Last week, completely and unexpectedly out of the blue, a friend gave us $50 to put towards the addition.
There are two ways to look at this. On the one hand, I looked at a check for $50 sitting in my hand, and started to think of how insignificant that seems compared to everything that we will need to complete this project. What can you get with $50? Two bags of insulation? Part of one window? A few cans of paint? Maybe a few lineal feet of concrete footing... I was reminded of how foolish it seems to attempt a project of this scale on a cash basis. It's especially ridiculous for a family whose yearly income is so low that they don't qualify to adopt internationally unless they add their assets onto their income!
But things are not always what they seem. There have been too many critical junctures along the way where we've been at some transition point, or decision point, or simply just a point of needing confirmation and at those times we've received these tokens from God that seem to serve primarily as a very concrete reminder that he is the one to whom the success of this venture belongs, and these steps along the way are demonstrations of his ability to provide. You see, the very day that we got this check was the day that Matt was going out to make our first big (as in thousands as opposed to tens or hundreds of dollars) purchase. And also the day that we got the phone call saying our building permit had been approved.
This gift is also precious to us because of who it comes from. What began as a "business" type relationship quickly became much more as we realized that we all shared a common devotion to our God and a delight for dwelling on who he is. Both Matt and I have enjoyed being able to spend a few minutes of time weekly with this friend, and we know that he is excited about what the future holds for us, but to have him share in this way with us was a delightfully unexpected gift.
So we keep walking, and I plan to keep sharing these details, because they are part of what we, at least, are finding to be a fascinating unfolding story of the way God works and supplies what is needed for what he sets before us.
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Who needs a truck?...
...when you have a Neon?
A Neon *may* be part of the smallest class of cars, but when we bought ours it was being marketed as the car with the "most room in its class."
These photos are of the car all loaded up with this morning's purchase from Menards. These orange donuts are all of the tubing that will circulate warm water through our concrete floors (and under the wood floors in the bedrooms because as nice looking as polished/stained concrete floors can look, I just couldn't bring myself to do that in the bedrooms!) to heat the house. In-floor heat sounds pretty high-class, but Matt actually chose it because it is a very efficient method of heating, particularly because we do not have central air in our house so we can eliminate entirely all of the ducting involved in a more traditional forced-air heating system. (We will have an air exchanger so the house won't get stale. But that requires significantly less ducting than forced-air heat!)
The most...exciting...thing about packing this much stuff into our little Neon is that at nearly 14 years old, this little car doesn't work perfectly anymore - one of those ways is that the trunk doesn't open, so anything you want to put into or get out of the trunk has to go through the seat hatch from the back seat. As I helped Matt unload the car tonight, he just kept pulling more and more...and more stuff out of that little car!
There's the pile. And you can't even see the stuff that's stacked up inside the rings!
Our basement is starting to look like a construction staging ground, and I have a feeling its going to get worse before it gets better!
The most...exciting...thing about packing this much stuff into our little Neon is that at nearly 14 years old, this little car doesn't work perfectly anymore - one of those ways is that the trunk doesn't open, so anything you want to put into or get out of the trunk has to go through the seat hatch from the back seat. As I helped Matt unload the car tonight, he just kept pulling more and more...and more stuff out of that little car!
Our basement is starting to look like a construction staging ground, and I have a feeling its going to get worse before it gets better!
Friday, May 24, 2013
We have our building permit!
We got the phone call today saying that our building permit has successfully made it through the review process, so now all we have to do is go in and pick it up! (and pay for it...) ;) That feels good. I don't know why we were both expecting there to be hiccups in this part, but it went as smooth as smooth can be!
We "celebrated" by sending Matt to Menards to pick up a few items that were on sale this week. If we can save a few hundred dollars here and there it will help to offset the few hundred dollars here and there that we're anticipating coming up as we go through. (Paint. An exhaust fan for the bathroom. Things like that.)
