Summer is over.

i'm so happy that we had a spurt of nice weather right before autumn decided to makes it's entrance. 

we made s'mores, had a hot dog roast, went to the splash park and swimming at the lake! 

and of course there is this cute girl::

summer is over.. and i'm welcoming autumn! :)

Holy Beets!

let's be clear here... i don't even like beets.

and neither does rowan or bubba. 

but they sure were fun to grow. 

and i'm even a bit crazy enough to grow more! 

don't ask why.. 

so bubs and i pulled up all of the beets. 

and the soil and location weren't the best, so they didn't grow to their full potential, but that's ok. 

i'm hoping for some new raised beds on the side of the house by next spring. 

ssshhh... don't tell bubba. 

i haven't let him know yet! 

of course rowan lets pulling carrots. :)

so i decided that being as some of my family members, including my mom, love pickled beets, that i would make some pickled beets!

even though i've never even eaten one myself. 

didn't know what i was doing. 

and didn't know how they would turn out because there was no way i was going to try these out myself. 

so.. i cut off all the leaves except about 2 inches. and left the roots intact. 

boiled them for about 20 mins until i could poke with a fork.

then i made this mix. this is the hot liquid that goes into the jars. 

with vinegar, water, and some spices like allspice and chives.

in the middle of all my canning glory.. this happened:

seriously. 

please tell me WHY the foot went in the window to begin with?

who does that? 

now it was time for a cold water bath, some skinning and chopping. 

it looked like a murder scene in my kitchen. 

but i'm hoping that in the end these will make great Christmas gifts. 

p.s. rowan's foot was saved. after i took pictures against her will. 

A glimpse.

i'm giving you a peek.

into our photo book.

the one that hovered over my head for months and months.

you know the one.

the one that can determine who and when we may get our next child.

 

this book.

is all that a birth family sees for them to make a decision if they want to meet us, interview us, or PICK US!

 

that's it.

everything in this book has to represent us.

this book may be what leads us to our next child.

 

well I was really happy after 3 different reviews from our caseworker and some editing, that we got what we felt was best, what represented us, and what we felt we wanted a birth family to know.

 

we had a guideline and requirements to follow.

only so many pages, so many pics per page, and different things that we needed to include. all to help balance and represent us fully. And most pictures had to be recent. That can be difficult when you find that you mainly only take pictures of your kid. and not of yourself or as a whole family!

 

so here is just a glimpse:

 

cover. there is a vellum type material in the front.

cover.

 

our dear birthparent letter.

that was a hard one.

how do you thank someone you don't even know for the greatest gift ever?!

 

some oldies!

 

last page.

 

well there it is....

 

I hope that this represents who we are in a whole to a family.

and hopefully we will be picked SOON! :)

 

shoot... I would pick us.

First Day of Kindergarten!

Rowan's first day!!

I've been waiting to post this and use my pictures from my camera, but for some reason blogger isn't let me access those photos.

boo!

 

so here are some cute pics of her from my iphone camera.

 

 

 

of course we celebrated with her favorite breakfast food! :)

although this is the closest she will get to a school bus.

and I heard everyday for the first week of school about how bad she wants to ride the bus.

hopefully, that's the end that I will have to hear about it.

and maybe next year she can ride!

 

 

in her classroom.

this was the... ok mom stop taking pictures... leave me  alone now.

did I mention that we were the first parents to leave because rowan kept telling us to leave.

oh boy... what have we done.

she is so independent. uffda.

too soon maybe? ha.

 

second day of school! why is she sooo darn cute!:)

 

well that's it.. I will never have her home with me full time again.

 

surprisingly I didn't cry. I thought I would bawl like a baby, but no.

I think I went through all of that when I took her to preschool.

and that was just a few times a week.. so it was all a gradual process.

which was probably better for me then her.

she had her first full day of school and she told me it wasn't long enough and she wants to eat lunch at school everyday.

well i'm glad she's at least adjusted and loving it! :)

 

Clearance: update... again!

how could there be another clearance update when the clearances have already gone through, you ask?!

 

let me tell you:

 

i'm in the process of getting my mom signed up as an emergency respite care provider, in the event that we need someone to care for our child (before finalization) in the chance of an emergency that would last longer than 24 hours.

 

well there is a different contact person, not our caseworker, who is helping to get this set up and ready.

 

I get an email from him last night that included an Oregon clearance form.

instructing me to fill it out and get it back to him ASAP so that it can be submitted to Oregon.

