Friday night...ahhhhhhhhh

Sometimes it the simple things that can really just make a perfect night. Watching tv, mug of hot chocolate, and my doggie Ali snuggling up to me. When she gets settled in, all snuggled up to me, she will let out this big "puppy sigh" and at the point everything is just right.

Everytime she does the "puppy sigh" it reminds me of this story...

Danielle keeps repeating it over and over again. "We've been back to this animal shelter at least five times. It has been weeks now since we started all of this," the mother told the volunteer.

"What is it she keeps asking for?", the volunteer asked."'Puppy size!'" replied the mother."Well, we have plenty of puppies, if that's what she's looking for.""I know... we have seen most of them", the mom said in frustration.

Just then Danielle came walking into the office"Well, did you find one?" asked her mom. "No, not this time," Danielle said with sadness in her voice. "Can we come back on the weekend?"The two women looked at each other, shook their heads and laughed."You never know when we will get more dogs. Unfortunately, there's always a supply," the volunteer said.Danielle took her mother by the hand and headed to the door. "Don 't worry, I'll find one this weekend," she said.

Over the next few days both Mom and Dad had long conversations with her.They both felt she was being too particular. "It's this weekend or we're not looking any more," Dad finally said in frustration."We don't want to hear anything more about 'puppy size', either," Mom added.Sure enough, they were the first ones in the shelter on Saturday morning. By now Danielle knew her way around, so she ran right for the section that housed the smaller dogs.Tired of the routine, mom sat in the small waiting room at the end of the first row of cages. There was an observation window so you could see the animals during times when visitors weren't permitted.

Danielle walked slowly from cage to cage, kneeling periodically to take a closer look. One by one the dogs were brought out and she held each one.One by one she said, "Sorry, but you're not the one."It was the last cage on this last day in search of the perfect pup.The volunteer opened the cage door and the child carefully picked up the dog and held it closely. This time she took a little longer."Mom, that's it! I found the right puppy! He's the one! I know it!" She screamed with joy. "It's the puppy size!"

"But it's the same size as all the other puppies you held over the last few weeks," Mom said.

"No...not size... The sighs. When I held him in my arms, he sighed", she said."Don 't you remember? When I asked you one day what love is, you told me love depends on the sighs of your heart. The more you love, the bigger the sigh!"The two women looked at each other for a moment.

Mom didn't know whether to laugh or cry. As she stooped down to hug the child, she did a little of both."Mom, every time you hold me, I sigh. When you and Daddy come home from work and hug each other, you both sigh. I knew I would find the right puppy if it sighed when I held it in my arms", she said.Then, holding the puppy up close to her face, she said, "Mom, he lovesme. I heard the sighs of his heart!"

Close your eyes for a moment and think about the love that makes you sigh. I not only find it in the arms of my loved ones, but in the caress of a sunset, the kiss of the moonlight and the gentle brush of cool air on a hot day. Take the time to stop and listen; you will be surprised at what you hear.

'Life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

House update 10/25

Top picture is our house on Tuesday, 10/20. Bottom picture is our house today! HOLY COW!!!! It actually looks like a house...our house! YEAH!!! Still lots of work today but now we can really go visit "our house" not just a lot with a pile of dirt and a concrete hole(basement).

We did have one issue....they forgot two windows but it will be corrected per our sales person. On the top floor, they boarded up the windows so that snow wouldn't get in. They didn't do that to the back windows on the first floor though.

Right now there are 10 homes that are in different stages of construction in our subdivision. 3 are on our block and 4 on the block right across the street from us. Hopefully they sell more of the lots on our block soon.

Back from the moutains and house update

On Sunday, I headed to Keystone with 3 gals from the office. We were going up for a conference that lasted until today. We had beautiful warm weather heading up there...we were wearing t-shirts, flip-flops, and capris/shorts. Sunday and Monday were both beautiful days. It made it kind of hard to be in the workshops on Monday but luckily they were great workshops. On Tuesday, it was colder but still overall good weather. Another day of great workshops along with the big dinner/dance. We knew that they were predicting possible morning snow for this morning and when we woke up, no snow...YEAH! We finished the conference at noon and started heading down the mountain. Just as we were leaving the snow started falling. The drive wasn't too bad but we took it slow as the roads were a bit slick. The metro area had quite a bit more snow than we thought it was going to. We have about 4 inches of snow at our house and it's still falling!!

Now for the house update...they haven't done anything the past two days! YEAH! I know this may sound weird but it means that I'm not going to miss them framing our house. Double YEAH!

So far no calls this week. Kind of strange since we had 4 last week!

House update 10/19

Today was a busy day at the house! They put in the beams and put down the sub floor. The section where they have the boards standing up and crisscrossed is where the stairs to the basement will go. They also started building some of the garage walls and...put up the first wall!!! YEAH! Andy took all the pics for the past few days as I was in the mountains and missed all of the progress this week. I was so bummed when I realized that they may be framing our house this week since it usually only takes them 2 and a half days.