So we now have:
1) the sink for the bathroom (that we purchased a while ago)
2) some random electrical outlets and switches from earlier this year
3) Pex tubing for the plumbing (but not the radiant heat tubing yet, because that isn't on sale this week)
4) rigid insulation in two of the four sizes that we need for the project. Matt pointed out today that the two sizes that we need first for the job (the stuff that goes under the basement slab and the stuff that goes on the basement walls) was the stuff that was on sale today, and the two sizes that we don't need until later in the construction were NOT on sale today. How about that? ;)
5) AND 150 bags of cellulose insulation to be blown in at a later date.
It's exciting having some of these real things starting to accumulate!
Depending on weather, we're looking at starting the excavation the first week of June.
We "celebrated" by sending Matt to Menards to pick up a few items that were on sale this week. If we can save a few hundred dollars here and there it will help to offset the few hundred dollars here and there that we're anticipating coming up as we go through. (Paint. An exhaust fan for the bathroom. Things like that.)
So we now have:
1) the sink for the bathroom (that we purchased a while ago)
2) some random electrical outlets and switches from earlier this year
3) Pex tubing for the plumbing (but not the radiant heat tubing yet, because that isn't on sale this week)
4) rigid insulation in two of the four sizes that we need for the project. Matt pointed out today that the two sizes that we need first for the job (the stuff that goes under the basement slab and the stuff that goes on the basement walls) was the stuff that was on sale today, and the two sizes that we don't need until later in the construction were NOT on sale today. How about that? ;)
5) AND 150 bags of cellulose insulation to be blown in at a later date.
It's exciting having some of these real things starting to accumulate!
Depending on weather, we're looking at starting the excavation the first week of June.
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Article 5 interview
One more of the many hoops to go through between here and getting K home happened successfully yesterday. Our in-country lawyer met with the US embassy to go over our paperwork to make sure that we meet all of the criteria for Article 5 of the Hague Convention legalities. And it all looks good! We've been waiting for two weeks since the last milestone for this appointment to come, so it is good to have that out of the way.
Next step is to actually get the signature on our Article 5 letter, then that needs to be translated so it can be submitted to the Minister of Justice. I guess it usually takes about a month for things to process through the MOJ, and we need two different signatures through that, but then after THAT, (I think) is when we get our court date.
Still plenty of variables, and probably more than half of the steps still remaining before we can bring him home, but that is one more behind us instead of in front of us. We know he's coming home at the right time - it will be interesting to see when that is!!
And in the meantime, we all wait. We wait here, and he waits there. Really looking forward to when the waiting is over and he gets to be with his family for the rest of his life. ;)
Next step is to actually get the signature on our Article 5 letter, then that needs to be translated so it can be submitted to the Minister of Justice. I guess it usually takes about a month for things to process through the MOJ, and we need two different signatures through that, but then after THAT, (I think) is when we get our court date.
Still plenty of variables, and probably more than half of the steps still remaining before we can bring him home, but that is one more behind us instead of in front of us. We know he's coming home at the right time - it will be interesting to see when that is!!
And in the meantime, we all wait. We wait here, and he waits there. Really looking forward to when the waiting is over and he gets to be with his family for the rest of his life. ;)
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
permit application and numbers
Yesterday was another big milestone on the addition - Matt finally had everything he needed to be able to submit the drawings to the city for the permit! If all goes well, we may have the permit by the end of the week, and if something comes up, by early next week. And our excavator is ready to go the first week of June. Looks like it's really happening!
And numbers have been coming in. We've been moving forward on this in an atypical way. We began moving toward really doing this last fall for a variety of reasons, believing that this was the direction God was telling us to walk. I have struggled a lot with not really *wanting* the addition - more to clean, losing the "cute little" house that I'd been so proud of being able to fit our growing family into, besides all the work that it will take to get it done! But realizing that this was the way we were to go, and on top of that, based on things God has been showing us and challenging us with over the last few years, this is an endeavor we would only take on if it would not require incurring any debt. Crazy, right? Who nearly doubles the size of their house without going into debt to do it? Especially a family with our income! So we basically told God that if this was what he wanted us to do that we would rely on him to make it happen because he sure couldn't count on us to pay for it!
