Ella starts her formal education at the "Y"

Ella waiting patiently for 1 pm to come.
The moment she has been waiting for! She even got tagged.


Mr. Brad the teacher
Friends at first sight. Home again and celebrating with some chocolate fondue.

Good Day Sis!

I just dropped Ella off at school. Her FIRST DAY OF PRESCHOOL! She was soooo excited. She didn't even want to eat breakfast. Not normal. While she was putting away her "spoons" (her job) she told me that she was so excited for school. I told her we would go to school after lunch. She then told me that she didn't want to eat lunch and would eat after school. I did get her to eat something.

I had hung on to Emily's old backpacks. Good thing. Ella loves them. She wore her backpack all morning long rotating between two different ones: Disney Princess's and Ariel. The Ariel backpack won out in the end.

She was so brave for the big drop off. We found her name tag, her cubby for her backpack, took a picture with her new teacher - Mr. Brad, kissed her good bye and I was off. No tears or anything. "Just okay Mom, see you later." I left and thought my baby is in school. I had to go check on her one more time just in case she was nervous now. I went in and found her playing by herself in the treehouse. Snapped a few photos and before I knew it Danielle appeared. They asked eachothers name and then were instant friends. Wow! How easy. Ella had a friend. I could go home now.

I now have 2 1/2 hours without children Monday - Thursday. Well at least until little Ruby comes. Speaking of Ruby, I feel much better this week about everything. I have come to terms that this adoption is different than Ella's. It is going to take time. We are meeting with the immigration office in Salt Lake tomorrow to file our I-600A form. We just need to pray that our form moves really quickly through our government system and that Ghana will get their work done on their end. I found out that the form I thought that I could have sent in months ago was not the case. We did need our Home Study first so we haven't wasted time other than that I wish we would have started our home study back in May.

RR gave me his nod on Ruby for the baby's name so Ruby Anne Reneer it is. Having a name already picked out is a first for our family. Well you know that usually our children go unnamed forever. We are getting faster in our old age. It seemed like Brigham wasn't named for a couple of months. Emily was a least for a couple of weeks. Ella was maybe a week. And Ruby isn't even born yet! As for Yaw, I have heard that sometimes children like to get an "american name" when they are adopted. We will let Yaw decide. We are hoping and praying that we can bring them home by christmas. I would love it and so appreciate it if you really would go with me to help me bring them back home.

Love you so,

Jules