Wow, it's been forever since I've blogged. Unfortunately, I don't have much to say or any news to share. We still haven't completed the background checks through our new agency...although we did briefly talk about it this morning...as we have two dozen times over the past 18 months since we took our training. I don't know why we've drug our feet the way we have. We're just enjoying the hustle and bustle of life I guess. Although the past few months I've been thinking about it a lot again and think its time we got back on track again.

Tyson was busy with baseball all summer and attended 'away from home' summer camp for a week as well. This fall he played football and at the last minute decided he wants to give basketball a try. He's on his third week of basketball and is enjoying it very much. He also started confirmation classes this fall as well and is excited to be in the same class as his best bud, Jack.

We finished our basement this summer, adding nearly an additional 1800 sq feet of living space to our house. It's SO nice to have another place to go to watch tv and relax. The basement consists of a very large family/pool table room, a bar area, an office, bedroom, bathroom and laundry room. We did all of the work ourselves but hired my brother in law to tape and texture the walls and ceilings. We're loving it!

:)

Kindle Bzz Campaign - Me, Me!!

I have been a Bzz Agent for several years now and have enjoyed it immensely. As a Bzz Agent, I try out products, then spread 'bzz' on what I think about them, my experiences using them, positive/negative things about them, etc. And then I report back with the responses I receive. I usually get a bunch of rad coupons to hand out as well. I love it. I love to talk, and blog, and FB, and Tweet...So it's great.

Anywho...the latest Bzz Campaign is for a Kindle...Yes! A KINDLE! How awesome is that!! All you have to do to be picked is tweet why you want to be part of the campaign. I, of course could not pass up this opportunity! I tweeted that I want to be chosen because not only do I read a lot, I read a lot of books that are hard to find. I went to the library here in town to find a book on adopting children that have been sexually molested and of course I couldn't find anything like that in a town like this. Amazon was right there with a nice selection though. Not exactly the sought after books that everyone else is out there to find, but nonetheless, great material and information for someone like myself. Over the past two years I've probably ready two dozen books about adopting older kids, kids with fetal alcohol syndrome, PTSD, reactive attachment disorder and many, many others. Having a Kindle would be a great way for me to look back in any of these books for info that I might need in the future. I have toyed with the idea of buying one for a while now...but with everything else going on, it just wasn't in our budget. So, there you go. That's why I want to be picked for this campaign. #imabzzagent


Dawn2851 Dawn


#imabzzagent http://www.bzzagent.com/daily/view/kindle Adopting from foster care and read anything I can about adopting older kids! http://andonemoremakes4.blogspot.com/

Fall is here!

And it's time for an update :) Well, nothing much to update really. We are getting ready to do another back ground check with the new agency we've chosen...that's about it really. I checked out the MN Adopt website the other day and seen a sunny smiling little face looking back at me...that was incentive enough to kick my butt back on track and get the ball rolling again.

July 2011 marked TWO YEARS that we've been approved and waiting. Yesterday morning I read in the paper that a little boy down by the cities was killed by his mothers boyfriend when he slammed his head against the bathroom floor. Then this morning I read they found a newborn baby girl in a plastic bag floating in the Mississippi River...I just can't even fathom a mother doing that to her child. It just breaks my heart. I would have gladly opened my home to both of them. RIP little angels.

Everything happens for a reason...right?

After much discussion, Steve and I have decided to stop our nationwide search for a kiddo and to try our luck with the MN only program. Which is fairly self explanatory...we can only adopt a child from within the state of MN. This, of course means that we will not continue to stay in the pool for our FL kids...which breaks my heart. But it is the best option for us at the moment. The kids case was transferred to a new worker and she decided she wanted to start all over accepting home studies again...which means we were back at square one. We waited for a year to find out if they were ours or not. I can't wait any longer.  It obviously was God's way of saying this wasn't meant to be.

I have a feeling the MN only program will bring good things. I definitely like the idea of keeping the child in their home state. Plus, once we are matched we won't have far to travel, which means we can visit our kiddo several times before we bring her home.

We had our training with our new agency at the end of June and let me just say that I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE our new worker, Nicole. She is simply awesome.

So, now all we have to do is wait for the state to get back up and running so we can complete our background checks!!!

Here we go again...

After putting it off for months, we finally picked an agency and signed up for the training. So, bright and early Friday morning we leave for a two day stay in St. Cloud to redo our training and get aquainted with our new agency, Downey Side Adoption Agency. I don't know what made me pick this agency....I really didn't do much research. But, something just seemed right. So hopefully my gut feeling leads to something great :)

Summer has officially began in our household...with baseball, summer day camp and summer trumpet lessons filling our every waking hour we aren't at work : / Steve has already built both the upper and lower level back decks on our house and we managed to get a little R&R in on them this past weekend. We bought him a brush cutter attachment for his weed wacker for Fathers Day, so Sunday afternoon was filled with the destroying of brush and every other type of weed you can think of that had taken over our stairway down the river. We walked down there last week and I kid you not, I thought Tarzan was going to come swinging out of the overgrown plethoria of shoulder high foilage. LOL

I can't believe we've been in our house for nearly five months already. The time has flown by, that's for sure.

