What's more stressful than a home study?

Our Home Study is complete.
Our Dossier is complete save for the lone form we're waiting on from US Customs and Immigration Services that authorizes us to bring a baby back into this country.
And one other thing.

We have to submit two pages of pictures to the government of Rwanda to show them what a loving family and home is waiting for this child. They ask us to submit two formal family portraits as well as some candid shots. I'm assuming they want us looking happy and loving. They might not want to see Simon with the baby in a headlock.


We also have to submit pictures of every room in the house. And this brings me to the most stressful part of this process yet. My house is not photo-ready. I've been waiting for it to be photo-ready for weeks, and it just hasn't happened yet. Every time I get the floors clean (fine, my mom got the floors clean), there's a baking project on the counters. When the counters are clear, Talya finds the tupperware cabinet and my floor is littered with plastic lids.

So, what's a mommy to do?
Use this picture, which was taken AFTER Simon "cleaned" the living room. (Do you notice my cleaning mostly involves other people helping?)


Or, this one, where Taly is the picture of a happy baby - playing with knives?

Maybe I'll use this picture:


I would totally give these people a child. Who cares that that's not my house? Martha won't mind. And maybe that model can stand in for the photo shoots, since I don't want the Rwandan people to see the harried, tired mom with spit up on her shirt that shows up in most of my pictures.