We are completely wrapping up everything we have to get done for foster this week. Here's a picture of what this week looks like for us....
Monday: Breakfast on the Go Event (for Apt. Life)
Fire Inspection (Foster process)
Work a full day
CR
Tuesday: Fingerprints appt. for background check (Foster process)
Work a full day
Session 3 Class (Foster process)
Put up flyer's (Apt. Life)
Wednesday: Health Inspection (Foster process)
Work a full day
Welcome visits (Apt. Life)
Thursday: Fire Inspection part 2 (Foster process)
Work a full day
Take pictures of our apt (Foster process)
Relax???
Friday: Work a full day
Clean like crazy for Home Study! (Foster process)
Flyer (Apt. Life)
Saturday: Home Study (THE LAST THING FOR FOSTER! YAY)
Help a co-worker move
Prep for event (Apt. Life)
Sunday: Church
Sammie Event (Apt. Life)
After all of this, next week will be a breeze! It's all the stuff we have to do really early in the morning before work that's going to get to me. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel now so we are motivated to finish strong.
We did some garage saling on Saturday. It was really cold but well worth it. We now have a car seat, a crib, and bottles! I LOVE garage sales! I think if we had a baby tomorrow we'd at least be able to make it a few days before needing to buy things.
Thanks for all your comments you left on the previous post. They all mean a lot to us!
Monday, March 30, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Foster Parents!...Almost
I've been wanting to write about this for MONTHS but I couldn't until I let my work know what was going on.
About 6 months ago we started looking into adopting. We looked at everything available, private domestic, private agency domestic, international, and foster-to-adopt. We met with a couple who heads up Tapestry, an adoption and foster ministry, at Irving Bible Church. They have walked through this process with hundreds of families and are a wealth of information.
For this first adoption we've decided to go the foster route which is by far the most 'risky' and complicated but it's where we feel the Lord wants us right now. The process to be licensed foster parents is rather lengthy and involved a slew of things including lots of paperwork, classes, various inspections, the home study, and a ton of random things (like putting a thermometer in your refrigerator....). Everything will be finished by the 4th and then it will take about a week to get our license in the mail to make us official. At that point, we wait. How long? Only God's knows.
The agency we are working with primarily gets infants from women in prison who deliver while incarcerated. Since our heart is to adopt and not necessarily be a revolving door, we have put a few limitations on what kids we will take. We do not care what about the gender or race, in fact, I've always wanted a 'rainbow' family. It is very possible that in just 2 1/2 short weeks, we could have a baby in our home. Crazy! But then again, it could be months and we are totally willing to wait.
We worked on clearing out our second bedroom several weeks ago to make room for a nursery of sorts. We are only getting the vary basics for now because we have no idea if we are getting a boy or girl or even when we are getting a child. We don't know if the first one we get will actually become adoptable or if we'll have to through several babies. There are so many unknowns so we'll just have to take it one step at a time and trust the Lord big time! Some sweet friends gave us their changing table and stroller. We still need to get a crib, bottles, and a car seat at the minimum before April 10. We will get a call one day and need to pick up the infant that same day so there isn't much wiggle room to collect stuff.
We are thrilled and excited for this new adventure. I start to get a little anxious when I think about all the unknowns. I'm scared to give up a baby after we've had them in our home for 6 months or more. I'm selfishly sad that we can't plan much for this child, pick out nursery colors, have lots of baby showers, experience a birth. But I know the Lord has us going in this direction for a reason and we have longed to be parents for a long time now. Please pray for my heart during this journey. I have no idea what to expect and desire to trust the Lord and rest in Him through it all...whatever may come.
I gave my 2 week notice today. I'll be finished April 10. I've offered to work 1/2 days the following week unless we get a call with a baby. I'll still need to bring in some income during this time so I'm officially getting my cake business up and running. I found a commercial kitchen to work out of and will be getting my food handling licence soon. This means I can actually start charging for my cakes!!! The business name will be 'Cake Me Bakery'. I'm working on a website, logo, and business plan. If you need a cake or know someone who needs one, let me know!!! I've got several to do next month and a couple wedding cakes to do this summer.
I've got more to update you all on soon but this post is already lengthy. I'll let you digest all of this before the rest comes.
About 6 months ago we started looking into adopting. We looked at everything available, private domestic, private agency domestic, international, and foster-to-adopt. We met with a couple who heads up Tapestry, an adoption and foster ministry, at Irving Bible Church. They have walked through this process with hundreds of families and are a wealth of information.
