Home-Visit

7:30am - Begin cleaning
10am - Pick up paper work from doctor's office for meeting
1pm -More cleaning
4pm - Evacuate clean house with 3 children and 1 husband
4:30pm - Dinner
5:30pm - Park
6pm - Home to find a beautiful bouquet of flowers on my door step - what a lovely, thoughtful gift!!!
6:30pm - Case worker arrives

The kids welcomed Becky as if they had known her all their life - Zac took her hand and he and Essie showed her the yard. They were showing her all of the old "bee hives" around the property. hahaha - ok then. They have a HUGE play set, TONS of out side toys and activities, pets etc....and what gets the attention???? The bees.

Of course, she WAS interested in our ducks :) Who wouldn't be?!?!

Essie showed off her bunny and turtles and then took her on a 20second tour of the house (All while I was taking Zac potty) So, I missed the entire house showing! LOL. Good thing we have spent weeks, days, and hours cleaning the house for that 20 second tour! Essie did make sure to show her the INSIDE of her closet and the hall closet - - - not exactly spaces I had intended on "showing off". She was really not all that interested in seeing the house - she was gracious but didn't look much other than her initial glances. I guess that's a good sign?

She did take time to talk specifically to Essie about the baby and if she wanted a baby sister or brother (Essie did not falter for one second on that answer - "SISTER!") When asked what she would do if the baby was up crying at night, she said "put the baby downstairs" - Oh my....hahahaha

Benji did great (Although he fell back and bonked his little head - it took him a few minutes to recover, bless his heart!) At the end, he was so sleepy, he was just giggling and giggling on my lap. It was pretty adorable.

Zac seemed pretty uninterested - after the case worker was done touring the house and asking a few questions about the kids, we asked the kids to play quietly in their rooms while we were talking and signing a few more papers. Mistake #1: deciding to put a movie on for Zac in MY bedroom. Mistake #2: Leaving Zac in big boy underpants - About 8:15, Essie comes into the kitchen and announces that Zac has pooped and peed on the floor.....*SIGH* I quietly and casually excuse myself (hoping that MAYBE the case worker didn't hear) - I followed Essie to the scene of the crime and there - on the floor was a pile.....and on the wall was a smear.....and around the room was a trail.....POOP EVERYWHERE. I didn't even know what to do. Zac looked at me and said in his ever so sweet and gentle voice, "I'm sorry mommy. It's all my fault" - Why is it so hard to be mad at him! (I sort of wanted to laugh!) - I put him in the empty tub and told him to wait there....I wet back out to the kitchen and said my good byes - at this point, I am fairly certain the case worker has an idea of what has transpired (Thank goodness Essie did not feel the need to show her the poop on the wall!) She graciously said her good-byes (as we were basically finished anyway) and she went on her way. T

I am so grateful to Joe for cleaning up the Poop while I bathed Zac and get everyone ready for bed (maybe that's why I can think it's funny????)

Despite the POOP, the meeting went very well! We signed a few more papers and went over some things to expect when we start talking to birth parents etc. Currently, we are only waiting for a few more papers! Our VA clearances, one more reference, and medical forms for the kids - once this is completed, our case worker will write up our info and submit it to the board for approval to proceed. Once this is accomplished, we pay the $7,000 pre-placement fee and submit our parent/family profiles. Our GOAL DATE to submit the fee and profiles is November 1st.

We are SO happy and excited to announce that we only need $3,000 more to reach our $7,000 goal! Joe and I are shocked out of our socks! What a crazy, exciting feeling to be so close!

We are so excited....one step closer in the process!!! We are hopeful to have placement by this time next year! Thank-you for your continued prayer and support!!!!

~Joe and Hannah