Day 79

I can't believe July is tomorrow! Man, this summer is just flying by! It won't be too long until our garage sale! Keep saving your stuff! If you really need to get it out of your house before the week of the sale please let me know.

In other news, Dan and I have passed our drug screen (shocking, I know), our HIV tests, had our physicals, TB tests and TDAP shots. I am planning on sending all that paperwork in tomorrow. Once that is all in we will be set to schedule our first homestudy. During this homestudy Kim will be coming to our house and doing an "in-depth" interview with both Dan and I. Pray for discernment because though I know almost no one fails a homestudy it is still nerve-racking being asked a myriad of questions about your relationships, family, sex life etc. Although I do understand that they do this to protect the kids it is somewhat frustrating to me that people accidentally get pregnant everyday while Dan and I, who are more than ready, have to jump through hoops. All right, enough venting...

My cousin, Lindsay said to me the other day, "Isn't it crazy to think that right now someone is pregnant with your child?" You know what? That is crazy to me....I really can't fathom it. I have wanted a child for so long and now that I am close I can't really imagine it. To be honest, it scares me. I'm going to be a Mom, Dan is going to be a Dad...We'll be parents!

Weird.

Scary.

Crazy.

Awesome.

Day 71

Well, this has been a rough weekend. Let me give you a bit of the back story:

Last week Sunday our high school youth group left for Colorado on a backpacking trip. This was Aaron's, our youth pastor's, last trip before he leaves to start the orphanage in Guatemala. We wanted this trip to really draw our youth closer to God and closer to each other.

Thursday evening I received a call that Audra Brownell, one of our beautiful youth, was struck on the head by a falling rock and killed. Being the super-sensitive person that I am, I have had the hardest time sleeping for the last few nights (I was sleeping great last night until the stupid tornado warning...). Thankfully, we were able to get the entire youth group home by Saturday night. This has been such a rough experience for them and my heart just breaks for what they are going through. My sister, who was on the trip, related to me that breaking the news to those kids and hearing them cry was the worse noise she has ever heard.

Please, please pray for our youth group. Three of our kids witnessed this tragedy and the rest are also deeply affected. Pray for the Brownell family as the visitation and funeral is this week. Pray for Aaron, he seems to be doing all right, but I know this is hard on both him and his wife Gwen (Audra was in her small group).

Audra was a beautiful girl with a love for Christ and a smile that could light up the room. Although those of us left behind are in pain, we have the hope and knowledge that she is with her Lord and Savior.











WE'LL MISS YOU AUDRA!

Day 66

Many of you have been curious as to how we are planning on decorating the baby's room. My tastes have changed quite a bit these last couple years. When I was in high school I was sure I was going to be doing a Beatrix Potter baby's room. Now, the thought of super-cutesy drives me crazy. I want to do a room that will be able to grow with him or her...using colors that would work well for a boy or girl. So, after doing a ton of looking, I have found a color combo that I LOVE! And, depending on the gender it could have very different accents to make it more "manly" or "girly." You ready for it?

This a great pic of the color combination:




And this is a pic of what kind of design we will be doing:



In this picture the color in the stripe is a lime green, since my house has too much green in it we will be doing that pretty yellow color in the first pic. I have a ton of wooden African accents that will look so cool and "rustic." Our crib is maple so that will help tie it in with the rest of the room. If it is a girl we will do something like that white flower that is on the wall...if it is a boy we will just leave the stripes plain. I am really excited and can't wait to paint!

Day 65

Well, we meet with Kim today. We received more paperwork to fill out...but none of it was really too bad. The only thing that will take a bit to do is to get drug/HIV tested and both of us also need physicals. As soon as that paperwork is in we will call Kim and schedule our "in-depth" homestudy. She said it will last about three hours. Yikes! The one thing that was somewhat disconcerting was learning that making an extra $140 put us in a different tax bracket which requires us to pay $5,000 MORE than we were expecting. Dan was NOT happy....nothing bugs a Spreadsheet Man more than having an unexpected $5,000 thrown at you. Good thing we are having a Garage Sale!!!!