For this first adoption we've decided to go the foster route which is by far the most 'risky' and complicated but it's where we feel the Lord wants us right now. The process to be licensed foster parents is rather lengthy and involved a slew of things including lots of paperwork, classes, various inspections, the home study, and a ton of random things (like putting a thermometer in your refrigerator....). Everything will be finished by the 4th and then it will take about a week to get our license in the mail to make us official. At that point, we wait. How long? Only God's knows.
The agency we are working with primarily gets infants from women in prison who deliver while incarcerated. Since our heart is to adopt and not necessarily be a revolving door, we have put a few limitations on what kids we will take. We do not care what about the gender or race, in fact, I've always wanted a 'rainbow' family. It is very possible that in just 2 1/2 short weeks, we could have a baby in our home. Crazy! But then again, it could be months and we are totally willing to wait.
We worked on clearing out our second bedroom several weeks ago to make room for a nursery of sorts. We are only getting the vary basics for now because we have no idea if we are getting a boy or girl or even when we are getting a child. We don't know if the first one we get will actually become adoptable or if we'll have to through several babies. There are so many unknowns so we'll just have to take it one step at a time and trust the Lord big time! Some sweet friends gave us their changing table and stroller. We still need to get a crib, bottles, and a car seat at the minimum before April 10. We will get a call one day and need to pick up the infant that same day so there isn't much wiggle room to collect stuff.
We are thrilled and excited for this new adventure. I start to get a little anxious when I think about all the unknowns. I'm scared to give up a baby after we've had them in our home for 6 months or more. I'm selfishly sad that we can't plan much for this child, pick out nursery colors, have lots of baby showers, experience a birth. But I know the Lord has us going in this direction for a reason and we have longed to be parents for a long time now. Please pray for my heart during this journey. I have no idea what to expect and desire to trust the Lord and rest in Him through it all...whatever may come.
I gave my 2 week notice today. I'll be finished April 10. I've offered to work 1/2 days the following week unless we get a call with a baby. I'll still need to bring in some income during this time so I'm officially getting my cake business up and running. I found a commercial kitchen to work out of and will be getting my food handling licence soon. This means I can actually start charging for my cakes!!! The business name will be 'Cake Me Bakery'. I'm working on a website, logo, and business plan. If you need a cake or know someone who needs one, let me know!!! I've got several to do next month and a couple wedding cakes to do this summer.
I've got more to update you all on soon but this post is already lengthy. I'll let you digest all of this before the rest comes.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
It's Baaack!
...my endometriosis. Yuck. No fun, pain. My last surgery was May '08, less than a year ago. I felt a million times better after that surgery. Virtually pain free for a good 6 months. It was amazing...and apparently, short lived. Granted, the pain is NOWHERE close to what it was pre-surgery #1. I've been slowly feeling it the last couple months. About 2 months ago I woke up in the middle of the night and had what I call an "episode," where the pain is so bad it wakes me up...ask Chase, it takes a LOT to wake me up! Yesterday morning I had another bought of horrible pain and stayed home for 1/2 a day until the strong pain killer kicked in.
A friend told me about a doctor in Tulsa, OK I'm going to check out next week. His name is Dr. Joel Robbins. He's a strong believer who got really frustrated in his early medical career because he had been taught to treat the symptoms, not the root issues. He took some time to study on his own and is now one of the leaders in the naturopathic field. I'll be there for 2 days. The first will be running various tests and the second day he will go over all the results and prescribe a treatment plan. He'll start with changes to my diet and supplements.
All I know is that there is no way I'm going back on the horrible treatments I was on a year ago and I'm not ready to do another surgery. So I'm going to try a different route all together. I hope he can help. It's really getting discouraging.
A friend told me about a doctor in Tulsa, OK I'm going to check out next week. His name is Dr. Joel Robbins. He's a strong believer who got really frustrated in his early medical career because he had been taught to treat the symptoms, not the root issues. He took some time to study on his own and is now one of the leaders in the naturopathic field. I'll be there for 2 days. The first will be running various tests and the second day he will go over all the results and prescribe a treatment plan. He'll start with changes to my diet and supplements.
All I know is that there is no way I'm going back on the horrible treatments I was on a year ago and I'm not ready to do another surgery. So I'm going to try a different route all together. I hope he can help. It's really getting discouraging.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Beautiful Baja and Party
I'm sitting on a couch, watching food network, and listening/watching the waves crash on the rocks below the condo. It's AH-mazing! Chase is out getting us coffee at this little coffee house called Cha Cha's and it's WAY better than Starbucks. Oh, and when he gets back we are heading to the spa. We have slept at least 10 hours a night AND taken a nap every day. THIS is what I call a vacation! It is breath-taking here. I'll post lots of pics when we get back.
