Our FBI fingerprints are back, which is AWESOME!  I’ve heard of it taking weeks and weeks for some families, so while I feel terrible for them, I’m happy that was not the case for us.  My mom’s CPS check was sent out, so all that’s left is one little piece of paper before we can schedule our home visit (my mom’s medical form) and it’s already been faxed over to the doctor’s office!!  So should be done in a few weeks.  =)

Tuesday starts a VERY trying week or two for us.  We’re having a company come in and semi-gut the downstairs to install a crazy-fancy sump pump system to solve our flooding problem FOREVER!  No one is more happy about this than my mom, of course, since it’s her level that’s been flooding.  As in, every time it rains for more than 36 hours.  So while I’m happy about the fix, I’m NOT looking forward to the renovation time.  Our phone and internet is run through the downstairs, so I’m terrified that we’re going to lose both for large chunks of time/days.  Yes, I’m semi-addicted to Facebook (ha! semi!) and it will suck to not be able to check it hourly, but the major problem is that I’m a WAHM (work-at-home mom) doing web design.  A bit tricky with no internet.  So hopefully I’ll be able to figure out a way to keep the internet running and my local friends won’t see me floating around the area coffee shops (at least the ones with free WIFI) all week.  =)

Today, as always, after church, we went with fellow church friends to Moe’s for lunch.  Now that the weather is warming up (however temporary that may or may not be), we can finally get back to going to the park as well.  We headed out to our favorite park and let all the girls (five total between three families) go nuts.  While there, I was watching the other kids and families and for some reason, it made me profoundly MISS our little guy.  I don’t know if it’s because we’re (finally, hallelujah) almost done with our home study and so are right on the edge of the TRUE waiting period or what.  Or maybe it’s the fact that everything has been taking so long and we’ve had so many delays that I was almost wondering if the whole thing was a figment of my imagination.  Was this really going to happen or was I just fooling myself?  Whatever the reason, I sat there on the park bench desperately wanting him.  Now.  I’m sure every adoptive parent can relate to that feeling, but today was the first time that I was almost driven to tears by it.

Anyway!  I’m so thrilled that things are finally moving along and we’re finishing up with this phase of the adoption.  Now to hustle through the rest so that we can pass court before the court closures!  I do NOT want to have to wait until November to go get my sweet boy!!!

Oh, by the way, have you been to The Pioneer Woman yet?  I’ve been to this website before, but have been OBSESSED with it this weekend.  Do any of y’all read it?  If not, check it out, but only if you have a cup of coffee (shameless plug!!) or tea and a bunch of time on your hands!  It’s renewed my interest (read: obsession) with getting a entry-level DSLR camera and learning how to take truly decent pictures.  Aim high, right?  =)

I have thoughts going through my brain about today’s sermon at church and how it relates to our lives, adoption and life in general, but it’s just too late for that kinda nonsense right now!  Maybe I’ll have it hashed out in my brain in the next few days.  Until then, have a great start to your week!

All we have left is the Prospective Adoptive Parent Questionnaires for both Steve and me to fill out, Steve’s employment verification letters (2), Steve and my mom’s physicals, the sworn disclosure statement for my mom (waiting for it to be mailed to us) and getting the house ready for the home study!  We still have a bit of work to do on the downstairs from the flooding, but I don’t think it’s all that bad.  A bit of drywall, some new baseboards and painting the floor.  Not too bad!

One thing that needs to be done before the home study is to run cable from our living room into our dining room.  Sounds weird, huh?  We’ve decided to switch our living room and dining room, but Steve won’t allow the switch until we have cable in the new living room (current dining room).  Once that’s done, we can switch the rooms, which is necessary because our guest room (to be N.B.’s room) has extra furniture and a HUGE rug stored in there, waiting for the switcharoo.

One amazing thing that happened today came in the mail.  There was something addressed from our church, which I thought was odd.  I opened it and found a check for $200 from our social justice committee.  Wasn’t that the sweetest?!  I was in shock!  We feel so loved, welcomed and appreciated by fellow church members.  Honestly, I don’t know what our lives would be like if we’d never found UCN.

Okay, off to make dinner for the girlie!

