Exit Interview Complete

We had our Exit Interview today, all our paperwork is complete, now we wait for a call from our adoption worker! According to our meeting today, we will be assigned an adoption worker within the next few days, but they have up to a month to contact us. Please keep praying for the right adoption worker for our family. My hope and prayer is that the lady that conducted our meeting today will be assigned our family. She is a woman of God and seems to understand our family dynamic. Thank you for your continued prayers and support, they mean the world to us!!

The Essential Oil Plunge

I made the plunge and purchased the Young Living Premium Starter Kit. 

I have been holding off getting into essential oils for a long time. Sure, I have dabbled in them here or there, but the starter kit is a commitment! I have to say, that a little over two weeks into trying to utilize the kit and I am still confused as to how to use the oils. I want to use them for anything and everything, but I just don't know what oils to use and how to use them! Why does the kit not come with a detailed guide!!

I have combined Frankincense and Purification with a carrier oil and applied it to my pimples (why an almost 29 year old still has acne I do not know!) at night before bed. After only a few days I have noticed a difference!! I have tried diffusing Thieves when both Landon and I were sick with a cold, and have also diffused the allergy trio (Lavender, Peppermint, and Lemon) but I have not yet noticed a substantial difference.

I can't shake the feeling that I am just not using the oils correctly. For all you oil lovers out there, I would love to hear how you use your oils and what made you fall in love with them!!!

Trauma Parenting Classes Completed!!!

We are well on our way to welcoming our sweet baby into our home! We have now officially completed the 24 hours of trauma based parenting classes required by the county. Next on the list is the Exit Interview, then we will be assigned our adoption worker! Right now, I am assuming the earliest we could have our placement is August, but it all depends on when the right baby comes into the system.

Ways you can be praying for us: 

Pray that we get assigned an adoption worker best suited for our family and our circumstance. 

Pray for continued hope and excitement and against fear. 

Pray for the bio mommy of our baby, that she cares for both herself and the baby, and pray for her emotionally, I am sure she is experiencing all kinds of emotions around Mother's Day. 

I read this amazing post about "The Other Mother," it is both beautiful and eye opening. It gives us a glimpse at what it might be like for the bio mommy of these precious little babes. Often times, it is so easy to judge and look down on these women for not protecting these innocents, it is good to be reminded that, although broken, these women are hurting and often times alone. There is evil in this world and they have become subject to it. It is a welcome reminder that we are all in need of the redemptive grace of Jesus Christ, and if we are to walk in His light, we are to show grace in return rather than being the first to cast the stone. 

Adoption Timeline

Orientation Class - September 26, 2014

Submitted Application to County & CCL - November 1, 2014

County Preliminary Interview - January 21, 2015

Parenting/Training Classes - March 12th, 2015

CCL Pre-Licensing Inspection - March 18, 2015
Exit Interview - June 3, 2015 

DIY Uncrustables

One of Landon's favorite foods is Smuckers Uncrustables! If it were up to him, he would eat them for every meal. Unfortunately, they are also packed full of sugar and a bunch of other things I can not pronounce. We try healthy as a family, that does not mean we never eat out or have a candy bar, but we do try and limit sugar and processed foods as much as possible. Yet, the convenience of a frozen PB&J that will perfectly thaw in time for lunch, requires no prep and minimal cleanup, and can be eaten in the car with ease, is very tempting! Especially when we are running late, which is almost always. My solution, try and make them myself! 

Ingredients: 

Honey (I like raw organic honey from Trader Joe's)

Peanut Butter, Almond Butter, Cashew Butter, Etc. 

(Trader Joe's has a creamy unsalted peanut butter with one ingredient, peanuts)

Butter 

Bread 

Directions: 

Apply peanut butter to one slice of bread,
apply butter to the other slice of bread,
apply honey on top of butter.
(Simple enough so far!) 

Take a wide brimmed jar (I used a glass leftover glass container)

place on top of sandwich and press down firmly. Cut off crust. 

To get the most of the sandwich, I did this step twice, once on each side. 

So it turned out looking like this. Not perfectly round like Uncrustables are,

but we utilize more of the bread. 

All that is left to do is place in a ziplock baggie and freeze! 

I sealed all the sandwiches in their own sandwich bag 

and then placed them all into a large freezer bag to preserve freshness. 

They keep for about a month stored this way. 

Tried, tested and Landon approved!

