Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Moving on with our homestudy/dossier...........

So here is the bed our baby (Joel- more than likely) will sleep in. Of course right now Jonathan is sleeping here.....so we will have to either change him or drag out our other crib. Oh yeah, we actually at once had 3 cribs.....oh yeah- crazy memories.
So we have to take some random pics of our home for the homestudy......so here are some of my random pics....some are not the greatest, but it's all good. This is our dining/living room.
This is looking back the other way- oh..ahh....so exciting! Hey, we have a fireplace in the middle of our home. This is where our Andrew hit his head about 5 minutes after moving here. Fond memories. We actually always laughed about having a fireplace in LA. After living in IA all my life and never having a fireplace (which would have been useful when your winter is 8 months long!!), and moving where it may get cold enough for all of a few weeks......crazy!
This is our kids table- another words our table where kids do puzzles, play dough, coloring, homework, and we do assorted homeschooling here too.
This is our packed to the brim toy room. It used to be an office, but we made it into our toy room because it wasn't really that big, and we don't want to put temptation in front of our kids at bed time so we put all toys here....out of reach at bed time. Oh yeah....our changing table....a very vital part of our home and has been for YEARS!!!!! See the ice cream tub- you might be asking what is that for- well that is where we make our own baby wipes. Way less expensive and easy to do!!!! You take "bounty" paper towels (yes it has to be bounty because they are stronger than others. You cut the roll in half....put in an old ice cream tub- cut and x on top- then pour the mix over top....let sit for 20 minutes ish and pull out the cardboard middle...after that you pull the bounty through the top and they come out just like regular wipes do and tear off easy too. The mix is 2 cups water, 1 tablespoon of rubbing alcohol, 2 tablespoons of baby oil, 2 squirts of baby soap, and mix....really easy!!!! We like it!
This is our official home school room. We have loads of books in those dressers. We also use the couch sometimes, sometimes we use our dining room table, hey we even go outside too. I like a portable classroom it keeps everything fresh and fun!!!!!!! We also use this room as our home office for the camp in the afternoons when our kids are doing independent quiet study times...which works nice too. We also right behind me have a keyboard in the room and daddy plays for our morning worships. Which we all enjoy!!!
This is a front view of our home! Ahhh...notice our suburban and our 15 passenger! Oh yeah that is what you have to have when you have 7- soon to be 8 children :) I love it! Our nearest neighbor is Sarah- our assistant who lives in the camp's 3 bedroom home/office that is about 400 feet from where the edge of this picture is.
Side view....the semi circle window is our bedroom....part of the addition the camp did about 4 years ago. Love it!!!
Our back porch view......really exciting. Actually I am in a small clearing in the "woods" right behind our home. I love looking out our bedroom window and seeing lots of trees!!!!! I am an outdoor kind of person!!!!!

So we have completed our online classes for the adoption.....we have already had our references in the making, done our letter of employment/salary thing, our finance overview, our update on our kids & us, the social worker has come, we are sending out our USCIS thing tomorrow, we have all been to the doctor, and we are having our Orientation Call next Tuesday!!!!

Whew......makes me tired thinking about it. It will all be worth it when we get that call several months from now......saying there is a little one waiting for us to pick them up and love them and I am getting dreamy just thinking about it!!!!

So now- finances :)......always a challenge, but we are really working to get at least the start up money, and more. We have seen so many times- when we are faithful, God provides.

Can't WAIT to see what God has in store!

8 comments:

  1. This is lots of good info in the start up process. Thanks for sharing!! I had those wipes before but have not made them since....think I just might now!

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  2. So glad you guys are on the move with the next one. Good for you!!!

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  3. You are making great progress! I am sure you all are so excited. I have a question. When we first signed on with AGCI (Aug. 08) I read that once you had 7 kids, they wouldn't let you adopt again. Did they change that rule?

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  4. I am so excited for you! I can't wait to follow this journey with you. I miss being in the process as crazy as that sounds. lol
    The house is beautiful by the way! LOVE the trees surrounding it, and the views.
    Prayers for a quick and easy process for you.

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  5. Hooray for home study progress! I completely agree with you on the finances. There is no amount of money that is too much for the Lord to provide if it is in His will. We are just called to act and obey. He does the rest. Praise Him! So excited to see what God has in store for your family.
    Love in Jesus,
    Amy

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  6. Question about the 7 kids. That is what we thought too....but when we asked if it would be possible they said yes, but 8 was the max they were allowed to do. Something to do with a law in OR??? So of course we were excited to be able to have another child!

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  7. Yay! I am so happy for you and your family. God is good!!! I can't wait to follow you on your amazing journey.

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  8. Great pictures.
    Thanks for sharing!

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