ETA: I forgot to mention one of the biggest blessings I’ve had lately.  I’ve been getting to know two women that are also adopting via Holt and it has been SO amazing for me.  It’s such a relief to be able to talk with people that not only know what you’re going through, but are going through it themselves at the same time!  I’m hoping against hope that we all get to travel together!!  Fingers crossed.  =)

The Bad

Tropical Storm Ida did a major number on the Tidewater/Hampton Roads area of Virginia.  Including our house.  We're close to the Elizabeth River, but are not in a high risk flood area, but flood it did.  Right into my mom's level of the house (the basement, which is only two feet underground).  Thursday morning we woke up to 3 inches of water across the whole level.  We spent much of the next four days battling the rising water as the storm just stopped and hung out for four solid days of straight rain.  =(  We had to pay to have professionals come out and clear up the water that we couldn't with our little pump and wet-vacs.  They just came today to take all of the industrial strength fans and dehumidifiers.  After five days of a constant LOUD fan noise, it almost seems eerily quiet around here!

In any case, the water is gone and we're pretty much all dried out, so now comes the rebuilding.  We'll definitely have to replace all of the baseboards and will probably have to replace a good bit of the drywall.  We're going to look into bricking up one of the doors down there and making it a wall.  My mom wants to not replace the carpet and instead paint the cement, which I think will look really neat!  She's thinking of painting it black, which should add a lot of drama to the room, which is I think what's she's going for.  The colors for the living room are black, red and cream, so I think it will look really nice.

We had to spend a chunk of the adoption loan on having the water removed, but I'm hoping we won't have to pay for a ton more.  I'm thinking of trying to put together a work party with friends from church and seeing how much we can do ourselves.  The baseboards shouldn't be a problem and I think we have friends that know drywall pretty well.  I'm hoping we can do a good bit of it ourselves and then hire out what we can't to a friend or two that are contractors.  So at least most of the money we will have to spend will stay among friends!

The worst part of all of this is that we can't have our home visit from our social worker until the work is done.  So that might push everything back a few weeks.  =(  I was SO excited about powering through everything and getting the home study finished lickity split.  Oh well, could be much, much, much worse.

The Good

1. Today is Eliza's birthday!  It's hard to believe that it's been five years since the first time that I ever held her.  It's just as hard to believe that I could even HAVE a five year old!  She's in kindergarten for goodness sakes!  I'm SO not old enough to have a kindergartner.  Nevermind that I'm 30 and so very MUCH old enough.  I don't FEEL 30!

2. Everything with the house isn't nearly as bad as it could have been.  We should be able to get it back into a livable condition pretty quickly, all things considered.  No one was hurt and the house didn't suffer any major structural damage or anything.  Apparently a family at Eliza's school had their oil tank (or something) break/leak and absolutely EVERYTHING is covered in oil.  Their house isn't even habitable.  So although this is all a huge hassle and money drain, at least we have a roof over our heads and a safe place to live still.

3. I'm about to head out to mail off our I-600A,home study application/fee/forms we've done and submit my passport application!  A grand total of $1935, but totally worth it.  =)

4. Crossed off several more things on our checklist.  We're getting there!

In case y’all haven’t seen them, please check out my two Etsy shops:

Next To My Heart (http://NextToMyHeart.etsy.com) :: Custom hand-stamped sterling silver necklaces and earrings

Pint Size Rock Stars (http://PSRockStars.etsy.com) :: Fun goods for the little ones in your life (and a few things for you!)

The PSRS shop is pretty bare right now because I have a craft show at church this weekend.  Next week, though, I should have a bunch of new bibs in beautiful new fabrics, a few dolls, t-shirts, baby blankets and hopefully a few skirts!

I’m so excited that I could cry!  Or jump and shout!  Something!  I can’t believe that we might know "for sure" (pending our home study) by FRIDAY!

I can’t wait to call and tell our family tomorrow.  =)

In other news, Steve and I are currently in Northern Virginia for a church training.  I’m really missing home and my little girl.  She’s having a girls’ weekend with Grammie, though, so I know she’s having a great time and is in loving hands.  Still, I wish I could go in and kiss her before going to bed.

Okay, training at 8am isn’t that many hours, so should probably get some sleep!