Banisters Almost Done

My Dad and Daniel have been working yesterday and today to meet the mandatory "less than 4 inch gap" policy. They have been trying to bend wood to make it match the arch in the metal - they have snapped beams and rails, but all in all, it's turning out pretty good. See for yourself!

Before = 6 inch space

After = 3 inch space

Now Baby will not get it's head stuck, or be able to crawl through the banisters! And - it only cost a couple hundred dollars for the wood by doing it themselves. Thank God! We still need to add a rail at the bottom because the gap is too big between the bottom rail and the actual stairs. We also have to do the railing at the front door, below and also by the bedrooms upstairs. I'll post another picture when they are all painted and finished. Thanks for all your prayers - we saved about 2,800$ by doing it this way!

Credit report - check

So today, we got all our credit reports. No-lates, fully paid and closed accounts - perfect credit history - what a blessing!

I drove to Holy Family Services and dropped off the packet of papers (with all class hours and certificates, our application, our live-scan and every inch of our history and references, etc ...) So, now, supposedly, a social worker will be assigned to us and we can get on with the waiting! The only thing we need is our birth cerificates- which we both can not find, so we had to order them online.

OH!!!! Great news ... we can board up the fireplace with plywood!!!! So - I am going to have a fake fire painted on the plywood rectangle so it will be a fun and funky look.

We pretty much gave up on having a real banister made, so we are doing a make-shift one out of wood and attaching it to the existing metal ones and God only knows what the end result will look like, but at least it will pass inspection. After the adoption is final and the baby is in our home for 6 months, we will be able to take it all down and have a normal home again.

Anyway, it was a big relief, and it felt like a big step forward when I dropped of that packet of information! Phew!

CPR/First Aid class down, 1 more to go

Yesterday, Daniel and I went to the mandatory Community (Adult/Infant) CPR class. It was supposed to be from 8-5, but we left at 7 Am to get there, sat in traffic at the Orange Crush and then weren't out of there till 6 pm. I missed a ministry meeting that was important to me, and was late to a hair appointment that I scheduled for after the meeting. Daniel had to take a day off work.

In the big picture, it will seem like no big deal, but right now it seems fruitless. Especially since we will have to re-take the class and become re-certfied before the baby ever gets here and pay all over again! I know it is just another hoop, and we jumped through successfully, but here we sit with no money to fix the stairs, and no money to fix the fireplace and we had to pay all this money for the CPR class & certification that will be probably void before we ever even get picked by a birthmother! Not only that, we paid an additional (unexpected) 97$ to get 2 car first aid kits and a home earthquake kit (which is required by HFS and the state of CA) Luckily we got a deal on the 2 vehicle kits, they are normally 35 each, but they were on sale for Christmas at 19.00 each - so we jumped on that bargain. The rest was for the home kit - which we did all the adding and it was cheaper to get it from Red Cross than to go out and buy tweezers, and bandages and all the rest...

Why can't they just come in and do a home study, and let our book go out there, and then during the wait, we can work on getting the stair rails made closer together and save money and find resources to cover the fireplace?

I was talking to a friend of mine and I was saying the one good thing about all this is that I don't have to suffer through labor and delivery. Most women look forward to that - I never did. I always wanted to be a mom, never really fantasized positively about giving birth. Maybe because I am adopted myself - who knows.

So I guess it's fair - that I have to do all these emotional jumping jacks as my "pregnancy" - at least it IS do-able, and not in any way impossible. I have to try and not look at how easy it seems for other parents to get their kids. It seems that anyone can "just get pregnant" ... on the other hand, my sister went through 2 completely nightmarish pregnancies because both kids wanted to come out before 25 weeks. My niece and nephew are beautiful and healthy, but my sister went to hell and back to make that possible. I guess we all have our struggles and I know she wouldn't trade her struggles for mine, as I wouldn't trade mine for hers.

It's weird how the Lord really does give us what WE can handle - not what others can handle. He does seem to push us to the limits sometimes - and I know that I am no way near the limit in this process - I hope I don't even come NEAR the limit ... I think my limit would be a birthmom changing her mind - or a baby being in our home an then a birthmom trying to appeal - THAT would be my limit. You know what - it wouldn't even be my limit - because as a Christain, I have to be prepared for ANYthing, even the death of my baby and trust God through ANYthing, so I guess that this whole blog-post is in vain, because ultimately, nothing is beyond what God can take us through.

Me & Noah have alot in common

In the year 2005, the Lord came unto Noah, who was now living in Malibu, California in the United States, and said, "Once again, the earth has become wicked and over-populated, and I see the end of all flesh before me. Build another Ark and save 2 of every living thing along with a few good humans."

He gave Noah the blueprints, saying, "You have 6 months to build the Ark before I will start the unending rain for 40 days and 40 nights."

Six months later, the Lord looked down and saw Noah weeping in his yard -- but no Ark.

"Noah!" He roared, "I'm about to start the rain! Where is the Ark?"

"Forgive me, Lord," begged Noah, "but things have changed. I needed a building permit. I've been arguing with the inspector about the need for a sprinkler system. My neighbors claim that I've violated the neighborhood zoning laws by building the Ark in my yard and exceeding the height limitations. We had to go to the Development Appeal Board for a decision.

Then the Department of Transportation demanded a bond be posted for the future costs of moving power lines and other overhead obstructions, to clear the passage for the Ark's move to the sea. I told them that the sea would be coming to us, but they would hear nothing of it.

Getting the wood was another problem. There's a ban on cutting local trees in order to save the spotted owl. I tried to convince the environmentalists that I needed the wood to save the owls -- but no go!

When I started gathering the animals, an animal rights group sued me.

They insisted that I was confining wild animals against their will. They argued the accommodation was too restrictive, and it was cruel and inhumane to put so many animals in a confined space.

Then the EPA ruled that I couldn't build the Ark until they'd conducted an environmental impact study on your proposed flood.

I'm still trying to resolve a complaint with the Human Rights Commission on how many minorities I'm supposed to hire for my building crew.

Immigration and Naturalization is checking the green-card status of most of the people who want to work.

The trades unions say I can't use my sons. They insist I have to hire only Union workers with Ark-building experience.

To make matters worse, the IRS seized all my assets, claiming I'm trying to leave the country illegally with endangered species.

So, forgive me, Lord, but it would take at least 10 years for me to finish this Ark."

Suddenly the skies cleared, the sun began to shine, and a rainbow stretched across the sky. Noah looked up in wonder and asked, "You mean you're not going to destroy the world?"

"No," said the Lord. "The government beat me to it."

DMV Report

Okay, I just got back a little while ago from getting our DMV driving records. A lovely time was had at the Whittier DMV ... HA HA! They make you go back 10 years, we are both "clean" so this is yet another drop in the bucket of requirements.

I am blessed to have the help of my sister, who is equipping me with baby gates, among other necessities, and hopefully soon I will get the banisters taken care of. Sonny Harris told me about a guy he knows who does iron work and our original thought was to weld matching pieces in-between the existing ones to make a 3 inch clearing instead of 6 inch. Now, Sonny says the guy he knows told him there are some type of clip-on decorative inserts that may solve our problem in a more cost-efficient way.

I have yet to hear from the fireplace guy. That is frustrating.

In the meantime, we just keep plugging along, making earthquake preparedness kits, car first-aid kits and the like. It seems the only 2 things really holding us back from getting our profile book out there is the fireplce and banisters ... still.