Next time you are on the go just remove from freezer, let defrost and munch away! 

Butterfly Day

Last weekend Landon and I joined friends at the Louis Robidoux Nature Center
Annual Butterfly Day! We did butterfly crafts, pet pigs, held caterpillars and visited the main attraction, the butterflies!

Landon is now obsessed with caterpillars and finding a nice green leaf for them to eat 

(thank you to "The Very Hungry Caterpillar"). 

Licensing and Trauma Classes

Since my last post we have completed three of the eight required trauma parenting classes as well as our CCL (Community Care Licensing) pre-licensing inspection. The inspection went surprisingly well. Although the analyst was here for two hours, he did not find anything that needed to be modified or fixed! Yay! Meaning, after we complete the required 24 hours of training, we will be a licensed facility and will be one step closer to welcoming our sweet baby into our home!

The trauma parenting classes consist of 8 weeks of training on how to best care for a child who has experienced trauma. These classes have been surprisingly enlightening and convicting, the horrors that some of these children endure are too terrible to describe or recount. These classes help equip potential adoptive/foster parents to respond in love to these, neglected, abandoned, abused, and weary children. Even though our plan is to adopt an infant, I am surprisingly grateful for these classes, if anything, we have been affirmed that we are on the correct path, a path that will (hopefully) allow our sweet baby to be spared from these tortures. 

And the people you meet in these classes! They are amazing. At our table is one couple that has no children of there own and is wanting to adopt a sibling group of up to three children! Another lady in our class has been fostering for over 10 years. Last night she was telling us about one of her boys that was deemed a bad kid (at 2 years old) and was known to repeatedly throw violent tantrums and had already gone through two prior foster homes. After 2 months in her home, she realized that this poor boy was not trantruming, rather he was banging his head on the ground because he was in pain. After seeking medical attention it was discovered he had a large tumor in his head and was also diagnosed with cerebral-palsy. The boy is now 4 years old and thriving under her care. 

Because I delivered the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to help him.

Job 29:12

County Interview

So far the process to adopt through Riverside County has been slow but we are making progress! We had our preliminary interview with the county in January, they asked us a few questions about our upbringing, family dynamics, medical history etc. The interview was conducted by a psychiatrist, whom I thought did an excellent job "reading" us. We completed more paperwork (huff) and received even more paperwork to complete at home including an in-depth autobiography. In addition we were required to submit our 2014 tax return and our marriage license! I think they have every important piece of documentation we own, if not I am confident they will request it soon ;-) In addition, I am now CPR and First Aid certified! Whoot! 

Throughout this process I have been all over the place emotionally and spiritually. Believe it or not, I keep wanting to take control of the reigns! At every turn my first instinct is to try and figure out what I need to do to guarantee we get the perfect child for our family. (Do you see the fault in my thinking yet?) The funny thing about control is, no matter what delusion we are operating under, we never truly have control, we have illusion of control. In my attempt to regain control I have wrestled with every other option available to us to expand our family, and yet somehow we keep coming back to the county (the one option where I feel I have the least amount of control...). The last few months have been a necessary growing time for me, a time for me to change my thinking, to transform my heart attitude, and to realign my plan with God's plan, to have an accurate view of my own human frailty and God's divine grandeur. Instead of seeing all the obstacles we will have to face as obstacles for us to overcome, I am now starting to see them as a testament to what God will do! To realize that my attempt to rely on my hard work and ability will amount to nothing without God's hand and blessing. We feel that the Lord has lead us to a county adoption not so that we can do great things, but so that He can do great things, if only we are faithful enough to follow!

So now the journey really begins. We start parenting/training classes this week, and will attend these classes every week for two months. On the 18th CCL will come and inspect our home to see if it meets their requirements, we are still making minor adjustments but hopefully our home will be fit for a child soon ;-) 

Thank you all for your continued prayers. I am terrible about updating this, I will try and get better. I can not tell you enough how much it means to us to have all the support and encouragement we have received so far. God is working in our lives because of your faithfulness to pray!
Thank you!

For those that are interested I will keep a running timeline,
in case you or someone you know is interested in the process.

Orientation Class - September 26, 2014

Submitted Application to County & CCL - November 1, 2014

County Preliminary Interview - January 21, 2015

Parenting/Training Classes - March 12th, 2015

CCL Pre-Licensing Inspection - March 18, 2015