Search This Blog

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Fundraiser and Final Inspection

Whew! The last five days have been a whirlwind of activity!

On Saturday, we hosted a skin care "clinic" on behalf of our friend Lori, who has started a business selling Rodan and Fields products. We had a lot of fun with family and friends and learned all about the products she is selling. I think most everyone purchased something from her, and we are excited to see the results on ourselves. To top it off, Lori is graciously donating all proceeds from the party to our adoption cause! Thank you, Lori!

The days following we spent our time spring cleaning the house. We really went through a lot of our possessions and got a good amount of items set aside for our yard sale next month. I think the next step is to start pricing some of the items. It felt really good to lighten our load, so to speak, and get things cleaned up.  I finally got the office / guest room organized and set-up, and I love it! After four years in the house, the curtains are finally up in that room. Now I have a dedicated area for working from home and doing my crafts and sewing. We even have an extra bed for guests if needed (or for me when Chris is snoring too loudly, hee hee). I ended up taking most of Monday off work to help put the final touches on the house to prepare for our home inspection.

Tuesday finally came; the day of our adoption home inspection and final interview! We were so excited to see the caseworkers arrive knowing the interview process was coming to a close. They took a few minutes to interview Nick to basically understand his feelings on the adoption and get to know him a little bit. They then interviewed us about safety in the home (i.e., fire extinguishers, medicine locations, possession of weapons, etc.). Afterward, they toured the home and surrounding property. They seemed satisfied that we are adequately preparing for an infant in the house.

Before they left, we had them take a look at the draft of our adoption portfolio. They provided us some good suggestions, which we'll implement. I think we'll have them take one more look at the portfolio before we print. I'll probably post it online, too, for everyone to see once it is finalized.

So, what's next? In about two weeks, we will meet with the caseworkers to review and sign our home study. At that point, we'll submit our portfolio, and we will officially be "on the market" and available for selection by birth parents. From there, we can get a placement at any time from between two weeks to two years. We are hoping it's more toward the former and closer to six months, but you never know.All in God's timing, right?

The only other thing we have to do, really, is the Core Parenting Class. We will take this in June as it's the earliest they have it again. In the meantime, we'll work on selecting furniture, painting the baby's room, getting all the odds and ends needed for the baby, and saving up the remaining adoption fees. Things have really progressed, and we are so excited to have come this far.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Our Portfolio is in Progress

I finished the first draft of our portfolio tonight. Yea! I think I have all the pictures in place. Chris will need to look at it next and give his input on it. Though I have the lead on the portfolio, Chris has the lead on the "Dear Birthmother" letter. We used the "divide and conquer" philosophy, so to speak. We'll each review and give our voice on the other's project.

I think the portfolio is looking good. Chris and I picked out pictures together. We picked out some pictures from our wedding, family pictures, pictures of us doing our hobbies, and some goofy pictures. I took in a lot of advice from the caseworkers and tried to not overload the pages with too many pictures or make them look too busy. We also wanted to make sure that we showed our "real" selves and have no more than a few poised pictures.

On a sad note, I've been stricken with hearing news about a recent shaken baby case.

Chesterfield police: dad shook severely injured 6-week-old boy

It is so sad to hear news like this as someone who has had the joy of holding a precious child of her own, who has tried for many years to have another, and who is now in the process of adopting a little one. I understand that sometimes a crying baby is the hardest thing to hear. Nick was colicky and cried so much during his first three or four months. Sometimes it seemed that every time I tried to sit down to eat or laid down to sleep, he would have a crying spell that wouldn't stop. It was trying to be honest. I learned, though, that sometimes I had to just put him in his crib, make sure he was safe, walk away for a few minutes, and let him cry. That in itself was hard, but it was the best thing as I knew that he could feel my stress.

I remember seeing commercials about Shaken Baby Syndrome and how they said to tell your baby's caregivers to "Never shake the baby." I always thought that it would be awkward to that tell someone you trust and never thought I would have to say it. But if a father can do something like that to his own baby, anyone can get in a stressful enough situation to shake a baby. I will definitely have that written on any babysitter's instructions and verbally tell them to "never shake a baby."

Please say a quick pray for God to be with all babies who are suffering from Shaken Baby Syndrome and with their parents.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Monday came too fast!

On Saturday, we had our CPR/First Aid/AED class, which we are required to take to adopt. It was a long day in class, but at least it was snowing outside, so I wasn't longing to be outdoors. It was good to take the class too as the last time I was certified was almost 20 years ago, and procedures have changed. For instance, you no longer perform CPR with two people with one doing compressions and the other doing breaths. Now one person performs compressions and breaths for two minutes and then switches out with the other person. We also got to learn how to use an AED, which is pretty cool.

Unfortunately, being in the class all day left us with little time to do anything else. Sunday ended up not working too well either to get stuff done as Chris had to meet with a client, then drive down past Longmont to meet with the Cairn Terrier Club of Denver. Nevertheless, we both got our certification cards and feel a little more prepared to have a new little one in the house.

