Home Study Bound!

We we had an appointment on Friday at the adoption agency to turn in our homework packet...well most of it. There was a bit of a computer issue with my self study and I lost a good four hours of work somewhere around midnight on Thursday night :-( So we turned in the rest of the paperwork without it and I will have to recreate it and email it in. I'm trying to look at it as a chance to better have my answers reflect my true self...or something like that....

On a good note, we now have a better idea of how the money end of this is going to work and it looks a lot better than we originally thought. We found out that we will be able to move our way through the initial steps while still working on our fund raising.

So the next step is our home study, which is kind of overwhelming for me because I am seriously not Suzie Homemaker (pretty sure I am missing the domestic goddess gene). At one point I started a list of things that I wanted to get done before we had our home study. I got about 3/4 of the way down the page before I got depressed and threw the paper away. The good thing is that I'm very motivated to get this step done so hopefully that will light a fire under my butt to get me going.

Plans for the Pighetti Dinner are moving forward slowly. We are still trying to find a location to actually have it at, so pray for us that it will work its self out soon. We have had lots of volunteers which is awesome because there is much to be done. I am so excited about laying the groundwork to have this become something bigger than just our little family. I hope to one day continue this to help other familes that also feel called to adopt.

On another note, I thought I'd take a quick moment and share a rather amazing story with you guys. I have mentioned before on my blog Mackenzie's friend "Bird". Her mother called me yesterday evening to share with me that Bird (4) and her baby brother "Guy" (just over a year) were in an accident while the family was bike riding that evening. Both kids are fine, but they were actually run over by a car while in a bike trailer (one of the that you pull the kids in behind the bike). Bird has a goose egg on her head along with a couple of scratches and Guy was perfectly untouched. They were crossing at a crosswalk and a women turning right didn't even pause as she turned before running them over. The bike trailer was entirely under the car but the kids are perfectly ok. I see no explanation other than God was truly watching over them. Praise God for this wonderful miracle!

Post again soon,
~Jeny

Pighetti Dinner and Silent Auction

We have created an RSVP widget for the Pighetti Dinner and Silent Auction scheduled for April 2nd. Please RSVP if you plan on attending so that we will make sure we have enough food for everyone :-) There is a list on the Fundraising Website (www.calledtoadopt.org) of items that we will have for bidding and also for donations needed.
Post again soon!
~Jeny

January 14th....and some other stuff

Wow, so much to post I don't even know where to start so I'll start with the depressing and move towards the positively uplifting :)

Friday was a very difficult day in our household. January 14th was the day our precious Jack made his abrupt and unexpected entrance to the world. DJ and I both took the day off and just kind of hung out. We ran a few errands and had a quiet little day together. Thank you to everyone who prayed and offered their support. It is so comforting to know that we are surrounded by such wonderful friends and family. I won't go too much into what Friday felt like, I'm pretty sure you can imagine....it sucked....but I got through it.

Ok, enough with the heavy.....

Mackenzie's ice skating lessons went very well. Although she didn't do much "skating" she did thoroughly enjoy herself and wants to do it again. This is my book is a HUGE victory!! I have a few pictures but none of them really turned out that great. Hopefully I'll get some better ones on Tuesday.

Things with the adoption seem to be picking up speed. We are mostly done with our homework packet and the agency has started collecting their paperwork. They have sent each of our "contact people" a lengthy 4 page questionnaire about us. Wow - I guess they really do want to know know everything about us.

Fundraising is moving right along. We have started planning for our next big fundraiser - The Pighetti Dinner and Silent Auction! (I'd love to take credit for that little play on words but I'm not that clever - Thank you Ade!) We have set a date for April 2nd. It seems like it's an awful long way off, but I know there is so much that we need to do before we are even close to being ready for it.

I have also launched a new website: http://www.calledtoadopt.org/. It is very basic right now but eventually will be the go to site for our fundraising stuff. Also, I will be adding a widget so that you will be able to RSVP for the Dinner and Silent Auction.

Well, I think my newsbox is empty now.

I'll post again soon,
Jeny

Future Olypmic Medalist???

