the check's in the mail

Finally, finally, after a very long time and a few emails to our social worker who is helping to nudge things along since they seem to be taking so long at the office, we got our invoice for our home study in the mail today. This is big, because apparently (and they failed to tell us this before hand so it could be a "surprise") they will not show your profile to anyone (and that includes online) until you pay for your home study. Which is fine, but they wouldn't send us the bill!!

Now we have it, Josh can call on Monday and (hopefully) pay over the phone, and we'll expect our profile book to be on the coffee table (or whatever they do with it) that afternoon. :)

bilingual

Brecken: I know what "dinner" is in Spanish.
Josh: Oh yeah? What?
Brecken: SUPPER!

Brecken: My knees are shivering.
Kara: They are?
Brecken: Yeah, that's Spanish for "they are cold".

my valentine

a smell

Brecken: Do you smell something funny in here?
Me: No... what does it smell like?
Brecken: Something in the microwave, maybe. Like deer poop or something.

(Don't ask me why he thinks we've ever had deer poop in our microwave!!!)

officially waiting

Our home study process is DONE! So excited. And it's a bit surreal!

We went to our SW's house in Laramie last night after Josh's game. We were supposed to meet with her at 7:00, but it took an hour longer to get there than we had thought, because of weather. Even though we left at 5:00, the 90 minute trip took so long we didn't get there until almost 7:30!

Last night's interviews were the one-on-one interviews where Donna asked us about our family growing up, what we liked to do, all those "personal" things. While one of us with her, the other one was in her downstairs living room with B playing with the toys she keeps on hand for her grandkids- Brecken thought that was great fun and wanted to stay the night there. :)

We stayed overnight at a hotel, then this morning got up and went to Kinkos to get our profile book printed and bound (holy expensive!!!) so we could drop them off with Donna. We signed our names on our "Dear Birthparents" letter, and we had Brecken sign his name on them all, too. Who can't resist a 4-year old's signature? ;)

This morning's interview was together as a family, about our parenting style, religion, stuff like that. It was only an hour long.

Brecken loves Donna- he keeps caling her "that grandma". I'm totally impressed with her too- love her. She gave us hugs before we left today and I thanked her so much for letting us invade her house on a weekend to get this done.

So. Now we wait. Hopefully not too long, but I'll try to get my head prepared for the long haul so I'm not disappointed.

too cold for comfort

Woke up to a temperature of 22 degrees below zero, with a 36 below zero wind chill. It was still 18 below zero when I came home from work. My poor car didn't like being outside all day- it sounded terrible when I started it to come home! I'm glad it started! It's supposed to be even colder tonight- it's going to make getting up tomorrow morning super hard!

I did the math, and at 5:00 tonight Honolulu was 20 degrees warmer outside in Honolulu than it is inside my house currently. And if you compare actual air temps, Honolulu was 98 degrees warmer. Where do I sign up for my plane tickets? (It has gotten colder- 25 degrees below zero right now!)

mission: accomplished

I love our social worker! She's fantastic. She's about my mom's age, she said she's a grandma, so when Brecken was being a total show off, she just laughed at him. He was the one to give her the grand tour of the house. He was quite proud. :)

She asked us all the standard questions, said she loved the story of how we met, asked what we did around town, what we liked about where we lived, stuff like that. She asked about the fire extinguisher and the locks and the outlet plugs.

We talked about race and gender and all that sort of stuff. Brecken said he wanted a baby brother. :) She was here for two hours and we had a lot of laughs. She's great. She asked if we'd be ready for a baby as soon as the home study was completed (the three interviews- not just today) and we said yes, and she said she has seen that happen. We're not getting our hopes up, but wouldn't that be wild if it happened like that?!?

AND... here is the best part. We still have to have two interviews. She said we are more than welcome to go to where she lives (1.5 hours away) on a night, have the one-on-one interviews, and then stay the night at a hotel and then the next morning get the 3rd interview done and we'd be certified! AND, she'd totally do a weekend. YES! So Saturday Feb. 5th, after Josh's game that afternoon, we'll head over, do the one-on-ones, and then the next morning be finished! Hooray!

She disclosed to us that she knows one of our references. I thought it was cool- one of Josh's good friends from growing up is a minister, and he actually was the one that married us. She goes to his church! She loves him and thinks he's great. One point for us. :)

I'm soooo glad it went well today. Huge lift off my shoulders. Not that I ever thought it would go badly, but you know how it goes.

eeek!!!

Tomorrow: BIG DAY!!! Social worker sounds nice, but you know how it is- someone important coming over to your house and your house will never seem clean enough. All the books say "they won't do a white glove test", and "they aren't expecting your house to be ready for a photoshoot for Better Homes and Gardens"... but let's face it. You don't want to look like a slob, either.