 

I read this... and I automatically think, well he must be confused. because my mom is the one who has to fill out a background check for Oregon, not me. mine is already done. and cleared.

 

so then I make dinner... and I think about it and I decided that I would just fill it out anyways and scan it over to him, just in case, so that there would be no delay.

 

so after rowan is in bed I fill it out and email it back to him. with a note that explained there must be a misunderstanding and that this was supposed to be sent to my mom. that I was already cleared.

but that i'm included the filled out document, just in case.

 

then I also decided to make a phone call to our caseworker.

because at this point I've had time to think about it and i'm freaking out.

stressing out. wondering, WHAT?!?! what do they mean they are just now sending it in. why is this happening.

and is it going to be another 5 months before our home study is finalized? is bubba going to have to resubmit his clearances. and am I going to have to resubmit my other 2 clearances?! I mean come on.. these things have an expiration date and we are getting CLOSE!

 

bring you to this morning:

 

walk in the door after dropping rowan off at school.

it's 9:05 a.m.

my phone rings.

it's our case worker.

she had to have been at work for like 5 mins before she even made the call.

 

so she explains the whole situation to me:

 

my Oregon clearance NEVER came in!

seriously. still hasn't come in. i'm still not cleared through Oregon.

BUT DSHS has decided to clear me because my Colorado, Washington and FBI checks came back. and she was explaining that sometimes these things happen.

so i'm still CLEARED to proceed with our home study finalization and to get our foster license.

 

BUT in the meantime, for a technicality they must still have an Oregon clearance on me. so they are submitting their own clearance form, instead of going through DSHS. this is good for the fact, that the adoption agency is much smaller than DSHS and they can keep track of it and hope that it comes in SOON. 

another good part is that it's not holding us up. it's not stopping us from completing our crucial home study and foster license that we HAVE TO HAVE in order to start getting child referrals or for families to choose us.

 

the potentially bad part.... is that it could hold up an adoption finalization process.

so for example:

say that as soon as we had a completed home study, that a birthparent saw our profile and they wanted to meet with us or they picked us. say the child was already born or was to be born soon.

a relinquished infant gets finalized much much sooner than a foster child. a relinquished child could be finalized in a month or two. as a foster child can take a year or two.

so I asked our caseworker, what happens if we are picked right away (odds are low, but you never know!) and placed with a relinquished infant nearly immediately -- and the Oregon clearance still hasn't gone through -- will this hold up the finalization process?!

 

the answer:

she doesn't know.

I don't blame her by any means.

this is an unusual situation and they just don't know.

but the fact is -- is that it could.

a judge could turn us down because I don't have a clearance through Oregon.

our caseworker also said that this is a question that we could ask our attorney (when we get one)

i'm hoping that this won't be the case.

 

I would to be placed immediately.

but i'm just hoping that my Oregon clearance goes through quickly.

 

so our caseworker said that she still plans to go through with our final clinical staffing meeting (on Tuesday now instead of Wednesday!!!) and that none of this should hold up the process.

 

please pray for us... for our situation, for our caseworker and everyone involved in finalizing this process.

 

I have to trust in God's plan, but I sure don't handle stress well. haha.

plus it's always just nice when things goes smoothly, isn't it?!

surprise!

this past week:

 

remember those box of pears?

well they got canned up.

and I also made 4 jars of pear butter in crockpot.

perfect for fall! :)

 

and my huge bowl of tomatoes?!

well after giving away a bunch of tomatoes, I still had a bunch left.

so I made spaghetti sauce.

and then I gave away some more tomatoes!

they are coming out my ears. and being as i'm the only one in the house who eats them there are always extras.

 

I tried to find the recipe I used to make this sauce, but I couldn't.

and I have homework to do. so basically it's tomatoes, basil, onion, garlic and I cooked and blended.  

 

I got to spend my Saturday night with these lovely ladies!!

 

and... boy was I in for a big surprise!

 

a few months ago I bawled my eyes out when I had to say goodbye to my lovely lady friend as she moved back to California.

well... little did I know that she moved back up here, just for 6 weeks, and showed up at my house!

I was beyond thrilled and i'm so happy to have some more time to spend with her! yay!!!

what a great week.

 

now... on to homework.

I should NOT be blogging.

September garden

quick garden update!

 

 

since moving into this house, this is the smallest that my plants have ever been. but this is also the first time I've grown only from seed tomatoes.

but i'm glad because last year I had so many tomatoes and didn't know what to do with them all.

my carrots are still in the ground.

I need to pull those soon!

