Moving Along...and Moving?

I've heard many adoptive parents comment that they really dislike the end of the Ch*na adoption process because it seems to drag on and on.  

I have to respectfully disagree with those people.  

I am loving the last couple of weeks.  

After sending off our dossier (a.k.a. gigantic stack of paperwork) at the end of April and then waiting...and waiting...and waiting...until July 30 when we finally got the news that our LOA had arrived at our agency, this update-every-other-week stage has been pretty much awesome.

So, yes, I do have another fun update to share.  We found out last Friday that our stack of Immigration paperwork had been cabled to the U.S. Consulate in Ch*na.  Our agency sent another stack of paperwork to Ch*na on Monday.  When both of those stacks meet up at the Consulate, we officially have Article 5 Drop-Off.  That is supposed to happen today.  (I totally don't understand this part of the process well enough to explain it at all coherently - the name doesn't even make sense to me - but it's another checkmark on our list.  And I <3 checkmarks.)

Want to know the best part?  Forget my giant semi-complicated diagram.  Here's what's left in our adoption process.

1.) Article 5 Pick-Up (which should happen on Thursday, September 13)

2.)  TRAVEL APPROVAL!!!

Yup...that's it.  Two itty bitty hurdles left between us and our sweet boys.  You know, these cuties.

I'm just a little excited.

The only downside to this update is that it looks like it's going to be best for us to wait until November to travel.  I really hate that it's going to be an extra month of waiting, but the reasons for holding off on travel just keep adding up.  I have to keep reminding myself that Saturday is September, which puts us only two months (and a few days) away from getting on a plane.  Thirty-four months into this crazy process, two months should seem like nothing.  Right?

As for the other part of this post (...and Moving?), we decided that our fall wasn't going to be eventful enough.  After all, what's two more toddlers running around our crazy house? :)

So...we made an offer on a house.

We weren't exactly planning on moving, but then I was looking online and found this amazing house for an amazing price.  My husband thinks the work it needs isn't going to be so amazing, but I kinda' love it. 

We'll see what happens. :)