What a busy weekend. Not quite as busy as the garage sale but it was full of tasks around the house. We both took Monday off from work so that we could be home for the Health/Environmental Evaluation and Home Study. It went very well and the puppies behaved themselves beautifully, as I expected.
The health inspection was simple and easy. There were really no concerns at all. The funniest part though was our lame excuse at marking the glass door at a child's height. It is required so that the kids do not run through the glass (like I did in college so I'm all for it). Although I don't know how often we will be worried about that with an infant. Anyway, we could not find peel and stick decals anywhere so we decided to stencil with glass paint. Totally a waste of money on the stencils, they didn't work at all so we just spray painted 2 lines about 2 inches thick straight across the doors. It gets the job done, you definitely notice the doors and probably would stop to laugh at them instead of running through it.
On to the home study. It was very smooth and not stressful at all. Our social worker had put together most of the information she needed from our application and autobiographies, so there were very few questions to answer. We answered a few together and then she "interviewed" each of us individually. We toured the house, went over a few specifics about what we are open to with the adoption and discussed the next steps. Which basically are waiting to hear that we are "Officially Approved", which should happen later this week, and then just waiting to find out when a birthmother picks us. We should be listed on the Generations Adoptions website under the approved families section by next week.
So the "wait" part of the "hurry up and wait" situation is upon us now. Please pray that we can keep our emotions in check. We know that God has a baby already picked for us and we have to remember to let him bring us together under his timetable and not ours.
What are we going to do now you ask? Jenny is already talking about registering for the upcoming baby showers that people have planned for us. My focus is back to our debt. I figure we should be able to complete our adoption fund and be out of debt by mid-August. How our lives are going to change over the next few months in so many ways.
For those of you still waiting for information about how the 8 hour training class went, Jenny will be posting about that soon. She'll probably also tell you a little about our decision to move towards an open adoption and what that means. So stay tuned.
In Christ,
Jerry
And remember..."If you're not first you're last!" from the great Ricky Bobby (yes he has two first names).
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Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Friday, May 1, 2009
Need Prayers....
Praise.... We just passed our fire inspection. The fire dept. just came by to inspect our house and we passed with flying colors. We had to describe our evacuation plan and now we need to have it on paper to turn in to the agency. The pups behaved marvelously! (thank God!) They greeted them at the door and ran right out the door to the front lawn. Thankfully the girls ran right back in and Buddy came back when called. What a crazy thing that would have been........Jerry and I and two firemen running down the street after Buddy! Thank you Lord for not letting that happen. :) All in all it was a good experience and the pups did great!
Now we are gearing up for a long and tiring weekend. We are so exhausted right now so we are planning on taking tonight off and just chillin and going to bed early. Saturday and Sunday we are in mass cleaning mode since our home study is Monday. Here is our schedule for the weekend:
Saturday- take all the metal items to recycling, return tables and items borrowed for garage sale.
Sunday-church then clean, paint, clean, clean, mop....etc......
Monday- 830 Local charity to pick up donated items
11:00 Health inspector coming
1:00 Home study with social worker and evaluation
Please pray for us. Specifically that I will not stress so much and just trust in God that He will give me the strength to get through it. Pray that Jerry and I get the sleep we need to be strong and well rested for the busy days ahead.
You all have been so wonderful. I am simply amazed at the generosity and kindness people have shown to us. I truly know that God has His hand in all this and I am so thankful for all of you.
Have a great weekend. Take care and God bless,
Jenny
Now we are gearing up for a long and tiring weekend. We are so exhausted right now so we are planning on taking tonight off and just chillin and going to bed early. Saturday and Sunday we are in mass cleaning mode since our home study is Monday. Here is our schedule for the weekend:
Saturday- take all the metal items to recycling, return tables and items borrowed for garage sale.
Sunday-church then clean, paint, clean, clean, mop....etc......
Monday- 830 Local charity to pick up donated items
11:00 Health inspector coming
1:00 Home study with social worker and evaluation
Please pray for us. Specifically that I will not stress so much and just trust in God that He will give me the strength to get through it. Pray that Jerry and I get the sleep we need to be strong and well rested for the busy days ahead.
