Friends and family came over to help us pack yesterday…what a HUGE blessing. Everything is in boxes except everything we absolutely need - the baby stuff, our medicine, some clothes, and the pet stuff. I called the movers and they said they could take whatever boxes that we need - so we’re just going to let them take them for us!
We get the keys to our new house tomorrow…probably what we’ll do is get our bed frame and headboard set up and get some clothes and stuff moved over into the house. It seems so weird…it’s awesome that we’re finally getting into a bigger house!
I am so excited about our yard and having more than one bathroom…you have no idea!!!
Joshua is at Aunt Delaina’s this weekend….it was nice getting a full night sleep (I went to bed at 8pm and woke up at 8am…it was awesome!). I miss him SO MUCH. I never thought I could love anyone so much. We’re seeing Wicked this afternoon - can’t wait to get him back after the show is over!
I worked from home yesterday and today…AWESOME! And I am going to work from home about 1-2 a week for the next few weeks!!!
Our house passed inspection, so the move is a go!
Joshua’s adoption finalization is May 28th! That evening, (starting at 4:00 ish) we’re having an open house/ adoption finalization party at our NEW house in Gardner. Email me at watermelonjessie at yahoo dot com if you didn’t get an invite, as I’ve been forgetful lately.
My friend Katharine called today and said she and some other church folks could help me pack!
This has been an AWESOME day!!!!!
And, my blog hit 10,000 visitors!! Woo hoo!
Here is the announcement that went out at work letting everyone know I’d been promoted to supervisor (some of it is insurance jargon):
Jessica (Jessie) started her career at (Company Name) as a bilingual CSA in March
of 2005. She promoted to OCR on the Spanish Auto Coverage Team in October
of 2006 & became team coach in July of 2007. She has been backstopping for
various supervisors since August of 2007. She has earned her AIC and her
AIS designations, and is nearing completion of her GCA designation. She is
a member of Toastmasters, Diversity Club, and FEAPAC. She earned a degree
in Theatre, with a class concentration in Spanish, from Knox College in
Galesburg, Illinois in 1999. She and her husband, Donald, who also works
for KCHP in the Workforce department, are excited to be in the process of
adopting their first child.
On the adoption front, Hubby started his Saturday through Tuesday schedule last week, so if anything happens with adoption very quickly we will only need childcare 2 days a week. We have our names in with 2 different birth families, 1 child was born on Dec. 26th and another is due Feb. 4, we’ve given them our “book” but haven’t heard anything. I don’t think I ever blogged about this, but we had our name in for a baby due in August that she ended up picking someone else. I know domestic adoption can be full of “false starts,” which is just part of the deal. When people ask me “Isn’t this so hard” or “Isn’t this so expensive” I just say “If you want it, you have to play the game.” Even though I don’t like having to tell a social worker every detail of my life and give all of my tax information for the past 2 years and have her look at my house, it’s part of the game, it’s part of the system, and we have to play it. I am getting more and more excited and feeling as if things are really happening. We shelled out $900 for our homestudy on 1.15.08, just more to apply to the tax credit!
So, if one of those children happens to pan out, we’ve at least got a plan. Talked with HR and our insurance company. We can put our child on our insurance as soon as we “take possession” of the child, whether or not the adoption is finalized. No one seems to know for sure if insurance will pay for the birth mom’s labor costs. The birth mom that is due Feb 4th has NO health insurance, and our social worker was concerned that we would be responsible for all her labor costs. Well, if I went into labor my insurance would need to pay my hospital bill, but no one is sure if it can pay for the birth mother. Has anyone dealt with this before? It seems as if (YIPES) we would be responsible for paying these costs out of pocket.
We have everything we can possibly pack packed up and in the storage unit (one last load in Father in law’s van), and we are planning on having photos of our house taken and the house put BACK on the market Friday! It’s been a couple months but we’re nearing the home stretch. We have our bedrooms and kitchen to paint but that is it! Rest of the house is painted. SO glad the remodeling stuff is almost over!
I am pretty excited about tomorrow. Our home is a total mess because we’re remodeling it, but our social worker is coming over tomorrow at 1pm to complete our home study.
I realize another step in this process will be completed, but I feel sort of frustrated at the same time. Our attorney is on a vacation/sabatical, and all we’ve done is let people know that we’re looking to adopt. This seems so strange to adopt this way, just kind of waiting for a situation to present itself. I feel a little lost about what to do next once the home study is done, and when I asked our attorney, she basically said just to send out the letters letting people know we’re adopting and wait. I have nightmares and worry a lot that we will never be matched with a birth family and we’ll have to deal with not being able to be parents and learn to live as a childless couple. If that is God’s will that is His will, but I don’t feel that that is the direction we should go right now.
