Sunday & adjustments & House Drama

Sunday Joshua gets baptized at our new church, which is really exciting. I didn’t realize all the family that is coming into town; my aunt and uncle MIGHT be able to come, but they won’t know until the last minute. I’m putting together a brunch for everyone to have after the baptism (an idea I stole from Heather and Gretchen - they did brunches after their kids’ baptisms, I thought it was a cool idea…) It’s just been rough getting unpacked and getting the house clean. My mother in law is going to stay with us one day this week and she offered to watch Joshua so Donald can do some unpacking. Everything we do in the house needs to be scheduled!

Donald had a “date” to watch Joshua on Saturday so I could get up early and scrub the basement floor! I thought the stains were from our cats that had been making messes, so I scrubbed the whole floor, on my hands and knees, with a brush. Well, after I got it scrubbed, I realized the spots aren’t from the cats (as they’ve been out of our house about 5 days) but the basement is leaking! It’s a slow leak that I think is coming from the outdoor faucet and pooling through the wall. It’s gross looking, and I’m very upset about it. It was just the last straw. When we moved into our new house it was filthy, so we’ve been slowly trying to get it all cleaned up. The previous owners left TONS of junk that we had to pay to have hauled away, and the lawn was about 3 foot tall, so we had to hire someone to mow it for $60. We paid the prior owners rent until our mortgage closed, and we overpaid them for 2 days, and now they won’t return our realtor’s calls to repay us the 2 days rent! It was very nice of the prior owners to let us move in while we were dealing with our mortgage fiasco, but this whole experience has been so upsetting. I’ve had to pray a lot because I feel like I am just so mad about the whole house situation instead of being grateful, which is something I need to work on. It is a great house, and we have a great kid and a great marriage, but all these dumb house things with the old owners hit me this week when I realized the basement was leaking. And, it’s a slow leak, which typically isn’t covered by insurance - insurance typically covers pipe bursting and the like. So, that’s where I am. A house full of boxes that I never seem to have time to unpack, a leaky basement, and a lot of family coming into town this weekend. Wish me luck !

That reminds me….What in the world did I DO all day before being a parent? I am barely able to keep up on the dishes and laundry, but I feel MORE productive than I did before Joshua. I just think I was in a daze of depression from infertility or I just didn’t have very good time management skills because we had a lot of free time. I remember doing nothing when I got home from work but play video games. Now every night I’m feeding, changing, playing with Joshua, trying to take care of Luna, work on bills, put in some dishes or some laundry, and fit in some blogging on the side. I am running all day long, and I am so worn out! What did I DO all the time before we had him?!?!

So often Donald and I would see a movie spontaneously, or go out to eat, or just decide to shop for something (mostly some gadget at Best Buy). We had a lot of extra money and could do as we pleased without really planning anything. I loved just being with Donald, but after a while it got boring and kind of sad to be the only couple without kids.

You end up feeling alone and out of it, because everyone else you know has kids, and talks about their kids and what is going on with them. You grow apart from people because it just hurts to much to put yourself in situations with people with kids, so you lose friends. So, being childless had its good points and bad points, and it just hit me today how we’re in a new era in our lives. We had to redo our will and pick guardians for Joshua if something happens to us. We also need to redo our budget to save money for our next adoption. We’re thinking of ways to get coupons and save money for diapers and formula, and we’ve practically BEGGED everyone we know at work for hand-me-downs! We are those annoying people that won’t stop talking about their child and have 500 photos of him up at work. If I would have talked to myself a couple years ago, I would have driven myself nuts!

**We still haven’t gotten Joshua’s birth certificate! That is the final piece of the puzzle, to finally have it with Donald and mine’s names on it!

Posted by: DramaQueen | 07-21-2008 | 08:07 PM
Posted in: Depression | Life as Mom | Legal Adoption Process | Settling Into New House | New church home | Comments (1)

crud.

Luna’s still been sick. Stressful trying to take care of her and try to unpack, etc. Didn’t get as much done while Josh’s aunt Delaina was babysitting, but I did get some books unpacked. Donald agreed to take Luna to the vet in the morning, so that is a big help. I just feel overwhelmed. I guess on Friday at 3pm our house closing will actually take place…so that will be nice to be official.

