(Laura speaking) We spoke with Bethany Christian Services about agencies that worked with Costa Rica, and they only knew of one. We decided to look online and do some research on the companies available. We were only able to find two companies. The problem was that the company we wanted to work with wasn't in Michigan. We spoke with LifeLine, the company we chose to use, and they said we would need Bethany Christian Services to do our home study. We were very excited that we finally found a way to adopt through Costa Rica. Through our Internet research we were able to find a missionary that works in Costa Rica and she is willing to help us while we are in Costa Rica.
     We submitted our formal applications to both Bethany and LifeLine in March 2011. We have gone to the orientation for parents adopting children. We have also attended a meeting that spoke about adoption, and the medical problems that can arise with internationally adopted children. We had our first home study at the beginning of April 2011. Our second home study was completed at the end of April 2011.
     We were so excited to begin the home study process. We have two wonderful women working with us and being very patient in explain what needs to be done. When we had our first home study they told us we needed to put a railing on our stairs, and a deck up that would attach under our slider.
     Jordan and I stayed up very late one Saturday night trying to put up our railing on our stairs. We had a difficult time with it, so Jordan asked one of his friends to come help. It took them a couple of hours to get it done, but with out his friends help it would have been so much more difficult.
     As we were trying to get our house ready for our second home study we celebrated Kyra's Third birthday and Mark's fourth birthday. They are just eleven months apart. It has been great having two children close in age. They love to play together and really enjoy each others company. We can't wait to have a third child.
     After the completion of our second home study we were told that we didn't need to have any more home studies, and that they would start to work on the paper work. We are expecting the paper work to take approximately four to six weeks. We just have a couple of things to do now to make sure that the paper work can be completed.
     We are very excited to start the next process of completing our dossier. The dossier is all of the paper work that needs to be done to send to Costa Rica. One item of the dossier is our passports, which we just found out the cost of those as I (Laura) just applied for mine. We are asking for your prayer as we continue to pursue this adoption.