If you remember the time line, these decisions about the house addition all happened BEFORE we knew that we qualified financially to adopt internationally. We had heard God's "GO" in April of 2012 for the adoption, but were still of the understanding that we would need a greatly increased yearly income before the US government would allow us to pursue international adoption. So there, too, we told God we would trust him to make that happen at the right time, and when it happened, we would be ready to keep going. But that hadn't happened yet - instead this was presented to us, so we began walking forward, at that point intending to break ground last fall, and even thinking in our simplistic, one-step-at-a-time way that the building project may very well be why God has postponed the adoption.
But the question of how to pay for it was still there. We didn't know how this was going to work. We talked together about potentially asking Matt's mom if she would lend us the money we needed and we would pay her back, but both of us felt that although this was different than going out and getting a mortgage from a bank, it was still contrary to what we thought we'd been hearing God directing us to financially over the last few years - namely to be in debt to no one, but to trust him to provide what we needed when we needed it, leaving us free to use the money he gives us in his service instead of in the service of a mortgage company. Still, we didn't know how else to do it, so Matt had planned to talk with his brother and mom before their big meeting with his parents' financial planners to settle things out after his dad's death so they could bring it up as a topic at the meeting.
But *somehow* he just didn't get a chance to talk about it before the meeting. And then at the meeting, found that one of the options the advisor proposed for tax reasons involved Matt's mom disclaiming one of his dad's IRAs and splitting it equally between her two sons.
Wow. Just like that, it looked like we could get a significant sum of money. Not enough to do all of the work, but enough to blow us away and more importantly, to show us that God can move big sums at his will and in his perfect timing. Enough to humble us, and say, "okay, God, we hear you. We're sorry. We're ready to trust you to do this in your way all the way."
(All of this transpired between July 8th and early October on this post.)
Not long after that we learned that assets apply toward income as far as hitting the minimum to qualify to adopt, so honoring our commitment from the last April, we began moving toward adopting K in November of 2012. We ended 2012 riding high on God's ability to provide great sums of money to do his work, but also very aware of how much we were still waiting on him.
With that as a background, we have not been nitpicking in our design of the house based on its cost. In fact, until last week we have really had no real idea how much this was going to cost! Rather we've been designing based on what we think we will need looking at the direction God seems to be moving our family. We've had a gut feeling for where it would come in, but it is only in the last two weeks that we have started getting real numbers on it. And it looks like it's going to work! And by "work" I mean that it looks like it's going to cost more than we "have" (and that's already taking into account the significant amount of money we hope to save by doing 80% of the labor ourselves) but not so much more that we feel that we've outscoped where we should be.
We are so grateful to all of you who have offered to put in time to help with various stages of the work. How exciting it will be to see what this summer (and fall, winter, and spring, most likely!) will bring.
And because pictures are fun, we had a last minute addition to the design as we looked at the large maple we cut down - the location of this tree is roughly where we have a post in the main level living around (more of a spatial post than a structural post), and Matt thought it would be really neat to put a slice off the tree into the stained concrete floor centered under the column! It's going to take a bit of futzing to get it to work, but we think we have a plan... Here is a photo of the slice that we're planning to get sanded up and finished all smooth. Owen helped drill a hole in the center of it (to be hidden under the column) which is supposed to minimize the chances of the slice cracking.
And me? I just keep digging up perennials every chance I get (rain or no rain!) in hopes of having the gardens cleared before the work begins. I'm glad I started last fall!
And numbers have been coming in. We've been moving forward on this in an atypical way. We began moving toward really doing this last fall for a variety of reasons, believing that this was the direction God was telling us to walk. I have struggled a lot with not really *wanting* the addition - more to clean, losing the "cute little" house that I'd been so proud of being able to fit our growing family into, besides all the work that it will take to get it done! But realizing that this was the way we were to go, and on top of that, based on things God has been showing us and challenging us with over the last few years, this is an endeavor we would only take on if it would not require incurring any debt. Crazy, right? Who nearly doubles the size of their house without going into debt to do it? Especially a family with our income! So we basically told God that if this was what he wanted us to do that we would rely on him to make it happen because he sure couldn't count on us to pay for it!