House progress 10/17

They poured the garage and basement floors today. They have also delivered all the wood for our house! You can see some of the wood in top right of the top picture(blue ends are the edges of the wood). Each bundle is labeled with our address and what that bundle is floor..wall, floor 2nd floor, roof, etc. YEAH!

Wow...another call today?!?!

We received another call today for a 2 day old baby! WOW! Mom had a couple of other kids that are with her mother. The grandmother said she can't take on another child so they were looking for a foster home. Grandmother is young so we are concerned that once the baby got a little bit older she would changer her mind. Plus this was a regular foster home placement not foster to adopt. So...we decided to say no.

I can't believe we've had so many calls this week!!! Hopefully this is a sign of what's to come.

This weekend I will be heading to the mountains for a conference. I'm really looking forward to getting away from the city for a few days. Just being in the mountains is so refreshing. Three of my co-workers are riding up there and they are such fun gals who are also ready to escape to the mountains for a few days

*Ring ring* Hello?

Today around 1:00, I received a call from our agency about a 1 year old HEALTHY little girl. Parental rights are set to be terminated next month. They need an adoptive home and thought we'd be a good match. We said yes. Our agency had to call the county dept of human services to let them know and then we'd hear back as we'd need to pick her up today. We were so excited and I couldn't stop smiling. One hour and 30 min. later I still hadn't heard back from our agency or from the county. I called several times and then finally at 3:00 got an answer. "Sorry, the county decided had already found another home." knew that it was a possibility but since they had called specifically asking about us, I thought they weren't looking at other homes. So, I had to tell my boss I'm no longer needing to take time off, tell my co-workers who were right there when we got the call that the placement wasn't happening, as well as pick my heart up off of the floor. Andy and I both were very disappointed ok, crushed but have to believe that the right call will come.

Shifting gears

I know alot of the posts recently have been about the house and not much about the foster to adopt process. In all honestly, not much has been happening..no calls for placements until this weekend.

Saturday night we received a call for a 3 year old girl who had been left by her mom with neighbors and the mom hadn't came back. They were looking for a foster to adopt home since she had been abandoned by mom. Perfect call! Bad part...they left a message and we weren't home so we didn't find out about the call until we checked messages Sunday morning. We called the worker back and she said they had found a home for the little girl. I told the worker that we would have called back sooner but didn't get the message until that morning. Her response..."Guess I should have called your cell phone numbers..oops! Hmmm...you think?? Our worker said they'd always call our home and cell numbers. We were very very frustrated by this and I e-mailed our worker about this issue as well.

On Monday, we received a call for two brother-2 yrs old and 5 months old. WOW! We decided that with us closing on the house soon that it would just be too much for us as well as the kiddos. We told the agency that until we're in the house that we are still open for one child but need to put on hold the sibling group until we get into the house.

We still at times struggle with do we stick with foster to adopt or should we switch to domestic adoption. I think only time will tell. Once we're in the house and get settled, we'll have to see where things are. We just hope that we have a little one soon.

Somedays I don't really think too much about when will be the next we get a call and other days that is all I think about. Recently, I've been having more and more baby dreams, they seem so real and I *feel* so happy and then I wake up. I hate waking up because that happiness goes away. Please don't get me wrong...I'm not unhappy with my life or my husband. I'm just unhappy and feel an emptiness about the kiddo situation. Besides the kiddo situation, I'm very happy and very blessed to have such an amazing husband, family, and friends. I know there are couples who have been waiting longer than us and I hope their little one finds their way "home" to them soon.

Some days I still question if we should have done more with the reproductive Endocronolist...do more IUI's, take medicaiton longer, look at other options, etc. I know that when we made the decion to stop, it was the right decision and I know we're not "setteling" for adoption. Adopting is something we had already decided we were going to do...even if I would be able to have a baby. These are just some of the random things that go through my head when I'm having one of those days.

This whole process is such a roller coast...I just hope this ride is over soon. In the meantime, I will enjoy celebrating with friends when they find out their pregnant or get matched with their little one as well as spending time with my friends and their little ones.

House progress 10/9

They pushed the dirt back around the foundation today and began to level it out. We were able to get an idea of what our yard is going to look like! We're going to have a bit of a slope on one of the sides and in the back yard. Our neighbors house is now framed...they started it on Wednesday! They also delivered our tressels and should pour the basement floor soon.

House progress 10/3

They sealed the foundation today. They are putting up houses so quick here. It takes about 2-2 and a half days for them to frame a house! CRAZY!

House progress 10/1

Foundation has been poured and they have removed the forms! I can't believe that this is moving so fast! They keeping telling us it will only take 3 months and we'll close in Dec. We were hoping for January but now I'm just hoping that it's not between Christmas and New Years!

House progress 9/29

They put up the forms today which means they should be pouring the foundation very soon!
the white square in the first pic will be one of the basement windows.

House progress 9/28

They poured the footers today! We are so excited that we now have more than just a hole of dirt!