Being the task-oriented person that I am, as soon as I got back from our meeting I scheduled my doctor's appointment and when I got home I finished all the paperwork that needs to be done. It feels so good knowing that all I need to do is bug Dan about scheduling his own appointment. :)

Also, because Kim will be visiting our home in the next couple weeks we are trying to make sure we get as much done as possible. Monday I put all our food back in the kitchen (YAY for new cupboards!), moved Sam out of his bedroom (don't worry, I made him a cave in the other bedroom...which he loves), and cleaned up the crib (it concerns me that the screws are missing though).

Tonight Dan and I worked on the garden. The baby bunnies had finally moved on and we spent a lot of time turning the compost into the soil. Hopefully I will be able to plant some delicious veggies soon!!!

Here some pics from tonight:




I conquer garden!




I was jealous...What took me a half an hour only took Dan about 10 minutes.




Fun times...I'm gonna feel it tomorrow though...

Day 60

Let's face it, thunderstorms are awesome. When I was younger I would always be the one staring out the window at the storm while my sister would be hiding under the covers. Of course, she could also have been hiding because I told her I saw a tornado coming...older sisters can be mean sometimes. Sorry Linds!!! :)

I was hoping to work in the yard this weekend but the stormy weather has forced me indoors. While I won't be hiding from tornadoes, I will be in my basement. I've decided to work one room at a time, cleaning and organizing from the bottom up. Tonight I tackle the dreaded laundry room...duh, duh, duh... Since our homestudy starts next Wednesday (the first part consists of them basically interviewing us at Bethany) we can expect our social worker to pay us a home visit by the 23rd. Yikes! So much to do. I figured that I would save myself a mental breakdown if I tackled each project room by room. I'll let you know how that goes. Dan's project is to clean the construction debris out of the garage. That means multiple trips to the dump. I know, you all wish you could live glamorous lives like Dan and I, right?

Also, I have been told by our knowledgeable "Garage Sale Guru" that we need to make sure that we receive a LOT of donations for the garage sale on July 31st because there is a lot of competition with summer garage sales. So, what I need from you is your donations. Go through your clothes, books, garages and set your stuff aside!

We will be setting up and pricing everything for the garage sale on Friday, July 30 and the actual garage sale will be on July 31st. I have fliers made if any of you would like to hand them out. I want to thank everyone who has offered to help.

Oh, and as far as donations go: Normally I would say, "Sure, bring the stuff over to my house." However, since we are going to be having our homestudy I really can't have my house overrun with garage sale items. So, you will be able to drop items off at my church (Rockford Reformed Church, 4890 - 11 Mile Rd.) July 26-30from 8:00am-4:00pm. I figured ya'll would understand.

Day 58

Everything is moving so fast and I am so excited!! Dan got a call from our social worker today and the first part of our homestudy begins next Wednesday. NEXT WEDNESDAY BABY!!!

The first part takes place at the Bethany offices…it is basically more of an interview. I’m a little worried about what they will ask because I’m not good under pressure. No worries though, Dan will be there!

Oh, and I have some more fun news; I set a date for our Adoption Fundraiser Garage Sale. It will be July 30-31st at Rockford Reformed Church. So, if you have any items that you would like to donate to the garage sale, set them aside. All proceeds will go towards raising money for our adoption. And, if any of you are garage sale people and would like to help out please let me know. I am not really a garage sale person…the last time I had a garage sale I ended up practically giving things to people. It was pretty sad.

So, that is all my exciting news! Yay!!!!

Day 57

Well, things seem to be moving really fast with this adoption process. Yesterday we were told that we had been assigned our social worker and that she will be calling us this week to make an appointment for our homestudy!!! How exciting is that?!?!
Also, how scary is that?!?! I feel like there is so much that needs to be done. Mondays are my day off and I use them to clean the house, do laundry, get groceries etc… As I was doing the cleaning and seeing all that needs to be done I was suddenly very overwhelmed. I know that the homestudy is more like a home inspection, basically something to see if our house is safe to live in. After this weekend it should be. Dan is going to try to get the rest of the drywall up and the electrical plates in place. I realize that the social worker is not coming to the house to see how clean and organized I am…I get that. However, I just got overwhelmed by everything that I want done with organizing, painting, decorating. I know those things, in the long run, don’t really matter…but they matter to me. Plus, if I don’t get to these things now, how am I going to get to it when I have a kid?
Once our homestudy and everything is completed and our profile is out there (which should be all set by September) we could get chosen any time. So we could be parents anywhere from September on!!! I want everything ready and set before then because once a baby arrives I certainly am not going to have time to organize closets.
Being the list-maker that I am (seriously, sometimes I even write things on my list just so I can cross them off…Dan thinks I’m a little OCD) I am going to make a list of everything that I want done. I started making a list for the bedroom yesterday; here’s what we have to do:

