Bloodtest Test

Well I have this clever little lesson to talk about, but I played a song on YouTube from the new princess Veggie Tale video when I sat down to type. It will make you cry. It is called Beautiful For Me- you can hear it Here. My mom got the DVD for the girls while we were visiting her and the song immediately made me think of the precious little girl God will be bringing into our house. We have been learning how these kids believe they are worthless- exactly the opposite of the way God created them. I will probably drive the little girl God brings to us crazy by playing this song constantly. I also found a wonderful canvas print at Hobby Lobby that has different things we are in God's eyes. It was the last one or I would have been getting them for a few friends. I felt like God just stuck it there for me to find for her. :) I am really fighting typing out the lyrics. Just go listen. It won't take long and it is so worth it. The new video is great too (and it is only $10 at Target!)

Ok, so back to my lesson. Last Fri. (as in yesterday) I had to get some bloodwork done. Travis kept the girls so I could go to the dr. She sent me down the street to the lab. I went in feeling rather chipper and really wanting to be positive and show God's love to these people (even though I had about exhausted my kindness while waiting at the dr. I saw her 5 min., but was there for over an hour) So while I am waiting a young woman came in and said she was there to get some more blood drawn because they had called her because they hadn't drawn enough blood the first time. I was thinking, wow, what an inconvenience. And let's be honest- it isn't most people's favorite thing to do. So anyway, they called me back in just a few minutes. I really don't mind having blood taken if the person knows what they are doing. I felt pretty confident in this man because this is what he does all day. Surely he has got it down. I wasn't really paying attention- he got his stuff ready, cleaned my arm, and got to work. He was not gentle. In fact, my arm is still sore. But I was still smiling and kind and bid him a good day.

Fast forward a few hours- I had layed down because Annika has been up every night because she is sick. So tired. So I was resting. I get a call from the guy. Um, we didn't get enough blood. What? For ONE test. You didn't get enough blood? Well, now I've got to cart my two sick kids down and do it all over. So the whole way there I am thinking- I need to be kind, forgiving, etc. But I keep thinking about the girl who was in there earlier saying the same thing happened. I don't know about you, but I really like when people do a good job at their job. I have very little tolerance for half effort. I know everyone makes a mistake ocassionally, but this had already happened. So I walked in to all of the employees sitting around and no patients waiting. And I can't even make it to the window before I say, "I just don't understand how this happens." I wanted to say a few other things. (we go back- he breaks several OSHA rules that I will spare you of, but it did result in me swabbing my arm with alcohol gel when we got to the car.) He does another pretty lousy job while trying to be friendly. I didn't feel like being friendly.

 Do you think he learned a lesson from me being short with him? What about when I left and I headed straight to the comment box only to find there were no cards? I said on my way out, I guess I'll have to call them- with one of the workers sort of glaring at me. Did I smile? Yes, but while glaring. I showed her didn't I? How come I didn't feel good about when I left? Why did I have to apologize to the girls for my less than Christ like behavior?

Because I failed that test. Anyone can be nice when things are going well and people are doing what you expect. But God wants us to be nice even when it is difficult and doesn't seem like the right thing to do in the moment. I wish I would hurry up and learn this lesson!

Labor Day Weekend and Homestudy

Last week was so busy, I barely felt like I had time to breathe. But we had a great time! Last Wed. we had our homestudy. It took 5 hours. The girls were great. I was really worried about Annika saying something funny, but she actually only said two words, "Uh huh" and "Fine." Those were in response to "Are you excited about adopting?" and "How else do you feel about adopting?" The rest of the time she nervously flipped the pages of a very big book. I think she didn't know what to expect. Poor thing. After our homestudy, we packed for Little Rock.

We drove the next day and stopped in Texarkana to see my dad and step-mom. We planned to meet at the farm, but they finished up with the horses before we got there. Chuck E Cheese was the place to meet. We all had fun! We had the place to ourselves. Except for one older man who played the Bart Simpson pinball machine the whole time. Weird.