Last Friday Chase threw me a surprise party! It was crazy. I had NO idea. We were flyering for an event on Saturday which is how Chase got me to building 3 where our beautiful club room is. When I looked through the window, I said "Why is there food here?". Then the lights went on, a loud 'surprise' was yelled, and the happy bday song followed. It took me a minute to realize what was going on. When the "surprise" was sounded, I told Chase, "Oh no, we walked into someones surprise party!" HA! It was MY surprise party! There was 30 people there!
Oh, I forgot to mention that I cried. Yep. I had been so frusterated with Chase the entire day because he was acting really weird and wouldn't tell me what was going on. That on top of a stressful and exhausting week, I was really emotional. The party was great. I felt so loved. Thanks to everyone who came out! I REALLY appreciate you.
Last Friday Chase threw me a surprise party! It was crazy. I had NO idea. We were flyering for an event on Saturday which is how Chase got me to building 3 where our beautiful club room is. When I looked through the window, I said "Why is there food here?". Then the lights went on, a loud 'surprise' was yelled, and the happy bday song followed. It took me a minute to realize what was going on. When the "surprise" was sounded, I told Chase, "Oh no, we walked into someones surprise party!" HA! It was MY surprise party! There was 30 people there!
Oh, I forgot to mention that I cried. Yep. I had been so frusterated with Chase the entire day because he was acting really weird and wouldn't tell me what was going on. That on top of a stressful and exhausting week, I was really emotional. The party was great. I felt so loved. Thanks to everyone who came out! I REALLY appreciate you.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
BDay Extravaganza!
Yep, today is my birthday. I love birthdays! Random trivia, I share my birthday with Jennifer Aniston who turned 40 today. Chase gets home from his grandmothers funeral later this afternoon so last night I decided to make my own birthday cupcakes....I know I know, you aren't suppose to make your own bday cake. (ready? long run on sentence/tangent coming...) BUT, I've been wanting to try this flavor combo for a REALLY long time but I never make cake for myself, I'm always making it for other people and no one ever wants to risk their cake with a crazy flavor...they want the normal white, yellow, chocolate, or sometimes carrot cake with butter cream....bor-ing. Actually, those are really good cakes but after making them over and over again, I want try something new!
So, I love lemon cake, but not your normal lemon cake. It's basically a french vanilla cake with a hint of lemon. Also I LOVE mascapone cheese and raspberry so I decided to make a raspberry mascopone frosting. So you're asking, 'what in the world is MASCAPONE cheese???' It's the Italian version of cream cheese. It is softer and smoother than cream cheese and has a hint of nut flavor. You've probably had it before and didn't even realize it. It's in authentic tirimisu. If you've never had it, you HAVE to try it! Go now, Run! Walmart even carries it now in their international cheese section.
Baby Benjamin Cake
I have a friend from church, Leslie, who recently had a baby, Benjamin. I brought her a cake after they got home from the hospital. It is a french vanilla cake with lemon cream cheese filling, covered in buttercream.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Soon, very soon...
We will be relaxing at the pool and beach below.... Yes, we are going on a much needed vacation! Baja Mexico, here we come! I can't wait!!!
Monday, February 2, 2009
Saturday, January 31, 2009
...Where to start
When it rains, it pours!!! Life has taken a few interesting turns all in the last week. I'll write about them later but none of them have been easy. Thank goodness the Lord sustains us and takes our burdens.
I was finally able to talk to Dr. H about the miscarriage. I'm a huge fan of that man! He is so compassionate and tender. He suggested I go in for extensive blood to work to test for a TON of things and see if anything comes up. So sometime this coming week, I'll go in and get 10 viles of blood taken. It will take a couple weeks to get results but it will be well worth the wait. I've had my fair share of blood work done and I don't really get squeamish about it, HOWEVER, I am a HARD stick. I only have one arm that has any hope and it only has one vain that's worth anything. Many times it takes multiple tries and when they finally do get me, I only produce 1/2 to 1 vile. Sooooo, I'm going to drink a TON of water and eat a HUGE meal before I go and PRAY that I have plenty of blood for them to get.
Emotionally we are doing pretty good now. We are still sad and morn the loss but the Lord has given us an amazing peace. I visited a friend on Friday who just had a baby and was able to hold that baby without any sadness or jealousy. I was thrilled for them and couldn't believe what a miracle it was to be holding a healthy beautiful baby. Children are a blessing and we feel so blessed to have even carried a baby as long as we did. We know that one day we will hold a child in our arms and call it "ours" but really, we are all the Lord's children entrusted to our parents for a short time. Ok, now I'm rambling.
