Home Study: Part One

As many of you know, we are in the process of applying for our second adoption.  We are very excited about the idea of expanding our family.  This time around has been tricky!  We have gone through a lot just to get all of the proper paperwork completed, physicals done, fingerprints done, etc.  We hadn't even gotten to the Home Study yet!  Well, today we FINALLY started the Home Study!  WHOO HOO!!  Those close to us know that we have been getting our house cleaned up and pulled together for this meeting.  I was asked a number of times by friends or family about what this process includes.  So here goes...

If you want a definition of a home study, you can check out Wikipedia.  I normally do not think that Wikipedia is a reliable source of info, but after looking at it, it is pretty accurate.  But what did it look like for the Stape fam?  Well, we filled out TONS of paperwork, had our fingerprints/background check done twice, health physicals done twice, recommendation letters sent in, financial and tax info handed over, checks written,  drug tests taken twice, more paperwork filled out, paperwork refilled out when they changed the forms, etc.  Today was the first of our interviews with our social worker, Faith.  (Interesting that her name is Faith, huh?  Gotta have a lot of faith in this process!)

Faith arrived at our house this morning.  Yes, we cleaned our house like crazy people yesterday and today.  Even put Joel's sister and her kids to work last night.  (We invited them to dinner....and then put them to work.  :) Thanks, Gyolai's for always helping us out!!  We owe you big time!!)  Our house is cleaner than it was when we first moved in! It will be nice if we can keep it this way!

Faith sat down with us to go over a bunch of questions and paperwork that we have previously filled out.  We talked about things like our community and the racial make up of it, safety, location of schools, hospitals, fire stations, police departments, size of our lot of land, size of our house, smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, bedrooms, bathrooms, Gus' preschool, employment, openness to children and what we are willing to accept, adoption education, family profiles, letters to birthparents, contracts and finances.  In addition to this, Faith took a tour of our house.  She took notes about what our house was like, what we had in each room, etc.  Gus was really excited to show of his bedroom to her.  Showed her his books and the pond out the window.  She of course, oohed and ahhhed over it all for him.  When she looked at my office, we got on the topic of Thirty-One.  (She LOVES Thirty-One!  I see that as a bonus!!)  Then came the bad part....the poor lady looked in our garage and in our basement!  YIKES!!!  Both are what we consider storage units!  So much junk stored in both of those places it is no wonder she didn't get lost!  Oh well....that is life!

We have our next meeting scheduled with her for next Thursday.  Stay tuned to what the rest of this process looks like!

Pinterest

Perhaps you have heard of this thing called Pinterest.  Besides reading blogs, this is what I do after Gus goes to bed.  Some people read a good book before bed....I read blogs and pin.

If you haven't heard of pinterest, you definitely need to check it out.  It is my new crazy obsession....much to my husbands dismay!  This site is essentially a social network to share ideas on EVERYTHING!  I have currently found 2000+ ideas to "pin" on my boards.  2000+ things that I want to try or I want to remember or that I want to share with someone else because they might like it.  At the rate I am going, I am going to end up on a special edition of the tv show, "Hoarders".  They will have "Hoarders: Pinterest Edition" just for me.  I cannot get enough of the ideas that are on there.  So many great ideas out there in the world and I just want to soak them all up!!  I have actually done quite a few of these already.  There are so many other things I plan to try this summer.

If you recall, one of my other favorite things to do is read blogs.  One of my favorites is the terpblog.  I have known this blogger since high school.  She is a great Thirty-One customer of mine and just recently allowed me to be part of her first blog give away.  Who doesn't love FREE Thirty-One stuff??  Anyway, the terpblog co-hosting a Pinterest Link Up.  So if you love blogs and love Pinterest like I do, you need to check this out. Lots of great bloggers and pinners!  Lots of great ideas!!

