October & Some of November

It’s been a busy few weeks.  Our adoption classes started back up mid October around the same time we had midterms.  We had these wonderful dates planned like the corn maze, dinner and a movie, carving pumpkins, etc… and the only thing we got around too this past October was carving pumpkins.  We had a great time though.  Shane’s pumpkin didn’t work the way he wanted it to and so like a man, he started randomly carving, stabbing, and peeling his pumpkin.  In the end he even stuck nails through the top to finish it off.  I stuck to a stencil pattern.  Before last year, I had never done a pattern because I didn’t realize you could download them for free off the internet and I always thought the kits were kind of a rip off.  But anyway, it would have helped had we actually used carving knives and not kitchen knives.  In the end we were both satisfied and enjoyed our cheap date.  Life got busy once again and it was just yesterday as our pumpkins were molding before they got taken away to the trash.

 

On Thursday nights we’ve been involved in the Families Supporting Adoption education courses.  We’ve already met our education requirements, but because this time around I was on the board, I felt like I needed to be there to support everyone.  It worked out great because the classes were wonderful.  I always leave that Relief Society room feeling uplifted and moved.  It gives me the strength to continue forward every day.  This go around we learned about the emotions of adoption, had a birth mom-grandma panel, health and welfare taught us about foster to adopt, and we discussed trans-racial adoption and from placement to temple and what is involved in that.  We also decided to do a service project because November is National Adoption Month.  We made pillowcases for birth moms who would be placing in our city.  They turned out so great!  I was so excited to be able to help gather supplies.  We sewed pillowcases and rice bag warmers to match.  We bought picture frames, composition journals, comfy socks, a plush robe, and gum to go inside.  We handmade 5 note cards each, 2 bracelets each, chap stick covered with a cute label and flower hair bows.  We were able to get a CD donated and with the help of my work we got $300.00 towards the robes and the chap stick was supplied by them as well, (Shane and I peeled off all of the company logo stickers for each of the chap sticks and then I recovered them with an “It’s About Love” sticker).  It all came together so wonderfully.  We assembled them   last night and our case worker took them back to the agency to give to birth moms before they go to the hospital.  We actually had one birth mom go to the hospital in the midst of our assembling and so we gave her one and she loved it!  Huge success.  Can’t wait until next April when we begin again.

School is winding down, we have just about four weeks left, and the holidays are beginning.  I wonder what life will be like when we aren’t running a million miles a minute.  All I can say is that I’m dying for the next phase of our lives and what that might bring or where that might take us.