Adopting Ahren (& PBJ, too!)

Although we had been told that our documents were picked up, it turns out that they tried but couldn't get them after all. They are trying again today. Just as they have tried each week for the past 2 months or more. All of this just for his birth certificate. Mind you, that is the birth certificate that will need to be re-issued not once, but at least twice later on. So we thought we had made a tiny little bit of progress, but that was wrong.
So, in non-adoption related news, I meet with the architect and home builder later today to work on our house plans. The latest set of drawings are fabulous. Of course, we still need to find out how much this is going to cost. We have an idea based on rough numbers for square feet, but silly things like bathrooms and kitchens can add big bucks. We have several options if we need to cut $$ somewhere, without reducing the size of the house or losing the functions we find important. (I just hope the kids don't mind sleeping in the barn ;-) Just kidding! We may have to skip the pool. It can be added later, anyway. All of this is still contingent on getting the land to build this dream house. That is going about as well as our adoption. We have been trying to buy this one 7 acre piece of property for about 8 months now. it was all tied up in a bitter divorce case, then the title had to be cleared, then the woman who owns it went 'away' for a while (rumors abound as to where she really was...) Now, we just can't get her to commit to it. We get close and then she drops off the face of the earth for a few weeks only to re-appear and we start all over. As a backup plan, we found a wonderful house on 3.5 acres in the same neighborhood. It has a large pool and a big workshop. The house is enormous and it's in our price range. We will be looking at it on Saturday. If we like it, we may just go that direction and tell the whacky land lady Adios!