ABCD

A - Adoption. Here is the update. July 15 was the first day that the government was going to accept new dossiers since June. Our facilitator had an appointment to submit ours. We waited and waited for information about how the appointment went. We got an email Thursday stating that we had NOT been submitted. The only information we were given was that "she is not available for adoption yet". Upon questioning what exactly that meant we were told that she was available for domestic adoption but that her documents for international adoption were not completed. Our next option for submission would be July 22. We are not allowed to submit until she is officially available for international adoption. We don't know when that will be. We don't know why she wasn't already. We don't know how this will impact our travel options. We basically are just hanging out and waiting. We are getting a little better at waiting. Just a little.

B - Bear. We hit the road Thursday for TN. While we were there we drove into the Smoky Mountain National Park to take in a little nature. Nature we got. We decided to drive on a 12 mile gravel road in hopes of seeing a bear. I was a little skeptical but bears we saw! A momma and three cubs. They were very very close to the car.








This is the lovely momma laying about 3 feet from the car.

C- Cade's Cove. Cade's Cove is an 11 mile loop inside the park. It was wonderful.






D - Douglas Lake. I spent a few lovely days with some friends in a lovely cabin on a lovely lake. Douglas Lake is outside of Knoxville and I would high recommend it.