Adoption Update

We both had our individual interviews with our social worker last week. Mine took 45 minutes; Heath's took an hour and 20. Hmmmm..... But it seemed to go fine, and she should have a write-up for us to preview in about 2 weeks. Then just a couple more things before our homestudy is complete. One of them is having a fire inspection of our home. I sent the form in last June. Since they hadn't contacted us yet I asked our agency to check on it. The Fire Marshal claims he couldn't get ahold of us to schedule an appointment, so she told him to try my cell number. So Saturday he calls me at my home number, to ask if he can call me on my cell phone number! He says he gets a busy signal when he tries the home number. Perhaps that's from us using the internet, but I really think he could've managed to get through at some point during the last THREE MONTHS! Plenty of other people do! So he wants to use my cell #. I thought he meant we'd be having a series of phone calls, so I said that was fine. Then he says, "OK, I should be calling you soon to set something up." WHAT?!!! I was totally confused, and before I could even think the conversation was over. Why he didn't just set an appointment then is beyond me, but I didn't think fast enough to stop him from hanging up! So, now I'm carrying my cell phone everywhere I go--even to check the mail and stuff. No call from him yet. Heath tells me most of the fire inspectors he deals with on the job are quite arrogant, so he's not surprised this guy is acting like this. But hopefully he'll call soon, and we should have our homestudy wrapped up in a couple weeks. Patience is a virtue. :)

Counting Blessings

I've had plenty of days where I run errands and everything goes wrong. But today was the opposite! This morning the boys and I went out to get some things for the upcoming weddings. I don't know why everyone we know has decided to get married at the same time (6 weddings within 6 months, 4 of those between October and December, 3 within 55 days of each other; Heath and/or the boys in all 4 this fall, plus 3 bridal showers). So anyway, we had to get 3 wedding/shower presents today. Fortunately, they were all registered at the same place--Bed, Bath, & Beyond. And I had 3 coupons--two 20% off, and one $10 off a $30 purchase. So I saved a lot! And they even gift wrapped it all for free. Then we went to the mall to get the boys dress shoes for the weddings they're in. I figured it would be a major pain because it's always hard to find shoes that look good AND fit well AND don't cost too much. (Ethan needs wide sizes, which are hard to find sometimes.) So we went to Payless, and the first shoes I laid my eyes on in the kids section were exactly what we needed, and in 13W--Ethan's size! They fit great, and then we easily found matching ones for Jesse. Perfect! Just before I paid I remembered I had 2 coupons that I'd gotten on my last purchase there (one was for doing their phone survey). I didn't think I could use both, but the cashier let me, and then she said "I can do even better!" And she proceeded to give me another coupon they were running for another $5 off. So the shoes would've been $35, but I paid only $21!

I wasn't going to buy lunch at the mall even though it was getting late, because I'm trying to stick carefully to the budget. But I happened to find cash in my wallet (which I rarely have)! So we went to Subway, and had a Buy-One-Get-One foot long coupon. So we got that, and even have a leftover sandwich for tomorrow's lunch. The boys were great the whole time we were out, which is never guaranteed. On the way home Jesse fell asleep, and--miracle of miracles--stayed asleep when I brought him up to his bed! Jesse has been refusing naps for weeks, so this was a true blessing. They both slept for over 2 hours. When they got up they were happy! (Imagine that!)

They played outside for awhile, but we also needed to go to the grocery store before dinner. We stopped at CVS first to use some "Extra Care Bucks". Between coupons and their sales, we got about $42 worth of stuff for $27, and then got $14 back in extra care bucks! (I may go back to use some of that for the great Diet Pepsi sale they're having.) Then we went to Weis. Nothing too spectacular there, but we should have enough points to get 15% off in a couple weeks!

The boys were well-behaved all day. Dinner was easy and tasted good, and now Ethan's at AWANA and I'm using the library's NON-DIAL-UP internet!