I had asked for a half day off tomorrow, since she is scheduled to arrive at 2:00 p.m. My secretary thought I said a WHOLE day. Turns out, it's a blessing in disguise. I can drop my boy off at preschool AND pick him up, which is something I never get to do. Plus, I get 3 uninterrupted hours to do all the last minute picking up, sweeping, vacuuming, hiding the crap (!), and all that grand old stuff, before she gets here. Maybe I won't feel so rushed. Or maybe I'll just have that extra time to get scared.

Either way. I'm nervous.

home study: scheduled

Wednesday is the big day.

I'm so nervous.

Must get my house cleaner than ever!

I've spent the past two days doing nothing but hanging out with my boy while Josh was away for basketball. Have to get it all in now, as tomorrow will be my turn to leave. It's time for our annual All-State Music Conference, and it's a long trip this time- all the way up to Cody! Then I ahve to stay because I have a meeting in Jackson on Thursday- so I won't get to see either of my boys until Thursday night. :(

So yesterday and today, B and I did laundry, vacuumed, (he helped with both!), went to the lake to see the ice fishing derby all set up, he had a couple baths, blew bubbles, we watched PLENTY of cartoons, and we pigged out on junk. It was a good two days. :)

scooters in the snow

It's tough to be a kid in Wyoming, where you have so much snow all the time. Especially when your birthday falls right when it's getting ready to start being winter, and anything you get for your birthday and Christmas that might be an outside toy can't be played with! The past two Christmases, Brecken has gotten some great riding toys- a big boy bike (last year) and a scooter (this year). The poor kid tried riding it in the snow the other day and realized how hard it is. :(

Enter: DADDY'S SCHOOL! We're very fortunate to be able to load up B's stuff and take him to Josh's school so he can ride around the hallways and the multi-purpose room. We did that today so that he could run around a big area and use his scooter too. It is a great option for the winter and it makes me very glad we have that building available to us. :)

amazing progress

Brecken showed amazing progress with his sensory disorder over Christmas vacation. I'm so dang proud of him.

*He tried 3 new foods, and loved 2 of them. (Potato Oles from Taco Johns and garlic bread were the fantastic discoveries- he SCARFED them down after trying both of them on two different days! Stuffing, on the other hand, he was not a fan of. But heck- he tried them!!!)

*He wore "dress" pants to Christmas Eve service. They were not sweat pants, but had sweat material inside. But they were new, different, and he wore them.

*My sister gave him some brown cords that were too small for my nephew, and he wore them ALL DAY!!!

*Then, my mom got him two new t-shirts that she found, and he wore one of them! I was so proud of him.

*He went sledding! He was extremely timid at the beginning, but by the time we left my parents' house, he was going to the top of the "mountain" and taking a running start!

*AND, he let us finally give him a hair cut.

Small steps, but they are HUGE steps to us.

Interesting, however, that he won't wear the new clothes to school. He doesn't want anyone to see them. Baby steps.

He was still quite clingy to us when we got to each of our parents' houses- enough that our families noticed. He warmed up quickly though, which was a relief. He didn't have a ton of issues with the noise this time around, which was good since it was PLENTY noisy this Christmas. :)

So proud of my little guy!

See? New pants and a new sweatshirt, too!

rudolph

We had a visitor at our house this Christmas season. An elf was sent to us from the North Pole to watch over Brecken and report back to Santa each night how the day went. Then he'd come back before we woke up and hide in the house somewhere.

I didn't order him so much to help with behavior, as we have a pretty well behaved child to begin with. But I knew this elf would hold so much magic, and this year has been the most magical since Brecken has been with us. His eyes widen in wonder and he gets so dang excited about everything- so I knew this elf would be the perfect addition to our Christmas traditions. Brecken would get out of bed every morning so excited to go elf hunting. B would tell him when we left for school to have a good day, and would tell him "Good night! Have a safe trip!" every evening. Rudolph (what Brecken named his elf, though he mainly called him "my buddy") stayed through Christmas Day, even arriving at my mom and dad's house, and then flew back to the North Pole until next December. Brecken is so sad- he misses his little friend.

(you can get more information about the elves here)

bravery

If you know my son, you know this was a big thing for him. I almost cried, I was so proud of him.

letters

Brecken wrote a letter to Santa last week during school. The class then walked down to the post office and put them in the mail box that goes to the North Pole. He was soooo excited that Santa was going to get his letter in the mail! And today, Santa came to school to personally deliver letters back to them!

Dear Santa,

For Christmas I want a train with wheels that drive backwards by itself, a frisbee, and a Mater that you pull back and it moves by itself.

Love, Brecken

Dear Brecken,

Thank you for writing to me this year. I really enjoy getting letters from your school. Your teachers are very nice to help you write your letters to Santa. Did you know Santa has to answer thousands of letters each year? My typing is getting better but sometimes I still make mistakes.

The elves were really excited to read your letter and they have picked out something very special for you this year. I was excited to read your letter too because Mater is one of my favorite toys. I like Lightning McQueen but Mater is the best. I love his cool teeth and I love to hear him talk.

