closer.

we're slipping soft into summer rhythms, filling days slow like honey with equal parts productivity and play.







zee and bee hole up in their rooms or wedge in a couch corner, folded deep in the grip of a novel or tapping out their own plots, lines thickening into chapters that flesh into adventure.


em and elle beg for 'summer school,' and will spend hours happily researching flamingoes or gorillas, constructing sequels for their favorite books, racing through math facts to best their quickest time.







we've whipped up a hearty batch of weeding and cleaning, letter-writing, walks along a thinned-chocolate river, picnics and parks and cheering at the church softball games. the boys love their wii time, but their daily allotment is twenty minutes apiece, which leaves oceans of space for actual get outside and build forts kind of play.





june's highlight thus far was succinctly expressed in the littles' whoop of exultation yesterday afternoon. our case has been submitted to the US embassy in addis, which means we just might be winging off to bring our son home in a few weeks' time. we now wait for travel clearance from the embassy, and then an appointment for our visa interview in ethiopia.


if you will, please pray with us that all of our paperwork is in order and that the reported reduced working capacity of the embassy in july will still make room for all who are waiting. please also pray for our friends who traveled with us in may and are either still waiting to hear that they've passed court, and/or waiting to be submitted to embassy. thank you!