Please pray for us about finding a church home. It’s a tough decision, because you want to find a church that “feels” and “looks” right, but then you need to find a church that has sound Christian teaching. I want our children to love the Lord and to love His Word. I want our kids to know that when everything is falling apart that Jesus is the only one you can depend on. If a church doesn’t have the fundamentals, nothing else matters. Please pray we’d make a wise decision. There are a lot of choices in the Kansas City area and it feels a bit overwhelming. We like the Lutheran church we’ve visited, but I think I’d like to visit a few more. We’re going to adopt children of color, so I would like to find a church with some diversity…wish us luck (and pray for us!) on all fronts!

Posted by: DramaQueen | 06-08-2008 | 08:06 PM
Posted in: Settling Into New House | New church home | Luna | Comments (2)

Poor

Man, we are broke right now. All our money we got from our house selling we need to put into our new loan. (which, should close next week.)

I forgot about the $350 that the appraiser on the loan that DIDN’T go through charged us. Yuck.

So, we’re scraping the bottom of the barrel until we get paid again. Adopting a baby is worth it, but it is SO expensive…..we have got to do better next time and SAVE more! And, not buy a house the same time we adopt! Silly us.

Pray for us if you get a chance, this whole house buying thing has been a little stressful. (I am lying, it’s been pretty darn stressful.) Work for us right now has been busy; tis the season for tornadoes, hail, and lots of insurance claims (O my!)

On another note, our 1983 Chevrolet Silverado died and needs a $3800 overhaul. Needless to say, we are not going to fix it. We’re going to see if a family friend wants it for free. If he doesn’t want it, we’re taking it to a scrap yard. On a positive note, we should get a refund from canceling the insurance on it ;-)

We are trying to find someone to take our cats. Joshua’s biological family has a history of asthma and allergies and we think it’s best if we don’t have the cats, which is making me sad. I think it’s for the best. They are wonderful cats, so please pray that we can find someone.

Posted by: DramaQueen | 06-05-2008 | 08:06 PM
Posted in: Moving | Cat Stories | Settling Into New House | Comments (2)

Unpacking & Update

While Joshua has been napping, I’ve been trying to unpack. Our adoption finalization party/open house is Wednesday from 4pm - 9pm. Email me at watermelonjessie at yahoo dot com if you didn’t get an evite.

I warned people that our house was still going to be a disaster for the open house, but I really wanted to do a little something to celebrate his finalization on the DAY his adoption was finalized. It is going to be awesome! I am so happy that we’ve had him with us since he was an HOUR old…definitely a big blessing! Some adoptive parents don’t get their kids until they are much older.

I have been a little nervous taking a full week off work unpaid, but it had to be done. There was no other way to get out of our old house and into our new house without taking off work. Donald has been working this weekend and will work tomorrow. He’s also going to work on 4th of July, so those hours should give us some good holiday pay. I’m on a bilingual committee at work so I have some things to do for that, but after that I will work on a proposal to make our company more friendly to adoptive families. I will keep you all updated as I work on that.

Still no word from the biological father, so we are all hopeful that everything will go ahead without a hitch on Wednesday!

Tuesday is the first day Uncle Drew is going to watch Joshua, and his own son Jaxon, at the same time! I watched them both on Friday and it was a challenge. Jaxon was great; he was in a good mood and laid down right away and took a GREAT nap. My son, however, just started becoming “clingy” with me. He wanted me to hold him the whole day. Well, when Jaxon needed something Joshua was just really unhappy, so for a couple hours there I was trying my best to fit two crying babies on my lap. It’s been fun, though, that Joshua knows I am mommy and the only thing that settles him down is me holding him, so that was a nice feeling. I just really wanted to do some laundry and get the kitchen unpacked.

Oh well, holding a baby is more fun than laundry or unpacking, wouldn’t you agree?

Posted by: DramaQueen | 05-25-2008 | 03:05 PM
Posted in: job | Life as Mom | Legal Adoption Process | Settling Into New House | Comments (0)