At long last, we have finally finished our initial paperwork! I drove over to Sue's office at lunch to hand it to her personally, and we are now officially in the home study process. The next steps are having a meeting with Sue as a couple, then individual meetings with her, and finally another couples meeting with her at our house. I am slightly panicked about the house meeting, but from everything I have heard and read, we'll be fine. We still have classes and some other paperwork to work on, but we are over a big hurdle!

We hope to begin renovating the nursery at the end of October/beginning of November. We will be replacing part of the ceiling that is damaged and removing the texturing, removing the paneling, fixing and painting the walls and installing new trim. No problem! Any assistance/expert advice would not be turned away :)

In other news, my mom sold her house and we have established a moving date for her of 10/21. She flew in today and went straight to Janesville where she will be spending some time over the next week, signing papers and hiring carpenters, electricians and plumbers to get the house in tip-top shape before she moves in. On Thursday the 5th after work, we are flying to Kansas together to do some work and get loose ends wrapped up. Jeremy is out of town at his annual conference in Germany from the 6th through the 14th, and then on 10/19, Jeremy and I are going to fly down to Kansas to help with the moving. We plan to have the U-Haul loaded and on the road by Sunday morning at the latest, and we'll say a sad goodbye to my hometown of Manhattan, Kansas! I am so excited that my mom will be so close after ten years of being so far away, and will be a big part of our kids' lives! We're already discussing new curtains and paint colors, as well as a nursery room at her new house :)