Who steals socks?

Just a quick update to let everyone know that the draft of our home study came back, and we're in the process of making a few adjustments. Hopefully that will get turned around quickly, and we'll have one more piece of the puzzle in hand. Erin's birth certificate has been stamped by the secretary of state in California and is on it's way back to Indiana. The next step is to get everything stamped by the secretary of state here in Indy, and then everything will head to the Chinese embassy. We're still hoping to have all of the paperwork on its way to China by the end of January. I think we're on track!

Also, I just want to thank the California based portion of Erin's family for their hospitality at Thanksgiving. We had a great trip, and it was nice to see everyone in one spot! It was also fun getting to hang out in San Francisco with Erin's parents. I even managed to take everyone on a driving tour of the city, and Erin only cried in fear one time.

I will say that flying over the holidays was a bit tiresome. When we arrived in San Francisco last Wednesday evening, we grabbed our luggage off the carousel and headed immediately to our hotel in San Jose. On Thanksgiving morning, I opened the suitcase and there was a lone brown sock where I could have sworn there should be 4 PAIRS of brown socks. Hmm... Did we forget to pack them? About this time, Erin discovered that her curling iron/brush/firestarting-wand-of-doom thing she uses on her hair was also missing. I was dejected at the thought of wearing dirty socks on a holiday, but Erin was even more inconsolable over the possibility of needing a hat. (And Deb and Dave can attest that when she first visited their room to alert them to this situation, she definitely needed a hat...) Luckily Deb came through with the curling iron, and Dave loaned me a pair of white socks. Only in California could you find a Payless Shoes open on Thanksgiving Day having a sock sale, no less. It's a holiday, people?!! I was grateful, none the less.

I guess we should have contacted American Airlines about where the heck our stuff went, but neither of us had the energy at the end of the weekend. And frankly, I think Erin was glad to see my brown Dickies industrial socks go into Luggage Purgatory.

Bret