Paperwork and other ramblings

Happy Halloween! Can I first start off by rambling a bit? Ok thanks, don't mind if I do... LOL! From time to time I go through phases where I dislike our house, tonight is one of them. I'm whining, but...I wanna live on a street that is BUSY with trick-or-treaters! We had more visitors this year than in the recent years (I think we have 18), but not near as many as I wish we had. Yes, I realize buying a bunch of candy for a boat load of trick-or-treaters would be expensive...but I don't care...I love to see all the little kids dressed up, love to see their faces as they get candy, I would love to be able to where a costume myself when answering the door....  Our street stinks!! We're on the end of a street that is not very well lit...and all the houses around us were NOT participating in the festivities...party poopers! What's not to like about kids? Kids all dressed up in cute costumes, totally excited and having fun?! Why wouldn't any sane person WANT trick-or-treaters?! Unless you don't like kids...???  Weirdos!!!

Anyway, enough of that nonsense!

So...adoption news? Not much...  But we did FINALLY turn all of our paperwork in! We haven't heard anything as a result of that yet...now I'm starting to worry about whether they received the paperwork or not...I'll give it a day or two, then I'll send off an email to be sure. Although our adoption case worker is retiring soon...maybe at the end of this week? I don't know for sure the date of her retirement because my crazy husband threw the letter away! Gggrrrr!!! So, hopefully I can figure out who to contact....

Well, that is all. Rambling, crazy, stupid post!

~Kendra

It's October already?! What?!

Yeah, so -- I've been MIA for a few months... Back in June (seems so long ago!), I was still in the mad dash trying to get things done and preparing for the home study. Then things got hectic and somehow my "to do" list kept getting pushed back, back, back...I admit, I kind of went into panic mode about it. However, my dear friend, Sarah, reminded me that it was okay to take a little break if I was feeling overwhelmed. I don't remember exactly what she said, but something just "clicked", and I decided to go ahead and let it set on the back burner for awhile. Not that I wasn't thinking about adoption the past few months, because that couldn't be further from the truth, but we've been busy and I think letting go of the stress and worry about the things we still needed to accomplish was a good thing. We're ready to go again...because we've taken enough time (and it also helps that we got a letter from our case worker saying that we'd passed our deadline on a paper we signed (oops!) and we needed to let her know if we were dropping out of the program or moving forward).

So, I've recently been in touch with our case worker, we'll be turning in the remaining pieces of our the huge amount of paperwork very soon (end of this week or beginning of next is my goal!), and then very quickly getting the home study scheduled!

Several weeks ago we picked out the paint color for the nursery (Valspar Polished Silver #4008-1B) and the room is now painted! Although I have decided that I'm going to paint the chevron pattern on one wall very soon. And, just this weekend, Rob put together the crib (so cool!!!).

Pictures, I've got a few...although they are nothing spectacular, actually rather crappy! The picture of the crib is awful, because it's just sitting in the middle of the room waiting for us to move some junk out of the way, but I'll share the pictures now anyway...because it's still exciting (or I think so anyway!). Ha ha!!

 

CRIB & BEDDING

Wow, what a whirlwind week this has been - so busy!  Here is a quick update for everyone...

Mom and I picked up the crib & mattress after work on Tuesday night.  I couldn't resist, and opened the box on Wednesday night to see how everything looked (and make sure there was no damage) - and now I can't wait to be able to put it all together!

And tonight mom and I looked over the sewing patterns she had for crib bedding and made a final decision on the style and patterns/colors of fabric.  We decided on the chevron pattern in gray & white for the main pattern, it will be on the crib skirt, one side of the quilt, and the rocking chair seat & back pads.  We then went with gray and white stripe for the window valance.  Dark gray/black for 3-4" of bottom on the crib skirt.  And yellow for the crib sheet(s) and the reverse side of the quilt.  So, after we figured out the patterns/colors and amounts of fabric, I came straight home and placed the order!!  From what the Carousel Bedding website says, I should expect to receive the shipment next week!  Woot!!

