Psychological Evaluations

Today I had my psychological evaluation for the adoption process. I didn't know what to expect, but it certainly wasn't what I did. I drew pictures, told what I thought was going on in other pictures, and discussed what I woudl do in different parenting scenarios. It was a lot harder than I anticipated, and, of course, I spent half the time trying to figure out why I was doing some of the stuff (esp. the drawings--still don't know what he's doing with them!).

Mark's out right now getting his evaluation. I know we'll both be glad to have these done. At some point, we'll go in and meet with the psychologist to find out what he thinks, but I do know that I passed :) (Yes, I asked at the end.)

After this, we only have one more homestudy visit and then we're done with the approval process!

Job Updates

So I was offered a class today. The only catch, though, is that it is a Friday night class. Yuck! I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I knew what classes were left, and I was praying that I would get any of them except this one. Oh well. I'm still praying that something else opens up. This quarter several classes opened up a few weeks before classes started.

I also had a second person offer to host a Lia Sophia party for me. Yay!! That means just four to go.

Please Pray

I'm almost to the end of the quarter at school. My comp. students turned in their final research papers and start their presentations tomorrow; my Workplace Communications students gave their product presentations tonight and got the second half of their final exam tonight; my dean sent out the Writing Center tutoring sign up sheet.

But I have no classes for next quarter. It's come down to the end of the quarter once again without my having any classes. However, unlike the past quarters, my dean flat out told me yesterday that she isn't sure I'll get any classes next quarter.

We need for me to have two classes in order to stay on top of things. We could survive on one, but it would be difficult. It's especially difficult right now since we have another adoption payment coming up soon. It's our last one before placement, but it's also the largest one so far. I don't get paid between quarters, so we already have a very lean December.

Please pray that I get classes for next quarter. God has always provided the two classes that I need, even when it didn't look like I'd get any. Please also pray that if I am to move on to somewhere else that God will make it clear. We've talked about my switching to a different school, but I like where I am, and I haven't found anything close that I'm interested in.

There's so much going through my mind as I try to figure out how we'll make it. I know that He is in control, and that His plan is perfect. I'm just trying to figure out what I'm supposed to be doing at this point. Should I start looking for other jobs (non-teaching at this point in the year), or should I continue to wait it out where I am?

I planned on taking some time off for when we have the baby, and this may be God's way of doing that for me, but it's so hard to know since unlike those having children the traditional way, we don't have a set due date.

In the meantime, though, I had decided to become a consultant for Lia Sophia. They sell jewelry, and I went to a party at a friend's house recently. One of my friends started selling it, and after talking to her and asking her a million questions, Mark and I had decided that it was something that I would do. I prayed about it a lot because it wasn't something that I ever saw myself doing, yet I found myself drawn to it. We made the final decision about this the day before I found out about the classes.

I am having my starter show on Friday (and you're all invited!). I had that scheduled as just a regular show for my friend, but now it's my starter show. I also need to schedule six shows of my own by the end of January. So far, I already have one--thanks Amy!!! If anyone else is interested in helping me get started, let me know. You get free/really cheap jewelry for hosting. (And you get the satisfaction of helping me out without even having to spend any money!) For all of my far-away friends, you are welcome to come out for one of my parties anytime!!

I know that God has His hand in all of this and that He has everything all planned out for us. Pray for us we try to figure out exactly what we are to be doing at this time in our life. Isn't it great to know that we have a God in charge of that?? I don't know how people survive without Him!

Some Family Pictures

I've been working on our adoption scrapbook, and I realized that we have a ton of pictures from my family and very few from his (at least recent ones!). It makes sense since we live by my family, but we definitely needed some family picutes to use for the scrapbook!

Mark and his family, minus Rachel who didn't make it out for Thanksgiving :(

Andy, Beth, and Mark

Andy, Beth, and Beth's boyfriend, Zach

Mark's parents as Hal opens his Christmas gift and finds out that all the kids and Grandpa went together and bought him a snowblower. Can you tell he likes it??

We definitely enjoyed having Mark's family here for Thanksgiving. It was fun to have both of our families over to our house for dinner. It is such a blessing to have such great families that get along so well!

Putting Up the Christmas Tree

Saturday we celebrated Christmas with Mark's family. Mark and I put up our Ikea Christmas tree. It was fun to pull out all our ornaments and put them up. It takes a lot of thought and rearranging when you have a dog that thinks that ornaments are tasty. (We learned that the hard way last year!)

We started getting a Christmas tree ornament from each place we go, so we put up our Christmas cactus ornament from Arizona and our light house from Nova Scotia. Pulling them out brought back a whole slew of memories!

