so ready for a break from a hectic schedule!!!!!!!!!!!!