If you remember the time line, these decisions about the house addition all happened BEFORE we knew that we qualified financially to adopt internationally. We had heard God's "GO" in April of 2012 for the adoption, but were still of the understanding that we would need a greatly increased yearly income before the US government would allow us to pursue international adoption. So there, too, we told God we would trust him to make that happen at the right time, and when it happened, we would be ready to keep going. But that hadn't happened yet - instead this was presented to us, so we began walking forward, at that point intending to break ground last fall, and even thinking in our simplistic, one-step-at-a-time way that the building project may very well be why God has postponed the adoption.
But the question of how to pay for it was still there. We didn't know how this was going to work. We talked together about potentially asking Matt's mom if she would lend us the money we needed and we would pay her back, but both of us felt that although this was different than going out and getting a mortgage from a bank, it was still contrary to what we thought we'd been hearing God directing us to financially over the last few years - namely to be in debt to no one, but to trust him to provide what we needed when we needed it, leaving us free to use the money he gives us in his service instead of in the service of a mortgage company. Still, we didn't know how else to do it, so Matt had planned to talk with his brother and mom before their big meeting with his parents' financial planners to settle things out after his dad's death so they could bring it up as a topic at the meeting.
But *somehow* he just didn't get a chance to talk about it before the meeting. And then at the meeting, found that one of the options the advisor proposed for tax reasons involved Matt's mom disclaiming one of his dad's IRAs and splitting it equally between her two sons.
Wow. Just like that, it looked like we could get a significant sum of money. Not enough to do all of the work, but enough to blow us away and more importantly, to show us that God can move big sums at his will and in his perfect timing. Enough to humble us, and say, "okay, God, we hear you. We're sorry. We're ready to trust you to do this in your way all the way."
(All of this transpired between July 8th and early October on this post.)
Not long after that we learned that assets apply toward income as far as hitting the minimum to qualify to adopt, so honoring our commitment from the last April, we began moving toward adopting K in November of 2012. We ended 2012 riding high on God's ability to provide great sums of money to do his work, but also very aware of how much we were still waiting on him.
With that as a background, we have not been nitpicking in our design of the house based on its cost. In fact, until last week we have really had no real idea how much this was going to cost! Rather we've been designing based on what we think we will need looking at the direction God seems to be moving our family. We've had a gut feeling for where it would come in, but it is only in the last two weeks that we have started getting real numbers on it. And it looks like it's going to work! And by "work" I mean that it looks like it's going to cost more than we "have" (and that's already taking into account the significant amount of money we hope to save by doing 80% of the labor ourselves) but not so much more that we feel that we've outscoped where we should be.
We are so grateful to all of you who have offered to put in time to help with various stages of the work. How exciting it will be to see what this summer (and fall, winter, and spring, most likely!) will bring.
And because pictures are fun, we had a last minute addition to the design as we looked at the large maple we cut down - the location of this tree is roughly where we have a post in the main level living around (more of a spatial post than a structural post), and Matt thought it would be really neat to put a slice off the tree into the stained concrete floor centered under the column! It's going to take a bit of futzing to get it to work, but we think we have a plan... Here is a photo of the slice that we're planning to get sanded up and finished all smooth. Owen helped drill a hole in the center of it (to be hidden under the column) which is supposed to minimize the chances of the slice cracking.
Friday, May 17, 2013
reflections on coming home
One of the joys of traveling to meet K the week we did is that there were TWO other families also visiting their sons for the first time at K's orphanage. Earlier this week we got an email with photos and links to videos that one of the other families took of us with K during that week. These shots catch us at some moments when we weren't thinking "let's take a picture of this" so they capture a bit more of an unedited view of the week. These first two were sad for me to look at - they are from the first few minutes after we first met K, and he first met us. I'm reminded how very afraid he was that first day. I don't know what kind of preparation, if any, he was given prior to being rolled into the visiting room and left alone with English-speaking strangers who want to be close to him. His reaction that first visit on the first day was definitely fear. Not knowing him then, I didn't know how to read his body language as well as I did by the end of the week, but he is definitely afraid. These two pictures were taken within the first 15 minutes of us meeting each other...
