Quick Update

Although this picture looks nothing like me, it is a great depiction of the expression/feelings that I've been facing the past couple weeks--and will face on Monday; the kids' last day of the year!

I'm going to attempt a brief post; this is difficult for me, as most of you know well. :)

• Beautiful day here; getting a little humid, but otherwise wonderful


• Sitting on the Bentonville square accessing the wireless internet since ours is currently down


• Ryan works until 6:30, then we're meeting friends for supper


• 2nd home visit with Social worker went great--home study will be complete in a week or so


• Sent our family profile this week--that's the last component that will need to be complete before we're "activated"


• 2 days of work left!


• Looking forward to summer projects around the house/yard


• Union mtg/potluck/gospel mtg. tomorrow, so lots to look forward to!


• Signing off, need to make a trip to Sam's Club and the grocery store


• This sounds ridiculous; think I'll go back to my lengthy, wordy, paragraph form next time!

Happy Memorial Day!

Happy Memorial Day! Hope most of you are able to enjoy a day off work...I am! Ryan always has Sundays, Mondays & Tuesdays off, so not unusual for him. We're planning to go to Nathan & Jordan's for an afternoon/evening of games, food, fun--and hopefully some sun!

I finally was able to get some flowers planted on Saturday. Made my annual trip to Lowe's to buy plants/flowers--and was pleasantly surprised with my bargain finds! They've usually got a clearance rack with 1/2 dead flowers that just need to be put in the ground--and I hit the jackpot with some wave petunias, vincas, and geraniums. I also bought several perennials (don't know the names--something long and complicated--maybe one was delphinium?). I'm hoping to plant more bulbs this fall so I don't have to buy many annuals next year--but we'll see! Anyway, it was fun and I enjoyed working outside and getting my hands dirty.

I guess there's not much else to report--the adoption journey continues but nothing too notable at the moment. We have our second visit with our social worker on Tuesday evening--last visit for the home study. We're about ready to send our profile pictures and narrative off to the digital graphic people who take what we've given them and make it appealing--can't wait to see "us" advertised in brochure- like form (that's what a profile is)--it will be wierd! Once that is completed and the home study report is written (hopefully in about 2 weeks), we can be activated! That is when things could really speed up--or not; the attorney told us last week that sometimes things go along for awhile with not much happening, but then it all happens at once and you have a baby before you know it. So--we'll see! I could use a few months to do several little jobs around the house and get prepared for motherhood, but if we don't get a few months I'm completely okay with that too!

Enough said for now...

School days left with kids: 5
Days of work left: 6

All in Bloom

Everything is in full bloom here; I'm enjoying watching the flowers and plants even though I haven't had a chance to get out there and dig around or plant any this year. I can't wait to do it--but decided I'd better wait until I really do have the time; if that happens. :) The irises and hostas came from Wisconsin a few years ago and look more awesome than ever before! The rose is one I planted from a tiny little rose "bush" that was really more like a stem a few years ago--and I'm pretty happy with the way it's looking right now as well!

Happy Mother's Day!

Here are some pictures of the boys taken over the weekend. We made a quick trip to Missouri; we were almost there 24 hours but we did get to celebrate mother's day with mom, grandma, and my sisters. :)

I took the day off today and our social worker came for the first home visit! It was very exciting and talking to her gave us lots of fantastic information and feedback. In short: She interviewed us each separately (with the other out of the room), talked to us together, toured the house and checked several items off of her checklist, and let us know what to anticipate in the future. She also instilled a lot of hope and excitement throughout the visit. We will be one of very few couples the agency is currently working with who are open to infants of any race; this makes us unique and therefore almost certainly guarantees a quicker match! Of course, that alone is not a good enough reason to be open to a variety of situations--we do understand the seriousness of being honest about what we are open to for the right reasons. She also assured us that everything looks great and we should experience no problems as far as being qualified and getting activated by the agency (at which point we pay part of our fees and they begin advertising for us). In the meantime we still have some supporting documents to collect, background checks awaiting clearance, our adoptive family profile to complete, a toll free number to secure, a meeting with the attorney next Monday, a second visit with the social worker in 2 weeks, and lots of other little things we can be taking care of. The first item on my list: the Honda is to be detailed Thursday, then we will start advertising it for sale. Anyone want a beautiful red 2006 Accord?! We love it--but don't want to have to make the payments with all of the changes coming up in our life.

Oh, I should probably mention that somewhere in that lineup of tasks I will complete the school year--yay! I also start private tutoring with one student tomorrow after school and have at least 2 others interested for the fall and possibly one or two more for the summer. Plus, I found out that I can definitely get enough work as a homebound tutor for the district in the fall (depending on where we're at in the process and what I'm able to do) that I might not miss my paycheck for awhile...so that's pretty cool! It's always nice to have options.

Update

First of all, thank you all for your very kind comments. I hope that we can live up to them--it seems that we have high expectations to fill. :)
Well, I guess I have a few things to post as updates.
1.) I have resigned from my teaching job effective at the end of the current contract. The last day is scheduled to be June 3rd...if we don't have any unforseen delays. I need to be able to focus on the adoption process and building our family--so I'm pretty excited to be able to leave my job, although there are definitely mixed emotions. I'm planning to do some private tutoring and work as a homebound tutor for the district--they've got a few ideas on how they can use me but I told them I'm not interested in being tied down or signing any contracts. :) It really depends on how the adoption process goes how much work I'll be able to or want to do.

2.) We have our first meeting with our social worker scheduled for Monday, May 12th. That is part of the home study process--and the first of a few times that she'll be here to visit.

3.) We have our "3 hour conference" scheduled with the attorney on Monday, May 19th. This is super exciting because it will determine whether they think they can (and want to) work with us and we will know whether we want to work with them. Although, I'm already convinced...and he did tell me that they don't schedule the 3 hour conference with everyone that calls them--so that was somewhat reassuring.

I guess that may not sound like a lot, but it feels like great strides to me--heading in the right direction!

Oh, and did I mention there are 21 "teaching" days and 1 teacher workday left in the school year?! Although I'll admit that there's not a lot of actual teaching that can be done by this time--my kiddos are already on vacation. :)