It’s been a while since I gave you a full adoption update. All of our cleaning and repairing and painting paid off. Before our adoption home study visit the house was probably the cleanest it had been in 80 years. We even cleaned out and cleaned up the basement.

We finished painting the office a week before our home study visit. After the office was painted my dad brought over the rocking chair that my mom used to rock me when I was a baby. I’ve always loved the chair. We’ve moved all of our furniture back into the office from the family room (we couldn’t take the printer on the coffee table any longer) and it feels like the office only better. And it’s ready for a baby conversion whenever we need it.

On September 30, we had our home visit for the adoption home study. The social worker R was running late due to traffic which gave us some extra time to gather ourselves and drink some tea. By the time she arrived, we were both feeling pretty relaxed and were excited about the home visit. The visit consisted of two interviews, first one with us together, then we were each interviewed separately about things we’d written in our autobiographies. Then we gave R a tour of our house. When she first came in she commented on how much she loved our living room and she kept telling us how much she loved our house, especially our family room with all of the windows. (It’s our favorite room, too.) Then she told us what we should emphasize in our profile book since we’re both such creative people.

October, we spent taking a couple of online classes for us to be part of the domestic agency adoption program, working on the profile book and building raised beds for the garden.

Bryan, my dad and I spent a day building four raised beds. Sinking the posts in the ground was one of the most frustrating and time-consuming parts of the process. Everything had to be level and we spent hours trying to get the beds just right. We didn’t think our yard sloped that much until we tried to put the bed posts in the ground. Then the next few weekends, Bryan and my dad shoveled composted horse manure into the beds. It was definitely the “highlight” of Bryan’s October! haha. There were jokes flying as we were shoveling like, “What did you do this weekend? Well, if it didn’t involve a huge heap of horse manure, it wasn’t fun.” And “Who needs dinner and a movie when you can shovel horse manure for a perfect Saturday night!” Once the beds were finished we were very happy with how they turned out. I immediately planted what seemed like an enormous amount of onions. So we’ll see how they turn out. We may have two onions or we could have more than we know what to do with.

One of the really nice things about working on our profile was it gave us an excuse to ask someone to take some nice photos of us, which my mom was kind enough to do.

On November 7, our home study was approved, which meant we could move into the next phase of our adoption. Also in November, we finished our profile book and had the books printed. They are beautiful. You can view our adoption profile book on Mixbook. We also put together our online profile that’s connected to our agency. Please share either one or both of these profiles with your friends and anyone you know who may be considering adoption. Help us spread the word!

Also in November, we took two infant classes – infant and child CPR and newborn care. The newborn care class came just a day before I visited one of my dear friends for several days who had a then two-month old in her house.
It was really cool to be able to share some of what we learned in our class and she assured me that swaddling does in fact help calm a baby along with the “magic” exhaust fan over the stove.

My parents also have taken a newborn care class for grandparents, so we’re all up-to-date on our newborn info, we’re just waiting for a newborn to try out our techniques on.

Just before Thanksgiving we were listed as officially waiting adoptive parents.

At the end of November, we listed our fundraiser here and had an overwhelming response.

If you’re interested in purchasing bags, please leave a comment on the Adoption Fundraiser post. So far we’ve sold over 55 sets of bags and I’m expecting to deliver bags ordered now (after December 18) in late January/early February. We have been so blessed to have friends who shared the link with friends.

I’ve been asked many times how I’m handling the wait and I just say, “I’m sewing and keeping busy getting bags ready.” I honestly haven’t thought much about the wait as we’re just trying to enjoy having time together, reading, sewing and Bryan’s doing some writing and collages. We know that once we are matched with a baby and expectant mother/birthmother our lives will never be the same so we’re enjoying this time while we have it.

We’re staying in Kansas for Christmas, spending it with my family.

We hope you all have a blessed holiday and a very happy new year. I’ll keep you updated about our journey here.

Changes are happening in the little homestead. Our garden is growing in the backyard, the flower garden in the front yard has given us lots of beautiful surprises in the last couple of months. Last fall, I dug up a bunch of daylilies from my aunt’s front yard and put them in the front yard flower garden. I had no idea what colors I was getting so it’s been really fun to see what I planted. And the other change around our house is our news that we’re starting the adoption process.

I was diagnosed with PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) last June, which I was able to fully reverse by October by changing my diet drastically. Since then I’ve been receiving acupuncture treatments and making other changes, such as exercising and doing yoga, (losing 30 pounds in 18 months) but I have some physical problems that make getting pregnant more complicated. After some of my last hormone tests coming back all wonky – some hormones look great and others have decided to do their own thing, I felt like it was my body’s way of saying that it’s not the healthy or the right time for me to be pregnant. So we’ve decided that our best option is to adopt. I’ve been feeling really at peace with our decision like I just needed to go on the journey I’ve been on for the last year to come to this realization and which is where I’m been meant to be.

