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Gigantic Recap and Update

Dearest blog, I am not intentionally ignoring you. There is just so much going on that I feel overwhelmed. And by that, I mean I don’t know where to start writing. I’m going to just jump in and we’ll go from there and play catch up later. Deal? xoxo, Becca

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We have now had 2 classes. 2! Only 7 more left before graduation. We’re learning a lot and meeting new people. Awesome people. Other people that want to open them hearts and home to foster children. Yeah, I like our classes. We have homework after every class that will all become a part of our adoption packet. The first week was easy short answer and circle the best answer type questions. For the 2nd week it was a lot more in depth. We have to create a family tree of sorts – a genogram. It is a charted representation of our immediate family through our grandparents. This is mine, not filled in. And as Steve pointed out, the 2 sides are not connected, but that was unintentional.. even though we aren’t blood related to that side.

Genogram

Check out all the information we will be learning. That’s 2″ of learning to deal with/ understand the children in Foster Care that we will be adopting.
PRIDE Binder

The biggest thing I am learning in our classes is how desperately there is a need for foster parents in Miami. Like class derailed for 5+ minutes talking about it. So if you’ve ever even remotely considered being a Foster Parent, please do it. I can put you in contact with our licensing specialists who will be forever grateful.

Let’s see, quick recap of the other adoption-related things in the last couple weeks..

The House – We re-upped our lease for 6 more months so the Home Study will be done on this apartment. I also bought a sturdy wood over-the-toilet hutch thingie and sturdy wood tower. We currently have wibbly-wobbly metal shelving in there. The metal shelves were moved to the laundry room for chemicals and cleaning products. #SafetyFirst

Welcome Gift – I am crafty. Duh. While we are waiting on this process, I want to make something for my child. While we are leaning towards a son, we could very easily be better matched with a daughter first. So whatever I make needs to be gender-neutral. I took an informal poll on my FB page and in Ravelry group about yarn colors – oh yeah, it’s going to be a blanket – and narrowed it down to a teal/turquoise, pale grey and brown. It will either be blocks or a Fibonacci sequence, below.

Block Blankie

Life Story – Our overall homework assignment is writing a life story. We have to do it individually and turn it in before class ends. It too will be sent to the Adoption Case Worker assigned to us. I started mine and have been jumping around to “easy” and “not painful” subjects. I have about 6 more weeks to work on it.

Picnic – We went to our first Adoption event this weekend. SDFAPA had a picnic in Key Largo and, even though the weather sucked, we had a good time. We learned a lot as there were both Foster and Adoptive parents there, as well as the famous KB from my mystery phone call. We were invited to their next meeting in a few weeks.

Updated Timeline

  • Classes end September 10
  • We will be assigned to an Adoption Case Worker within 2-3 weeks after that to do our Home Study
  • Once the Home Study is completed and officially in “the books,” we could be matched at any time.
  • We keep hearing different “child in home” answers so it could be anywhere from 1 month to 6 prior to the adoption being finalized.

I promise to not let it go so long between posts next time!

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After the First Home Visit

The post leading up to our first home visit had a crazy amount of views. Y’all are awesome!

So what happened? Great things!

But first, the prep. I do wish I’d taken pictures of the house a week ago bc right now it looks about 100% different. We are… packrats. Not hoarders, packrats. We are aware of it and know it’s a problem. We just like our stuff. Having a deadline of people coming into our home that will change our life and place a child with us was the greatest motivator ever.

Ever.

We rented a storage unit. We created lists of what to do. We decluttered. We cleaned. We cleaned out. We threw out 4 huge bags of garbage. We donated. We organized. Oh boy did we organize.

F and T were prompt and arrived right at 11am. After locking Lola in her crate and Phoenix in the front bathroom, we chatted at first about what we were looking for (age and gender) and we said we preferred a boy and our range remains 5-11 years old. So when I refer to “him” I am making an assumption that we will have a son as our first placement. Yep, we plan to do this a few more times. Thursday night, we finally decided that we wanted a single child instead of siblings. We would rather focus 100% on 1 child then try to scramble and have 2 kids. In the future, I hope to adopt a sibling group still.

We showed them around the house and the back yard. We did the whole “this is what we have now, and these are our plan for safety of our son. The yard is totally fenced in and we do the upkeep (the association takes care of the front yard) so no worries there. They liked the size and we talked about maybe getting a grill and a table with chairs for the yard. In the laundry room, the plan is to install shelves in the empty space over the water heater for chemicals and cleaning supplies. It is outside and has a lock on the door. In the kitchen, we pointed out that we’re replacing the blue cubes that act as a pantry with a cabinet with doors. The wine was on top of the fridge, so OK there. We pointed out the changes we’re going to make in the kid’s room by moving Steve’s desk into our bedroom and totally rearranging the layout. I still want the bunkbeds and furniture from my childhood, but another option is to pass our queen bed down and upgrade to a king bed. We’ll see. They were ok with both options, the huge closet and en suite bathroom. The linen and craft closets – not too much will change except better organization. The family/ dining room we will likely just rearrange the furniture and hang more pictures.

