And we laughed at how crazy it seem....

when our homestudy agency told us that they had to visit our home every 6 months until our adoption is final to "make sure our house is still standing". Well I guess there is some validity to such an inspection as our house got in the way of a falling tree just over a week ago (score: Tree 1, House 0). Luckily our wonderful neighbors came to the rescue in a pinch and helped hubby cover the gaping hole in our roof with a tarp before the downpour started again. Hubby then managed to stand under a waterfall from the broken downspout and cut away enough of the tree from the house to get a tarp down and get the water away from our foundation and keep it out of our basement (yah hubby!). We had the last laugh when out of frustration and anger, a neighbor and I hacked away most of the branches, leaving a naked trunk. The tree company cheered when what remained fell to the ground. By my account, the house is ahead as it is still standing and the tree is now a stump.



On a lighter note, we received our I-171H over the weekend. This is our preapproval from USCIS to bring an adopted child into the US. All that stands between us and E's brother is a 7-8 month wait. Luckily our Amharic language program arrived last week and I will have plenty of time to study.