When it rains...

there is only one thing to do!

THE GREAT GARAGE CLEAN UP!

So I had to get our garage cleaned up for our Adoption homestudy. I started the end of January and worked a whole day on it while Mac was staying with my parents. I got quite a bit done...I filled my car inside and  the trunk with goodwill stuff. I threw away and recycled a ton. But it still was a disaster and I really wanted to get my car in it. So very last minute, last Tuesday we scheduled our homestudy for that Thursday. So I  needed to finish, even it was just stacking the boxes I hadn't gone through yet to the side.

BEFORE

AFTER

So all the stuff to the right still needs to be gone through, sorted, and organized...eventually. Also Hubs needs to get his workbench in order and that won't happen until this summer for sure. I am also hoping to get another gorilla shelf to use for food storage and get that all built up again since we have used most of it and we are down to very little.

But right now I am just enjoying getting to park my car in the garage!

TEN for February

01. Mac let me use the vacuum without a total meltdown. I just put him on the couch and started the vacuum the furthest away from him and by the time I actually got to the couch he had calmed down.

02. Mac got to go the the Annual Grandma & Grandpa W. Valentine party this year. He LOVED it! And all the Mom's and Dad's went out to dinner together at PF Changs. When we came to pick him up he didn't want to come home. I love the Hubs's parents do this every year.

03. One day I wanted to make a tortilla soup in the crock pot and I looked up a couple of recipes and couldn't find one that I had everything for. So I just pulled a whole bunch of stuff out of my pantry and fridge that I thought would work and threw it in the crock pot. I also ended up cooking some rice to put at the bottom of the bowl and made some tortilla chips with some left over tortillas. It was YUMMY!

04. We went grocery shopping and when we came out of the store our tire was flat and it was pouring down rain. Thankfully Hubs was there and he had the spare on the car in no time. I tried to help him but he just wanted to get it done. A couple of days later I took the tire to Walmart to get it fixed and the patched the tire for just $10. But on the way out to go home Mac threw the biggest tantrum. (You can read about that in the last Things Mac.)

05. One morning Mac and I were sitting in the comfy chair reading a book. We finished our books and needed more so I held Mac and got up from the chair, but when I did I stepped on a toy and fell to my knees (thankfully). Mac didn't get hurt, but I ended up getting a bad rugburn on both of my knees through my pants, and I had also pulled a little muscle in my foot when my foot twisted from stepping on the toy. I was just so thanful that it wasn't worse.

06. We started Foster Care classes to get our Adoption education hours and also because we are thinking of maybe doing infant foster care. Anyway, it is every Tuesday night from 6pm to 9pm. YEP, three hours long, but even though they are long we have learned ALOT from them. Thankfuly Hubs's Mom has been willing to come to our house and watch Mac from 5 to 9:30 those days. She has been a huge help.

07. One Saturday night we decided to rent a movie (Night at the Museum 2) and have a pizza picnic in the family room while watching the movie. It was a fun little family activity that I think we will try again soon.

08. We went down to the courthouse and were able to get our fingerprints done for our adoption application. It was actually pretty cool to do because they do it all electronically now. The guy probably thought I was a total weirdo because I was asking him a million questions about how it all works and what makes good finger prints, but it was just so interesting.

09. We had lots of nice weather and we did things like hike Silver Falls, went on a bike ride, lots of walks, and just spent alot of time outside.

10. Mac started getting his two year molars and boy does that make him a sad boy. He also switched to chewable flouride.

for the curious...

I wanted to update on where we are at in this whole adoption adventure #2!

Well even though we actually called to start our paperwork back in October we only really got busy on doing the major portion of the paperwork the begining of the year.

As of this past week we are over the big hump which is the Homestudy and have paid our $1000 application fee. And we are expected to be APPROVED the end of April as long as our background checks and fingerprints come back by then.

Here is a little insight on what we have had to do so far:

*Had to have our Branch President send in a reference

*Had to have four people/couples that know us well enough to send in personal references

*Provide financial information

*Personal backgrounds for each of us

*Sibling and family background for each of us

*Each had to answer about 45 personal essay questions.

*Child preferences (what we are looking for in a baby, which kindof sounds like shopping for a baby)

*Answer questions on what we are or are not ok with regarding the health of baby and each birthparent (really hard to do).

*Answer about 15 random "Getting to Know You" questions for online profile.

*Provide about 25 pictures with descriptions for online profile.

*Physicals for both Hubs and I (we actually both had already done this in the last six months).

*Provide a Medical Report for Hubs and I.

*Provide a Health Record for Mac.

*Two copies of finger prints.

*Background checks for both of us for Oregon and Montana (Montana's had to be Notorized).

*Copies of Birth Certificates, Marriage Certificate, Sealing Certificate, Drivers license, Health Insurance Card.

*Employment Verification

*10 Adoption Education hours

*Clean every inch of our house furiously for...

*Adoption Homestudy which consists of having about 25 safety requiremtents checked off by our Caseworker.

*A 30-60 minute personal interview with our Caseworker with alot of personal questions having to do with our marriage and relationship and how we deal with infertility and stress.

*Pay $1000.00 adoption fee.