After the tour, we talked for a while asking a ton of questions about school districts (more on that tomorrow), our work schedules, public vs private schools, grants and scholarships for private school, the class schedule, Steve’s work schedule possibly affecting class, safety requirements, the timeline, and so much more. They said they’re going to try to get the adoption paperwork to distribute to the class so we can all be on top of it prior to being transferred to the Adoption case workers and the Home Study being completed.

We also discussed the 2 foster/adoption events we are planning on attending – Heroes for Our Kids Celebration at Miami Children’s Museum and the SFFAPA Summer Fun Picnic at John Pennekamp Park

I know I felt so good afterwards. As we were laying in the bedroom after they left and right before Steve crashed from staying awake way later than normal, we talked some more about what happened during the visit.

I literally couldn’t stop smiling after this visit. It really hit me that I could be a mommy by the end of the year. In fact, when I posted..

“I am going to be a mom. And I can’t stop grinning about it”

..on FB, I received so much love and support from my friends. However, it seemed like some thought I was pregnant, which amuses me to know end since I’m totally transparent about this adoption and my infertility.

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On Sunday, we went to Kmart and looked at booster seats, little boy clothes, bedroom furniture. We also bought plug socket covers. Yeah, I know it likely won’t make a difference, but at least they can’t say we’re not prepared.

Also, I may have just started using a hashtag for all my adoption posts on FB and twitter #CallMeMommy

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First Home Visit

[image source]

Today we have our first Home Visit at 11am.

I’m nervous like The Doctor when he was about to lose Amy and Rory to the Weeping Angels. Yes. I am a Whovian. Oh, and a geek.

We’ve spent the last week decluttering the house. Cleaning up. Sweeping. Mopping. Re-caulking the tub. And about a million other things.

Keep us in your thoughts!

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Breaking the Blog-Silence

Things have been a little bit hectic around here. You know, in the world of understatements.

Seeing as, by the time this posts, it will officially be February, (What the hell, year!? Slow down!) I thought I’d recap what we’ve been up to this past month.

I started a new job. And I LOVE it! So far everyone has been amazing to me. My schedule is pretty flexible so I can get stuff done that I need to get done. I don’t love the drive though. Or I didn’t because…

We moved! Oh, who am I kidding… We’re still moving! And I don’t just mean the towers of boxes all over the place. I mean we still have stuff at my parents house. But at least us and the fur-babies are living in the new place already. Almost every day after work, we both go to the old place, load up our car and bring it here. And on the weekends, we were making several trips. I’m at the point where I couldn’t care less about the rest. I just want to live here and stop driving back and forth every day. Moving out has been… interesting. (Hey, we’re in the world of understatements, if you recall…) Mom seemed to accept it right away….. We’ll just leave it at that.

I’m still working part time at my old job helping out with data entry. Or I will be once things calm down enough at home. As it is, I’m currently sitting in a half built chair using an empty book shelf as my “desk” due to there being no where else to put my laptop.

One of my goals was to blog more. Seems like a new job, crazy sleep schedule and moving makes that a little difficult! I also wanted to be more organized. This new house is like a blank slate for both of us. We are trying super hard to minimize the clutter, actually use the 2nd bedroom as an office/ artist’s den/ craft space. Hopefully I will have a table for my sewing machine too!

Also this month, we lost a member of the family. My baby girl Kayla Rose passed away last week. OK, she was a Beagle, but she was the coolest Beagle. I’ve been voice recording a post for days. The first one was really good, but I hit the back button one too many times and it erased. I was so mad that I about cried again. Anyhow, she had turned 14 a couple weeks prior to her passing and, unlike all our other dogs, we buried her and gave her a grave stone. I still need to get to Michaels and buy/ make on of those mosaic stepping stones as her “official” head stone.

Blerg, it’s hard to write anything after a death. It still hurts, but Ive been keeping so busy that I don’t think about it. Except for today when I was at my parents house looking around for her to make sure she was in the gates. 🙁

Anyhow, it’s after 10pm, so bedtime. Time to schedule this, pack my lunch and head to bed.

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More House Pictures

Hello friends! So here it is, a few more pictures of our new house. Keep in mind that we just got the keys so it’s completely empty now… But that will change soon! 🙂

Here is a tour of the house. There will be another tour once we’ve furnished it and made it really homey and ready to entertain.

…walking up from the parking lot…

    

…the living room…

…from the kitchen to the living room…

    

…the huge back yard…

…the office…

    

…the hall closet and linen closet…

    

…our bedroom (I was standing in the largest closet taking these)…

It’s not much, but it’s our new home and will be a fresh start for us.

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Our New House!

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Just had to post this quickly… even the heavens are shining down on the next step on our journey.

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