The cat was somewhere under the pile of papers. Everytime someone walked past me, I had to remind them to not step on the cat!

Mark hung most of the ornaments, and then I helped rearrange them :)

I must not have agreed with something here!

Thanksgiving Day

We had everyone over to our house for Thanksgiving dinner--eleven people in all. It was interesting at times, but fun.

The "kids" table. (I'll probably get in trouble for that one!)

The old people and us table.

I swear that it went really well. Not sure what was going through my mind when Mark took this picture. Lovely!

Piston's Game

On Wednesday we went to the Piston's game with Andy and Lauren. That makes two games in two and a half weeks! Gotta love free tickets!

From Mark

The Baby's Room

Mark and I have been working on the baby's room recently. We sold some of the furniture, moved out the desk and put it into our new shared office, and brought up a dresser from the basement. We still have a lot to do, starting with stripping the wallpaper, and then once we have the baby, painting and decorating. However, it is nice to have the room at least somewhat set up!

A basic view of the baby's room.

This was in my room when I was little, and I have it in the nursery right now. I don't know if it'll stay there, but it's nice to have it in there for the meantime!

You couldn't expect our baby to go without books, and this is only a fraction of the ones we have collected for him/her. (We have more in the living room and the basement.) If you look on the middle shelf, you can see a baby signs book (behind the pink doll)--that is the only full price thing we've bought for our baby so far. EVERYTHING else was either from garage sales and mom-to-mom sales or hand me downs. That's hard to believe, esp. considering the dresser is over half full of blankets, socks, clothes, etc., and the closet has even more clothes in it!

God has been providing so much for us. It's really difficult because unlike most couples, we don't have a due date. We have no idea when we will have our baby. We alod won't have a baby shower until AFTER we have the baby. It might even be a while after we have the baby if we decide to wait until the adoption is finalized. That means that we need to buy a few more things upfront than a lot of other couples.

Last year Target carried this truck, and we bought it for Mark's cousin's son, but, of course, when I went back later this year to get one for Mark/our baby, they didn't carry them anymore. I checked on Amazon and got it for an unbelievable price. We were both really excited when it came in the mail. It makes truck noises when you dump the "garbage" into the back. Now we just need a rear loader and a roll off, and our child might be set!

We picked up these blocks at a garage sale this summer. Before we bought them, we made sure that they spelled out our favorite names!

I had seen this doll on target's website (for $10) and really liked it. When I was at a mom-to-mom sale with a friend this fall, I found it for $1.00. However, it had some disgusting crusty stuff on it, so I got it for fifty cents. It said to surface wash only, but I put it through the washing machine and it came out looking (and feeling!) brand new.

These were Mark's favorite animals when he was little. This fall his mom pulled them out of storage and gave us doggie and seal. I put them through the washing machine, and they survived, but they definitely are showing their age. I found a few pictures of Mark with them in the old family pictures, so once we get that computer hooked up to the internet, I'll have to post them.

It's exciting to see things start to come together!

Homestudy, Highchair, and Other Randomness

Today was our second homestudy interview, this time at our social worker's house. It went really well, so that was good. We spent a few hours talking about our marriage and relationship, parenting, our view of birthparents/adoption questions/searching for birthparents.

We've thought and talked about this for so long that most of the questions are fairly "easy," but today we were asked one that made us both stop and basically say "we don't know." It definitely gives us more to think about.

Our social worker is pretty confident that our next visit will be our last visit. That would be wonderful. Pray for us as we continue in this process. Some of the answers to our questions at the end of the interview were not what we expected and so that has us a bit unsettled. Overall, though, it's been a good process!

Remember the highchair I started working on a long long time ago? Well, we worked on it this weekend and made some great progress. It's still got a ways to go--finish the sanding, staining it, and reassembling various parts. But at least we're making progress again!

Before we started anything.

Working on it again, this time in the basement.

Yesterday Katie and I were at K-mart looking for blankets (we've been practically everywhere and still haven't found them!), and I saw a clearance section over by the baby stuff. We went to check it out and found Halloween candy 90% off. No chocolate, of course, but I was really excited when I found Sponge Bob Krabby Patties.

You're probably wondering why, and the answer is that I use them in my Comp. I/II classes to illustrate how to use quotes/paraphrases. I stocked up on some last Easter, and it's not like they go bad, but when I saw the big box of them, I had to get it. I actually got both boxes they had, and each one has 88 patties in it. I'm set for a long time!

Oh yeah, it was originally $10, and I got it for $1.00! And the box is actually a carrying case. Yay!!

Hmm, I think that's enough for today. Have a great Tuesday!