Gotta Keep Busy

Quick adoption update:  Home study paperwork mailed today!!  Woo Hoo!!  Now to cleaning the house for the home visit and the paperwork for the dossier.  Our plan is to have our dossier paperwork complete by the time our home study is finished.  That would be wonderful!!

So....what do I do in the mean time when I stay at home and have no kids?  Well, I go a little crazy when it rains for what seems like forever, watch a lot of Psych, look at the internet (pinterest) a little too much, and plan how to redecorate my house.  I decided that curtains in my living room was a good place to start.  I have not had curtains in the living room ever.  We built the house about 12 years ago so I think it is about time.

I saw this picture on Pinterest of curtains with a shelf over them and I really liked it.  I thought, "Hey, I can do that!"  I didn't follow the link all the way and read the original post or even know if there is one, sometimes those links don't go anywhere, but I did my own version from the picture I saw.

Christmas came and Santa brought some extra money!  So, off my mom and I went curtain shopping!  It was a good trip and we got everything I needed for my project.  Now for the work...

I had to paint the pieces I was going to use for the shelf mount and it would also hold the curtain rod.

 

Then the next day we cut the dowel rods to work as curtain rods and the piece of wood I would use as the shelf.  While I put the second coat on the mount pieces, my husband starting painting the dowel rods and shelf pieces to match.

 

You can see the shelving and other dowel rod under the newspaper.  Sorry it isn't a very good picture.

 

Once that was all done, it was time to assemble everything together and install!

 

So after 12 years of looking at this...

 

This is what my windows look like now...

 

I'm so happy with how everything turned out.  It really makes the living room so much more cozy than it was before.

 

What to do now...

A New Start

Happy New Year!!!!

A new year.  A fresh start.  The possibility this year holds.... for good or bad.

Somehow, I feel as if I am in the same place as I was last year at this time.  I look back and I see good things like my first mission trip and fun vacations with friends and family.  I also look back and see a failed adoption, diabetes, a heart attack, seizure, and failed IUIs.

We have been on the waiting list to enter an adoption program in St. Vincent and the Grenadines since April.  We were told that it would not come available for us until January, possibly December but not to count on that.  On November 29th, we got an email saying that we were being invited in to the program!  (I remember the date because we were out watching a special showing of some Star Trek episodes in the theater.)  So, that is what we are doing.  We have started the paper chase again.  Home study update, dossier, and passports renewed.  All that lovely and fun stuff.  After our dossier is complete and registered, the wait for referral could be up to 18 months.  Here we go again...

I like this program.  I want to be excited about it but I don't want to get my heart broken again if this doesn't work out.  Please pray for us as we put ourselves out there again.