You all have been so wonderful. I am simply amazed at the generosity and kindness people have shown to us. I truly know that God has His hand in all this and I am so thankful for all of you.
Have a great weekend. Take care and God bless,
Jenny
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Garage Sale Day 2
Wow, what a long weekend. We finished up our garage sale about 4pm on Saturday after moving what we had left back into the garage. We have to thank everyone that helped with the weekend, from those who donated items to sell to our parents who came to help work both days. We had a little rain early on Saturday but were blessed with mainly overcast weather, so it never got unbearably hot.
What was really neat about Saturday was meeting 2 different people that adopted through Generations Adoptions. It was great to hear their stories and feed off of their enthusiasm. We can not wait to get to know them more through functions like adoption reunions.
I bet you are wondering what the total amount raised was. Well we had a good day Saturday but not nearly what Friday was. We sold most of our big items on Friday so Saturday was mainly clothes, CDs, books and nick-knacks. Our 2 day total was over $2,800 which brings us very close to the finish line. By my calculations, we should have the remainder needed within 2-3 weeks. I'll update the totals information tomorrow after we get Saturday's earnings in the bank.
So after church today we spent most of the day resting from the garage sale madness. The garage is still just as we left it when we finished up - stuff everywhere. Tomorrow starts the preparation for the Home Study on Monday, May 4th. Most of what needs to be done is cleaning so if we pick one room to do every night then we should be done by the 4th. Our prayer request is not that we "pass" our home study but rather that it doesn't rain on that day. Rain would mean a muddy yard which would mean muddy dog feet which would mean mud all over the house. So all of our cleaning would go down the drain.
I'm going to end by saying thank you again to all that helped with the garage sale, we could not have done it without you. But most importantly, we thank God because none of this would have been possible without is grace. It definitely is a testament to what can happen when you lift up your desires to God and let him be in control.
Peace in Christ,
Jerry
What was really neat about Saturday was meeting 2 different people that adopted through Generations Adoptions. It was great to hear their stories and feed off of their enthusiasm. We can not wait to get to know them more through functions like adoption reunions.
I bet you are wondering what the total amount raised was. Well we had a good day Saturday but not nearly what Friday was. We sold most of our big items on Friday so Saturday was mainly clothes, CDs, books and nick-knacks. Our 2 day total was over $2,800 which brings us very close to the finish line. By my calculations, we should have the remainder needed within 2-3 weeks. I'll update the totals information tomorrow after we get Saturday's earnings in the bank.
So after church today we spent most of the day resting from the garage sale madness. The garage is still just as we left it when we finished up - stuff everywhere. Tomorrow starts the preparation for the Home Study on Monday, May 4th. Most of what needs to be done is cleaning so if we pick one room to do every night then we should be done by the 4th. Our prayer request is not that we "pass" our home study but rather that it doesn't rain on that day. Rain would mean a muddy yard which would mean muddy dog feet which would mean mud all over the house. So all of our cleaning would go down the drain.
I'm going to end by saying thank you again to all that helped with the garage sale, we could not have done it without you. But most importantly, we thank God because none of this would have been possible without is grace. It definitely is a testament to what can happen when you lift up your desires to God and let him be in control.
Peace in Christ,
Jerry
Friday, April 24, 2009
Garage Sale Day 1
This is going ot be short since I have been up since 3:45 this morning. I awaoke to the thought that the tree in our front yard had limbs haning so low that people would not be able to see into our garage sale. So I was in the front yard trimming branches at 4:00am. It is now almost 8pm so I wanted to just write something small before I crash for the night.
It is truly AMAZING HOW GREAT GOD IS! We had so many people donate items for us to sell and also we had many more people show up on a Friday to buy things. We had people bringing breakfast for us (which was unbelievable and I am serious about wanting the recipe) to one lady who came to just see what we had to sell and then went home and brought stuff to donate to our adoption cause. Truly unbelievable since we had never met her before.