We met KK and Poppy at Izzy's for dinner. Girls (and I!) were so glad to get out of the car! We had a great time visiting. We made our usual trip to the mall- which included build a you know what, and some new shoes. I got the ones that everyone's had for two years. You know the ones. Ukks. :) And they were mismarked, so we saved $40!!! I love a deal!



My step-sister, her husband, and their 2 1/2 year old son visited too. It was fun to see them. Their son can already spell a lot of words. Crazy! We played outside a lot. The girls love to play outside. They also played in the hot tub and helped decorate for Halloween. It was a fun weekend. Travis surprised us by driving from Fayetteville. He met us in Perryville and took the girl's fishing at my aunt and uncle's barn. They each caught a big catfish! And we rode 4 wheelers. So fun! I love being outside and we don't have a lot to do here in TX outside because it is so hot!



We have everything turned in for adoption stuff. The next step is to get assigned a case worker from the agency. Then when they have everything ready, we are put in the sysytem. I have two Sat. classes from 9-5 left and then that is all for our classes! (for now) Yea! Hopefully I can stay awake. The girls have been sick, so I haven't gotten a full nights sleep in a few nights. I am not used to that. How quickly you forget!

Quick Update

Today we had our fire inspection. I was a little worried for a while. He was very thorough and had some rules that were pretty strict and strange. The things I thought he'd care most about seemed small on his list. But we have a signed piece of paper! Tomorrow we have our homestudy. I feel like we are getting ready for a showing. :) I don't think the girls have missed that too much! Tomorrow we'll be showing not only our house, but our whole lives. Hopefully it will go well. I am sure the girls will say something funny or crazy. They have 4-6 hours to do it, so I am sure it will happen.


Tonight while doing some things in Little Girl's room, I looked up and saw a gecko on the wall. That would have been a fun find tomorrow! Her room is coming along. We got some really cute new 3D wall stickers from Target. We couldn't find a big picture that we thought worked well. I ordered a queen bed for Annika today. We'll be moving her full sized one into Little Girl's room. Along with her bedding that she has had since she was 1 1/2. I'll admit, it makes me sad. Hopefully she's ok with it. We put up her new pink curtains today. She really liked those. Now if I can just find a lamp shade. She has a really pretty PBK one that is purple with butterflies kind of sticking out of it. It will also go to LG's room. Hopefully God is preparing us all for this! We just pray and hope!

Olivia's birthday party was on Sunday. It went SO well! I couldn't have asked for anything better! It was sunny and hot- perfect for a waterslide party! She had 8 friends come. They were all so sweet and had a great time. I am so thankful things went well! It was funny because after they played they all came in, we sang, ate cupcakes, watched some Phineas and Ferb, opened presents, and then played with things she got for her birthday and with makeup. But they all got to do things they liked, so I guess that's what matters. Olivia was really sad when it was over. But she still has her real birthday to look forward to.



Annika learned how to do a kartwheel and handstand this week. You can't imagine her excitement about this! I would post pics I took, but she was only in her p*ntie$. (I don't want weirdos searching for that!)
Olivia also auditioned for the Nutcracker this weekend. We found out today she will be a party girl and a bonbon. Not sure what that is, but they said they costume is really cute. She is really excited about it. This is her first activity to do that requires every weekend practices. I hope she likes it. :) I think I am more afraid she'll love it and find things like that to do all of the time!

Provision

Tomorrow will be two years since my sweet grandmother, Conk, went to Heaven. I miss her so much. She was such a blessing to me growing up. Since my mom was a single mom and drove an hour to get to work, Conk was like my mom. She taught me so much about life- eventhough at the time I just thought she was teaching me spelling words and multiplication facts. It is crazy how as our girls get older, I see more and more of her in me. She taught me how to be a mom, but since she was a grandmother, she really taught me to be a grandmother. :) (a young grandmother!) God always provides abudantly- and he sure did with her.
Here is a link to a blog I wrote a while back...
http://katescupcakes.blogspot.com/2009/04/missed.html

Homestudy!!!!