We’re in the very beginning stages of the process. Friday we met with an agency and are interviewing another agency next week. Then we’ll begin filling out the trees worth of paperwork and start the homestudy process. We have no idea how long the process will take before we bring a little one home but we know that it will be the baby meant for us. In my life, I’ve learned that so many things happen for a reason and that we meet the people we meet to teach us what we need to learn at that point in our lives. If there is anything I’ve learned, many times the hard way, the perfect thing comes along at the right time. It’s happened to me before with meeting Bryan and getting into grad school. I’m meditating and praying that this all works out the same way. One thing that the woman at the adoption agency told us is to “tell everyone you know that you’re adopting. You never know who might have a friend of a friend’s neighbor who is pregnant and wanting to place their expectant child for a adoption.” So I’m telling all of you.

We thought spring was here along with a taste of summer last week now we’re back to cold and rain. The flowers and gardening happening around our house make up for the cool and cloudy days.

Yesterday was the first Saturday in four weeks that I was not out in a garden in some fashion. We still have two vegetable gardens going this year with chard, onions, lettuce, beets and carrots that are already planted. On the front and back porch and basement are flowers, tomatoes and peppers waiting to be planted. The last two years I’ve planted everything on Memorial Day weekend and it’s looking like that is going to be another planting weekend.

Also in the back I’ve started a shade garden. Last year it had two hostas this year after splitting one of my hostas and splitting ones I’ve received from a couple of neighbors I now have about 19 hosta plants with some ajuga, Solomon’s Seal and a few ferns added to the mix. I bought a Guacamole hosta that I can’t wait to see full-grown.

While I wasn’t in the garden yesterday I was doing gardeny things like preparing terrariums (one of my new favorite things) for my mother and grandmother as Mother’s Day gifts.
We celebrated Mother’s Day a week late this year since my parents were on their three-week trip to Spain last weekend. Today I gave the terrariums to their respective recipients and the terrariums were well-loved.

Not much else is new around here. I’m preparing for summer reading at the library with a completely redesigned program for the kids. I’ve hired all of my volunteers and have orientation tomorrow. To promote summer reading for our library, we visit the elementary schools and the middle school. Last week, I asked a second grade teacher to video the story we told the elementary school kids. Here it is for your viewing pleasure.

Spring arrived last week and winter decided it wasn’t quite ready to loosen its grip on us just yet. Last week, we had 70 degree weather, I was in a skirt, t-shirt and sandals and yesterday…it snowed. As is usually the case in last March in Kansas. Heck, March in the midwest always seems to tease us with lovely spring-like weather only to remind us that it’s not quite spring…yet!
Our front yard has been lovely to come home to with brightly colored daffodils and crocus. For days on end, I would arrive home only to get the camera and rush out to take photos of the newly bloomed crocus. All of the hard work planting over 100 bulbs last fall has definitely paid off. It’s such a lovely surprise to see what color crocus pops up where since I didn’t keep track of what I planted where. I’m anxious to see what tulips come up in the next few weeks. Our little vegetable garden has started to grow, mostly in our basement. We have peppers, tomatoes started and lettuce in the garden outside. We’re paring back a bit from last year were we were overwhelmed with weeds. This year we’re starting more outside and allowing more space for the squash and lettuce in the garden.

Our other big project going on is we decided we’d had enough of the wallpaper in our bathroom. We moved into my late aunt’s house who had great taste. She was very into Asian decorating after having visited many countries in Asia but her style just isn’t our style. So we tried our hand at our first DIY home improvement project this weekend and stripped the wallpaper in the bathroom. It was a learning experience and we’re hoping to paint this weekend after we repair a few patches in the walls. We learned a lot this weekend for future projects, one very important one is that several trips to the hardware store should be expected. We also learned how to disconnect the light fixture on the wall. We’re shopping for a new light fixture since the old one we don’t even want to put back up. It was too unwieldy and we don’t want to have to take it down again.

Of course after we finished stripping the bathroom, we started talking about doing our office and bedroom. It will be a while but it hasn’t stopped me from picking up paint chips when we’re at the hardware stores.

Image from goodreads.com

Finally, I can’t end this post without telling you, as I’ve told nearly everyone I talk to, about The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. I read and listen to so many books that few affect me the way this book has. I feel I’m mildly obsessed with this book and I am having a hard time finding my next book. Usually when I listen to an audiobook, I listen to it during my commute and once in a while during lunch. With this book, I listened to it while I was fixing and eating breakfast and any other time I could find to listen. Rarely do I finish a 12 1/2 hour book in five days. I’ll let you read the description of the book and reviews as I don’t feel as though my review does it justice.

May spring be with us all soon. It’s been a long, hard winter.

