now presenting…

I forgot to tell you!!!

We have a name for Baby Swiss.

I’ll give a couple of tv-related hints because that is the language I speak:

1. She is a character on Scooby Doo.
2. She is a character on Fraser.

peace out

Don’t you hate it when people tell you something big is going on at a certain time and then you check obsessively to get an update and it keeps being not there?

Well, we’ve got no news from the CAT scan.

It happened (according to Husband at least) and apparently it will take the doctor a couple of days to read the report/results and get back to us.  Since he had the last appointment on Friday of a holiday weekend, we are anticipating hearing something on Wednesday at the earliest.

If you’re praying, please continue.  You can pray that we will continue to be patient and to rest securely in the peace that surpasses all understanding.

you’re not supposed to eat the pig’s skin

Jessi had some interesting timing with her comment on the last post.

Yes, God is working.

In more ways than you may think though.

See, Husband and I had physicals as part of the home study process and his bloodwork came back showing high hemoglobin levels, so we’ve been on a wild goose chase trying to figure out what was causing that.

Fast forward to yesterday when he had a sonogram to take a peak at his guts (liver, kidneys, pancreas, etc.).  It just so happens that he has a football sized mass (yes, FOOTBALL) in his abdomen.  Who knew.  We just thought that he had been gaining weight these last three years and that he carried his weight in his belly.

We don’t know anything other than he has a CAT scan scheduled for Friday afternoon.

And, that God is in control.

After thinking about all of the hassles and doctor’s bills and everything we’ve been through in the last year, a couple of thoughts came to me:

1. We wouldn’t have found this if we hadn’t gone for our physicals for the home study.
2. And more significantly, we can choose our reaction to this.

In the midst of my worrying and wallowing last night, God brought to mind the (true) story of the man who was blind since birth.  Jesus’ disciples asked Him if the man had sinned to cause his blindness or if his parents had sinned and Jesus told them that neither was true.  That man had spent his entire life blind for that one moment of healing that would bring glory to Jesus.

I figured that if we can’t bring glory to Jesus through our whole lives – including this situation, then what else are we here for?

So, that’s what we’re going to try to do as we wait.

multiplicity

Ever since I went off the pill in January 2007, I prayed for twins.  Some people think that’s crazy and some people get it and might have done it too.  I just thought two at once would be great, and having two at once the first go-’round meant I didn’t know how much harder it was than one.

I feel like in some ways we’re getting twins.

Twins like Arnold Schwarzenager and Danny DeVito.

One of our twins will be a brand new baby girl and one will be a 17 and a half year old baby girl.  It’s non-traditional, but our family is certainly growing by two.

q & a

Notice anything new on the blog?

calling all suggestions

So, I’m acting as “personal attendant” for an upcoming wedding (8/31).  Yes, that is a job assignment up there with cake cutter and gift table babysitter.

Anyway, my main assignment is to keep the bride cool.  Typical weather for Labor Day weekend in this area is something akin to horrendously hot with more than a touch of humidity.  Additionally, the bride has polyester lining in her dress (that cost thousands of dollars – you’d think they could find something less man-made to line such an expensive dress with.  So, this is the kind of wedding where there is someone whose sole responsibility it is to keep the bride cool.  (And make sure the bridesmaid’s purses make it to the reception.)

Anyone have any fun suggestions on things I can do to make the day more breezy and not feel like some schmo who is just hanging out with the bridal party all day?

I’ve heard of putting deoderant on legs – do people really do that?  Are there any consequences to doing this that would crop up later in the honeymoon suite?

The bride is already planning on changing out of her dress between pictures and ceremony.  Any other brilliant ideas?  Get those creative juices flowing here people.

einstein-ian

I’m a genius.

I just scheduled our home study home visit for 9/4…exactly 2 days before Brent’s family is all coming over for a BBQ.

That, my friends, is what we call killing two cleaning occasions with one dustbuster.

we have a possible situation on our hands here

Remember T?  She asked us last week if we would adopt her baby.

A part of me always thought this would happen once she found out that we were adopting.  Who thinks that though?  Who assumes that someone will ask you to raise their child?  Others who were aware of T’s pregnancy and our pursuing adoption suggested this as a perfect solution for everyone and I scoffed at their naivete.  A part of me always though it would happen, but no part of me ever though we would consider it.

Yet, here we are.

Considering.

This crazy situation.

We are in prayer and thinking mode and are working toward educating ourselves on what it would look like if we dove into this.  This is a much different picture than we imagined – what with the shared community that we have with T, and all.

I’m laughing that I’m surprised that this is different than what I imagined.  How quickly I forget the last 18 months.

We’re praying.  We’re praying that God will make it abundantly clear that either this is His crazy, perfect plan or that this is the most foolish idea that ever came to be.

There are plenty of things that I have concerns about and please don’t think I’m naive about some of the complications here.  I’m going to hold onto all of that a little more closely right now though.  At the same time, there are things that I love about the idea of this.

I love how many more answers I would have for my child when she asks questions about her birth mom and the situation, and how much authority I could speak with from having a relationship with her birth mom starting years before her birth.

I love the idea of the church rallying and God’s people helping God’s people and what a picture of the body of Christ this would be.

a funny thing happened today at the grocery store

I came this close to parking in the expectant mother’s spot.

I also came this close to buying a dozen Kristy Kreme donuts to have for supper.

I didn’t do either.

she lives

I’m alive.

I almost deleted my blog the other day because I don’t seem to be doing a good job of writing.  From here on out though, I promise to either do better or delete the blog.  Or stay the same.

Lots has been going on in my little cheese world lately.  An update on that soon (probably).

The big news for this post is that I turned in our completed home study binder yesterday.  It took us 6 weeks.  Although we could have done better, I feel good about that.  Now the agency will review it to make sure we didn’t miss anything and then we’ll schedule a visit for the social worker to come to our house and check us out.  She’ll look around the house and make sure that we don’t have dangerous pets, there is room for a baby, we have smoke detectors on every floor and in every bedroom and that we have a fire extinguisher in our kitchen.  She’ll also sit down and talk to Husband and I individually.  Not sure what to expect from that conversation, but I figure we can handle it.

I’m not sure if the Internet knows what is involved in the binder – I’m sure the home study is a little bit of a different process for each social worker/agency, but here’s an overview of what we needed (from what I can remember):

• reference letters
• physicals
• copies of birth certificates/marriage license
• copies of tax returns
• pictures of us and of our home
• a breakdown of our finances and budget
• verification of employment
• completed application
• proof of insurance
• autobiographies (this was the most involved part)
• we had to do some required reading and some online training and sign off on it
• background checks
• fingerprint checks
• lots of signatures

That’s all I’ve got off the top of my head, I might be missing something.  It was not as overwhelming as I expected it to be.

Stay tuned for the next post…it should be a doozy.