Beautiful Adoption Story

So I logged in tonight to write a new post.  Whenever I log in, I quick scan the many blogs that I follow and check out what others have to say.  I ran across this blog tonight. And after reading her post, I looked around her blog for a minute and thought I would check out the adoption story.  I had been reading her blog for a while and never noticed the tab with their story.  I will warn you....it will make you cry.  I mean all out, snotty, hyperventilating type of crying...or maybe that is just me.  Thank goodness I am home alone right now and nobody else can see this blubbering mess!!  Just a beautiful story that I wanted to share with others.  Check it out....and their blog!  She has some good stuff!!  Check out Rage Against the Minivan.

When I remember what I was going to write about, I will come back....if I don't get sidetracked by some other really cool thing.

Let the fun begin!

School ended yesterday!  I am officially on summer vacation!  There are so many super fun things that we will be doing this summer but there are also some things that desperately NEED to be done!!  We have been in this house for over a year now, we have out-of-state friends coming to visit us (WHOO HOO!!!) and we have our adoption home study.  Many reasons to get this house in order.  For those that know me, know that I like to make color-coded lists.  Organizing my organization.  Tomorrow it will all begin.  Watch out boys....we have work to do!!

5 MORE GET UPS!!

Only 5 more days to get up and get out of bed to go to work until I am on SUMMER VACATION!!!  I know that there are many out there who are saying, "Oh! It must be nice to be a teacher and have the summer off!"  Well, to be honest, "YES!! Yes, it is!!"  But that was my choice.  We all make choices in life and those of you who really want to say that to me....you should have chosen to be a teacher!  :)

I love teaching!  I love my job!  I am SUPER lucky to have my job!  I love working with my students.  BUT I am SO READY for summer vacation!!  As teachers we NEED this break to rejuvenate for the fall.  And who are we kidding...the kids NEED it, too!

Summer vacation means so many things for the Stape Fam.

1)  It's birthday month!! Both Gus and I will celebrate our birthdays in June.  I CANNOT believe that my baby will be THREE!!  Just seems so surreal!  I have been so incredibly blessed the past 3 years! I am such a lucky girl!  A few days after Gus turns 3, I turn....ummm....a year older.  But as my sister and I will tell you, that means CAKE!!  Who doesn't love birthday cake?!?

2) We get to be home together as a family all summer long!  How cool is that??  We get to be together and play.  It really does not get better than that!  I love that Joel and I both work in education.  My parents did, too, and it was awesome that we got to spend so much time together.  We always knew that there would be family trips or activities in the summer.  I just love that we get to spend so much time together.

3) I have more opportunities to do things that get put on the back burner during the school year.  This blog for example!  Unless there is earth shattering news...which isn't very often in our family, I often forget about posting new info.  As I look back on the past 3 1/2 years (I KNOW!!) that I have been blogging, I did a lot more blogging in the summer.  Clearly due to having extra time.  So watch out world....it is almost super blogging time!

4) CRAFTS!!  How many of you are on Pinterest?  You can find all of my pins HERE.  This is one of my new obsessions!  I have been pinning away and getting TONS of ideas but having no time to follow thru with them.  So....here we go!  I am ready to get my craft on!!

5) Home projects.  Now that we have been in the house for over a year, I am ready to really organize and get this place in order!  I feel like life has just been speeding by and instead of taking time for these projects, I choose to play with Gus.  I mean...who wouldn't??

6) Travel....a little bit less.  This year our goal is to cut back a little bit on our traveling.  Every summer we live out of a suitcase.  The goal this year is to cut way back on it.  Beyond visiting grandparents, and my trip to Atlanta for the Thirty-One National Conference, we will be staying close to home.  I am SO looking forward to that!

7)  Wedding bells!  My sister is getting married!!  And I can't wait!  We are beyond excited for her and Nate and can't wait until the big day arrives this summer.  (I am sure you will hear more about this as the day approaches.)

Lots on the Stape Family agenda but we are very excited to get through the next 5 days so that we can begin our summer of fun!!