I'll be back to update everyone on our training experience very soon!

Pictures..

Received a new picture of our FL kids this morning...they are SOOOO RIDICULOUSLY CUTE!!!!

Received a call back...

From the agency we really like here in town...she was super nice and let me know what I need to do next in order to apply for a reduced fee. It isn't looking promising though, as they reduce fee's based on income. But, its worth a try I guess. Cross your fingers!

Nothing new...

I don't really have anything new to share, but thought I would blog anyways. I think we've found an agency but I haven't got the ball rolling yet because...well, just because I'm being lazy and don't feel like it. Hmph. I think later this week I'll get the paperwork in order and returned so we can get back on the waiting list...

There is another agency we're waiting to hear back on though...maybe that's why I subconsciously dragging my feet...?? We requested a reduction in their fee's since we've already paid for everything once and our home study is already written and complete. All we would need them to do is update it with their information. Not sure how long it will take to receive a response...hopefully sooner than later.

We still know nothing about our Florida kids either...they're saying now it could be summer before we know the results of the family members home study. It's too emotionally draining to keep thinking about it. So I try my best not to. The waiting will drive you insane if you let it. Yesterday T went out sledding and was out no more than ten minutes and came back in. He said "its no fun when you have to sled alone...why is getting a brother or sister taking so long?" Ugh. Kills me. I wish I had the answer kid.

We're still slowly getting things put away in the house...little by little. We had our first overnight guests this past weekend. Steve's daughter and her little guy, and Steve's son and his girlfriend. It was great :) Played a few games of pool, had a few drinks and laughed our butts off playing 'Things'...LOVE that game.

Have a great week everyone!

We received some pretty crappy news last week that our adoption agency is closing. I'm super bummed. Not only for the fact that we are now going to have to transfer all of our stuff somewhere else and pay for everything all over again, but also because the agency was in the building I work in and I won't be able to chat with all my favorite girls everyday :( They just weren't getting enough new families and just didn't have the resources to find matches for the ones they did have. We're going to find another agency and press on though..when God closes a door, he opens a window somewhere, right?


Other than that, things are great for us. We have moved into our new house and are enjoying every second of it! I can't wait to get home from work at night and hate to leave in the morning!! We are fairly settled in. Our garage is still full of boxes that need to be sorted through, but we have most of our necessities put away. This weekend we plan to try to go through most of it and get some shelving up in Tysons closet so he can unpack and put away all of his toys. We bought a new headboard and footboard that I'm hoping to get put together this weekend too.

Hope everyones having a great week!

Update

We received a call the day after the match meeting took place and we were told were not picked for the little girl from Texas. I was dissapointed, but at the same time I know its for the best.

So, now we are waiting to hear about our two kids from FL. They are waiting on a home study to be completed on the grandmother of the kids....

Which leads me to this...a 'blogger friend' of mine was recently denied by DHS to adopt...I don't know the details, but from what I can gather from what I know of her and have read on her blog, she seems like a very genuine, sweet and trustworthy person. I don't know anything about the grandmother of these kids in FL either, but I think its probably safe to assume that, whatever parenting skills the kids mom had, she learned them from her own mother...so, if this grandmother is approved to adopt these kids, why isn't my blogger friend? What is wrong with this system? I just want to scream! Not only is it taking FOREVER, people who want children more than anything in this world are told they can't adopt for some ridiculious reason, while parents who have abused and abandoned their children multiple times are given chance after chance to do right. I guess I always thought this entire process was for the benefit of the children, but I guess I might be wrong...

Guess what.....

The meeting was rescheduled! Who would have thunk....@@

It is now set for tomorrow...so by tomorrow we'll at least have some answers to our questions since we really know nothing about her. But we won't know which family is chosen until later in the week or even sometime next week.

As far as the regular family life goes, we're of course getting ready for Christmas and trying to figure out our living situation for January. We're hoping and praying that our house will be finished before Jan 1st but the weather has been crummy which has delayed everything a bit. So, we might be spending a few nights at my sisters house or renting another month at the apt, depending in how far into January it goes.

Its coming along nicely though! They started putting siding on yesterday so it looks like a real house now!! The electric and plumbing is all in, so next is the walls - yay!!

:)

We have a match!

Finally!!

Unfortunately, we don't know that much about her yet. All I know is she is eight years old, she'll be nine in May. She loves to read, jump rope and swim. The picture shows a smiley little girl with long piggy tails :)

The family selection meeting will take place on November 30th. Please say a prayer that the family that is best for this little girl gets choosen...whether it be us or not.

MIA

Has it reallly been a month since I blogged? I know, I know..shame on me!

No update on our 'exciting news' ... it will most likely be Christmas or later before we know anything...I'll elaborate more later...

Have a good Monday!

