Remodeling??? Making a 3rd bedroom… July 30, 2008

Jason has really taken charge of managing our mini construction remodeling project.  There are huge benefits to having a spouse that’s a project manager.  This means I don’t need to stress about it because Jason’s an expert.  Woo Hoo.

Our plan is closing off our upstairs livingroom/loft area by building a couple small walls, add a door and a closet.  It should be realitively inexpensive and increase the value of our home.  I will hate to lose our upstairs living room but honestly, we hardly ever use it so making it a 3rd bedroom for a potential child is a much better use of space.

 

We had one contractor come over yesterday.  Jason set it all up and they were pretty much done discussing details when I got home from work.  He is supposed to give us his bid today.  Jason is meeting with another contractor next week too.  We still want to get several more bids, but I am nervous about how much it’s actually going to cost.  Will it be a $2K, $5K or $10K?  Yikes.. Will have to wait and see.

** Wanting to prepare ** July 21, 2008

 I can’t wait to start preparing for our kids.  Since we haven’t been matched with any yet, there isn’t much we can do to prepare for them.  Who knows how old they will be, boys/girls… We don’t have a clue.  It could be infants or 11 year olds.. Who knows!  

I keep picturing us painting their bedrooms, assembling their beds, finding soft fun linens, fun decorations and mirrors/shelves… Most of this I should wait to find out what type of things our kids will like but I just can’t wait to take them shopping and learn all about them.

So, I’m reading a parenting/adoption books… and trying to find people to get bids on making our upstairs loft into a 3rd bedroom… From what I have been told this should be really easy.   Just a couple small walls, a door and build a closet and presto.. instant bedroom…

 

We will have to paint too.. but might as well wait until we find out what color rooms our kids want..

 

  

 

Nesting is what they call it I guess… I just picture a mama bird with twigs and twine in her beak waiting for her eggs to hatch… Me as a mama bird.. hehe what a funny thought.

 

They say the home study takes about 3 months, but I am wondering if for this program that time frame includes the application processing.. Which we have completed and took forever! The international program said the home study took a month, but I believe the waiting child one is more intense.

 

We have our classes next week where we get to meet our social worker who we will work closely with for the remainder of the process.

 

Excited and restless are probably the best words to use to describe me now.

 

I would just love to go Christmas shopping for our kids.  Having our children by Christmas probably isn’t very realistic of an idea but I’m secretly keeping my fingers crossed… ***so don’t tell anyone okay?***

**MN Waiting child info meeting/orientation** July 16, 2008

We learned a lot at the informational meeting/orientation on 7/12/08.  The woman leading the meeting made sure to answer every single questioneveryone had (including my 2 pages of questions).  You could tell by the way she spoke about the program and the kids in it, that she was very passionate and knowledgeable about the waiting child program.    She also kept the meeting informal and interesting while going over the facts and procedure for the program.

Here are a few brief items we learned:

• Once they find a match for us we meet with everyone that plays an important role in the child’s life and get to ask questions..

• We will receive a history of our potential child with everything they know to help us make our decision.

• We meet the child(ren) once we are sure we want to go forward with the adoption once the above steps are completed.  This helps minimize the kids meeting potential parents that later may change their mind. 

• The children will be placed with us for 90 days prior to us being able to formally adopt them.

• I liked that the presenter said that a lot of people misunderstand the waiting child program and think it is a juvenile delinquent program.  These kids didn’t do anything wrong, their parents were just not able to parent.

• Timeframe varies (6-12 months?)

• Most kids have no physical problems

The meeting was a great success and we feel even better now that we are on the right path.  

Our next step is the Adoption Classes which will be held all day on 7/31 & 8/1.  Then we start meeting with our social worker to do the home study..

Home study – is basically a biography of our lives they use to help match us with our children.

Research/making plans July 7, 2008

Our thought for getting siblings is that we should get bunk beds.  This way our kids can decide if they want more room space and use them as bunkbeds or they can be single twin beds in the same room. 

We both like the bunk bed pictured above (Hemnes).  We found it at Ikea.  After researching online and looking at several furniture stores this weekend, we think the above bed from Ikea is the best. 

It seems VERY STURDY, which was our biggest concern.  We pulled and pushed on the display at Ikea and it didn’t budge, we assume everyone does the same thing every day and it still appears to be a sold well constructed piece.  Most beds we looked at wobbled a lot and only had one fastener here or there, this bed looks like it has been built to last and the price is mid to low for what we have looked at.  $399 which doesn’t include the mattresses (which start at $99 and go up).

I got three books from the library, 2 on raising school aged children and 1 on raising siblings.  I also requested another 5 books on adopting school aged children (which there seems to be a huge lack of info for). 

Research is so much fun! 

Can’t wait until Saturday and our info meeting!

***A Complete Change*** July 2, 2008

Before we foundout that Peru’s Toddler program was cancelled we had decided we wanted to open up our adoption request to include a sibling set also. 

Jason and I both believe that having a sibling is a very important part in a childs life and want to continue working towards adopting siblings.  We were advised that the waiting child program has sibling groups waiting to be placed.  We are still researching this but this it will be a great option for us. 

These children are normally grade school age, so this means we would go from just a regular couple with a dog and a cat…

…to a family of 4 with two kids in school and a dog and a cat…

WHAT A GREAT CHANGE! 

I wish we realized this was an option for us earlier.

We are attending an informational meeting on 7/12 and hopefully going to classes on 7/31 – 8/1. 

The informational meeting will give us a lot more information to help us make sure we are making the right choice for our family.