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Third Interview for Adoption

Today was our third, and basically final, interview with the adoption agency. There were a lot of questions centered around how we would parent for different circumstances, such as bad behavior, child not wanting to go to school, play time, how would we pick up on if a child had been abused, would we be willing to take on a child with disabilities, etc. Some of these questions were difficult, and Chris and I talked about them during the past week as we knew the basic questions the case workers would ask. We really were open with each other and prayed for God's direction for these difficult questions. I think we did good and were honest and true to ourselves and how we are as parents. A good amount of questions we already knew the answers too having first hand experience raising Nick.

So, now we have our home inspection on the 26th. During the next 2 1/2 weeks, we'll spend time developing our "Dear Birth Parent" letter and our portfolio; two of the most critical items birth parents will use to get to know us. We'll also use the time to finish cleaning up the property and switching room uses around (i.e., the current dog room will become the baby room). We'll also probably start shopping around for car seats. Once the home study is signed, we could get a call anytime between 2 weeks and 2 years to come to the hospital to get our baby, so we have to be ready! We've also had a couple of people volunteer to let us have their kids' cribs! It's so awesome to have so much support and know people are so excited for us.

For me, it's been a long week being back at work. With the addition of still not sleeping well, I'm more tired than ever. However, my boss has been so supportive and encourages me to work from home if possible. But it's nice to be in the office when I can; I really enjoy working with the people in the office.

Monday, March 4, 2013

First Full Day Back at Work

Today was my first full day back at work. Although I was ready to go back to work, by the time it was 1:30 today, I was ready to go home. I was just tired and my tummy was sore for sitting so long. It was not like working at home where I can just lay back in the recliner when I got sore. I ended up working through lunch and left at 4:00. After a quick stop at the store, it was a frozen Stoffer's meal for the family as I definitely did not feel like cooking. Sorry, fam. After I get back in the groove of work and get more energy, I'll be back to cooking meals.

I also talked to Nick's Grandma Rieger today on the phone. She is excited about our adoption as she has two sons she adopted when they were just babies. See? Adoption is all over in our family! We had such a nice conversation discussing what's going on with our adoption process and her experience with adopting. It's great to know people that I can talk with to get knowledge and words of wisdom of adopting.

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Property Clean up is Underway

Chris did a lot of work today getting things cleaned up on the property. He cleaned up the garage and broke down a good amount of cardboard boxes for recycling. He also installed the motion sensor light on the west side of the house. Hopefully this will help keep some of the coyotes away from the yard. Quite often lately, we can hear the farmer across the road firing off his shotgun to scare away the critters. He's got to protect the baby cows that are starting to appear.

I also was a little busy sewing together some cushions for the bench in the living room and making chocolate dipped bananas, chips, and bacon. Yum! I will cook tacos for dinner tonight, then start getting my stuff together for my first full day back to work. I hope that it won't be too much of a challenge, but my tummy will be a little sore. I am looking forward to going back to work and getting back into a routine.

Also, the good news for today is that our adoptionbug.com store is up and running! Adoption Bug helps families trying to adopt by setting up an online store for them, selling adoption-theme t-shirts, and giving the families a portion of the proceeds. If you get a chance, please check out the site. http://www.adoptionbug.com/thegraysadoption/

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Sister's Surgery and One of My Ideas

Yesterday I went in to work for a couple of hours in the morning. It was so nice to see everybody, and the visit made me feel very good. So many people came and talked to me and told me I was looking great! Since I really feel great, it made me feel good that other people noticed.

Just before lunch, I left to take my sister to the hospital. She had to have spinal surgery yesterday afternoon. She had herniated disks in her neck and had to have her C5 and C6 fused together. They were running behind schedule, so it was late afternoon by the time they got her in the O.R. Thankfully, everything went so well and they successfully fused the vertebrae together without damage to the spinal cord. I had decided to stay the night in the hospital with her so she wouldn't be alone. I'm glad I stayed as she ended up having nausea and a horrible sinus headache. I did what I could to keep her comfortable until the medicine could take effect. She is home now and feeling so much better, including no pain in her shoulder and arm, which she was having before the surgery. Yea!!!

I've been brainstorming that last few days about other ways to raise more money for the adoption fees, so I've been researching ways to make money at home. One idea I have is to be an independent consultant for jewelry sales. This is along the lines of being a consultant for Mary Kay, Lia Sophia, or Avon. Since I love jewelry so much, I thought it might be a fun way to raise money while consulting at home parties or for catalog sales. I found one company that I'm impressed with, Just Jewelry, and wonder if it is a good option for me. There is, of course, an investment fee for $118 to $199 to pay for supplies and jewelry, but I wonder if I'll be able to make the money back quickly. The things I like about this company are they raise money for nourishment for children in famine stricken areas, breast cancer awareness, and autism awareness and the jewelry is all under $38. I'm still thinking about it and discussing it with Chris. I know God will help us find ways to make this work.