Friday 23 August 2013

Adoption Journey : Final Assessment

We're getting closer to filling in the dotted lines...

 
We finally had our final assessment after three re-schedules, and we were more than looking forward to getting it over with. While we love working on the house, having to cram a ton of large and time consuming projects into the span of a weeks is physically and emotionally draining. (But totally worth it) This assessment was the relationship interview, as well as our final house check. Thankfully we passed the house inspection and we're good to go on that front. She said she like the way the nursery looked with the floor and paint, and thankfully it didn't matter that things like the baseboard weren't done yet.
   The interviews started with her asking us why we liked the other person. It's fun to say why you love someone with them there, and it's even more fun to have someone say why they love you. Things got a little awkward when she started talking about our sex life and what we're going to wear in the house when the kids are there? Umm clothes? Not really sure why it matters what we're going to sleep in, and what we're going to walk around in, but hey, whatever floats your boat right? (I understand why it matters if you're fostering an older child, but since we're planning on taking in an infant...) When she had to ask us about our sex life, if it wasn't so hilarious how business like she was, it would've been awkward. "How many times do you have sex a week?" "How do you react Jason, if Rebecca says No to you?" "What about if Jason says no to you?" Jason's a guy, so lets be honest here, I can count on half of one hand how many times that's happened haha. I only half understood why questions like that were important. She asked us what we were most looking forward to about being parents, and what we thought would be the hardest part, or what we weren't looking forward to. Jason said, "Discipline, I know I'm going to suck at it." Haha, I think he'll be better than he gives himself credit, but we both know I'm totally going to be the "bad guy". I'm looking forward to the first time you get to see the morals and values you've instilled in them in action without prompting.
   We talked about what strengths we have that would make us good parents, and what activities we plan to do with the kids. Going for hikes and walks was the first thing we both said, as well as a bunch of other things, like reading and music and sports. Then she told us to do the hardest thing, sell our selves, and not be modest. It's hard to list all the things you're good at and not sound like a pompous prick haha.
   Now that the assessments are all done, she has to write up this massive report on us that has to be approved by about 1000 people (ok so 3) as well as us, and we'll be placed with an adoption worker in that time. Once we sign off on our home study report the sitting around and waiting for a phone call will commence. We are super excited to be so close now to getting a child in our home. I know compared to a lot of people we haven't been waiting long on the trying to have/get a baby train, but 2.5 years is plenty long when your biggest dream is just out of reach. Hopefully it won't take long, and we can welcome a little baby who needs a good home into ours, because we're missing someone from this picture...

(this is seriously the only "family" picture we have...we need a better one)

Thursday 22 August 2013

Feelin' Like a Redneck

Jason has been talking about cleaning out the garage, for almost as long as we've lived in the house. It has been piled to the brink with crap since the day we closed and began ripping apart our house.


Umm, yeah, I think it's safe to say that even the most expert of parkers couldn't get their car up in there. (those garbage bags aren't garbage - promise - they're fill of various small debris) In all honesty, I wasn't really too concerned about cleaning out this room, obviously it needed to be done, but it wasn't high on my priority list. Even in a world where it is all cleaned out and able to house a car, we wouldn't be parking in there. It's just a dirt (very uneven) floor, with mad tire grooves, the door doesn't work worth a damn, and it kind of smells pretty bad in there. Plus, it's just easier to go out the front door to get to our vehicles. So after a year of talking about cleaning it out, you can imagine how surprised I was one day when I came home to this...


Sorry for the terrible picture it was taken through the upstairs window, screen and all. My initial thought when pulling in the driveway was, "holy cow, we're hosting red-neck squatters." Then I remembered that no, we are in fact the red-necks that call this place home, and I thought, "We're pretty awesome for being able to shove all that crap in that little garage. That's a 27ft trailer FULL of house hold debris. Are you as big of a fan of Jason's creative "tarps" as I am? Yes those are carpets, how many times do I have to say it, we're red-necks. The other two piles were wood to be burned (which also (almost) filled the trailer), and scrap metal. He even got rid of everything (except the scrap metal - because we knew we'd get more off the roof). So after he got everything cleaned out, which surprisingly didn't take him and his dad too long, this is what the place looked like.


Anyone looking for a length of counter that has a sink? All that plywood was for the roof, so the pile is only about a quarter that size now. Favourite find from cleaning out the garage, was a badminton set that wasn't ours, made me want to break it out and show off my mad skillz from my high school days. As for what we're planning on doing with the space now, as long as it doesn't look as bad as it did before I think we're golden. I do want to bring one of the cabinet things we have in the basement out there to house all the gardening/lawn care stuff, so we don't have to go hunting for things every time we need to do something.
      What about you guys, did anyone else get any garage clean up done lately? Do you have one of those garages where you're embarrassed to open the door, or do you actually use the garage for its intended purpose of parking your car?











Tuesday 6 August 2013

New Floors in the Nursery

I'm a little overdue for this post, so, sorry. But there's floor down in the nursery now! And it looks really good! It's the same floor as in the dining room, but it looks so different in the nursery - you know, different lighting and such. Jason, Eric and I banged it all out in a few hours, and then my glutes and hammies hurt for three days. As a reminder we painted the walls and the ceiling in Behr's "Gentle Rain", colour matched to Dulux Xpert paint. And by we, I mean me, because Jason wouldn't have anything to do with it haha.



This is probably the closets representation of colour, it's a great warm grey and it works well with the South facing room. We've since changed out all the outlets and put in nice new grate covers, and all the base and trim should hopefully be going on this weekend, then it'll actually be finished, and just needing to be decorating. This room has come along the quickest, and I can't wait to start the decorating process.


The closet has also since changed appearance. I can't wait to get goin' on the reading nook, and closet organizer and start putting the three totes of baby clothes I've managed to amass over the years. I shared this sneak peak on Instagram of what the closet colour will be.


It's called Thermal Spring, by Sherwin Willaims. It's a pretty great teal colour, all dark and moody, it looks sweet in the closet, and I totally want to curl up in there with a book - too uncomfortable currently though. The room is coming together nicely, I'll update pictures of the trim and closet as soon as I can.