Ahoy!

Hi! 

We spent the weekend with the Gerst family and we got home yesterday around 2:00 pm on Monday.  A dear friend stopped by yesterday and wanted to know what she could do to help.  I felt so disorganized from unloading everything out of the van, I wasn't even organized enough to direct her, so we just talked.  :) I liked that better anyways.

We had an appointment at the immigration office in Grand Rapids on Thursday, but since we were already in MI and I didn't want to do a solo trip on Thursday morning, we prayerfully went to the office and asked for our appointment to be bumped up.  And they let us! Apparently, they have just changed guidelines in IN and now before you are granted permanent citizen cards for the kids, they now need their biometrics taken.  Yeah...I don't know who's idea that was, but I am guessing they have never tried to fingerprint infants or get them to sit up straight and look directly at the camera.  If I understand correctly, after we get this card, then we can pursue readoption stateside.  Hurray!

I have a lot of pictures from this weekend, but may break it up into a few posts as the aforementioned disorganization is still present.  :)

The girls took their first boat ride.  It was near evening and their fussy time, but we thought they would like the motion of the boat.  They loved it! Jada kept blowing bubbles as I think the motor sound reminded her of that.

Lest you start freakin' out that the girls aren't wearing life jackets, please know, we were in good hands...

with our nephew, Hudson, at the wheel...

and our nephew, Charlie.  Also, we were extra safe because Hudson had brought along a gun and while he commandeered the craft...

Jon kept on the lookout for pirates.  (This picture cracks me up because, as you can maybe tell from his expression, Jon is totally using his pirate voice and searching the horizon with Hudson's mini-rifle).

Adia takes over on pirate watch, until Mama decided she didn't want her choking on a rifle or it's parts.

The boat ride took a turn for chilly (chillier) and had an early arrival to port.