The List Must Go On

I've never been a list person. Unlike my fabulous sister and husband, it's just not in my nature. Going through the process of being verified by an adoption agency has challenged me to make and live by check lists. I've gone kicking and screaming, but now find myself creating lists as a means of exhibiting some sense of control over a situation where I otherwise have none. We started out with this little beauty along with 20 some odd pages of an application when we began our journey to becoming adoptive parents.

As you know from previous posts that many of the items on this list, held their own multi-item list as well, IE the fire inspection. Here it is only one item, but ya'll know how much doing it took to mark that one of the list!!

Now refer to the list here, yes folks, you read correctly, there is only one item left!! We only have the environmental inspection left, which for our agency is done at the home study. We took our very last class, BCMT yesterday with our pals, the Stephenson's. That experience should probably be it's own post, but lets suffice it to say, we spent a full 8 hours learning how to protect ourselves and our kids if they get aggressive. Terms like "Barbie hands" and "sumo stance" made this a rather comical experience, but we checked it off the list and that's the important thing.

Here comes the waiting part...

We heard from our agency on Friday that they plan to assign us to a home study worker on Monday and then they will call us to schedule. I am praying this worker is not overwhelmed and will be able to do our study soon so we can go on to waiting for our child, not just our verification certificate.

So in the meantime I am busying myself with yet another list of things that will be checked for the environmental inspection. The agency didn't provide us with one, so I dug through all my old forms I used while monitoring foster homes for DePelchin and found one. Basically we have to take child proofing to the extreme including locking up all medication, including over the counter, storing all cleaning supplies and any other toxic materials out of his reach, and insure that all knives and matches are also out of reach. It looks like I'll be doing a lot of climbing, since for a 6-8 year old, out of his reach is out of my reach too. But, it's going to be totally worth all the work when we have him home with us!!

Mid-Week Surprise

Check out the lovely just because flowers the hubs gave me this week!!

He said we were celebrating Wednesday! What a sweet guy!

Drew's Dedication

This past weekend we went to Dallas for Baby Drew's dedication at church. We left late Friday after dropping the dog off at the "puppy hotel". Even though we knew it was going to be late when we got there, we still stopped at all our favorite spots, including the newly opened Buccees in Madisonville. It is HUGE - by far the biggest one we've been too! Anyway, we spent Saturday and Sunday with family, celebrating Drew! He is such a laid back baby, so he just soaked it all in and enjoyed!

Here we are with him at the church after the dedication. How cute is he?!

Below is the whole group of family! My parents were excited to get to make the trip and celebrate their precious grandson! We also enjoyed an awesome Sunday lunch compliments of my chef extraordinaire sister, Sarah! Yum!

Of course we experienced many costume changes with Clayton, but here are two of my favs! That green "blaster" is from my play therapy toy kit. I did a video demonstration with Clayton for my class. He was so cute, asking me why I kept "copying" what he said. He also asked me if next time I come to visit, I could bring my toys for him to play with.

We boarded Harvey this trip, one of only two times in 2 years thanks to my awesome parents. Some how Harvey remembered and though he had never been to this location of Petsmart, refused to get out of the car. We drug him inside and he shook with fear. Poor puppy! Needless to say we were a little worried about him, but he warmed up the second day and got a great "pawgress report!" We are so proud!

Week Day Woes

Mondays are hard at our house! We live for the weekends and dread going back to work every single week! Lately it has been especially hard and I'm not quite sure why.

I know for me, I am still adjusting to my new job and agency. I think about my sweet friend, Megan daily who is encountering a new culture, continent, language, and life. She is so upbeat and yet honest about her growth through change. Shout out to you, Megan and your Spanish speaking, dancing gringa self! I am just experiencing change in one area of my life and it's a struggle sometimes! I am learning though. I'm learning about being proactive and communicating how my skills can be utilized. I'm also learning to network and how to represent myself better as a professional. Unfortunately, I am also learning more about the "ugly side" of professional relationships as the target of a co worker's ill will. I'm also learning how to advocate for myself as my supervisor has been out sick for most of my time with the agency thus far.