As I think about what the pick-up trip will be like, I'm guessing it's going to be terrifying for K. He hasn't seen me for months. The only memory he will have of me is likely what his Baba has been able to keep alive with time she's spent looking at pictures with him and talking about us. But I'm going to show up at his orphanage one day, and they'll bring him down to me, pass him off to me, and we'll go get in the car for a 2.5 hour drive through the mountains - no day to adjust to each other again or anything like that - just pass off and go. That in itself will be a jarring experience to this little boy who can probably count on one hand how many times he's left the orphanage or been in a car.
And he has no way of knowing that he's never going back. And he doesn't know yet what a very, very good thing that is! So although we, from the outside, know that his life is beginning, as far as he knows, everything that he's ever known is gone. Except he doesn't even know that.
We'll spend a week in a hotel in the capital for various appointments - again, WAY more out-of-the-ordinary than he's used to, at the same time not having any of the comfort of familiar routines. Worst of all, his new caretaker, me and likely Owen, aren't going to speak his language! I'm working on some basic functional words (sleep, eat, bath, go out), but I know I'm not going to be speaking his language.
After a week of getting acclimated to that routine, (stay in the hotel room, eat hotel food, go to various appointments), we're going to suddenly change it up by packing everything up, driving to the airport, and then flying home. Even if I learn words such as "fly" or "airplane" he doesn't have any frame of reference to put those ideas into to prepare him for an international journey home! By that point, all I really figure I'll have to comfort him with is the fragile thread of my presence - hoping that over the week we are together in the hotel before we leave that he has the chance to remember that I am okay, to learn again that I am gentle, and to hopefully learn to trust, at least a bit, so that in the unfamiliar, Owen and I will be his familiar to cling to.
Seeing this picture from the end of our last visit that our friend sent gives me hope that maybe, in a week, it will again be possible for him to find some comfort in being with his mom. There's a big difference between the way this dear boy relates to us in this picture than in the photos above...
As I think about what the pick-up trip will be like, I'm guessing it's going to be terrifying for K. He hasn't seen me for months. The only memory he will have of me is likely what his Baba has been able to keep alive with time she's spent looking at pictures with him and talking about us. But I'm going to show up at his orphanage one day, and they'll bring him down to me, pass him off to me, and we'll go get in the car for a 2.5 hour drive through the mountains - no day to adjust to each other again or anything like that - just pass off and go. That in itself will be a jarring experience to this little boy who can probably count on one hand how many times he's left the orphanage or been in a car.
And he has no way of knowing that he's never going back. And he doesn't know yet what a very, very good thing that is! So although we, from the outside, know that his life is beginning, as far as he knows, everything that he's ever known is gone. Except he doesn't even know that.
We'll spend a week in a hotel in the capital for various appointments - again, WAY more out-of-the-ordinary than he's used to, at the same time not having any of the comfort of familiar routines. Worst of all, his new caretaker, me and likely Owen, aren't going to speak his language! I'm working on some basic functional words (sleep, eat, bath, go out), but I know I'm not going to be speaking his language.
After a week of getting acclimated to that routine, (stay in the hotel room, eat hotel food, go to various appointments), we're going to suddenly change it up by packing everything up, driving to the airport, and then flying home. Even if I learn words such as "fly" or "airplane" he doesn't have any frame of reference to put those ideas into to prepare him for an international journey home! By that point, all I really figure I'll have to comfort him with is the fragile thread of my presence - hoping that over the week we are together in the hotel before we leave that he has the chance to remember that I am okay, to learn again that I am gentle, and to hopefully learn to trust, at least a bit, so that in the unfamiliar, Owen and I will be his familiar to cling to.
Seeing this picture from the end of our last visit that our friend sent gives me hope that maybe, in a week, it will again be possible for him to find some comfort in being with his mom. There's a big difference between the way this dear boy relates to us in this picture than in the photos above...
Thursday, May 16, 2013
numbers are starting to come in
Because I know many of you are waiting and wondering what's going on with the house project, here's a brief update.
We just yesterday got numbers back from the excavator/concrete contractor as well as a quote on the mechanical system, so are now waiting to hear back from the framer and the lumberyard (the framer is just quoting labor since we're acting as the general contractor).
