FINALLY!!

 

A couple of years ago my little business finally grew to the point where I moved the office out of my house. It was so beneficial for me for multiple reasons. The biggest reason was that since Christian's brain damage, he does not handle stress well AT ALL. Having the house be ours once again really took our stress level down.

Then last year we had the opportunity to "move" to Hawaii to do some work so I moved the office back into our house so there would be people there every day. It worked out beautifully. However, when we came home in May, it was not so lovely.

I left with two employees and came home with another one. This meant that I needed to turn our other "guest" room into an office. Our house had been such a wreck, until now!

I am so excited that we have a new office space! I feel so grown up now. I also now have to wear something besides sweats and I have to travel farther than across the hall, but I am loving it.

Attempting a Come Back

So as you may have seen, we have not posted anything for over a year. We have been INCREDIBLY busy and that make for no time to blog. Sorry to all our friends and family for the lack of information shared.

For those who are on Facebook, you know that we had the opportunity to live/work in Hawaii for a while. We were too busy working and going to the beach to blog...but alas, we are back home and Winter is upon us and so I thought now would be a good time to attempt to start up again.

We will see how long this lasts!!

Short, Sweet and To The Point!

 

I hate the IR$. Enough said!

 

Adopting is Hard

We found out that there are 30 couples in our state that are looking to adopt, but only 2 birth mothers. We had started looking at adopting maybe an older child. We had been looking at the Wednesday's Child spotlights in hopes of finding a kid that would be perfect for us.

After talking to some caseworkers and finding out the background of some of these kids, my heart is broken. There are kids who have been adopted, and then given back to the state because their adoptive parents didn't want them. This sometimes happens 1, 2, or even 3 times with a child! These children have already been through a LOT with their biological parents, they do not need adoptive parents to do that to them.

Some kids were born with autism or other disabilities and either the parents couldn't or refused to take care of them. This hits too close to home for us since my sister has children who are autistic and have special needs. ALL children are special, but those with disabilities truly have a special spirit about them. Who would not love them?

There are also some foster families that mean well, but do not do what they can for these kids. For example, some exclude the foster kid on family vacations or they put their own kids in an extracurricular activity and do not put the foster child in that activity.

Hearing these backgrounds and situations has been the hardest part of the adoption process for me.  I was teasing Christian that we are lucky we are not millionaires because I am so tempted to take all these precious children and adopt them and nanny's to help me raise them all.

I saw this video on YouTube put out by Wendy's Wonderful Kids from the Dave Thomas Foundation. PLEASE spread the word if you know anyone who could give an older child a fabulous life to help make unadoptable unacceptable.

Adoption Frustrations

We have been attending some great classes put on by Families Supporting Adoption (FSA) this month. The first class' topic was "What to do While you are Waiting."

At the class, we learned that we must not be like other couples. Maybe knowing that we couldn't have kids while we were dating is what is setting us apart. Maybe it is because I am COMPLETELY TERRIFIED of pregnancy and birth because I have heard all the "wonderful" birthing and pregnancy stories from friends and family and every baby shower I have been to. (FYI - if you haven't heard these stories yet...YOU WILL! They are the best birth control I feel. LOL)

People were talking about how they couldn't go on vacation because they just KNEW that while they were gone, the agency would call with a child for them. They also know how many other people in their ward had children that year and had struggled when friends and family got pregnant or had a baby.

This is just not like us though! Maybe we are in a minority, but we don't see why we should not celebrate with our loved ones when something happy happens to them. In fact, I used to work with a woman who couldn't have kids and simply refused to go to any baby showers because it hurt too much. Am I the only one who thinks that is a little selfish?

I am not meaning to put those women down in any way, and if you are one of those people, please forgive me! I have had a couple of twinges of those feelings here and there, but I keep reminding myself that it will be my turn soon. Just how soon...we don't know.

We were a little perturbed that someone who was at (who was trying to adopt their third child) stood up and said that with their first child, they had their profile up for 2 weeks and they were chosen. TWO WEEKS?!?!?!!! Then there were a couple that have been waiting THREE YEARS!

We are hoping that we will be BELOW the national average and that we get picked ASAP. LOL Of course, we keep reminding ourselves that we have to be patient and we keep praying for the patience and understanding that everything is in His time frame and not ours.

Oh well, all we can do is keep praying, spreading the word and have faith that the right woman will see our profile and will know that we will give a child a FABULOUS life. It's true, ask anyone.

Friday the 13th!

Today is FRIDAY THE 13TH! Normally I don't think anything about Friday the 13th, but man, today has been something else. It is probably because we just got back from a week long vacation and work and daily stress plowed us over today! LOL

Today I am working on catching up on things from when I was gone and helping my dad with his campaign for State Legislature. I will be working tonight at home on payment for my employees and inspectors. Hopefully I won't have to work much tomorrow and can have some fun with Christian! (Fingers crossed.)

On the plus side, I am getting to listen to the new playlist of some of my favorite songs while I am working! Music always makes things better. The downside is that some of the songs on my playlist are from the soundtrack of "The Hunger Games" and it is making me want to go and see the movie again! Maybe next week I will go again with my mom.

That is my fascinating day!

Our Week

We took a little time off of work this week. Originally we were planning on going on vacation, but we had too many things on our "to-do list." So we did non-office work ranging from doing our taxes to getting the rental in order to rent to cleaning out or garage.

One thing we were able to do was to spend some time with Christian's grandma. She needed a ride to the doctors and so we went with her and got to take her to lunch also. She is so funny and is quite feisty! We always enjoy spending time with her.

During lunch, Christian was asking her if there was anything that she has wanted to do or see that she has not. We were both moved when she said, that all she ever wanted was to get a long with her husband and be happy.

We were talking about how worldly we are now-a-days. People, with their "bucket lists," always seem to need to go places or do something in order for them to feel like their lives are fulfilled. I am guilty of this as well. I would love to go to Scotland, Italy, Ireland, France, England, Africa, etc.

We should be happy with our lives and our families. The rate of divorces would not be 50% if we all feel the way grandma does. Her life goal was to get a long with her husband and have a happy family.  When I am 90, I hope to look back and feel like I led a full life.

May we all be grateful for our lives and how blessed we are.