Today is a BIG day......we are almost exactly 4 weeks from the date we started the homestudy paperwork process and we have it all completed! That is the quickest amount of time they tell you it could take - yay us! ;)
This past week we completed our 12hrs of adoption class work, our auto-biographies and our fire inspection was this morning (we passed!!). I am mailing the finshed packet first thing tomorrow morning and then we will wait for our homestudy interviews to start....whew!
We have started collecting things for our little girl. We don't know how old she will be exactly, but figure that she can grow into things as long as we stick with the 18month and up clothing. Typically, the little girls from China are still in 18month to 2t clothing even at 3 years old. She is going to be a peanut! :)
The boys love going to yardsales on the weekends after morning soccer games and they are always pointing out things that they think their "little sister" will like. They have found her a Barbie car, a Barbie and a Skipper, a super cute spring jacket, Dora hat and mittens and several cute dresses. I have been blessed by my girlfriend, Chrissy, passing along several outfits that her 2 girls have out grown. Since we set her room up a couple of weeks ago we have just been filling her closet with anything we pick up for her. Having never needed anything "girly" before, we have a LONG way to go and lots of things to collect! Good think I like to shop :)
"We witness a miracle every time a child enters into life.
But those who make their journey home across time & miles,
growing within the hearts of those who wait to love them,
are carried on the wings of destiny and placed among us
by God's very own hands."
--- Kristi Larson
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Monday, September 5, 2011
The big move....
What an incredible weekend with giant steps in the right direction this has been! Saturday we took our Pediatric/Adult CPR and First Aid class as required and got our certification. It was a 3 hour class and went by really fast. I had to joke with Derek that he was the "star student" ...always asking the good questions and volunteering to demonstrate things for the instructor. Helped the class go by faster since I really like watching him - LOL :) Thanks so much to Carmen Hortenberry who watched the boys for us so we could go do this. What a treasure the Hortenberry family is to us!
After church on Sunday we decided to tackle moving the rooms around at the house so we can get "our little sister's room" (as the boys say) ready before the home study. This is somewhat tricky for us now since we have a truly 3 bedroom ranch home and will have 4 children! Max and Parker don't want their own bedrooms and insist on sharing one so that is a huge help, but still leaves us one bedroom short. Since we work from home we had our home office set up in the finished lower level. It was the room I call "the cave". It's in the very back of the lower level, next to the bathroom, with a window and lots of space, but with the 2 very large commercial sized office desks in there it felt very cave like.
After lots of brainstorming on what configuration would work best for the bedroom layouts we decided to move the office out of the cave and up to the main floor where our library/formal living room is currently. It is a huge (nearly empty) room in the front of the house with 3 very large floor to ceiling windows that look out to the front and a big cathedral ceiling. It is a beautiful room that is not ever used by us and would make such a bright and nice space for us to work day to day. Being centrally located on the main level of the home is so nice for so many reasons, too!
Great...one room down now what to do with the others? Well, lucky for us, Tanner, begged to move downstairs. Originally asking for the playroom - a smaller room downstairs with no window. I wasn't sure that I wanted him in a room with no window for light, exit or ventilation, but now with the office going upstairs that room looked like a great opportunity for him. We all discussed it and the decision was made.....Tanner would have his room and his own bathroom downstairs where our old office was located. As the now big 10 year old in the family he couldn't be happier to have his own space free of little brother's intrusions!
Tanner's bedroom upstairs is a very nice room with a 2 story ceiling, large windows and nice double closet....we all think it would be a perfect fit for a princess :)
Now with a plan in hand we only had to move all of the very heavy furniture up and down the stairs and into the new locations. No problem......LOL!
We got right to work after getting home from church and had the office set up with a couple of hours (man that was hard work!). Derek's mom, Jeannie, and her friend, Cliff, came over to help a little later in the afternoon and with them we got Tanner's room moved downstairs. Jeannie helped Tanner organize his things and Cliff was a huge help in getting the large furniture downstairs (we mostly scooted it on movers and blankets :) To reward ourselves for all the hard work, we all took off to get some late dinner at Frisch's and then home in time to watch the WEBN fireworks on the big screen with Grandma Jeannie and Cliff. What a great end to the night!
