An Adoption Journey Update!

Things are moving, slowly but surely towards our dream coming true and adding another child to our family.

Before the laptop felt the need to stop working, we completed our first draft of the profile that is sent to mothers considering an adoption plan. It was mailed out to our facilitator, and reviewed. They suggested a few changes; all pictures to be changed. Once the computer was back to us, I edited the pages that required it. (Gotta love Photoshop! I digitally scrapbooked our whole profile with it!) Those are now on the way in to the facilitator. I anticipate that they will arrive tomorrow.

On the homestudy front, it's kind of a slow process (for us). Apparently I have the most smudgy fingerprints on the planet! Kevin and I both had them done, and mailed in to the CPS division in our state. Mine came back unreadable, so I had them done again using a product called Ridge Builder at the Sheriff's office. They came back. I went and had them done using alcohol wipes beforehand, but they came out odd as well. With the third set, I had to get two affidavits notarized stating all the names I have used (just my maiden), that I swear I am who I say I am, where and when I was born and our addresses for the last five years.

That finally worked.

Now I am waiting on my arrest records to come back to them, and we will be done with that part of the home study. I think that will be the final part for our social worker to add to our completed study, along with her written report. That will get sent to the facilitator, us and eventually our attorney. (Still looking for an in-state attorney to represent us).

Our website has also gone live on the adoption facilitator website! We are *thisclose* to being to the just WAITING part. This part is the most difficult. Unlike a pregnancy, we don't have a definite end. Kevin and I just have to hope and pray that a mother making an adoption plan chooses us to parent her child.

I think the blog will start venturing onto other day to day topics, with adoption updates as they come from this point on. There just isn't much we can actively "DO" at this point to report back on!

The "My Laptop Died & Had To Be Sent Out For Repair" Post

So, bloggity bloggers, I am BACK! My laptop committed some type of laptopicide and wouldn't work. Fortunately, when sent back to Gateway, the repair was covered by warranty! WooHoo! Unfortunately,that meant I couldn't blog away.

I am a terrible project finisher. There, I have admitted it. I love my projects! And my crafts! I just do not find the time to finish what I start, or start the others I want to. I am working on this - this week I am GOING to finish that quilt for Monkey. And I plan to start cutting fabric for some gifts for Christmas. These things include - canvas shopping bags, plastic grocery bag holders, laptop covers and a few things that shouldn't - in theory - take too long. Pics to come to mark my progress and prove to you that I CAN do this!

Monkey is still loving school. There are no more tears in the mornings, just a bit of extra reassurance in the car on the way there. He even shoos me out of the room sometimes - and he cried once when he had to leave. That broke my Mommy heart. Monkey has been bringing things home left and right (a painted Moon, a Sun, a life sized tracing of himself, a mailman hat/bag, a rainbow, an umbrella...and on & on). So, I wonder...

What do I do with all of these things?!

I love them all, but surely I can't keep every scrap of paper and project from now until forever! He's TWO! I have at least 16 more years of projects to look forward to! But I feel terrible not keeping something.

I think that I have devised a plan. I am going to get a bin. Everything shall go into it. At the end of the year, I will choose a couple of things to keep and the rest can disappear. That way, he can help choose at the end of the year as he gets older and everything gets pared down regardless.

Moving on!

Our little family has been a bit busy the past weekends. Last weekend, we took Monkey to the Southern New Mexico State Fair. It was fun! He is too small for the rides, so we skipped that part until a later year. But we saw police cars, ambulances - Monkey pretended to drive a fire truck! We watched a horse trainer working with a horse. Monkey went on a pony ride and visited a petting zoo.

There was a camel. In a petting zoo. In NEW MEXICO. It was strange, but kind of cool. I've never seen a camel up close before. They also had a ZONKEY! I forgot my camera (grrrr), so no pictures.

This weekend was also fun. Today we went to a fall festival. We went on hayrides and visited a pumpkin patch! A real one, where you pick pumpkins off of their vines. Not like that place we went to in DC - they lined the pumpkins up on the ground and had them in giant boxes. That place was also expensive. Today we got EIGHT - yes folks, 8 - pumpkins of varying sizes and colors for $13. Thirteen dollars!

This means that I will be attempting to cook these pumpkins into pumpkin puree so that I can make pie. And bread. Muffins. Whatever other pumpkiny - things I can find. Maybe there is a copy cat recipe somewhere online for Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Frappucino?

We also rode giant slides, watched Monkey run through the kiddie maze and generally had a lot of fun. So much, that we forgot the main reason we went. That had been to go through the maze that was cut into a corn field! Oh well - next year we will tackle this.

I do have pictures from today, but I will have to post them at a later date. Next post will be adoption updates! :)