 

and I have a late bloomer on a tomato plant, to the left in the picture.

it had been shadowed by the broccoli plant and it never died, but it never really grew.

and I noticed yesterday that there is a flower on it. maybe i'll get a tomato or two off of it before the season is over.

I planted some more sugar snap peas, hoping for a fall harvest.

although, I hope I didn't plant them too late and that the weather is right.

because this house loves these peas!

 

some of these plants are dying.

they have fallen over and some of the branches have broken.

plus I think I may have over watered them.

 

the side.

the new beets are growing slowly.

and the beets at the end will be picked soon. they are over ready, I think.

although they stayed small, but that's ok because we don't like them anyway. :)

 

my very first sunflowers in Washington!

i'm so happy that they actually grew.

last year I tried and I didn't get any in the front or back because the birds came and ate the seeds.

 

 

Oregon Clearance

i've just got the word as of about an hour ago that my oregon clearance has gone through!! 

we are beyond thrilled about this. 

apparently, late friday night our caseworker had gotten the word, but she doesn't work weekends, so i didn't find out until this afternoon. 

insert happy dance here. 

an answer to prayer! YAY! 

another great note, our final clinical staffing is hopefully going to happen on wednesday next week, the 18th. which means that after that point the only thing left to do is to drive up there for a review of our home study and a meeting with referral lady. 

i'm sooooo happy. 

i can't believe that we can actually see the light to the end of this paperwork tunnel. 

Home inspection!

it's done!!!!

 

we've actually completed the home inspection.

I can't believe it.

it went well and we only have a short list of to-dos.

 

it doesn't feel real. this big moment that has taken up so much of my brain space - and now it's over. just like that.

 

and thankfully we have an awesome caseworker who makes everything easier!

 

our list includes:

• buy and install a new front doorknob
• buy and install padding for fireplace
• buy a lock for our medicine box
• find a new home for our fire extinguisher

pretty simple stuff.

 

we of course have a bit more "paperwork items" like to write our online profile and make a collage for the state caseworkers.

 

our caseworker explained to us that we still haven't received my background clearance from Oregon! grrr... we've been waiting SO long to get these clearances.

and now it's getting to be a bit of a time crunch.

bubba got his clearances back on july 17th. and from that date we have 90 days to have everything submitted and turned in, including a completed home study which includes all 3 of my background clearances.

so now i'm starting to feel a bit desperate. hoping that we get my clearance SOON!! or at least before October 17th.

 

now from here on out there isn't much left:

1. our caseworker has to complete our home study. fill any blanks and some extra details that she got from us today.
2. she submits it to her supervisor, who then reviews it. about a week turnaround.
3. then a clinical staffing - everyone from the agency meets every Wednesday to perform these and she will present us. everything she knows, even the personal stuff - yikes! i'm just glad I don't have to sit there and listen to it all. ha!
4. we drive up to seattle for a home study review before its submitted and then a meeting with the lady who handles the child referrals.

that's it!!

 

the day after we meet with the child referral lady, we can start getting referrals from the CHOICES program, where birthparents chose to make an adoption plan.

about a month later, we should expect to get our foster license and at that point we can start getting referrals from foster care also!

 

so.. if all goes well and in our favor we could start seeing referrals by the end of the month. that's our hope.

 

but God's plan is always better than ours.

 

but... you can still hope, wish and pray for us to receive our last clearance SOON!!

 

Tomorrow!

is our home inspection. 

between rowan going to school, soccer practice, my accounting homework, a treehouse being built, and we have to get the house ready for tomorrow... this is a short post. 

things feel overwhelmingly busy, but i'm trying not to freak out about tomorrow. 

after talking with our friends, who just had their home inspection a month or two ago, i feel a lot better about ours tomorrow. 

but this is a big step for us tomorrow. 

let's hope, pray & cross our toes that we are ready for the referral process by the end of september!

i'm off to clean!

more.

i picked some more tomatoes.. 

they seem to be never ending. and every time i go out there with a bowl.. i always end up with way more tomatoes than can fit. 

and one zucchini. 

i'm not sure what is up with my zucchini plants, but i've only been able to pick 2 zucchinis so far. 

and i ended up buying a box of pears. 

yay for more canning.

why do i do this to myself? ha!

Soccer Season.... is back!

time to be a soccer mom.. oh yeah!

soccer practice started last monday!

she LOVES soccer. 

she's so beautiful. and funny. 

and i just love this girls style. she's one-of-a-kind. original. her own. 

and she embraces it. .

" here rowan. put this on to hold back your hair for soccer."

soccer time!