Wow, it came fast! On Friday I got a fun e-mail that said our agency would be assigning us a staff memeber to do our homestudy soon. Well, I thought soon meant like in the next couple of weeks. This morning I got an e-mail saying Leslie will do our homestudy and she will call us soon to schedule. Again, I thought soon meant later this week. She called this afternoon to schedule, so I went to my calendar, flipped to the next month and said, "So are we looking at the end of Sept or Oct?" She said, "What about next Wed?" Wow! I thought it would be a month or two away. So we will add this to our craziness! The next 8 days are going to the busiest they have been in a while. I have a dr appt, Olivia's birthday party is this weekend, we have our fire inspection next Tues, our homestudy next Wed., and we are headed to LR after that.

Travis was awesome this weekend. He did a HUGE list of things I needed done, but couldn't do on my own. He spent over 3 hours installing these "Tot Locks" we have to have and he hung pictures, changed the really tall air filter upstairs, and did some other stuff. So thankful for his hard work- esp. since we need it now! We need to put a locking door knob on our office door to lock away things we aren't allowed to have out- so he isn't totally in the clear yet!

Today we had to go through a list of behaviors, etc of kids and say what we are comfortable with taking. I guess this is real. And soon (I don't have any idea what soon means- just sooner than later!) we will have another sweet little girl in our home and family. I can't wait! I can't wait to see her sweet face. Although I don't want to be anxious, so I am working really hard to enjoy the time I have with our girls and get as much school in as we can. Although we did take a day off to go play with some friends at the mall today. And while at the playground I was getting some hand cleaner out of my purse...and there was a gecko in my purse! It was a cute little one. Now there is one living at the mall playground. Sorry mall. But he was really cute. He got quite a ride too. We went to have our TB tests read at the dr and waited almost 30 minutes. What if he had climbed up my arm in there? There would have been a crazy loud scream!

Tomorrow my mom has to go get fingerprinted. She's headed to the police station to get "rolled" as they call it. I wish they'd take a mug shot just for fun. :) We had to get one when we got fingerprinted and we weren't supposed to smile. Hopefully that is my parent's last step to being free to come and stay with us! Crazy what it takes to be on the court approved list.

"And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me." Matt. 18:5

Happy Hour

Today was the big TB test day. I woke up with a groggy mind to Annika asking me where we were going today. She hardly ever asks that. So later in the morning I told her. She was not happy. To say the least. This little one worries like you can't imagine. I did distract for a little with the funny dream I had this morning- I was in line waiting to see the dr. where they made us bite the inside of our arm really hard. I guess I had the test on my mind, too.

The lady told me it was pretty much painless. Annika went first- involved some crying and yelling I don't want to do this. Then Olivia came in from the hallway. Every muscle in her body tensed up and as the nurse did it she was crying and screaming- looking surprised- it IS hurting! it is STILL hurting! And it hurt her for a while. Oh, I feel sorry for her when it is time for her to have a baby. She has a fraction of a pain tolerance.

We left to go to Babies R Us to get some Tot Locks for our cabinets. On the way Annika said, "Is it happy hour?" This makes me smile. I think it is funny my girls talk about happy hour. This of course, refers to Sonic's happy hour. It wasn't, but today we made a special exception. It seemed like the only right thing to do.

Tonight at bedtime Annika read a book to me. At the end the character asks her what she did today. She said (in the sweetest little voice ever)- "Well...we got lollipops and Sonic. It was a good day."

Love it! Don't you wish we could end our day like that- with thoughts of only the good things that happened?

