7 months

Today marks 7 months of "officially" waiting and being on the list! In many ways I can't believe it's already been 7 months but in others it feels like forever. I can't believe we are almost at the 4 year mark of trying to have a family. I would have never guessed in a million years that we would have gone through all of these things to have a family but I know it will be worth it. We have no clue when we're shown or even when someone is considering us so we just wade through this and wait. Our social worker doesn't mind us asking her but since she works from home and is not in one of the main offices, I don't know how much she really knows about our profile going out.

I feel confident right now that with each day we wait, we are one day closer to bringing our baby home. I walked in the nursery the other night and I can't wait to see those little onesies being "occupied" by a little person.

If you want to pray specifically for us, there are a couple of things we are praying for: that either we will be able to take advantage of the adoption tax credit before it is set to expire in December 2011 or that the tax credit will be extended-this will help us pay for a big chunk of the expenses. We are also praying that we won't have to update our homestudy again (that would be in August of next year---and another $500). We know God will provide through all of this!

On another note, Tommy's Grandma is continuing to worsen. My heart feels heavy and on the way home tonight I began crying at the thought of not having her around anymore. Tommy says he's been trying to prepare himself for it too. Hospice is coming everyday now and she is really weak. While the selfish side of me wants her here, the other side of me definitely does not want her to suffer. It's such a hard thing to pray for but we know God's will, will be done. I lost my paternal Grandmother to cancer 9 years ago this same month so I think a lot of those feelings are coming back too.

What a crazy day!

We usually always have plans for the weekends. While most of the time I don't mind it, it's nice to plan a weekend with things we want to do--just go out and have a little fun! Friday night we went out to dinner with some of our neighbors. They have become great friends to us and we're lucky to have them nearby. We had a great time with them.

Saturday we had planned to go out in the boat and do a little fishing. When we got home from dinner on Friday night, we decided to go ahead and get everything together for our adventure on Saturday. We realized we were going to need a few things so we made a quick trip to Wa.lmart. We laughed and said we were really out living on the edge going there at 10:30 at night :) When we got home, I made sandwiches for our day and Tommy got everything ready to go. You have to get to the boat ramp pretty early here or you won't have any place to park.

We woke up at 6 on Saturday morning, loaded up the last few things, and we were on our way. Bailey got to go too so she was super excited. Tommy always puts the boat in the water at the boat ramps and I wait for him on the docks while holding the boat. So as I go down the dock to meet up with him, I grab the few little things from the car and put our cell phones in my pocket. He was going to bring Bailey down with him.

I squat down next to the boat and the phones drop out of my pocket. To my horror, Tommy's phone (iph.one mind you) bounces off the dock and lands in the water....strike that...sinks in the water. All I can see is it light up as it goes down and then it's out of sight. It happened so fast, there was no getting it back. My stomach drops and I feel horrible. Mine landed on the dock. When he gets down there, which seemed like an eternity, I tell him I dropped his phone in the water with tears in my eyes. He looks at me and says don't worry about it, it's not a big deal, it's a phone and I love you. I felt really bad; it would have been better if it were mine that went in. He then said there was nothing we could do about it and we needed to go out and enjoy our day. We start down the waterway and he looks at me and says "oh no." I have no idea what's going on now. He then says we left all of the bait at home. We both laugh and just figure it was going to be one of those days.

We brought the cast net with us and I can throw it (if you don't know what a cast net is, look it up, it takes some skill to do it) :) Thanks to my Dad for teaching me how to do that. I caught a couple of little bait fish in the net and then we stopped at a local seafood place on the water and bought more. The rest of the day we had a great time, talking, fishing, and just hanging out. It was going great until we were anchored up at our "secret" fishing spot. We were getting ready to move spots and I pull the anchor up. As Tommy goes to crank the boat, the battery is dead. We brought an extra battery along with us but unfortunately we needed a nut to help hold the wire to it. We had to call my dad to bring us one. Thankfully we were near some docks so we drifted over to them, tied up, and my dad was able to park and bring it right to us. We hooked it up and it cranked right away.

Even though it was filled with all sorts of adventures, we had a great time. Bailey was so tired when we got home! It's those types of days that you'll never forget!

Feeling great!

I think I've mentioned before that Tommy and I have been on a quest to lose weight! While it has been challenging, at times, we have stuck with the plan and it's starting to pay off. When we weighed last night, I was down .6 and he was down .2. I know that doesn't sound like a lot but his total is 12 pounds and mine is 21 (I started way before he did). I'm glad that those numbers are starting to go down! We'll have to see what next week holds.

Last weekend we had a really great time hanging out with friends and family. Tomorrow looks like we'll be heading out in the boat for a relaxing "day at sea"! I'm really ready for the weekend. Why is it that 4 day work weeks always seem so long?

We've decided against the cruise for now. Mainly because adoptions aren't covered under anything (and I mean anything) so if we were chosen during that time, we'd lose any money we had already paid. I think we're going to do some "little" trips just to give us a break from the day to day things. We are thinking about going to Savannah, GA for our anniversary in November.