The reindeer are really busy practicing their flying. They will have to fly faster than Lightning McQueen can drive in order for us to make the trip around the world and to get all the presents delivered. We have a very long trip.

Be good and I will see you on Christmas Eve with a very special gift from everyone here at the North Pole.

Love,
Santa

you're never going to believe it!

BRECKEN SAT ON SANTA'S LAP TONIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had my elementary program tonight. It went really well! Afterwards, Santa came. Brecken came running down the bleachers right to me so we could get in line. I was shocked. He told Josh and I in line that he was just going to say hi to him, not sit on his lap. Because Santa already knew what he wanted, since he wrote him a letter at school. We said that was fine. Well, he got up there, and Santa kind of just picked him up and put him on his lap, and B did NOT freak out!!!!! I was almost too shocked to get a picture!! I was so proud of him! What a change in my little guy from a few weeks ago!

They wrote letters to Santa at school the other day, and today they took a walking field trip to the post office to mail them in the special mailbox. Brecken is so excited that Santa will be getting his letter soon. I love the magic of Christmas. :)

brushing

I picked Brecken up this afternoon and we met his OT at the preschool so she could teach me how to use the Wilbarger Brushing Protocol she has been using on Brecken since his diagnosis. She's seen great results out of it with him, which I was very proud of! I now know how so I can do it at home with Brecken. I'll show Josh too, so that we can both do it. (He couldn't come with me today because of basketball practice.) I'm excited to try it before bedtime to see if bedtime goes better, and definitely before basketball games (which start tomorrow!!) because of all the noise, etc. She told me I could do it as often as every two hours, and I now have a couple of the brushes at home. Here is a little bit more info on it for those who want to read about it!

http://www.thetherapyplace.net/newsletter/3_2.htm

It's hard to explain. We have a brush, it's a surgical brush. (Which is easily replaced at low cost- hooray! Especially if Aunt Kristen can get us some! :)) After it's used for a while, you have to replace it because the bristles will wear down and won't be as effective because they aren't stiff enough.

There's a certain way to brush up and down his arm, using a certain amount of pressure and not letting the brush come up at all. After you get every inch of skin you can, then you go it real fast on his palm, about 3 or so swishes. Then you put the brush down and "hug" his fingers. It's like pushing (lightly, but with pressure) the knuckle toward the hand, on each finger. Then you brace the arm and push his wrist toward his elbow a couple times. Then the elbow toward the shoulder. Then you repeat on the other arm. And then the legs and feet. And "hug" his toes, ankles, knees, and hips. And then you brush his back. Then after his back, you brace his back and push (again lightly, but with pressure) on his head. And push his sternum toward his back.

It's very hard to explain and this is the abbreviated version.

So proud of my little man! We weren't sure he was going to let the teachers touch him- he's very guarded about that stuff- but he now searches for his teacher that does it in the mornings, when he gets there, so he can have his special time with her!!

While we were in the OT office, he was playing with some rubber spikey things and was putting them on his feet, which shocked me. The OT quietly told me that was a new development just this week. So he's growing in that sense! Hooray!!

forward movement

Things are finally moving forward again in the adoption process. The "week to 10 days" it was going to take to review our application turned into over 3 weeks. However, word has been trickling in from our fantastic references that they have been receiving the letters from the Society. And they have a deadline, apparently, to write a letter for us and have it back to the Society. In addition to that, we have received our second packet from them, with MORE questions to answer ("were you able to confide in your mom and dad?" "tell us specific amounts and frequency of how much alcohol you drink", etc) and instructions on how to get fingerprinted.

Wee-haw, here we go! :)

getting organized

We got to spend a weekend at home for once. It seems like we haven't been home for a weekend in a very, very long time. And because of that, our house is a disaster. A huge disaster. And sometime in the future, we are going to have a home study done, so we need to get organized. Fast.

So today was it.

We managed to get a lot done!! We got into the middle bedroom, where we keep all the baby stuff and other things that kind of get thrown in there. It is now all set up. We even set up the crib, finding out that we are missing a couple of the bolts. Hopefully we can order new hardware for it! I'm glad we discovered that now, rather than later when we actually need the crib!

While we were at it, we rearranged the living room. That's the best way to clean because it forces us to move the furniture. Gross! And since we were moving around furniture, we decided to make more space upstairs and move the piano downstairs. Josh had a couple students and one of our friends come over and help him get it down there.

That's the exciting life we had today- but it was so nice to be able to stay home for once!

a fish funeral

I had my very first fish funeral tonight. We came home yesterday to find Fishio was no longer swimming. I didn't know what to tell Brecken, so we waited until this afternoon after school to tell him. My poor baby cried. Hard. He's so broken hearted, it made me cry right along with him. He wanted to bury Fishio in the back yard under the plants, so after Josh came home from practice, we did that. Brecken wondered if we could get Fishio back after he felt better and we wiped the dirt off him from being buried. :( The poor kid got teary-eyed every time he thought of Fishio tonight. Poor baby. :(