A Perfect Winter's Day...

As I sit here and type, I'm in our living room looking through our floor-to-ceiling windows over our neighborhood. A fresh, fluffy, clean white coat of snow is falling, the dogs are curled up near my feet sleeping like puppies and chasing squirrels in their dreams, my DH is cleaning out his "cave" in the basement, the wood stove is crackling and blazing and the house is filled with the delicious aroma of homemade chicken stock (to make a batch of chicken noodle soup and cream-of-broccoli soup later today). Although I have work to catch-up on today (it was one heck of a week last week and the sub-zero, icy weather that tripled my 45-minute commute home every day this week didn't help), I have no where I "have" to be...it's the perfect winter day. Although having my child sitting in my lap and reading stories together today would just be an added bonus...someday, I know.

Movement on Two Fronts - FET and Adoption

We all have our weaknesses and one of mine is patience. Even as a little girl, I never liked to wait.

I appreciate that my Dr. took some time-off this week and I hope he feels re-energized when he returns on Monday. I know he works long, long hours, sees many, many patients each day and know he works very hard. When we went in for our ODWU, we didn't meet with him until close to 5:00 in the evening. Although he was yawning, he stayed with us until about 6:30 pm to answer all our questions. Now that we're on the "other side" of this process, I bet that he probably started his day around 7:00 am or earlier. That's a  long day...

Anyway, since I hadn't heard back from my nurse, I took matters into my own hands and called the surgery scheduler to ensure that I could get onto the schedule soon. Remembering how few openings they had for my rescheduled FET, I didn't want to have to wait and wait and wait for the D&C. Even though we are still waiting on many answers from the Dr, my D&C is scheduled for this coming Friday - so I feel like at least I am headed in the right direction again. If I figure correctly, we'll have a January or February baby and that wouldn't be so bad (see, there I go - thinking about the future again...hello impatience!).

This past Thursday, my husband and I met with our coordinator for our first of three required home studies for our adoption. The meeting was at a bookstore close to our home, so I left work early. Due to the snow,  it took me 45 minutes to get onto the highway and I was 45 minutes late. Fortunately, my husband and the coordinator both arrived on-time and got started.

She asked us many of the same questions we had been asked on our paperwork - how did we meet, how long did we date, what is our home like, why do we want to adopt, what is our marriage like, etc.

I could tell that she could read us very quickly. For example, when she asked us "What role do you play in the marriage? Does one of you consider yourself more the 'head of household'? She then said, "I bet you're equal partners, right?" And that's exactly how we would have answered the question. We make all of our major decisions together and don't sweat the small stuff (and, a majority of it is just that - small stuff).

She gushed over our adoption book - so I took that as a good sign. I don't get the impression she does that for everyone.

We go for a 16-hour training session next weekend and have our second of three home studies (where we'll discuss our parenting styles) the following week.

We are continuing to attend our county's foster-care training and I think it's a good thing. Although most of it is common-sense, some of it is good to review. For example, this past week's session was all about discipline. One of our exercises was to watch a speech about using "choices" as a teaching and disciplinary method. For example, instead of yelling, calmly tell the kids have a choice...they can choose to fight in the back seat of the car or they can choose not to watch TV for the night. After seven straight days of "choosing" no TV - their decision (and behavior) changed...all on their own.

So, things are moving right along...little bit, by little bit.

Oh, and totally off-topic...if I didn't already have a steamer and my VERY favorite kitchen appliance - a Blendtec - sitting right on my counter already, this would be the #1 item on my "new baby" shopping list...a Beaba Babycook. Absolutely brilliant!