It had to happen, right?

So, this afternoon, Reed came home early from work because we had an inspection guy coming (number two of four). He called and said he was about 15 minutes out. Keep in mind that I'm furiously trying to finish Evy's costume and Reed is emptying out the gobs of stuff that's been stored in the baby room and Evy is trying on clothes from last year to see what will still fit (while dancing to Lola's dance party CD!). So clothes and junk are strewn ALL OVER the family room, sewing stuff all over the dining room, Halloween candy (yes, already) is slowly taking over my kitchen when Reed emerges ever so quietly from the baby room with a sheepish look on his face.

"Ummm...honey....," he says.

"What?" I ask with dread.

"Uh, I wouldn't go in the baby room."

"Why...what....?"

I walk slowly to the room and this is what I see:

I gasped in horror! My hands flew to my mouth. There were no words!

Then I saw this on the floor. Only this is just after he had already removed the LARGE chunk of pink insullation!

What do you say? What do you do?

We laughed. We really did. The inspector guy came and, thankfully, what he was checking was actually not affected by a hole in our ceiling! We passed! HAHA!!!

And a quick phone call to the Nilsson house, then to my parents and six short hours later, it now looks like this:

And this:

Not bad, right?

It will get some more artful work tomorrow, along with serious picking and sorting out.

Thanks, Chris. Thanks, Mom and Dad!

P.S. Miraculously, he wasn't hurt! (At least, not from the misstep, anyway!)

Adopting is hard

Seriously, there have been moments these past few weeks where I have thought, "This is just too hard. I don't want to do this.", "Why can't I just have my little baby and be done with it!" But, no, that's not what God has for us. And, honestly, I'm glad. But let me just let you in on some adoptive parent myths.
1. It takes a long time.
So far, the process has zipped so fast, my head is spinning and my heart is barely keeping up! We haven't been picked by a birthmother yet, but our home study will be done as of next week and our profile is already being shown to birthmoms. (Please pray for these birthmoms!!) Now, of course, not every adoption is so quick, but...be prepared.
2. People who adopt are "special" and "called".
Ummmm...no. Nothing special, just another Christ follower whom God has given a burden. A burden which, by the way, we actually all share (check out James 1:27). And, yes, I have questioned, doubted, looked back many times (and still do) along this journey.
3. So, there's some paperwork, right? Why are you so busy?
Okay, so, there's a TON of paperwork and collection of information necessary. And if your situation is going as fast as ours is, we have had 3 weeks to: write autobiographies (his and hers - not as easy as it sounds), read 5 books/write 5 book reports (his and hers), copies of tax forms, insurance cards, marriage license, pet immunization record, physical exams (his, hers, and Evy's), CPR training, criminal history checks, fire inspection, environmental inspection, writing Dear Birthmother letters (his and hers), at least 3 scrapbook pages of our family and home, pastor recommendation letter, more financial reports, attending two seminars, two interviews with case worker, sketch of our home with dimensions, directions to our home with distances, cleaning out a baby room that has 5 years of junk piled in it...and there's more. All while working, raising a child, cleaning a home, making dinner, doing laundry...
4. Won't it be thrilling when you get THE call?
Yes, and no. So far every time I've received a call from New Life, I've cried. Not just cried, wept. It is such an emotionally charged thing we're doing. And every step, I can't explain this fully enough, friends, every step, has required so much dependence on God. When we get a call that they're ready for us to do our home study and it's 4-5 months earlier than anticipated - tears of joy, of shock, of excitement, of....finally!, of "this is actually happening!". When we get a call asking if we are willing to have our profile shown to birthmother x and here is some info on her - tears of brokeness over this situation she is in, of anxiety over the questions that flood your mind, of uncertainty over what to answer. So when we get the call that we've been chosen? When we get the call that she's going into labor? The call that we can come get our baby from this broken birthmom? "Thrilling" doesn't really come to mind.
5. But then you'll have your baby and you'll forget it all!
Really? Would you forget a birthmom wracked with grief handing her newborn baby over to you, then leaving the room hearing her sobs from the other side of the door? Would your heart not reach out to her, feel for her and maybe even have a hard time bonding with this new babe because of taking on that grief, too? Can you forget the loss that this baby also probably feels? Everything he/she has known is now nowhere to be found. Her smell, her sound, her touch, her heartbeat? Placement day will not be a party day.
6. Don't you want to hear about the people I know or have heard of who adopted and then were suddenly, unexpectedly pregnant?
No.
I'm not hurt or offended or even bothered if you do, but I smile thinking you must not know. You simply must not know how many of these stories I've heard and the grief I've dealt with thinking, "Okay, then...why not me?" I just smile thinking that that story doesn't help me even in the least.
7. Wouldn't it be great if you adopted your baby and then just didn't hear from the birthmom again?
Big, fat no.
She is an invaluable piece of our child's life. We will value her and teach our child to value her. Do you smell another blog post comin' about this one? Me, too.