Mackenzie has a very big day tomorrow. She starts her ice skating lessons!! Now, ice skating was not exactly my first (or second) choice for her, but once this child makes up her mind it's pretty much set. So, ice skating it is! She is so excited also!! She has been asking me every day if it's Tuesday yet. Our only main concern is the whole asthma thing. Cold weather has always been her biggest trigger so we are keeping our fingers crossed that she will do ok. We also paid a visit to her pediatrician to learn how to use an inhaler with an Aero-chamber. Unfortunately she says the inhaler hurts her nose :( I'm hoping that it is just the smell and that she gets used to it.

Even more exciting is the fact that one of her best friends, "Bird", will be taking lessons with her. Now this is exciting for both of us! Bird's mom is also one of my close friends. I'm very excited that I will have someone to hang with while M takes lessons. Also, exciting because I'm kind of intimidated by the other moms. I know this sounds a little high-schoolish but ice-skating moms always seem so intense and I'm afraid they won't like me. Wow....yeah I totally just wrote that, I sound like such a baby.

Anyway, I'm excited for M's lessons. I really hope that she enjoys them and does well because I want her to find her niche. Also, I really need a way to burn off some of her energy!! That kid is non-stop!! Hopefully I will get a chance to post tomorrow, but it might not be until later in the week.

On the adoption front (because I know that's why some of you are here :) things are plugging along. DJ had his doctor's appointment last week and is scheduled for fingerprinting on Friday. Add that to the fact that the adoption bank account is slowly (but surely) growing and I'm definately getting excited on that front! We have some lingering paperwork to finish up and hopefully very soon we can get started on our homestudy :)

Post again soon!
~Jeny

Christmas Conflicted

New Year’s Resolution….blog more!! LOL!!

Sorry for the recent silence but our Christmas season was insanely busy!!! We managed to make it through the holidays mostly unscathed, presents are put away, tree is still up but its days are numbered!! I’m happy to report that I had many less meltdowns than I thought I would. It was definitely tough though. It seemed like everything that we did around the holidays, part of me was thinking about how differently it would have gone if Jack was still with us. It really, really made me miss my little man. At the same time part of me was also thinking forward to next Christmas. Will we have another little one in the family or will we still be waiting to add to our family?

As I sat back and read that last statement it occurs to me how weird of a situation we are in. I can’t even describe the feelings that are warring within me. I feel so conflicted grieving for my son while looking to add to our family. Despite that I do feel that God is continuing to affirm our decision to adopt.

On a more pleasant note, Christmas was happily celebrated at our house. We had an awesome Christmas Eve service at our church that I played in. It was very interesting because there was only child care for kids 3 and younger so Mackenzie, her friend Maya, and quite a few other kids were in service, some for the first time. The highlight of the service (for me anyways) was when Mackenzie came up to the stage during a song to ask me if she could have a cookie. Everyone got a kick out of it and I almost had to stop playing because I was laughing so hard!! After service we enjoyed a nice meal at a local Italian restaurant with some of our good friends from church before heading home to prepare for Santa’s arrival.

Christmas day was great. Mackenzie slept on the floor in our room and woke us up early to see what Santa brought. Once the presents were out under the tree we realized just how much she had. Luckily Santa is lazy and does not wrap his presents! She actually stopped at one point with presents under the tree and said she would “Save those for later”. We finally managed to get everything opened and put away. We actually spent part of Christmas Eve morning cleaning up her room to make space for everything we knew Santa was bringing.

That next week my dad came into town and on Thursday we went to the Magic Kingdom…along with everyone else in central Florida!! It was soooo busy and despite the “holiday season” not everyone was in a magical mood. We stayed a lot later than we had planned on but had a great day. Mackenzie even rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad which is a roller coaster that even scares me!!

New Year’s Eve was kind of low-key. We had some friends over to celebrate with food and fireworks. We managed to make it to midnight and bid Adios!! to 2010. I must say I was not entirely sad to see it go.

I’m really looking forward to 2011 and to seeing what God has planned for our family in the upcoming year. Can’t wait!!

Post again soon….I promise…
~Jeny