All in all they are good lessons and I'm glad to be where I am, but the transition is a challenge. I start with a new LCSW supervisor on Thursday. (Not my supervisor at the agency, but an outside one that helps me get my clinical license.) I'm looking forward to a fresh perspective and maybe a little guidance/direction.

Summer Reading

Sadly, we are no longer students and are not teachers either, so summer is pretty much the same as spring at our house. Except of course the heat sauna we call Houston summers!! Seriously it is HOTT already!! However, we are doing some summer reading thanks to the wonderful books we picked up at the Weekend to Remember. I tried to figure out how to post this on the side of the blog, but I'm not techie enough to master all the possibilities that are the blog world. Plus, I'm trying to get us up to 100 posts! :)

Jeff's current read:

Becca's current pick:

We also got this for the one who finishes first to start reading (It will be Jeff, I'm the slowest reader on planet Earth):

Any other suggestions? What are you reading this summer?

PS: I've gotten some comments on the cupcakes. I know, they look yummy! They are yummy! If you would like to check them out yourself, you have three locations to choose from here. There are t-shirts at the free standing store, but who doesn't like a trailer with a cupcake on it! It's a tough decision but you can do it. Or better yet go to all three!! I def. advocate that! Enjoy!

Awesome Austin

I am home sick from work today, it's 6 PM, and blogging is the first thing I've accomplished all day.  Feel special people because you are!

Jeff and I got home Sunday night from our Weekend to Remember in Austin.  It was fabulous!!  I'm sure there's a conference near you soon and you should definitely check it out!  The name seems cheesy, but it truly will be a great memory for us!  We experienced all new road stops as we've never been to Austin together.  We found 2 Buckees, but we made ourselves only go once on the way and once on the way home.  We also made a stop in Brenham to go here:

We had a tour and ice cream for a mere $3 each!!  Cameras weren't allowed inside the creamery, but we took a ton outside.  I guess they were afraid we'd steal their secret recipe or something.
A sweet grandma took our picture with the truck and I didn't have the heart to ask her to try again so we could see the name.  She did a great job with my not so easy to operate camera anyway!

Jeff has become quite a sport with all my picture taking and I think he actually may like it even though he swears he "doesn't know how" to smile for pictures.
On Saturday night we were scheduled by the conference planners to go on a date night.  We choose The Oasis, a beautiful place to watch the sunset, but a very busy place on Saturday nights.  Thankfully my sweet hubby thought to call ahead and get our name on the list so we only waited 10 minutes tops!!  I filled all 10 minutes taking pictures of the gorgeous restaurant and grounds!!

We got a great pic of us with the sunset!!  I could hardly eat for getting up out of my seat to take pictures!  It was beautiful and very romantic!  Good job Jeff!  I love you!

The rest of the conference was my favorite part.  We had a session called "woman to woman" and "man to man" separately.  I learned about prioritizing my relationship with God first, Jeff second, and our children third, career placed a distant forth.  They said you only have your children for a season and your husband for "as long as you both shall live."  This is good advice for me as I consider the process of becoming a mother!  We got several highly recommended books on marriage and parenting at the conference as well.  We were able to renew our vows with all the other couples and received a "marriage covenant" as a beautiful reminder.  We also wrote love letters to one another, which I will always cherish!  It was a lovely time of refreshment, renewal, and re commitment!  During one of the MANY times I waited in line for the restroom at the conference, one of my "potty friends" told me about a great cupcake place in Austin.  Of course I HAD to go, so Jeff took me on Sunday before we left town.

All I can say is "YUM"!!  Mine melted in my mouth!  I had the Vanilla Dream (double vanilla) and Jeff had the Double Shot (double chocolate)!