Today I cooked ALL day. I'm doing a cooking demo next so I had to figure out what I was going to do and actually measure and write down what I needed to do. I hardly ever measure, so this was hard. Lindsay came over and took pics as I cooked so I can put together step by step recipes with pictures. I'll post them all here as soon as I compile it all. It was really fun but I now have a new found respect for Pioneer Woman who does this on a daily basis. Crazy!
I was finally able to talk to Dr. H about the miscarriage. I'm a huge fan of that man! He is so compassionate and tender. He suggested I go in for extensive blood to work to test for a TON of things and see if anything comes up. So sometime this coming week, I'll go in and get 10 viles of blood taken. It will take a couple weeks to get results but it will be well worth the wait. I've had my fair share of blood work done and I don't really get squeamish about it, HOWEVER, I am a HARD stick. I only have one arm that has any hope and it only has one vain that's worth anything. Many times it takes multiple tries and when they finally do get me, I only produce 1/2 to 1 vile. Sooooo, I'm going to drink a TON of water and eat a HUGE meal before I go and PRAY that I have plenty of blood for them to get.
Emotionally we are doing pretty good now. We are still sad and morn the loss but the Lord has given us an amazing peace. I visited a friend on Friday who just had a baby and was able to hold that baby without any sadness or jealousy. I was thrilled for them and couldn't believe what a miracle it was to be holding a healthy beautiful baby. Children are a blessing and we feel so blessed to have even carried a baby as long as we did. We know that one day we will hold a child in our arms and call it "ours" but really, we are all the Lord's children entrusted to our parents for a short time. Ok, now I'm rambling.
Today I cooked ALL day. I'm doing a cooking demo next so I had to figure out what I was going to do and actually measure and write down what I needed to do. I hardly ever measure, so this was hard. Lindsay came over and took pics as I cooked so I can put together step by step recipes with pictures. I'll post them all here as soon as I compile it all. It was really fun but I now have a new found respect for Pioneer Woman who does this on a daily basis. Crazy!
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Final Update
My doc's nurse called this afternoon. The HcG came back negative for a pregnancy. The good news is that it is not an ectopic pregnancy nor do we have to wait until Monday for closure.
Chase's sweet grandfather sent us an email after he heard and his first sentence was 'What an awesome God we serve!' And he is so right. It is times like this that we hold on to what we know what to be true. God's ways are higher than our, thank goodness!
We are so grateful we were able to celebrate the life He entrusted us with for as long as we did. We still celebrate even though we grieve another loss. We now have 2 children in heaven that we long to meet. We are also grateful that we have friends and family around us to celebrate and grieve with us. We are not alone in this journey.
Chase's sweet grandfather sent us an email after he heard and his first sentence was 'What an awesome God we serve!' And he is so right. It is times like this that we hold on to what we know what to be true. God's ways are higher than our, thank goodness!
We are so grateful we were able to celebrate the life He entrusted us with for as long as we did. We still celebrate even though we grieve another loss. We now have 2 children in heaven that we long to meet. We are also grateful that we have friends and family around us to celebrate and grieve with us. We are not alone in this journey.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Update 2
I just got back from the Dr's office. It doesn't look good. There was no sign of a gestational sac. They took blood and will check levels again on Monday to confirm what they think. I have a slightly higher risk of having an ectopic pregnancy due to how much endometriosis I have in my abdomen so they are keeping a close eye on that.
I am of course very sad and emotional. The hardest part is that we don't know for certain. It's like 99% sure we miscarried but it can't be confirmed until Monday. My doc has been out of town (today I saw one of his partners) and get's back to the office tomorrow. He is an amazing doctor and I'm sure he'll call me when the blood work comes back. Chase is almost home, thank goodness.
Thanks for all your prayers. We are so blessed.
I am of course very sad and emotional. The hardest part is that we don't know for certain. It's like 99% sure we miscarried but it can't be confirmed until Monday. My doc has been out of town (today I saw one of his partners) and get's back to the office tomorrow. He is an amazing doctor and I'm sure he'll call me when the blood work comes back. Chase is almost home, thank goodness.
Thanks for all your prayers. We are so blessed.
Update
Thanks for all your prayers. I was finally able to sleep around 1AM and actually fairly well. The bleeding has only gotten worse and is starting to get painful. Dallas is completly iced over today and the Dr's office isn't open yet. Chase will probably be let go at noon so he will be home around 3ish. At this point it doesn't look good but I serve a God of miracles, so I am still hopeful. I am just so grateful we have been able to celebrate this life as long as we have and we pray that we can continue.
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