Work has been a little frustrating lately. It’s a pretty competitive place, and my team isn’t doing as well as they should. So, I need to determine what the issues are and fix them. It’s strange when you supervisor people and their results: you can’t DO the work for them, but if you have to teach them, coach them, and mentor them to do the work. Quite a different experience.
Tomorrow I’m going out to lunch with my mentor, someone who is a working mom whose supervised longer than I have. It will be nice to pick her brain on how she manages her family and work life. Tomorrow is FRIDAY! I can’t believe how fast this week has gone.
Went to Illinois this past weekend…Joshua met his Aunt Julie, his Uncle John, his Great Aunt Joann and Great Uncle Skip, and my cousins. It’s all on the Flickr pages….of course, they all thought he was adorable! Joshua did great for such a long car ride there and back. It was kinda rough on mom, though. I don’t think I’m going to drive that far with a baby by myself!
In the Lutheran Church we’ve been attending the small group coordinator called me to see if I’d like to arrange a small group of parents of young children…I agreed to do it. I think it will be good for us to be involved in a group again. We had to bow out of the small group at Grace just because the Infertility trial was so difficult…I think it’s time we got back into a small group!
I cannot believe how much I love Joshua. Donald and I both will sometimes just look at him and start crying out of happiness; we are both a mess! He is the cutest, most wonderful baby in the whole world, and we tell everyone about him. It’s so fun how much our co-workers want us to bring him to work to visit - (seriously, they do, we are not just forcing him on them!) I just look at him while he’s sleeping, and Donald told me that he does the same thing - we just remind ourselves that we really DO have a baby in the house and he is OUR baby.
Donald and I were talking about how we can’t imagine loving a baby more, and how we didn’t realize how MUCH we would love him. We both love looking at pictures of him, watching the videos we take, just enjoying him so much! We both kiss him all he time, hug him, tell him how much we love him, sing to him, and talk to him. We are obsessed with this little guy! He is going to be so spoiled.
When time comes for discipline, give me strength, because I KNOW I’m going to need it. He just melts my heart, but I’ve got to be strong!
Update on Cowboy: it’s going to be easier to fly cowboy solo on an early morning flight rather than having him fly with Staci’s friend on a mid-day flight (airlines have temperature limits on when they’ll let pets fly in the cargo hold, which makes sense.) So, we’re working on finding what flight will work to get him sent out to Washington! Hopefully, we can get this done soon. I can tell he’s lonely without India, so the sooner he gets to live with Staci, Jeffrey, and Jules the Cat, the better!
My good friend Davida is coming to get India today!
So, after 4th of July weekend, we will be cat-less. It makes me sad and happy at the same time. I feel so happy that our kitty cats will have great places to live….but it will make me sad I won’t see them for a very long time.
Joshua has been itching his nose against our shirts when we hold him, especially after we do something downstairs with the cats. I know this is the right decision for him, but I don’t like having to do it.
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!
I was praying this week about what to do with our cats…our friend Staci (who lives in Washington state) just reconnected with me on Myspace. She loved Cowboy and Cowboy loved her - she worked with me at the job where Cowboy would come visit as a pet therapy cat. She agreed to take him! I am sad to loose him but SO HAPPY he’s going to have a wonderful home! She has a cat named Jules and I am sure they will get along great. July 4th weekend a friend of Staci’s is flying out there, and she’s pretty sure she’ll take Cowboy on the flight with her. I am so happy!!!
Now, just to find a good home for India. India is more independent, and she likes the outdoors and catching vermin, so she would make a good “farm cat.” However, she also likes people and likes to snuggle, so she’d make a good house cat, too. I think we’ll be able to find her a good home pretty easily cause of her disposition.
So happy and sad at the same time…
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.
Yesterday Joshua’s adoption was finalized!
We were at the courthouse at 1pm. When we got there, one of the attorney’s mentioned that the judge was gone because his wife was in the hospital, and they were trying to find another judge to do the adoption finalization. Well, the other judge was busy. Around 2pm, our attorney found out that the original judge was going to come back to do some work and then go back to the hospital. The judge was back about 3:30pm, and we were done by 4pm. Our party was supposed to start at 4pm, but luckily we got a hold of the only person that was coming by early to let him know it wasn’t starting until later.
When we finally got into the courtroom, Joshua was hungry so I was finishing up a feeding. He decided to spit up, projectile style, all over my glasses, face, and hair. (you can’t make this stuff up) Donald was trying his best to keep from cracking up, but he graciously cleaned off my glasses. The attorney and the judge swore me in and asked me questions confirming my willingness to adopt Joshua. I started BAWLING and couldn’t answer the questions in a coherent manner, but we got through it. It was a great feeling when the judge said “The court concurs that they should adopt this child.” It’s FOREVER!!!!
Check out the photos on our flickr page!!!
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?
Wasn’t sure how much I blogged about his….basically, our home SALE went off without a hitch, there was only the SNAFU with the date the guy could move in, but that worked out.
Since our home appraised low with our lender and they wouldn’t budge, we had to go to plan b. Plan b is we are renting our house until we can get financing. (which is GREAT that the sellers are being so nice about this.) We met with another mortgage broker today, and he’s confident he can get us a Rural Development Loan through USDA (Gardner is still considered rural believe it or not) or an FHA loan. The appraisal this person had done came out way higher, so it should work out. We imagine we’ll be able to close within a month or so….
This will be quick as I am tired….yesterday we got EVERYTHING out of our house and we moved into our house in Gardner. It was a huge blessing to have hired movers and Donald’s brother Drew helped us a lot with last minute items. Tomorrow the boys (Donald, Drew, and a friend of ours, Dave) are going to clear out the storage unit and put the stuff in the garage. Awesome!
It’s been tough being so tired and then basically being up all night with a baby…I wouldn’t trade it for anything, but today I hit my cracking point. We have made 4 trips to the cable place to get the cable put in our name. They kept stating that we needed various documentation to show we owned the house and/or the prior owners had to cancel the account. In the middle of FINALLY getting them to give us cable, Joshua was crying. I went out to the car to change his diaper; I laid him on the seat with the back door open. Some man was super impatient and was sarcastically saying “Oh, no, take your time, I don’t have anywhere to go.” What a jerk!
So, I scooped Joshua up quickly to take him to the other side of the car, a diaper loosely around his waist. Well, Joshua decided right then would be a good time to soak me, himself, the blanket, and then the seat of the car. I got him cleaned up as best I could and sat down to give him a bottle because he was hungry. In the middle of taking the cap off to put the nipple on, Joshua’s legs flailed and he dumped the formula all over me. So, I was sitting in the back seat of my Impala, covered in pee and formula, I had just been yelled at, and I burst into tears. I just kept thinking “I just want to take a shower, I haven’t showered since Monday….”
When Donald came out to the car after taking care of the cable business, he was sympathetic but I could tell he thought it was funny. I thought “Well, it will BE funny in the future, but it’s not funny now.” My hubby took care of Joshua so I could change and take a good shower, and then we met with our social worker Susan for the last time. After this coming Wednesday, he is officially ours FOREVER!
We wrote the birthmom a letter…I’m not sure if she’ll read it, but I wanted to let her know how much we love Joshua and what a brave decision she made. It was good for us to write it.
Well, it’s 8:18 and the baby is sleeping…I’m going to bed!!!
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