Bedroom:
-Get blinds
-Make and/or find some curtains
-Add artwork to the walls
-finish the drywall
-Organize and re-do the closets

That doesn’t seem too bad and if I take it a week at a time I should be fine.

So, any of you organizers out there that want to donate your time…let me know and I will put you to work!!!

Day 52

I am heading to Bethany this afternoon to give them our full application, statement of faith, fingerprints, questionnaires, and our initial application fee. I am so excited. It is happening!!

Dan and I have talked a lot about our budget trying to think different ways that we can save and sacrifice. Dan is canceling his gym membership today (which is fine because we have a treadmill now and he doesn’t really use it in the summer anyway). We are also going to cancel our cable [*sniff]. We have done it before and have survived (albeit we drove family nuts with our constant Friends references because I had that playing in the background all the time). Prepare yourselves!!!

Although domestic adoption is much cheaper than international it is still very expensive and we are going to do all we can to raise the money through fundraising and grants (we can’t apply for grants until after our homestudy). I have an idea for a garage sale this summer so if you have stuff that you would like to donate, set it aside….I’ll give more information on that later, I need to clear a date on the church calendar first.

We aren’t too worried about the money though…people have been so generous.

Our adventure is just beginning!

Day 50

This past week was exciting for Dan and I as we spent a lot of time filling out our formal application for domestic infant adoption. Filling it out makes it seem 'real' to me. I am praying and hoping that the wait won't be too long. I sent the formal application in today and I am trying to get the other information, along with our first payment, into Bethany later this week.

Here is what the time-frame looks like for Dan and I:
-Once we get our paperwork and first payment into Bethany it will take about three months to process and get our home-study done.
-We will be assigned a social worker who will interview us and our references and then we need to start working on our profile. Our profile is what the birthmother uses to pick the parents of her child.
-Do our homestudy, (the social worker comes to our home to make sure it is 'baby-safe' i.e. no random holes in the wall or electrical wiring in random places. We would sooo fail a home study right now).
-After the homestudy is approved our profile is sent to Bethany where it will be published on their website and made available to prospective birthmothers. We are hoping that the wait will not be long but it is all dependent on a birthmother picking us. It could be right away, or it could be a year or more.

Not knowing when Dan and I will be parents could drive me crazy...but I have decided to use this time to get everything ready for Baby Van. There is so much that needs to be done. So, being the obsessive list maker that I am I have started a list of all the things that need to be done before Baby Van arrives....:

-Clean out and prepare Baby Van's bedroom. Right now it is Sam's room/catch-all for random items. It needs to be super cleaned and decorated. I am excited to start decorating.

-Obsessively read everything I can about parenting, babies, adoption, etc.

-Attempt to remove all evidence of drywall dust from my home. Mike and Dan laughed at me this weekend as I cleaned the keyboard with a Q-tip, but I know they appreciate a clean keyboard so keep laughing boys!!!

-Organize, organize, organize! I haven't really organized things since Dan and I moved in. Things are kind of just strewn about in different closets. Now that we are nearing the end of construction I no longer have an excuse.

So, that is the beginning of my list and the basic outline of what we know so far with the adoption process. I was again humbled this past week by receiving a check in the mail from one of my friends. We now have about half the initial application fee taken care of, which really, really helps. Dan and I are so very appreciative by the support of so many people and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts!!!

I figured I would post a picture of how our kitchen is looking right now. Dan has done such a good job. We still need to get a sink, countertop, and tile the backsplash but I think it is lookin' good! I'm so thankful for a handy husband. Oh, AND he hooked up the dishwasher without us having a sink. How cool is that!?!? No more doing dishes in the bathroom sink! WAHOO!!!