I often post about life's frustrations and complain about everything that goes wrong. But this day was just a nice blessing from the Lord. We've been a bit stressed about finances lately, with the adoption and the house situation on top of regular life, and this morning I was praying about that. (You'd think I'd be praying about it all the time, but usually I think of worrying first, and prayer is just an after thought.) Anyway, God answered in a very tangible way and caused all these little things to add up today. It's more than just financial savings. It's a little reminder that God does care, even about the small details in our lives. And He'll take care of us in the big things too.

Quote of the Day

I always seem to come across things that I want to remember, but never get around to writing them down, so of course I forget. So I thought I'd record them here on this blog. That way I can't lose the paper I write them on, and whoever reads the blog can enjoy the quotes with me. So, here's my first one:

The Christian gospel is that I am so flawed that Jesus had to die for me, yet I am so loved and valued that Jesus was glad to die for me. This leads to deep humility and deep confidence at the same time. It undermines both swaggering and sniveling. I cannot feel superior to anyone, and yet I have nothing to prove to anyone. I do not think more of myself nor less of myself. Instead, I think of myself less.

I love this reminder, and I hope I can get better at living it out. I seem to alternate between pride and self-pity. But in Jesus, there's no need for either of those. The quote is from The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism by Timothy Keller. Great book for Christian and non-Christian alike. He answers lots of questions that thinking people wrestle with. I highly recommend this book!

Ground Breaking!

No, we haven't started building our new house yet. But this Sunday we had a Ground Breaking ceremony for our church. Mountain View Community Church (Urbana, MD) has been around for 11 years, and we've been going there for almost 6. All this time we've met in a high school. But we have purchased land about a mile away from the high school, and the building will be going up soon! We're all very excited about the new building--not only for the convenience on Sunday mornings, but also to have a place that we can use throughout the week for all kinds of activities, and to be more visible and accessible to the community. The ceremony was really neat, and even the kids got to help dig. I think Ethan was expecting us to actually dig the entire foundation out, so I had to explain that the big machines would come in to do that. We were just giving them a little help getting started. :) After the groundbreaking, we had a church picnic, and got to meet our new Pastor of Discipleship, who will be starting next month. It was a very exciting and encouraging day for our church.

Homestudy Interview #1

Well, that was much easier than we thought! This morning we just had our first interview with the social worker for our homestudy. She came to our house for it. We were told it would take 2 1/2 - 3 hours, and we were wondering what on earth she'd be asking us about for so long! But it only took an hour, and it was easy. She took a tour of our house, and wrote down a list of the rooms we had. Then she just talked with us about how we decided to adopt, how we handle conflict, who does what in the household, and so forth. She was very conversational, not at all an interrogator. So, we're thanking God that it wasn't as big of a deal as we thought! Ethan wouldn't talk to her of course, but hopefully she won't hold that against us. :) Next we each have a one-on-one meeting with her. Then a few more documents to submit, and then our homestudy will be done. Yippee! Hopefully just a few more weeks to wrap that up. It feels great to have one more step completed!

8 Years Together!

September 2nd was our 8-year anniversary! Since we're trying to save money for the house and adoption, we decided to spend our "weekend away" at home. We went to Medieval Times Friday night for dinner and a jousting tournament. And Saturday we spent the day touring Frederick (the small city about 20 minutes from here). It's amazing how little you can know about something so close! We visited lots of historical sites on the walking tour, and saw the old covered bridges on a driving tour. We went to Olive Garden for a delicious dinner. Sunday morning I coerced Heath into watching our wedding video and looking at wedding photos, and then we visited a large church in the area that we'd always wanted to see. The kids had a great time at Heath's parents' house, and we enjoyed our "weekend away."

August visitors

We enjoyed 2 visitors last month. At the beginning of the month, Carrie (my sister) came for a long weekend. We went to the Howard County Fair, which is where this picture was taken. It was great to see her!

At the end of August, a long-lost acquaintance came to visit. A student that I had in China in 1999, Jane, contacted me to say she was working in the States this summer, and wanted to visit me. So, she stayed for 4 days, and visited Baltimore and DC. Ethan and Jesse practied their Chinese on her. "Ni Hao" (hello) is the only word they know, so poor Jane had to listen to that over and over again. =)