I just hope once the homestudy is done we will be able to focus on another step of the adoption process.
I have my interview for a supervisor position at my job on Thursday afternoon. I’m pretty excited and nervous; I already had to interview to get into the TRAINING to be a supervisor, and now I’m actually interviewing to be hired formally as a supervisor. This week, we’ve worked on packing more things at our house, put in upper cabinets in the kitchen (Donald and my father in law have done that), and then once we get to a good place I will start painting the inside of the ENTIRE house. Yes, I am super excited (Yuck.) It will all be beautiful when it’s done, but the house better sell, as we’re going to be updating/redoing everything but the carpeting, but including a carpet allowance.
Tomorrow our realtor comes by to get some paperwork and then our house is officially on the market. I’ve been cleaning up and packing today…I will get up early tomorrow and continue. It’s exciting…I was thinking today that once we get moved the real adoption searching can begin. It’s been so hard putting that on the back burner to get our house ready. It seems as if every spare moment has been spent painting and packing. Man, and I wanted to have the house on the market over a month ago…oh, well. I guess later is better than never. It’s just been a really, really, frustrating process. I have just felt as if I’ve spent all my spare time at home, by myself, packing and painting. My husband has worked opposite hours as me, so I just feel as if I’m alone doing everything. It was great that my inlaws came last weekend and they helped out a lot. I have been really bummed….I feel as if I’ve lost contact with a lot of people and gotten really withdrawn in trying to get our house ready. Some weekends I don’t go outside at all and we’ve been missing church a lot, which I know isn’t helping. I have never felt isolated or lonely…but right now, I have never felt more alone. I just have been trying to pray but I don’t feel very close to God. I feel as if I’m plugging away by myself, just trying to get everything done, not moving very fast, everything has been a struggle. I think I’m a little depressed, not as bad as I’ve been at sometimes, but defintely lonely. This whole infertility thing just has made me kind of numb. I haven’t cried in a long time, and normally I cry at movies or even commercials.
Well, my in-laws came spur of the moment this past weekend to help us get the house on the market. Everything is painted, a lot of things are cleaned up and packed. On Saturday, our realtor is coming over and we’re finalizing eveything…we should hae a sign on our front lawn on Monday!
My brother and sister-in-law are staying with us this weekend on the way to a wedding, so that should be fun as well. I am just so excited that we’re so close to getting this house on the market to sell! It’s taken way longer than I anticipated.
We are having a cleaning service come over today to do an estimate to see how much it would cost to have everything deep cleaned in our house before we put it on the market. It seems as if everything is costing money! I got a quote from movers…its about $1000. I really don’t want to move all our heavy stuff (especially a piano and a pie safe) but $1000 is a lot of money.
Hopefully, all the painting and additions won’t be in vain, I hope we get a good price and some money to put a downpayment on a new home. I keep plugging along by thinking “When we move we can start adopting a baby.” That’s the only thing motivating me right now, because I’m exhausted. Monday I was up at 5 am to paint the kitchen before work, today I got up at 6:30 am to clean up and do laundry, every day it seems I’m doing things before and after work. Phew! I need a nap.
Our garage is almost pretty enough to eat off the floor, there are boxes stacked up on tables in the garage, all the wallpaper is off in the kitchen and we are trying to take the glue off, there are cans of paint and paint materials on another table in the garage, we have a full curb of junk, I am putting out bags and boxes of usable stuff we don’t need for the Vietnam Veterans association to pick up, I have packed a lot of the photos from our living room, there are scraps of wallpaper all over the kitchen and tracked into the living room, our house is full of so many liquor store boxes it looks like we need an intervention.
Harvest Brown is the new popular neutral. (710-D) Which we are going to use to paint a few rooms in our house. Check it!
When I get my hubby (hint hint) to post some photos on my blog, you won’t have to use your imagination.
Hubby and I decided that we will be leaving Lawrence and moving to Olathe where we both will work. I have lived in Lawrence since 1999 when I graduated college, so I think it will be a little sad to leave. Especially to leave our church!
Well, we aren’t moving tomorrow or anything, but we will be moving next Spring, which is soon enough.
I can’t wait to move because I know that will really be the BEGINNING of homestudies and looking at adoption agencies….it just seems like it’s taken so darn long to GET to that point!
I am really not looking forward to painting the whole house. I like painting, but not housepainting everything white. Bleh.
