And Then I Opened It.

I just got off the phone with my dad.

He's pretty excited. He knows this is an important night.

In fact, he thought it was so important, that he grabbed the soonest bus home from work and left before he was planning on leaving.

And that proves how important and special this is for him, so of course it made everything even more special for me!


I had emailed him this:



(click on the photo to enlarge)

I've had a long day. A very, very, long 10 hour day. But it's Wednesday right?
Who has fun at work on Wednesdays anyway?!

Like always, I rushed home. In my opinion, driving is the worst waste of time when you just want to be at home. So during my 35-40 minute drive, I'm pretty sure I tailgated. I'm pretty sure I gave some slow guy the stink eye. I'm pretty sure I shook my head at some idiot driver ahead of me. I'm pretty sure I flew over that train track on Lambert near the Arco gas station. But I was kinda zoned-out and my favorite playlist was turned way up, so who knows how I actually got home!

I pulled into the driveway and stumbled out of the car, like I do every night, with all my empty water bottles and my lunch box and a bunch of random stuff in my arms...

I grabbed the mail, said hi to the pets and dumped everything on the kitchen table.

Then I saw the envelope.

And I just kind of stood there, with a little smile on my face.
(at least I think it was a smile... I might have looked completely freaked out, but Matt wasn't there yet to witness my facial expression, so we'll never know!)

As I picked up the envelope and ripped it open, the last 2 years of paper work, waiting, classes, phone calls, letters, prayers, and expectations swirled around in my head.

If this letter is what I thought it was, this means we could get a call any day.

                 Any day!

We could get a call from our CSW saying that she may have found a match for us. It could be tomorrow, it could be next month, or next year. (I think I was still smiling at this point?).
 If this was the letter I thought it was, then things just got VERY REAL!

like, SCARY real!


So I took out the folded, clean, white paper, and took a deep breath.



                 And then I opened it.






Psalm 28:7
The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him.

The Cost of Living.

It amazes me how hard we work and save our money sometimes, just to have some part of random life happen to make us use up all that hard earned cash.
But, that's why we work, right? To not only be able to live, but enjoy life a little bit?
You might love your job, but I'll bet you wouldn't work there for free!

It's ironic how everything changes.
Rent goes up, gas goes up, tax goes up, vet bills go up, food costs go up.
But of course your Income sure doesn't budge!

So, I'm moving my horse to a new barn. It's nicer, bigger, and more conveniently located, and you know what that means, more money.
I also live farther away from my workplace now, so I make the same, but spend more in gas money.
I'm also planning on only working part time when this foster/adopt process finally delivers a human being into my home. And that could be soon!
And then the other day, after I had put some overtime money into my savings, my baby kitty got bit by something pretty bad. It got infected and abscessed. he has stitches, antabiotics and a drainage tube. and you don't even want to know the vet bill.

Things start running through your head... Get a new job? Get a second job? Move? Get rid of the pets you love? Give up on ever buying a house with horse property? Sell a car? Give up on kids?

Can you tell I had a little bit of a freak out moment yesterday?

Then as I was sitting there on the bathroom floor, holding and loving on my poor cone-head-kitty before bed, a favorite Bible verse from somewhere deep in my memory just kinda took me by the throat and said, "look Sarah, chill out!"

 

I'm not here to complain. I think my life is pretty insanely amazing! And I work really hard to keep it that way. I know that no matter what happens, my Heavenly Father won't give me something I can't handle. I just need to breathe deep and remember that the cost of living isn't so bad.

...But everyone's allowed to have a little moment of insanity once in a while, right? 😉

Have a blessed day guys!

That's What's Up.

Greetings fine people of the Internet!

Remember the Dr. Seuss Baby Shower
we had...a YEAR ago? we still have everything!

I've apparently had way too much time on my hands today. Which is weird seeing as I started the morning off extreeeeemly slow.
 Usually on my days-off I'm all over the place by 8am. Somehow I didn't even start my day till about 10, and even then I took my sweet time. (But now that I look back, I think I may have had about 3 cups of coffee during that "slow" time...)

But hey, I read a little, cleaned the house, made a smoothie, drove out to see my horse, drove out to look at a new potential barn, cooked some yummy Paleo banana muffins, took a little nap (WHAT?! that NEVER happens!), and then gave this blog a little updated look.
 Like it?

anyway.... onto the important stuff.

UPDATE #9,567:
So here's the deal. We had our LAST and final Home Inspection last week! And yes, we passed!
We had to cut short the only one week vacation I'll get this year, but oh well, totally worth it!

Now, What's next?

Now we wait. again. I know, shocking, isn't it?
Our paper work (Home Study) is going to our CSW's Supervisor for a final inspection before it can be fully approved.

This can take about a month.

But, after that approval goes through, we will receive notification that we are finally "in the system" to be chosen for a match!

Our Social Worker will receive the calls, and then decide (based on all the info we gave her over the last year), what child or children fit our profile the best. Then she will call me, and we'll chat about it for a while.

Once we find a match that sounds like a good one, Matt and I will have a meeting or two with the kid's Social Worker. We'll go over all the info they have on the kiddo(s). If, after all that, everything still sounds good, then we will have some meet-and-greet time!

Does this process sound long enough to you? Because it should!

But, it's OK.
 I'll need that time to decide what I'm doing with my job and finding a part time replacement and all that crazy stuff.

So no matter how insane this whole thing has been, and is going to be, I am perfectly content that it is all working out JUST the way God wants it to.

And ya can't argue with God!

Oh! Ps, I made a Facebook group page for this site as well. Just because. enjoy!
https://www.facebook.com/LifeGetsSeriousSoLaugh