Okay...all classes are completed!!! We are now waiting on the background check and the home study! Matt's best optimistic guess on a timeframe is June. Mine is less optimistic, but I think that any time this calendar year will be good! :-)

We're so excited...the room is completely ready! We're doing little things to get the house ready. Matt has turned into Bob Vila and is doing a really great job.

This week, I found some very inspiring songs by Steven Curtis Chapman about adoption. I have to say that when I heard the one called "All I Really Want" (a song from a foster child's perspective when talking to Santa Claus), I sat in my office and bawled my eyes out. I know that God already knows which child or children we will bring into our home...I just hope He will give them a little glimmer of hope in their hearts. And I hope they're in our house by Christmas; I want to give them the best Christmas of their lives!!!

Anyway, here's the video--grab the Kleenex first, though! :-)




So, I'll try to keep you updated, but please keep us in your thoughts and prayers...and if you have any thoughts or prayers to spare, please pray for the kids that are out there that need a permanent home! And now, to quote the Golden Girls, "Thank you for being a friend!" ;-)

The Wait...

Well, classes are over, our application is complete...now we just have to wait! More later (this is on my BlackBerry)... :-)

A Preview?

Anyone who knows me well knows that I adore my dog Vivienne... She's a German shorthaired pointer that we rescued 7 years ago or so. She's stubborn and willful and she likes to eat garbage way more than she likes to eat dog food. I could list the things that drive me crazy about her for a long time: she attacks my feet when I wear house slippers, she likes to sleep smack dab in the middle of the bed and will kick me out of the way to do it, and she is sassier than a teenager. But the things about her that outweigh all of those few things I named above are these: she loves me and I love her. That's it...simple as that.

Tonight, I'm at what I hope is the tail end of a pretty bad sinus infection. Unfortunately, Vivienne is sick, too. So she's giving me a fair preview, I think, of what I can expect out of parenthood... I warn you now that the story that I could write here would not be for the weak-stomached. Let's just say that I had to clean up messes from both ends of my poor little puppy. Now she's laying sweetly on the couch and I have to wonder if she's thankful that I cleaned up for her. I have to wonder if she even understands how much I hate that, but that for her I would do it as often as necessary. But then I wonder why she should have these thought processes...after all, she knows I'm her mom and isn't that a mom's job?

I am blessed to have had a wonderful mom and grandma who both would have sacrificed anything in the world for me. I still rely on both of their love on a daily basis, as I'm so lucky that they're both still in my life. They cleaned up after me, both physically and metaphorically when things when wrong in my life... And that's the kind of mom I want to be. I want my kids to know that I will do anything in the world for them...just like Vivienne knows I'd do for her. So, thanks for the practice, Vivster! But we don't have to repeat it any time soon! ;-)

So, to get back to why this post belongs on this blog--surely you've figured it out by now. I know that I won't be a perfect mother...I know my kids won't be perfect by any means. (I hope they won't try to bite my feet if I'm wearing slippers, but you just never know. ;-)) But I will do what my mom and grandma did for me and what I do for Vivienne. I will love them anyway...

Only One More Class to Go!

I can hardly believe that we only have one week of classes left! I'm exhausted today...and getting ready to go to bed even though it's not even 9:30 yet. My sinuses have been acting up (a sure sign that spring is just around the corner) and I had to wake up early today to clean and cook before class for a jewelry party I had tonight...

The party was a lot of fun (how could it not be with jewelry???) but now I just want to crash and I think that's what I'm going to do right after I submit this blog! :-)

I'm getting more excited every day. We still have a lot to do, but Matt has made such strides with the room we are getting ready for the boys (if there is a girl in the mix, there is already a room for her). He has painted, wallpapered, and re-floored it. It looks phenomenal... Some friends of ours are giving us a set of bunk beds, so we'll add them to it and it will be kid-ready!!!

Thanks for reading (if you do) and keeping us in your thoughts and prayers during this process! And now...GOOD NIGHT!

Scrapbooking...

Okay, yes, this might seem I'm getting ahead of myself, but the other day a friend suggested to me that I should start documenting our adoption journey by a scrapbook that would eventually lead to the day we get to officially adopt our child or children. I thought this was a wonderful idea, so I went looking for adoption scrapbooking supplies on e-bay. I found a sheet that has the sayings below. They're so sweet, I just had to share them. (I left out the ones about babies, but they were sweet, too!)

• Definition: ADOPT: a. to take by choice into a relationship; b. to take voluntarily; c. to choose.
• Families are about how you feel on the inside.
• Always remember...this was not a chance meeting.
• We looked far and wide and it was love at first sight.

But the one that struck me the most is probably the simplest...it still brought a quick tear to my eye and a lump in my throat, though..."Me and My Family". Wow. Just wow. Have a great day!

Quick Update

Our classes went great on Saturday...we're getting to know some of the other families a little bit better and for that reason I kind of wish we were in the classes for longer! :-)


But anyway, we saw a video of a perfect foster family (with the cutest little boy, Vernon) but time just seemed to fly by!!!


Our instructor is such a wonderful man; he shoveled a HUGE path through the snow so that we didn't track snow through the church! Even though it was cold that warmed my heart...that and just thinking forward to the day when we'll have two children in what Dr. Burjay (sp?) calls our "healing home".

Matt is working hard at getting the room ready for the homestudy and it just makes me smile every time I think about it... Peace out. ;-)