Guess what we did last night?

We proofed our final home study! 

Praise The Lord!

 The one last documented that we've been waiting on for a month and a half cleared yesterday morning and our worker immediately sent our final COMPLETE document for us to give our signature of approval! There were a few minor corrections that we sent off last night. (Example: they had my dad's birth year as 1993. I'll give you three guesses on his birth year. Hint: he wasn't born in the 90s) 

It was interesting to read 13 pages about our marriage, parenting and upbringing based on interviews and observations with our case worker. Hours and hours of paper work, adoption training, finger printing, doctor meetings, interviews and prayers all rolled into 13 pages- and all COMPLETE!  Only thing left is the notary then we are off to complete our dossier! 

One step closer to bringing our Ollie home! 

Garage Sale Fundraiser

We had our first fundraiser on Halloween morning to help bring Ollie home! We started collecting items months ago for our sale and I felt like we were never going to find a weekend that worked for us.  The last Saturday of the month, plus rain, plus Halloween was not the recipe for a great garage sale BUT the Lord showed up and showed out!! We deposited just over $2,000 in our adoption account today! Praise God! We had no expectations, but I will say that blew any thought of an expectation out of the water.  There was a HUGE turnout for donations during the weeks leading up the the sale and a HUGE line at the door when we got there Saturday morning.  Could not be more thankful!

It was a lot of work, but so worth it.  I am, however, happy that it is behind me! It took my mom and I over 8 hours on Friday to get all of the sale items out and organized in the church gym.  And we didn't even price a single thing! Thankfully, Friday afternoon a sweet church lady helped us for a few hours - so thankful for extra hands! My sister took the kids to Starkville for a slumber party, which was another huge relief. So many reasons to be thankful for the whole weekend.

One lesson learned: garage sale people are a serious group of people.  These folks are pros!

The setting up process.  Whew!

Every day is one step closer to having her home.  I keep reminding myself of that!  Right now we are in a waiting period.  Our agency is still waiting on our child abuse report to come in from Jackson.  Apparently they are not always the fastest people around.  And then last week we got word that our FBI background checks, along with our two money orders, are MIA.  I am trying not to panic.  I have all of my receipts and copies of literally everything, so I am praying for the best! My worker told me she would call me as soon as they find out something more.  Telling myself it is just a minor bump in a long, very bumpy road. We have read and reviewed our home study, we just need those final two documents from the third parties then we are off to start the dossier!

Halloween fun

A rainy actual Halloween plus pure exhaustion from the garage sale that morning meant that Halloween night was celebrated by early bedtimes for all of us and zero trick-or-treaters! It was kind of a bust, but thankfully the kids never knew...they had celebrated Halloween all week!

We started on the Sunday before with our annual Fall Festival block party with our church, St. Paul's, and Annunciation Catholic Church.  It is always so fun. This was the first year that I had a part of the planning and implementation of it, but thankfully it was stress-free since the others girls were old pros at pulling off the great event.

Both of the kids had parties at their school.  I don't have any from Anna Joy's party. She only goes two days a week and I worked the day of the party, so I didn't get a chance to snap any.

I was able to go to Jones' class party that morning.  That afternoon the younger grades trick-or-treated to the middle school kids.  God bless teachers.  That is all.

Top: Jones' class with his middle school buddies
Bottom: Frankenstein Jones and his two fabulous teachers in their costumes 

I wanted to go to Trick or Treat on the The Row at MSU on Thursday, but Jones had a soccer game that night.  (Is it bad that I am happy soccer season is almost over? Mother of the year.)  Anyway, the kids never knew they were actually in bed before 7:00 pm on Halloween without once seeing their costumes that day. Plus we have enough candy to last us until 2017, so all is well.

I love seeing all of the cute and creative costumes. I am not a huge fan of Halloween (strangers at my door? I panic.) but I do love a costume.  Maybe next year I will look like something other than a worn out crazy mama!