Okay, now it's late.
By God's grace, I'm going to go to bed and let His peace put me to sleep. These days it's the only way I get sleep!
I'll keep y'all updated! Stay tuned!

Punkin' Carving Weather!

+ some mosquitoes, but that's okay! It was worth it!

Reed doing the dirty work as usual! Evy refused to stick her hands in there. Though maybe she did it once. I helped scoop, too, but Mr. Engineer had the best technique!

Mmmm...I could already smell them all roasted and salted up!

This is what Evy was doing.

Okay, no, maybe she did help with the actual carving! And she designed the face.

(P.S. I don't know why the shirt is backwards. I guess it was just that kind of day. Anyone else have this?)
Good memories!

Before and After

What do you think?

Before: handed down cabinet from Reed's parents. It used to have a brass grill like screen in the doors, but I had already removed that. Here it is with just the chicken wire. Acquiring said chicken wire in this size, non galvanized, was a story in and of itself!

I kinda liked this look by itself and hesitated to install the fabric. I like the look of my country french dishes... but I followed through and here's the after:

You can't see the chicken wire so much in this picture, but I really like the finished look. The rods for the curtain seem pretty easy to remove if I change my mind (or my mood!).

Oh, and for Morgan and any other crafters out there thinking of trying this, here's the hardware I used:

So, which do you like better? Before or after?

The County Fair

So, here's what our skipping "school" to gain some real education at the Fort Bend County Fair was like and what we learned.

This is a tractor. They are never this clean. This is how big they are!

Learning about honeybees.

This is a butterfly garden. We already knew quite a lot about butterflies, but it was cool to see and this lady was very nice and helpful!

This is Duke. He's about a year and a half.

This great FFA kid just walked up to us and asked us if we'd like our picture taken with him.

"uh. sure. yes!"

This is a steer. He's about a year and a half, too. He eats about 35 pounds of food a day! He is

sold to a slaughterhouse who turns him into beef.

This doesn't bother Evy in the least. "Mmmm...hamburgers!" she says!

"Math?" you ask?

She got ten tickets and we figured out how many and which rides she could go on.

I'm glad she let me do the giant slide with her. It was always my favorite!

We also just happened to find a neighbor friend with whom she is riding.

P.E.?

Oh, yes!

There was a whole tournament of races and though MaryEvyn was extremely skeptical at first, she loved it! Egg and spoon, potato sack and pop the balloon. She won third place in one race and won $3. She also won a doll as a door prize. Very fun!

Again, subtracting those last tickets!

Never mind that school this day also included cotton candy and a magic show with Ronald McDonald (who had a smoker's cough, by the way, what's THAT about?).

It also included quality time with my girl and that was worth a lot more! It also took our minds off of the last few hours before Reed got home from a LONG trip. We got home just in time to get cleaned up and then there he was!

YAY! I'd do it again and I highly recommend it!