I'm sure everyone is waiting for a total of some sort so I will spare the suspense - I went to the bank about 4pm this afternoon and deposited $1536 into our account. We made an additional couple of hundred dollars on top of that for a first day total over $1750. Considering Jenny's goal was $700 and mine was $2000 we should far surpass our wildest dreams by the end of this thing.
Our garage is still packed and we have more people bringing stuff again tonight and in the morning. We both love you all very much and can't believe how blessed we are to be able to call you all our friends. I will most definitely write more tomorrow and a much longer summary on Sunday - we still have to tell you how the training went on Thursday (it was awesome).
May God bless you all,
Jerry
It is truly AMAZING HOW GREAT GOD IS! We had so many people donate items for us to sell and also we had many more people show up on a Friday to buy things. We had people bringing breakfast for us (which was unbelievable and I am serious about wanting the recipe) to one lady who came to just see what we had to sell and then went home and brought stuff to donate to our adoption cause. Truly unbelievable since we had never met her before.
I'm sure everyone is waiting for a total of some sort so I will spare the suspense - I went to the bank about 4pm this afternoon and deposited $1536 into our account. We made an additional couple of hundred dollars on top of that for a first day total over $1750. Considering Jenny's goal was $700 and mine was $2000 we should far surpass our wildest dreams by the end of this thing.
Our garage is still packed and we have more people bringing stuff again tonight and in the morning. We both love you all very much and can't believe how blessed we are to be able to call you all our friends. I will most definitely write more tomorrow and a much longer summary on Sunday - we still have to tell you how the training went on Thursday (it was awesome).
May God bless you all,
Jerry
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Big Week Ahead....
Hello,
Things are busy, busy. But it feels great! I like progress so I can't complain too much. We completed our profile Sunday night. That entails a full page letter written to the birthmom with a picture of us at the top of the letter. (that is the letter you will see when you read the Generations website under adoptive parents.) On the back of the letter we can have the whole 8 1/2 X 11 sheet to fill with pictures. The adoption profile is the FIRST thing the birth mom will see when she goes into the agency to view potential adoptive parents. That alone is very intimidating. We have to totally convince her that we are fit to be her baby's parents in one page! So, that is complete and we will take all 10 copies of that to the agency Thursday when we do our training.
As stated in the previous blog we have been asked to put our profile out for viewing next week. That is super exciting but we are trying to hold it together and be patient all the while reminding ourselves that this is the 1st viewing. It is all in God's hands and He is in control. That has been our motto this week.
This Weekend: The garage sale/adoption fundraiser Friday and Saturday
Boy it is a lot of work! But it is totally worth it. We still have people donating things. It is AMAZING how generous people are. We are so thankful and appreciative. Many people are praying for us and that is amazing also.
We love you guys so much and I say we have a big party when we get that sweet baby and everyone that is praying for us and keeping up with this journey is invited.
take care and God bless,
Jenny
Things are busy, busy. But it feels great! I like progress so I can't complain too much. We completed our profile Sunday night. That entails a full page letter written to the birthmom with a picture of us at the top of the letter. (that is the letter you will see when you read the Generations website under adoptive parents.) On the back of the letter we can have the whole 8 1/2 X 11 sheet to fill with pictures. The adoption profile is the FIRST thing the birth mom will see when she goes into the agency to view potential adoptive parents. That alone is very intimidating. We have to totally convince her that we are fit to be her baby's parents in one page! So, that is complete and we will take all 10 copies of that to the agency Thursday when we do our training.
As stated in the previous blog we have been asked to put our profile out for viewing next week. That is super exciting but we are trying to hold it together and be patient all the while reminding ourselves that this is the 1st viewing. It is all in God's hands and He is in control. That has been our motto this week.
This Weekend: The garage sale/adoption fundraiser Friday and Saturday
Boy it is a lot of work! But it is totally worth it. We still have people donating things. It is AMAZING how generous people are. We are so thankful and appreciative. Many people are praying for us and that is amazing also.
We love you guys so much and I say we have a big party when we get that sweet baby and everyone that is praying for us and keeping up with this journey is invited.
take care and God bless,
Jenny
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