School is still going great so that's a plus! I always forget how tired it makes me though. Tommy and I were joking around last night when I asked him what was going to happen when we had a baby in our house and we'll have to get up during the night :) Also last night, Tommy had to go back out to work, the phone rang (our caller ID pops up on the TV) and I realize that I don't know the number (it just said cell phone). I immediately think, "oh my, wonder if it's our social worker?"; it's the first time I've felt like that. Needless to say, it was a friend from church calling to give us her new cell phone number :) Oh well, maybe we'll get that one soon!

Long Weekend :)

I love long weekends! Don't get me wrong, I really love my job and being around those great (well mostly great) kids all week. But, it's nice to sleep in, catch up on things around the house, or just do nothing! We've had a great weekend so far. We spent yesterday at the beach and it was so nice. Hurricane Earl didn't really do anything here so that was good. However, because of the rough seas, there were lots of shells that washed up on the beach. We even found a few sharks teeth. Tonight we're headed over for a cook-out with some friends.

There's nothing new on the adoption front and I've really had that "baby itch" over the past week. I just really want something to happen. I know it will but we just have to wait for God's perfect timing. We did email our social worker because we're thinking about taking a cruise next year and wanted to see what she advised as far as being out of the country, especially if we haven't been placed yet. She told us it was fine; just to let her know that we wouldn't have phones and everything could wait until we got back. Kind of scary in one way but in another we still have to live our lives too.

Tommy's Grandma is not doing well. She told his mom that she feels weaker and feels like she is slipping away. She's also gotten really swollen lately too. It's like that double edged sword, we want her here but we don't want her to have to suffer either. She's such a strong woman and it's hard to see her hurt.

I'm looking forward to having the day off tomorrow and sleeping in a bit!

Warning!

We are now under a tropical storm warning. That means conditions are likely in 36 hours. One of our local news stations is now saying it's moving to the west a little bit more than what they wanted to see. So who knows! It looks like it will just brush by here which honestly isn't a big deal. We have nor'easters with stronger winds than that. So for now it's wait and see :)

I thought you might like a little bit of middle school humor. We have a dress code policy and part of it says that their shorts have to be 6 inches from their knees. Well the girls usually fall into trouble on this one. So today I ask a few girls to go see the dean and let her "check" their short lengths. A few of the boys thought they would humor me and roll their shorts up to see if they would pass "inspection." I told them I was going to have nightmares about it! The funny thing is most of the boys wear shorts past their knees so when they rolled them up all you see is stark white legs. I had the dean come down and "check" them too plus I knew she needed a good laugh. She told them if they wanted to wear short shorts, they had to be 6 inches from the knee. Needless to say it was pretty entertaining.

It had me thinking though about all of the stupid things I did in middle school. Do you remember what you did?

Tropical storm and hurricane, oh my!

All eyes are on Hurricane Earl here in NC. We're currently under a tropical storm watch so things are about to become mass chaos! We don't want him to come here, and I hate to say this but, we're overdue for a storm. I think we're ready. Right now it looks like it will just brush the coast but if things change we may have to board up the sliding glass doors and a few windows because the winds are so strong. Tommy will have to work and he'll have to stay at the office during the storm. Bailey and I will head over to my parents until it passes.

I really hope it steers clear of here! The kids at school were crazy today and already wondering if we'll have school on Friday! I told them they better not wish that too much because we'll have to make it up.

So there's my distraction for this week! Stay away Earl!

Lost in translation?

Do you ever get that feeling that you're an outsider who's looking in? Or maybe share something with someone but they either didn't get what you were saying or they just chose to overlook it and move on/do their own thing? I'm sitting here right now with a full mind, lots of stuff swirling around inside. This "lost" feeling is strange and it's been bothering me for a few weeks now (and it has nothing to do with the adoption). I feel like sometimes people put on this facade that they're something better, more experienced, or can do things better than you mentality but in reality they're swimming along just like all of the rest of us trying to find their way, just not strong enough to admit it. I hate when people try to express a thought and then that thought gets twisted or they then look at you like you're the one who's done something wrong. I can see why there are so many people who have a hard time trusting. I know most of this makes no sense and it's a bunch of rambled/jumbled thoughts but I needed to get it out. I'm so thankful I have a husband that listens and understands and gives thoughtful advice. Sometimes I feel like it's us vs. the world, in more ways than one :) Together we make a great team!

Ok, so enough of that--my own little vent session :) School is going really well. I've already been observed and had a good response from that. My students (aka "my kids") remember a lot from last year so we've been able to use more Spanish in class which has been fun. They told me on Friday that I was a "gum sniper" because I can usually always catch them (probably because I'm such an avid gum chewer) :) The only downfall is having to get back into the getting up early routine!

We have had a great weekend. We did some major cleaning yesterday and last night for dinner we grilled shrimp and bacon wrapped scallops. I can't even begin to tell you how good it was. My best friend joined us and she was impressed too! Tommy said Chef Ramsey had nothing on him! The weekends always go by so fast. This week we'll have to watch the weather because of Hurricane Earl. Looks like he may be close to here.