Matt had a chance last night to work on putting dimensions onto the drawings, with the hopes that he can print and take it to the City for our permit this Friday, but that might end up getting pushed over until Monday. We're still hoping for a June 1 (or thereabouts) start date, depending on when we hear back from the last people and how long it takes to process the permit!
In the meantime, the kids and I are busy (still) moving branches out of the side yard to where they will wait in the front yard until the city's big fall bonfire, and also moving perennials out of the various gardens that will get disturbed by trucks, or will get re-graded as the dirt from the hole gets dumped on top of them to avoid having to pay to truck the dirt off the site.
Nothing too exciting yet, but things are happening getting ready for the exciting stuff!
We just yesterday got numbers back from the excavator/concrete contractor as well as a quote on the mechanical system, so are now waiting to hear back from the framer and the lumberyard (the framer is just quoting labor since we're acting as the general contractor).
Matt had a chance last night to work on putting dimensions onto the drawings, with the hopes that he can print and take it to the City for our permit this Friday, but that might end up getting pushed over until Monday. We're still hoping for a June 1 (or thereabouts) start date, depending on when we hear back from the last people and how long it takes to process the permit!
In the meantime, the kids and I are busy (still) moving branches out of the side yard to where they will wait in the front yard until the city's big fall bonfire, and also moving perennials out of the various gardens that will get disturbed by trucks, or will get re-graded as the dirt from the hole gets dumped on top of them to avoid having to pay to truck the dirt off the site.
Nothing too exciting yet, but things are happening getting ready for the exciting stuff!
Friday, May 10, 2013
few bits about our boy
Our adoption lawyer in K's country was at his orphanage earlier this week and was able to give us a few tidbits about him. No new photos because she was there during lunch and there were other kids in the room, but still neat to hear a bit.
His baba was there with him, so she (lawyer) talked with her (baba) while she fed K. She says he has a great appetite, but doesn't like potatoes. ;)
We had also asked her to ask about his little black bear if she had a chance, and were pleased to hear that his baba said he plays with it frequently, and likes to put it in his mouth. She relayed that she's already washed little black bear a few times after he's dropped on the floor because she doesn't want him putting it in his mouth after that! So I expect to see a well-used stuffed animal when we get back. Here's another photo of our visit with K holding his bear. We have lots of these, since he spent a lot of time holding onto it.
That's about all we got. Not much. But still neat to have had someone see him in person. Our lawyer commented on how he is "very alert, very friendly, and very social." Funny how it's always nice to have someone say nice things about one of your children! I take this comment with a grain of salt, knowing that it's likely in comparison to his peers at the orphanage, and not to other almost-nine-year-old boys, but we noticed this about him when he was with his baba, too.
Really looking forward to getting him home!
Oh, also found out that the next legal happening (when the embassy reviews our file for compliance with the Hague Conventions adoption regulations) is scheduled for May 22. After that, we will get our "Article 5 letter" (which means only a little more to me than it does to you, other than it is the next thing that needs to happen!)
His baba was there with him, so she (lawyer) talked with her (baba) while she fed K. She says he has a great appetite, but doesn't like potatoes. ;)
We had also asked her to ask about his little black bear if she had a chance, and were pleased to hear that his baba said he plays with it frequently, and likes to put it in his mouth. She relayed that she's already washed little black bear a few times after he's dropped on the floor because she doesn't want him putting it in his mouth after that! So I expect to see a well-used stuffed animal when we get back. Here's another photo of our visit with K holding his bear. We have lots of these, since he spent a lot of time holding onto it.
That's about all we got. Not much. But still neat to have had someone see him in person. Our lawyer commented on how he is "very alert, very friendly, and very social." Funny how it's always nice to have someone say nice things about one of your children! I take this comment with a grain of salt, knowing that it's likely in comparison to his peers at the orphanage, and not to other almost-nine-year-old boys, but we noticed this about him when he was with his baba, too.
Really looking forward to getting him home!
Oh, also found out that the next legal happening (when the embassy reviews our file for compliance with the Hague Conventions adoption regulations) is scheduled for May 22. After that, we will get our "Article 5 letter" (which means only a little more to me than it does to you, other than it is the next thing that needs to happen!)