The office looks great and Tanner is so happy with his new room. He was beaming this morning as he came bouncing up the stairs to tell us how happy he was with his new room and how great he and Tuscan (our standard poodle) slept down there. Now this morning we have been working on getting our little girl's room put together. We do not have any bedding, and clothing, etc, but we do have a great twin sized pine trundle day bed that I have held onto for a few years "just in case". It is such a great little bed and will perfect in her room!
My mother in law had asked if we were going to paint her room. While I don’t' really like the white walls, I don't have any idea what color I would paint the walls so white it will be for now. I LOVE pink and all the "girlie" colors, prints, fabrics and things but have really no idea how to implement those things yet. I am well trained in primary colors, legos, star wars and comic book heroes, but will have to ease into the girl things, I think......and I will do so happily ;)
So as we wrap up the rearranging on this Labor Day weekend we are one HUGE step closer to being ready for our little girl and the princess of this castle!
"Adoption is when a child grew in its mommy's heart instead of her tummy." ~Author Unknown
After church on Sunday we decided to tackle moving the rooms around at the house so we can get "our little sister's room" (as the boys say) ready before the home study. This is somewhat tricky for us now since we have a truly 3 bedroom ranch home and will have 4 children! Max and Parker don't want their own bedrooms and insist on sharing one so that is a huge help, but still leaves us one bedroom short. Since we work from home we had our home office set up in the finished lower level. It was the room I call "the cave". It's in the very back of the lower level, next to the bathroom, with a window and lots of space, but with the 2 very large commercial sized office desks in there it felt very cave like.
After lots of brainstorming on what configuration would work best for the bedroom layouts we decided to move the office out of the cave and up to the main floor where our library/formal living room is currently. It is a huge (nearly empty) room in the front of the house with 3 very large floor to ceiling windows that look out to the front and a big cathedral ceiling. It is a beautiful room that is not ever used by us and would make such a bright and nice space for us to work day to day. Being centrally located on the main level of the home is so nice for so many reasons, too!
Great...one room down now what to do with the others? Well, lucky for us, Tanner, begged to move downstairs. Originally asking for the playroom - a smaller room downstairs with no window. I wasn't sure that I wanted him in a room with no window for light, exit or ventilation, but now with the office going upstairs that room looked like a great opportunity for him. We all discussed it and the decision was made.....Tanner would have his room and his own bathroom downstairs where our old office was located. As the now big 10 year old in the family he couldn't be happier to have his own space free of little brother's intrusions!
Tanner's bedroom upstairs is a very nice room with a 2 story ceiling, large windows and nice double closet....we all think it would be a perfect fit for a princess :)
Now with a plan in hand we only had to move all of the very heavy furniture up and down the stairs and into the new locations. No problem......LOL!
We got right to work after getting home from church and had the office set up with a couple of hours (man that was hard work!). Derek's mom, Jeannie, and her friend, Cliff, came over to help a little later in the afternoon and with them we got Tanner's room moved downstairs. Jeannie helped Tanner organize his things and Cliff was a huge help in getting the large furniture downstairs (we mostly scooted it on movers and blankets :) To reward ourselves for all the hard work, we all took off to get some late dinner at Frisch's and then home in time to watch the WEBN fireworks on the big screen with Grandma Jeannie and Cliff. What a great end to the night!
The office looks great and Tanner is so happy with his new room. He was beaming this morning as he came bouncing up the stairs to tell us how happy he was with his new room and how great he and Tuscan (our standard poodle) slept down there. Now this morning we have been working on getting our little girl's room put together. We do not have any bedding, and clothing, etc, but we do have a great twin sized pine trundle day bed that I have held onto for a few years "just in case". It is such a great little bed and will perfect in her room!
My mother in law had asked if we were going to paint her room. While I don’t' really like the white walls, I don't have any idea what color I would paint the walls so white it will be for now. I LOVE pink and all the "girlie" colors, prints, fabrics and things but have really no idea how to implement those things yet. I am well trained in primary colors, legos, star wars and comic book heroes, but will have to ease into the girl things, I think......and I will do so happily ;)
So as we wrap up the rearranging on this Labor Day weekend we are one HUGE step closer to being ready for our little girl and the princess of this castle!
"Adoption is when a child grew in its mommy's heart instead of her tummy." ~Author Unknown
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