Snow + Snowblower=Happy Husband

As soon as we started building the house, Andy said he was going to have to get a snowblower since we have a much bigger driveway and more sidewalks. We ended up getting him one in January as we had some gift cards, they were on clearance and we had a coupon for an additional % off. Well, since he bought it...no snow. At least not enough to use the snowblower. I keep teasing him that the lack of snow in Denver is is his fault. =)

On Sunday morning, we woke up to a few inches of snow and it continued to snow throughout the morning. As soon as Andy saw that a neighbor was using a snowblower, he got the biggest smile, threw on some warm clothes, fueled up the snowblower and off he went. He ended up doing a huge part of the neighbors sidewalk as well. He probably would have done the whole block if there wasn't construction stuff blocking his way. I just hope we get some more snow very soon as I have never seen him this eager to clear the driveway!

A watched pot of water does not boil..

Isn't that how the saying goes? I think it's the same for the phone...it's not ringing or at least not enough. Now that we're in the new house and getting settled in, I no longer have that as a distraction. I can honestly say that while the house was being built I didn't worry or wonder when the phone was going to ring. Gotta love distractions! I told Andy I need a new distraction and all he could say was, "we're not building another house". HA!

I'm back to carrying my personal cell with me all the time when I'm at work, checking it if I walk away for two minutes, and I know if it hasn't rang by 3, we're not going to get a call that day. All of the calls have been between 10-2. Odd, but that's the way they've happened. It's hard to believe we've been licensed for almost 9 months and still haven't had a foster to adopt placement! I admit that I'd rather wait a long time for the right placement than have several placements that don't end up working out though.

I had said when we moved into our house, that I was going to wait to set up the kids room as we had it already at the rental house and never used it. Well, this weekend, I unpacked some of the boxes that were in there and organized the ones that I'm not going to unpack yet. I can't wait until we do have a little one in there so that we can decorate it for the right age/sex.

In less than two months my parents will be here...YEAH!!! I can't wait for them to see our house as well as our neighborhood. Hopefully there will be a littleone(s) here by then as well.

Life is too short

Today I received a call from a co-worker that a young(26) lawyer with our office passed away. I about drove off the road when I heard this. I am shocked, confused, and sad. She had just graduated from law school in the spring, passed the bar, and was hired a deputy district attorney with our office. She had interned at our office while she was still in law school. I can't even imagine what her family is going through. She was so young and just starting a career she worked so hard for.

I guess the saying "never take anything for granted" is absolutely true. You never know how long you or your loved ones will be here. I know that this makes me want to find everyone I know and just put them in a huge bubble. A bubble filled with love and safety.

Yesterday at the Olympics is another example of how life can just change in a second. I was so angry that they kept playing the clip of his last run over and over, and showing his death again and again. Why would the media torture his family, friend, and members of his country that way?!?!

I guess the main point of this entry tonight is to make sure you tell your loved one that you love them as often as you can, enjoy the time you have with them, cherish it, as you never know if that may be the last time you see them. I'm sending lots of thoughts and prayers to B's family as well at the Georgian athlete's family.

Continuing to wait

Sounds like the situation we were wanting more information about last week, probably won't happen. Lots and lots of foster families called so we'll just wait for the next call. I did talk to our casemanager today about two other situations but in both the kiddos were much older so we said no.

In talking with our casemanager, she said the counties are placing more and more kiddos with family members, even family members that they probably wouldn't normally place them with. It's all due to budget cuts and the crummy economy. Also, she said the counties are placing more within their own county foster homes..even if there would be a better placement/match in a foster home through one of the private agencies..again due to money. She did say that our agency as the highest number of adoptions and calls for foster to adopt homes in all of the private agencies.

When we first decided to do foster to adopt, we decided to go with a private agency as they work with all the counties which would mean more calls, more options, etc. If we would have went through the county, we would have only received calls about kiddos in that county. There are also more resources/services available through the private agencies which was another reason we went this route.

I still have connections with some of the caseworkers I used to work with as well as some of the guardian ad litems so I will continue to network with them and let them know that we're a licensed foster to adopt home.

In other areas, Andy and I met 7 years ago on Feb 8 and February 13, 2003 was our first date. Wow! It doesn't seem that long ago. I can still remember how nervous was before Andy picked me up on our first date. It makes me smile just thinking about it.

Foster to Adopt update

I have started typing about this a few different times but then would never finish it. I guess it's mainly because there hasn't been much to say as well as just being frustrated. We only had two calls in about 4 months...we said yes to both but ended up not getting either placement. BOO!

We had started questioning if this was the right process for us as well as wondering if we're ever going to have a little one. We also were frustrated with our agency as we weren't hearing anything from them...nothing, no feedback no hang in there it's just slow right now, nothing.

We started talking more about looking into domestic and international adoption but realized with us just buying our new house that neither of those were realistic for us right now due to the huge cost. Ugh! Needless to say we were feeling pretty hopeless which is probably why it was so easy to walk away from typing blog updates.

Well, we have been assigned a new casemanager very recently and she has been great about checking in with us. We met with her for the first time on Friday. She rocks! She was very clear that her goal is to find good matches for kids, not just an easy match...find a match that will lead to that child having a forever home. She said she has read our homestudy several times so she can get a good feel for us, our household, etc. She said that she will call us on situations that may be a little different that what we said we were open to(kids 0-4) if she thinks that they would be a good fit/match. She also said very clearly...never feel guilty about saying no to a placement, you know what will work for your family and what won't so make the decision that is best for your family. Wow...she was saying what Andy and I have talked about several times.

After meeting with her, we really felt much better about everything and feel that foster to adopt really is the right fit for us. We did get two calls on Thurs-one call had 3 different situations and then the 2nd call had one. We said no to 3 of them as the kids were too old, there were too many kids, or the situation is more than we could handle(sexual acting out). We did say we wanted more info about one of the situations so we are waiting to hear back. She did say that the caseworker did have several families showing interest in the kiddos but we'll just wait and see.

We really are excited as to what is to come and truly believe that we will be matched with little ones that are supposed to be with us.