Update!

Can you believe we're halfway through January already??  There are days that I feel we just started our journey and then there are days where I'm in shock it's taken this long!  If this was a "normal" process, we'd be about 5 weeks until our due date....you think if I tell some of these case workers that I have 5 weeks left they'd hurry up and send us a kid?  LOL.  Actually I hadn't thought of the time frame until just now....I think I depressed myself...crap!

I've been meaning to write and update for the last week, especially the last day or two, so I'll apologize ahead of time I'm writing today instead of yesterday because, I'm not kidding when I say, today sucks and yesterday was GREAT!  LOL.  I wasn't lying when I said it changes day to day.  So here goes the updates (I'll keep the pity party to myself for now.)

This past week or 2 has been very eventful, which we kind of figured it would be after the first of the year.  (My completely biased feelings only on this next part.)  We knew it would taper off around the holidays....half the time we don't get responses so heaven knows we're not getting ANYTHING w/in a week or so of any national holiday!!  No kids were added to the sites, no emails were sent to our case worker (and if they were we sure didn't see them), no responses to our emails for follow up......so we decided, you know, fine, we'll enjoy our holidays and not think about it (YA RIGHT!!  But I already covered THAT sob story :-) )  So January hits and (not right away because, you know, the first is a holiday too) we start getting flooded w/ kids again.  "Brooks family is great, are they interested?"  "We're really interested in the Brooks family, can you send me their  home study?"  "The Brooks' family inquired on "so and so" can you send me pictures?"  Hurry hurry hurry and now.....NOTHING.  Except more paperwork.  How many times do I need to "describe the members of my household?"  (We're still 35 and 31, still employed, still have a dog and 2 cats.)  How many times do I need to answer "Have any children, through foster or adoption, have been added to your household since your home study was completed?"  NONE, damn it, that's why we're here!!!!!!!!!!!  "What experience do you have in medical/dental issues?"  None, still not a nurse (it's only been a week since you asked me that the last time.).  "What experiences do you have with disciplining a child?"  Please refer to the answer of the 2nd dumb question you asked me....NONE, I STILL HAVE NO CHILDREN!!!!!

I feel bad for Chris on days like this...I know he's just as frustrated as I am, but since I wear my emotions on my sleeve, the poor man (who seems to think God blessed him w/ an incredibly stable wife LOL) has to decide to duck and cover or just ignore me when days like this happen.  Ugh.  Love that God gave me this man, I think any other man would have left my crazy, emotional self by this point LOL.

(I did warn you that I'm not in the best frame of mind today, right?  LOL.  Just checking...and apologizing...again.  The irony of all this "happy" stuff is not lost on me lol.)

Ok, so you probably have caught my drift as to my frustration level for today.  But now to fill you in on what you REALLY read this for.  NO NEWS!!!  LOL.  We have had a lot of interest though, and I'll give you the run  down of a few things in play right now.

"T" (another one, not to be confused w/ the first one) is 12 and his case worker contacted Hydee for pictures of us to show him.  Interesting, because other than a request for our home study, we haven't heard any more about him.  This is a little out of the normal cycle of things, but Hydee said she hasn't worked with this state before, so we're just rolling with it.  He had a baseball bat in his picture, so we told her to really highlight our softball, sporty pictures and maybe he'll "pick" us LOL.

We also received a request for our home study from a case worker who, I think, found us in the state data base.  These girls are somewhat local and are 10 & 5....CUTE girls!!  "M" & "K".  We've been invited to a match meeting for them on the 30th of January.  We're a LITTLE hesitant because, again, since it's in state, it will cost us more money for all the meetings and follow ups, plus we haven't heard how many families are going to be in attendance at this meeting.  The information we've been given is pretty generic and "happy happy happy", so we're anxious to find out more about these girls, but haven't received (and it doesn't appear that we WILL) any more information at this time.  Plus, their case worker wants us to fill out that obnoxious paperwork that, if they bothered to really read our home study, answers all of their questions....and I'm kind of rebelling right now...I don't want to fill out any more paperwork.  I'm sure I'll get over myself and fill it out by the end of today...or tomorrow LOL.

So that's all the big leads for right now that I can think of...we'll see where we stand next week.  I hate how time has to pass so you don't seem TOO anxious or the case workers consider you obnoxious so they ignore you, but if you wait TOO long then you're not interested.  GRRRRRRRRR.  Ok, ranting done, sorry for the downer today :)  I (hopefully) promise that the next update will be WAY more exciting...if at the very least, more positive :)

Love you all, thanks for all the continued prayers!!

~~J~~