Tired

Tired of waiting. Tired of trying to be proactive and not get anywhere. Tired of hearing about how many kids are waiting in the system. Really, where are they then? Tired of hearing of others who have been waiting less than half the time we have been waiting, getting matched with kids. I know I shouldn't have that attiude, but it's tough. We've been in the process for a long time and it's extremely emotionally draining.

We are still waiting to hear about a possible match...it could be the first of the year before we know anything though. I want more than anything to just start planning on bringing these kids home. Start buying items for their rooms, start looking for bunk beds for the boys' room...but I don't want to set myself up for a heartbreak...so we'll just wait it out...some more.

I dug the blanket I started out of the closet last night so I can start working on it again. I'll post pictures of it soon :)

Things have been pretty busy for us lately though. T has football practice twice a week and a game every Saturday morning. He starts violin lessons this week too which is twice a week during school and every Thursday at 7:30 am...yikes. Cub Scouts start next week too...ugh. Thankfully that's only three times a month. His schedule is busier than mine is : /

Well..I'm going to take my 'Debbie Downer' attitude back to work now...it's just been one of those days so far...feeling drained and down. It's supposed to be a beautiful weekend though so maybe that will help :)

Have a good day everyone!

House update

I can't even remember the last time I updated our 'house' situation...a lot has changed! We closed with the buyer on our old house last Thursday and have been living in a cozy two bedroom apartment for the past nine days - so far, so good! They broke ground on our house the first week of September and have came a long way even since this picture was taken. Footings were completed yesterday and today hopefully they are putting in block. They are predicting the house will be complete sometime in December. Ahh...moving in the winter; fun, fun.

Patience, Grasshopper.

Where did that saying ever come from anyways??

Needless to say, over the past two weeks I've been chanting that phrase over and over again to myself...amongst other things..haha. So, I really don't have any great news...and I don't know how much of the news I do have I should really share since this blog is public, so I'll make it as generic as possible. The kids we're hoping to be matched with have a relative that needs to be considered before they place them with a non relative family. So, now we wait to see if this relative passes their home study, background check, etc. From what I am being told, if this relative does not pass, we will be the family they chose.

I will say, these kids are as cute as can be and I can definitely see them being part of our family. So the next few months will be filled with lots of prayers that we are able to bring these kids home.

We've already been waiting almost fifteen months...what's three more, right?

News :)

Yes, I have some...but I don't want to jinx it by saying anything!!! So I will keep you all in suspense until I hear more :) But it is sounding very promising! So PLEASE keep us in your prayers!!!

More blessed than we realize

I stole this from creatingmyownlittlenirvana a blog that I discovered recently and have thoroughly enjoyed following. I find these facts fascinating and at the same time, extremely saddening. It's amazing how often we forget all the amazing privileges we really do have. All of the things we take for granted everyday. Like this morning, for example - my husband ate the last of the cereal and I'll admit, I was slightly annoyed. But just went ahead and left a few minutes early and picked up a delicious Butter Rum muffin on my way to work. You never really stop and think of how many thousands of people in this world that will never know that luxury. May you all be grateful  for everything you have and more importantly, remember to share it with those who do not.

If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over head and a place to sleep . . . you are richer than over 70% of the people in this world?

 

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, or even spare change in your pocket . . .you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy?




If you have never experienced the danger of war, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation . . .you are ahead of 500 million people in the world?




If you can attend a church or temple or mosque without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death . . .you are more blessed than three billion people in the world?




If you woke up this morning with more health than illness . . .you are more blessed than the over one million people who will not survive this week?


Let us be truly aware of what we have, what has been entrusted to us. And let us be grateful.

 Most of all, let us share this immeasurable wealth we have with the immeasurable millions who go without every day. We have the power to change the world.

All you need to do is say yes.

No news....

I have nothing new to post, except for that this waiting thing still bites. Yep, definitely doesn't get any easier. We've submitted for quite a few kids over the past couple weeks though, so that's a good thing at least.

I can't believe we are nearing the end of summer already. Last fall at this time I thought for sure we'd have our kiddos home already, or at least have a match. But, apparently our kids aren't ready for us to find yet, so we'll continue waiting. We complain about how the long the wait is, but I'm sure it's nothing compared to what our kids are going through now. I hope and pray wherever they are that they are ok, and that God leads them to us very soon!

The stakes are in the ground for our new house, so that was exciting to see! Although, this week our plans on a rental fell through so we are scrambling to find another place to rent asap. We are looking at a place tonight. We're also hoping we can move the closing date on our current house to Sept 1st so we can avoid making a Sept house payment here. I'm going to miss this house so much :( I still can't believe we're moving!

It's the weekend for me already, so T and I are off to get some breakfast in a bit here...then home to start some packing. Try not to be jealous!

Have a great day bloggers!

Uh oh....

I just realized I may need to rename my blog since we are now looking at sib groups of 2...maybe I jinxed myself by assuming we'd only adopt one...hmm...hope so ;)

Adding two makes a crew?
Add two and we'll snowshoe?
Plus two....pink and blue?

Hmm..might have to think about that for awhile...maybe I'll just wait until we have our kids home and do something along the lines of the Three Muskateers ;) I can't wait!