MOVING FORWARD? OR STANDING STILL?

Lately I've felt like we slowed down...a little bit is fine, but I've been feeling like we've slowed down too much. Ack!  I don't want to be like that!  So, right here, right now I'm going over what we've accomplished so far, which includes things that directly link to the adoption as well as things that indirectly link to it.

What we have ACCOMPLISHED:

1. Orientation classes
2. Home Study classes
3. Turned in MOST of our paperwork
4. Profile books - created, ordered and in our hot little hands
5. Finger printing
6. Background checks
7. Prepare & Enrich online marriage assessment
8. Not necessary, but still important (and fun) purchased the crib & mattress - which is in and waiting to be picked up at the store!
9. Organizing/cleaning (still some to go)
10. Porch power washed and stained (looks fab!)
11. Nursery design has been decided (gray, white & yellow with black furniture --- chevron pattern is the main look).  I will be ordering the fabric for our homemade by grandma (my mom) bedding THIS week before my coupon expires! Yay!

What we need TO DO:

1. Minimal paperwork - 3 pages that need to be done as a couple, 4 pages that are for Rob to complete, 1 page that needs to be signed & notarized (which we'll have our sister-in-law notarize)
2. Physicals for both of us
3. Profile video
4. Home study

This weekend we've done a little more organizing/cleaning and I finished up any paperwork that I was able to do on my own.

As I mentioned above, we ordered our crib & mattress a couple weeks ago and I received notice that it is in and ready to be picked up! We will be doing that this week.  We'll also be setting up appointments for physicals (which I'm dreading).

(sigh) Ok, I guess we're not doing soooo bad after all.....

CRIB

Today, we ordered the crib - well my mom ordered the crib anyway!  (Thank you, mom!)  Such a weird feeling!  It will be in either end of next week or beginning of the following.  And very soon we're going to start tearing into the spare bedroom that will eventually become the nursery.  With the crib on it's way, we can no longer put off preparing the room!  So exciting!

Here it is, we got the crib & mattress combo set.  The next purchase will be the fabric for the crib bedding for my mom to make the quilt, sheets, and skirt - we're not planning to use a crib bumper.

ADOPTION SUPPORT GROUP - MTG. 1

Monday night I attended an adoption support group meeting.  I wasn't entirely sure about going, especially since Rob wasn't going to be able to attend since he works 2nd shift right now.  But Sarah and I decided to attend together, so that made it all better! (you hear that Sarah?!)

The meeting was fairly interesting.  The guest speakers were a couple who recently adopted (baby is 3 months old).  They told about their adoption story, which took about 2 1/2 years and one failed adoption before they finally had a successful adoption.  They told about the ups and downs of the waiting game and answered many questions.  I'm glad I went and I look forward to more meetings, if the topics are all just as interesting.

CONTEST UPDATE

Well the crib bedding contest ended on Wednesday night.  Then bright and early on Thursday morning I received an email from the folks at Carousel Bedding saying that I did NOT win. Boo, hiss!!  So it's back to the drawing board, sort of.

For the losers, that's me, we got a discount code for $10 off of a future purchase (that must be used by the beginning of June!) and we're guaranteed free shipping.  I WILL be taking advantage of the discount, but not to order custom made bedding.  It's too expensive from them.  Or maybe I'm just cheap?  They do have really nice stuff, and you are paying for someone to custom make what you design - but my own mother is very talented in the sewing arena, so why not utilize her skills to make something that will be even more fabulous because it will be made with love by GRANDMA?!

You may remember that I ordered fabric swatches a couple weeks ago, and the fabric seems to be of great quality and is a very reasonable price.  So, we'll use the discount codes to purchase the fabric that we need and we'll have our custom made bedding and we'll be proud!!  And I will post updates along the way...