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Now all the trees are down
To make the day more interesting, Matt found out after he planned this as the day with Chad that this was the day I had planned on having Leah's birthday tea party with her friends. So, while this was going on outside...
So not only did Leah and her friends enjoy the planned activities, they also got to enjoy some live entertainment!
Branch by branch, that thing came down, with Matt occasionally popping his head in to ask us all to move to the east side of the house just in case, until they had the rope tied way up to the one remaining large trunk...
And, then, with a truck attached to the other end of the rope, down.....it....came! Couldn't have fallen in a better spot, either. This is my first attempt at including video...
Before:
I think having a birthday party going on while the big tree was coming down was a good distraction for Leah.
Friday, May 3, 2013
two down, two to go
1) a very large maple that is in the middle of where the living room will be
2) a smaller mountain ash that's kind of been on its way out over the last few years and whose roots will be disturbed by the excavation for the office
3) a black walnut and
4) some other tree, both of which are in the place where we're hoping to ditch a lot of the dirt from the excavation to avoid the costs of hauling it away
Today Matt and Owen took down and cleaned up tree #2 and took down #4, but don't have it totally cleaned up and out of the way because we're hoping maybe we can find an alternate way of disposing of that. Besides, there wasn't time to finish it up before supper.
We have tentative plans for our small group people to come over on Sunday afternoon to take out the big one. Lots of busy chain saws... but getting that down ourselves will save a few hundred dollars that we don't have to pay a tree service to do the work, and we have a nice rope, a big truck, and a friend who's done tree work for a job in the past, so we have the brains to do it right and safely.
It's funny. One of the things that I was hesitant about when we were beginning to pursue adoption was how our kids (especially Owen and Leah) would react to the idea. Matt and I realized that we couldn't let their potential emotional response prevent us from following where God was directing us to go, but needed instead to trust that he would only lead us in ways that were good, and even if that meant bitterness and jealousy in our children, that even those could be used by him to bring them to a point where they would joyfully learn to trust him. God uses all sorts of ways to get the attention of his people! So with those fears, it was so neat to see and to continue to see the way they are eagerly anticipating K's arrival as part of our family.
But I never anticipated that we *would* get those emotions with the house addition. You would be amazed how much consternation the cutting down of these trees has caused around here! Even today before Matt and Owen went out to start the work on the mountain ash Owen's face started to wobble, and he had to come over for a great big hug from mom before he could gather himself to go cut it down. Leah watched from the window bawling, though pulled herself together long enough to go out and get a picture sitting in it one last time.
Here's a view after it's down...this shot also gives you a good look at the large maple (I can't say "huge" because we have other "huger" trees in our yard, but it's still awfully big!) that's hopefully coming down on Sunday. That one's going to be tough to lose. It's our air conditioning all summer long being right on the west side of the house, and also serves as a great privacy screen in the summer - our bedroom is the pair of large windows upstairs. (Reuben's little room-in-the-eave has the little square window.) And it's just a beautiful tree.
And here's one last picture I took after helping Matt and Owen pull on the rope to get the second tree of the day down, but before they cut it up and moved it to the side. Owen's a champion worker most days - notice how he just gets right in there and starts getting to work with his loppers? There's a lot of work in that small kid.
Every little step makes it feel more real. Still hard to believe all of this is really going to happen this summer!!
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
I800 (provisional) approval!!
One more step closer to bringing K home! Found out today that our I800 application was approved yesterday by the US Dept of Homeland Security. ;) This is the document that approves K to immigrate to the US as our child. This is also the document that everything in K's country has been on hold waiting for. So now forward!!
Getting closer, little boy!
Clarification, May 4th: We received our official letter from USCIS today, and our approval is "provisional" contingent upon K's visa being approved. So, as I'm new to this, I guess we haven't technically gotten our "approval" but just our "provisional approval", but either way, we got what we need to keep this process moving forward!
Getting closer, little boy!
Clarification, May 4th: We received our official letter from USCIS today, and our approval is "provisional" contingent upon K's visa being approved. So, as I'm new to this, I guess we haven't technically gotten our "approval" but just our "provisional approval", but either way, we got what we need to keep this process moving forward!
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