I have been home for about five days now and will be returning to St. Louis tomorrow for about another four weeks (until I have to return to work Aug. 30th). It has been great being home; spending time with Giovanni, being in my own house, sleeping in my own bed, and cuddling with Capone....living our normal life, if only for a little while.

Still no major news on the adoption front. We got an e-mail from CHSFS saying that some people have finally received their approvals (not us though). The three regional referral committees met in July but no referrals were made to U.S families. They are speculating that there will be no news in August because it tends to be a month that many go on vacation in Ecuador. We were told that our contact in Ecuador has written letters and made appeals asking for the UTA to push to deal with the long pending cases and she did receive a promise to do so. I am hopeful but lets just say that I'm not going to hold my breath.

I can do all this through he who give me strength ~Philippians 4:13