Two posts in two weeks. *Gasp!* This week was long and short all at the same time. On Tuesday, we were blessed with the blizzard that hit the rest of the midwest. Total snowfall 10.5 inches. Both Tuesday and Wednesday, I had snow days home from work, thank goodness. Driving 15 miles to work would have been downright dangerous. Needless to say, Bryan worked both days though his library closed early on Tuesday and opened at noon on Wednesday.

Besides the blowing and the snowing sideways, the blizzard presented other reasons to watch the snow come down. About 3:30pm, the postman’s truck got stuck in a snowbank across the street from our house. About 4:30pm, we realized he was still there and hoped that someone would be there to rescue him soon. Bryan took some almonds out to him and to let him know if he needed to use the facilities, he could just knock on our door. About an hour later, he took us up on the offer and said he hoped that someone would be there soon. After nearly three hours, a truck arrived to pull the mail truck out of the snow. We’d received so much snow that the truck pulling the mail truck out was struggling on our street.

On my days home, I got a lot of quilting done. I’ve been working on this quilt since August and hope to have it off to the recipient soon as I have other projects to be started. I challenged myself this time with free-motion quilting. I did it along certain parts of the quilt and with the variegated thread, it looks really cool. Free-motion quilting definitely takes some practice and a larger sewing space.

I don’t read as many blogs as I used to but there are a few that I read, one in particular is Young House Love. They are all about re-purposing things you already have and we were so excited today to get this moved around in our basement. When my aunt put the addition on the house we live in about four years ago, these cabinets that had been in the “eat-in” area of the kitchen were moved down to the basement. During that time they have collected dust and been home to random items. Last spring after using two small tables for our seeds I decided I wanted to use these cabinets for seed-starting and garden tool storage. This morning, we put on our grubby clothes and decided that today we would finally get these cabinets moved. They used to sit side-by-side with a counter-top ledge but because of extra siding being stored in our basement, we had to set them up in this arrangement, which actually works out perfectly. (We don’t quite know what the odd pipe in the middle of the wall is about but it’s definitely not a lab despite its looks.) I’ve already moved all of my garden supplies and tools into the cabinets and am ready to start flower seeds and cold weather veggies next week. Now I can’t wait for spring!

I honestly don’t know where the time has gone these last few months. It seems like so long ago we were on the beaches of Connecticut but just the other day a dear friend was getting married in Connecticut and another a few weeks later in Kansas. September flew by but with lovely mild weather and now we’re enjoying the amazing colors of fall. We recently made a trip to the local cider mill, going through the corn maze and enjoying fresh cider. Mmm.

A few weeks ago there was the threat of frost so we madly picked every tomato on the vines. The milder weather in September definitely made up for the lack of tomatoes in August. We filled two large bags full of tomatoes and peppers. Then it didn’t freeze. Fortunately, the tomatoes have continued to grow and we’re still ripening tomatoes on the window sill. We’ve been more blessed with tomatoes than we ever thought we would be considering what a hot and dry summer we had.

In addition to tomatoes, the flowers in the gardens have continued to bloom with red, pink and orange flowers. It’s so lovely to come home to red gerbera daisies still blooming in the front and a swath of pink and orange in the back. Many of the orange cosmos that continue to bloom are self-seeded plants from two plants I planted in May.

Lately, I’ve been hoping that the reading of knitting blogs and the cooler weather will inspire me to knit but I haven’t had the knitting itch yet. Meanwhile, Bryan’s mittens from last winter just lack thumbs. He’s been kindly reminding me that he’ll need them when it gets cold.

Kundalini yoga has become my favorite form of relaxation and I’ve found myself doing it when I’m exhausted after work. I’ve noticed such a difference in my energy levels since I started the yoga practice-five, six and sometimes seven days a week.

I hope you’re all having a lovely fall and taking in all of the beautiful changes happening around us. I don’t remember the last time I so loved fall.

Our garden is growing quite well this summer. Though we think we overdid a bit by doubling the size of last year’s garden. Next year, we’ll plan out the gardens a bit differently. The tomatoes, squash, peppers and weeds are all growing quite nicely. Unfortunately, over a period of two weeks the weeds grew so much in our garden that you could barely see the pepper plants.

Garden sitters to the rescue who came out and weeded one of our gardens and gave us our garden back. Now we’re harvesting cherry tomatoes, Mariana tomatoes, Jimmy Nardello peppers (I love how curly they are) and Carmen peppers with Brandywine tomatoes perfect for picking tomorrow.

This has been a summer of new eating for us. Health issues have forced me completely revamp my diet. I can’t eat any processed foods of any kind – no processed flour, no sugar. It’s all whole foods for me along with some new finds such as sprouted beans and grains. It’s been a trial and sometimes I really miss chocolate, and it’s difficult when we go out to miss out on the bread or chips. I remind myself why I have to do this and know it could be worse because overall, things are well and I’m enjoying cherry tomatoes and peppers from our garden every morning with my scrambled eggs.