*Making sure we have enough money in our savings to pay for our final adoption fee

*There may have been more that I missed.

What we still need to do:

*Write a letter to Birthparents

*A write up on 7 specific topics from our Adoption Education.

*Provide a copy of our Income Tax Return for last year.

*Wait for our Background checks and fingerprints to come back.

*And maybe have another meeting with our Caseworker.

*Also seems like something else but I can't remember.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And to answer a questions that I have been asked alot:

Q: "Is the process easier this time since you have done this once before?"

A: NO! In fact it has been much harder. Having already adopted once does not make a difference what so ever. Also there are way more State Laws and requirements then there was the first time.

Q: "How did our Homestudy go?"

A: It went very well, and we met our new Caseworker and we really like him. I felt that he was really sensitive to our situation and our needs. He is kindof quiet and new to Oregon Laws and he only started at the Oregon office the 1st of March so he is trying to get settled in.

Preparing for the Homestudy was a bit stressful and we scheduled it very last minute so I felt like I was so rushing to get everything in order with NO help from Hubs because he is gone most of the day with work and church meetings. I was literally still vacuuming, sweeping, cleaning counters and getting myself dressed in the last 15 minutes before our Caseworker was to show up.

Q: "Will you be making "Pass-Along" Cards and if so can you send some to me?"

A: First off, for those who don't know what "Pass-Along" cards are...they are a small "buisness" card that says the we are Hoping to Adopt and has our contact information on it. It is for people to pass around to get the word out and to hopefully end up in the hands of our future birthparents.

And the actual answer is YES we will most likely be having some made. And when we do, they will be sent out to all of those we have an address for. So send those addresses my way via email (which the link to my email is on the left side of my blog).

what i am loving today...

01. the sunshine and semi-warm weather we have been having ♥ 02. that it is cadbury mini egg season ♥ 03. for the Temple and my Eternal family ♥ 04. that we have such great neighbors ♥ 05. that we are done with our Adoption homestudy ♥ 06. for a tax return that will greatly help us in paying for our adoption ♥ 07. for the peace of the Sabbath day ♥ 08. for the quality time in small incriments we get with Hubs, it really helps to get through busy season ♥ 09. that I have great medication to take away my migraines ♥ 10. the privilege it is to make dinner for my little family and be able to sit down together to eat ♥

MUD!

Mac had a fun evening playing in the mud with his little buddy "J" (our next door neighbor and the little guy I babysit everyday now). They get along so well and are only two months apart.

(Oh and if you really know me you would know how hard it was for me to watch him get this dirty! I was cringing with every step, but I survived!)

Mac Funnies ~ February 2010

I just started singing “Just keep swimming...just keep swimming...” from Nemo. And Mac looks at me and says “Dori swimming...I want to watch Nemo!” So we had to go and watch Nemo.

I coughed, and Mac patted me over and over and said “excuse you Mommy, excuse you Mommy!”

We went on a walk and we heard a dog barking. I said to Mac “do you hear the doggy?” And he whispered back to me, “no it's a puppy!”

We were getting ready for church. Hubs was about to leave because he had to go earlier than us. And Mac really wanted to go to church and he didn't like the idea of Daddy going without him (even though that happens every week). I kept on reassuring him that we were still going to go to church but Daddy had to leave right then. He then went to the kitchen table where I had been preparing our bags for church. Hubs and I were standing at the doorway and we hear a thud, and here comes Mac dragging his huge, heavy church bag, saying “I want to go to church, have my church bag!” He was ready to go!

We had gotten a flat tire and had the spare on the car until we could get it fixed. Mac was checking it out and told me that it was a “police car wheel”. Probably because the rim is black on it, we assume.

He was playing with some new wood blocks that he got for Valentines day. And Hubs and I were doing other things to get ready for church. All of a sudden we hear him start chanting “triangle-triangle-triangle...” Hubs and I look at each other and say did you teach him that, and neither of us had taught him that. So we asked him what a triangle was and he looked in his pile of blocks and found a triangle. Hubs figures that he learned it on Sesame Street.

We were driving home from church and listening to the Itsy-Bitsy Spider and Mac started talking about the sun and the rain. And he informed me that the “sun isn't out and the rain comes down, and he needs an umbrella.”

He fell asleep on the way to church and when we pulled into the parking lot and he wakes up and the first words out of his mouth are “I DON'T want to go to church!”

Mac had been running around the house and being crazy then all of a sudden he leaned up against the wall and was panting and gasped “I am SO tired!” Then took off running again.

Mac was going to go home with my parents and I was in the back seat of my Dad's truck making sure that Mac's car seat was secure. And Mac is on the ground watching me do this and he kept repeating “Be careful Mommy! Be careful Mommy!”

Anytime he stands on something that is higher than the ground he always has to proclaim “Look Mommy, I'm TALL!”

Hubs was getting Mac in the car seat and Mac told him that he wanted to drive. Hubs told Mac that he had to wait for 14 years. Mac replied with “14 YEARRRRS??? Hubs said “YEP!” And then Mac said “I don't WANT 14 years!!”

Have I ever mentioned...

how much I L.O.V.E my two boys!