As I mentioned a few posts ago, our lives have been sort of chaotic from February on. From finally getting pre-approved to adopt (after a full year of searching for an agency), to house-hunting and buying our first home, our world sort of got turned upside down (in the best way) this year! And in the craziness, my dear blog has fallen to the wayside. So bear with me, if you will, while I do a little "stream of consciousness" blogging to catch you up!
In the past 4 months we have...
- Bought our first house
- Had the flooring replaced in our main living areas
- Renovated the full bathroom
- Renovated the half bath
- Turned a detached "workshop" into an "office" (lots of work required for that!)
- Moved all of our belongings
- Moved our non-profit
- Unpacked 90% of our home and non-profit
- Had family visit from out of state
- Had friends visit from Thailand
- Taken several out of town trips
- Started 2 new side jobs (more on those later. Don't worry - we are still doing The Sound of Hope too!)
In the past 4 months I have learned...
- That the idea we could renovate 2 bathrooms and turn a workshop into an office in 4 weeks was HILARIOUS. We had no clue what we were getting into! Now when people ask "how's the house stuff coming" I tell them, "Well... we're about 2 months past naive and delusional." Haha! House projects always take longer than expected - especially if you are doing most (or all) of the work yourself. Lesson learned!
- That my Dad is a genius. Seriously - I don't think there is much (if anything) that this man can't do or figure out how to do. He is a physicist, teacher, administrator, lawnmower mechanic, car mechanic, electrician, carpenter, plumber, jack of all trades and we would be IN TROUBLE without him! He has been such a blessing with our new house! He and my Mom have spent at least 6 weekends working with us this summer (and some weeknights that they drove up to help us finish something when we were under the gun). It's not DIY around here - it's DDI (Daddy Does It). We are just his lowly assistants. And we are super, duper grateful for how much money we have saved because of his help!
- That a house is never finished. We have worked sooo hard trying to get renovations done and problems fixed and boxes unpacked and rooms set up and now I know that it will probably never be 100% done. We need to take the time to rest and enjoy our home - even with projects undone. There will be another weekend to paint the guest bathroom or to re-caulk the sink.
- That I need to blog. It's not just a "cutesy" thing or a waste of time. I am a verbal processor and writing/blogging helps me process and make sense of my life. I need to work through things and share things with others for me to feel fully engaged. And I really enjoy documenting our life in this little corner of the world wide web! ;)
- That I need to journal. Just as my blogging has fallen to the wayside, so has my journaling. And again - I am a verbal processor. There is something about putting pen to paper that helps everything in my head and heart make more sense. Our lives have been chaotic since around November of 2012 (because that's when we started working hardcore to launch our new Sound of Hope store and website) and I haven't journaled since. I'm realizing how not good that is for me. I've got to make time for it!
- That our adoption paperwork will not get done if we don't make it a PRIORITY. Because our lives are so crazy, we don't have much "free time" these days. Add new side jobs and trying to settle into a new house to a normally crazy schedule and you'll find almost zero "free time". (And if you do get free time, you just want to rest - not dive into piles of overwhelming paperwork!) We are thrilled that we have a new home, but seriously bummed that the move slowed down our adoption drastically. So after much discussion we have decided to bow out of Community Groups and additional church involvement for a while. (Which is pretty much our only "extra curricular" these days). We know we still need community and fellowship - and we will continue to worship at our church on Sundays, volunteer in the nursery, and I will lead worship. But Community Group is 4+ hours every week that we could be using on our adoption paperwork! As much as we will miss our friends - I miss my daughter more right now. We've got to do everything in our power to get her HOME! So now is the time to refocus our efforts and work to get our homestudy and dossier done ASAP!
Well friends... consider yourselves semi-caught up! I will probably add a couple of back-dated blogs from events I want to remember for Kate (our trip to Auburn for the last Toomer's Rolling and Mother's Day this year) soon - so stay tuned for those. I also have a long list of additional blogs about our life, our new home, our renovation process, and our new side jobs that I want to share - but they will have to wait for another day! In the meantime, if you would just pray for us as we re-focus our efforts on our adoption paperwork we would greatly appreciate it!