I’m finally home. I drove FlyGuy to a client in Ohio and realized I was very close to my own homestead in Michigan, so I made a detour and spent a night with my sister. It was great, but I am happy to be back on my own turf in Chicago.

My summer expeditions are not done yet. I will be home for about 5 days, then I’m off for a 10 day road-trip with my sisters and their families. Our final destination is a beach house where we spent summers as children. We rented an 8 bedroom place right on the ocean. I can’t wait to get there. Although my sisters and I still squabble like 8 year olds, we also tend to forgive-and-forget like 8 year olds. My father and his wife are coming along too. We all get along very well and are eager to hurry to the beach so we can all sit back and relax together.

On this upcoming vacation, my plan is to sit on the deck, eat shrimp and drink wine. I will also hunt for sharks teeth, something we did endlessly as children. My oldest sister has a bowl full of fossilized shark’s teeth we found over the past 30 years. She is our keeper-of-the-teeth and we are looking forward to adding to the collection.

There is much to write and discuss about our month in VA. We never did the Christmas in July photo shoot. FlyGuy’s family never really warmed to the idea. My family has offered to set up a tree at the beach. Not sure what to do about this situation. Right now, I’m generally annoyed about not being able to get the photo in VA, so I’m pouting. {FYI, our social worker is adamant that we have a picture by a Christmas tree because expectant moms like to picture their kids on Christmas morning blah, blah, blah… Good thing I’m Christian, I guess. Must admit though, this whole xmas picture thing is rubbing me the wrong way.}

Adoption update:
Still waiting on State fingerprint report. Will call our State Representative if the report is not back by the time we return from the beach. Besides that, we only need to submit our physicals, then the homestudy is done. I am knee-deep in writing the profile. We are hopeful that we will start to be shown to expectant mothers by September 1.

*I apologize for being absent from your blogs and contact. Communication in VA was routinely thwarted by bad weather, poor satellite signal and downed phone lines. Somedays I felt like a pilgrim.