Another success story for today- Olivia and I successfully moved the baby bed (which we had set up like a toddler bed in our playroom to use as a couch) into "the little girl's room" without having to take it all the way apart! Yea! I was very pleased! It now has the little side back on it and the padding off (to follow state rules). Olivia said, "Don't you think the little girl will want the padding? It feels so much better." I totally agree, but we have to see how old she is first. Now we just need to get a big bed for Annika's room and move her full sized bed into "the little girl's room" and we'll be set. It is kind of hard to plan for everything since we have no idea how old she'll be. Well, four or under, but that is quite an age range when you think of things they might need/use.

We also got fire extinguishers so we can pass our fire inspection. It is week after next. Next weekend is Olivia's birthday party. We are having it early to make sure it is still hot enough because she wants to have a water slide birthday. I really should be doing some things to get ready for that. I guess if we get bored we could have a fire extinguisher fight.

Off to watch Date Night with Travis. Hopefully it is good! (It has to be better than preseason NFL!)

We're expecting...

this to take a while. We have some exciting news to share- we are adopting! I haven't said anything because this is a crazy road, and you just don't know what will happen. But not saying anything is killing me and it feels very lonely here. So, I'll say this...we are planning to adopt. That is our hope and our every intention at this point. Trust me, we wouldn't spend this much time going to class and filling out paperwork! And preparing our house to meet some really crazy rules set by the state.

This is our notebook. It is totally crammed now. You can't fit anything else in it. It is full of notes from our classes and paperwork we've filled out.

Here I am with what we had gotten filled out so far. You should understand something about me. I am weird- I love paperwork. I love filling out information and can do it quickly. I had our first packet done in one night and most of the second in a day. It nags at me begging to be done...now! There were a few things lingering that are now pretty much done. Anyone who has adopted internationally is laughing at what I have to fill out. It is a drop in the bucket to what they face. I think we each only had to have 2 things notarized! :) And our fingerprints get done right here in Fort Worth. We do all have to get TB tests. I am not at all excited about this. But the lady at our pediatric clinic promised me they have the best nurse that will do all four of us. Still... how do you explain to a 4 and 6 year old that they are getting a needle put under their skin so we can bring another sister into our house? There will be ice cream after that appointment for sure!

We are planning to adopt domestically through the state. We would like to just do matched adoption, but most young girls end up staying with their foster parents...so we may foster to adopt. This does carry with it the risk of the child going back to their biological parent or family member. So it is actually pretty stressful to swallow all of this! These kids are coming from all kinds of really horrible situations and TX is actually pretty slow to remove children from their parents, so when they do get removed it isn't good.

We have been amazingly blessed by God. Crazy blessed. He has been continually putting adoption on our hearts-starting about two years ago when we were in OH. We would stick our toe in the water and then take off running. (well, that was mostly me) Each time we'd get a little bit farther in, but each time it always ended the same. As we learned more about domestic adoption and all of the rules we ran even faster. But God is funny- he won't let you get too far from where he wants you. He made it ABUNDANTLY clear that we are to be involved in adoption in some way. We decided it was time to do more than just find out more information. So in our kitchen we decided it was time. It was surreal. A huge decision made in a matter of minutes- but really over a couple of years.

Take a look at this picture, do you see what I see? I see two things. 1. An extremely blessed, happy family. Looking a little too relaxed huh? 2. See that space next to Travis. It's the perfect spot for another sweet little girl! :)

I would like to say that hopefully soon we'll have a picture up of our child, but we aren't allowed to put pics up until they are legally ours and the age group we desire is the most desired, so we will probably be waiting a while. We are praying for wisdom and guidance during all of this. We know God will bring us the child he has for our family. We aren't in a hurry.

I still have two all day Sat. classes to do and we have our homestudy. After that we are put on the list until we get matched with either a child that is up for adoption or needing a foster home. I will be totally honest- this has been an emotional roller coaster. With so many questions, doubts and FEARS. And the classes and books we are required to read do not help with fears! We have had to, over the past couple of days, step back from all of that and pray for God to fill our hearts with hope and joy and remember why we are wanting to do this. - Which can and will totally fill up another post!

Thanks for joining us on the newest journey in our lives!