What A Rush!

We had a great couple of days to enjoy each others company, but still got a few things accomplished.

Wednesday Derek cleaned his office, we dropped off some action figures at a comic book store and are waiting to see if they will purchase any, cleaned the house, watched TV and Derek played MineCraft (his current love next to me). That afternoon I got a call from a friend who had a side job for me to raise a little extra cash. That night I cleaned a lady's house for a few hours. It stretched me a little (especially the large exotic bird in her kitchen that chases you around with wings open trying to bite your toes), but all in all, I'm thankful to serve someone else and make a little money doing it.

Thursday we cleaned the gutters or at least what we could reach and they look much better! While watching Derek on the ladder I decided to give the house a bath and scrub off some of that green stuff (what is that?!?), which turned into a slightly epic water balloon battle.    Derek - 0, Crissy - 2  I'm sure a rematch will be in our future.

That afternoon we got to pick strawberries with some of our favorite people! It was so much fun to be out in God's creation with little ones (and big ones) squealing when they claimed to find the biggest strawberry. Derek was the star of the show and everyone wanted to be carried by him. Too precious :o) That evening I went back to finish cleaning the house and in the end I got a sweet hug and a nice tip! I think God used that little job to start building a friendship that wouldn't have normally happened.

Friday an electrician came by and fixed the light in the nursery. He replaced it with a new fixture we purchased 4 years ago (never knew why I held onto that thing, but I guess God did!) and was gone in 30 minutes. So nice to cross that one off the list! We also finished writing our announcement letter with the help of some editing and now it's in Derek's hands to make it look awesome!

At 5:20 we received the email that our formal app had been approved! HAPPY DANCE! And then opened it to find the 30 attachments...not so happy dance.

It's Saturday morning and I've sent off all of our references (3 friends, 1 pastor, and 2 work). It's so nice to see our friends getting a chance to be involved. The rest of the day will be spent printing off forms, making appointments, and ignoring the growing lawn.

Baby Blitz!

Just wanted to give you a quick update of what we've been up to in the past couple of days...
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not much :o)

We're just waiting to hear from Bethany if our formal app was approved or not. I thought this would be a quick thing, but a friend told me it took a couple of weeks for them to hear back. We had great plans for this Wed-Fri while Derek was off to accomplish as much of the home study referrals and paperwork as we could, but until we hear back from Bethany we're on hold. No biggie! We know that there is nothing we can do to mess up God's timing, so we'll just enjoy the ride (I'm reminding myself of that as I type).

As you know, I'm kind of a "project completer" (stalker), so I emailed the wonderful staff of Bethany and got an email back that same day saying that she would try to get our approval done today or tomorrow. Holy smokes, Batman! We still might be able to get some home study things done in the next couple of days.

While we patiently wait to hear from them (checking our emails every 10 minutes), this is what we'll be doing:
Cleaning the gutters (actually I'm hoping this could be a Derek thing and I'll just complement him on how good his butt looks from the ground)
Selling action figures (take two!)
Have an electrician fix the light in the nursery
Create mission letters (these are the letters that you'll be receiving soon announcing our big news!)
Hiking (great stress reliever)
Picking strawberries with some people we love (hopefully pics will follow)
Finish up some title work on a car we sold (gurlfriend......don't get me started)
Attempt to clean up the office

Now, how many of these things actually gets done is another story......or should I say blog entry?

Ah, Love

What A Day!

Derek and I had a wonderful time yesterday. We attended an informational meeting up in Indy on the topic of incorporating birth moms into your family. We were blessed to listen to a young lady who had been adopted through Bethany and had also placed a child with them. She had an incredible perspective on what children need in an open adoption and what birth moms need as well. Derek and I have some great ideas about how we can bless our birth mom and make our little one's "tummy mommy" feel special!

We've also been talking a lot about our family profile (this is the book that birth moms will look through to learn more about us).  Most often, these books are just 10-12 pages of text and pics of the adoptive family bound in a book. If you know Derek and I, you know that we're, um....different. After discussing what makes us special, we've decided that our humor and creativity is what sets us apart. We're hoping to incorporate that into our family profile. We've discussed pop up details, handwritten sections, polaroids, pressed flowers, "real" photos....anything that will be true to who we are and set us apart.

We were also able to enjoy some down time with good friends. They always bless our lives and today we were so blessed with a sweet card and donation. The only thing I can do in these moments is cry. I know it's not pretty, but when you see someone love your child before they've even met them, what else is there to do? :o)

Today we're off to church (yay!) and then to try and sell some action figures.

Tator Tot,
When you read this, know that your daddy loved you so much that he carried 4 LARGE totes of his special action figures across a bridge to a store where boys poked and drooled all over them, just to make sure you could come home to us. You're that special.
Love,
Mom (Daddy will sign later....when the tears have dried up)


Yeah, we're different.