The new smoke detector works!

Ok, here I was thinking last Wednesday that dogs vs. skunk just days before the adoption social worker is due to visit is a pretty big disaster, well I guess I was just fooling myself. Friday morning was spent installing 2 new smoke detectors and a fire extinguisher. The first detector went in super easy - just went in exactly where the old one was. The second one was going in a new location in the hallway. While drilling the holes for the plugs the vibration caused the glass globe on the hall light to fall and shatter into about a million pieces. So off to the store to get a new light. Come home, install it and also install the new fire extinguisher in the kitchen. Success! Later in the day I decide to bake a coffee cake, I get all my dry ingredients mixed together, go to get an egg out of the fridge - no eggs! Go borrow one from Mom. That takes over 30 minutes as I stay and talk for a bit. Finally get back home and get the batter all mixed and into the pan. Turn on the oven, I then go to the sink to rinse out the bowls, suddenly I hear loud popping and hissing. I turn around and the oven is on fire! It's filled with flames and sparks! I quickly turn it off and go to get the fire extinguisher (Now remember I only just purchased this on Thursday and installed it that morning) but the flames extinguished themselves before setting the house on fire. Now this is when the NEW smoke detectors go off, and it's at this point the dogs decide to panic and head through the kitchen to get outside, I'm just trying to find the humour in the whole situation. My oven is black, the floor has burn marks from the electrical sparks, and new alarms are making this piercing beep. Yes isn't this is just hilarious! The fire was caused by the heating element blowing up. So I had it repaired in less than an hour, baked my coffee cake which by the time it was baked it was time to cook dinner. So much for having a relaxing cup of coffee with a nice fresh piece of cake for a mid-afternoon snack.
Now for those of you interested in how our Adoption Home visit went with the social worker , it went quite well. Two hours of questions on pretty much our life history, parenting goals and well if you can think it, she probably asked it. She seemed quite happy with our knowledge and the research we had done about Ethiopia, adoption, and the process and that she will be looking forward to doing our post-placement follow up visits and reports. Just for those of you that go mad cleaning house before the visit - do it because it keeps you busy - I spent 5 hours cleaning every surface in the house on Saturday, she spent about 2 minutes walking through the house and glancing into the rooms. So with the disasters of last week behind us, the new week started off very positive!

3 Dogs and a Little Skunk

Yes this went about like you'd expect - the skunk won! Well he won the battle with the dogs but unfortunately he lost the battle when the Animal control officer showed up.
My day began at 7 am with being awakened by Schindler barking, it's usually cats or maybe a possum out back so I wasn't too concerned. I got up and let the other 2 dogs out. All 3 are then going nuts barking, still too dark out to see what all the fuss was over until Schindler comes running rubbing his face along the ground - OH ****! the smell hits. I grab Bonnie - she doesn't smell too bad yet, get her into the bath, then I grab Schindler while keeping Bonnie in and Darby out. Get him into the bath. While I'm bathing him Darby manages to get the doggie door opened, he gets in and Bonnie gets out. Darby manages to lay and rub on every blanket and dog bed within his reach. So now the whole house smells. Finally get him into the tub and bathed, then catch Bonnie and give her another bath. Once they are all bathed I have to put everything that Darby touched into the wash. I think Schindler's bed is beyond saving - he had a really good wallow on it. Finally about an hour after phoning, the Animal Control officer shows up. Hate to see a healthy animal get shot but there really isn't an option. Skunks are one of the worst carriers of rabies around here and the smelly critters are everywhere. Plus this guy is responsible for completely disrupting my quiet Wednesday morning! The officer tells me what to use to bath the dogs to get the smell completely off, shampoo only lessons it a bit. Luckily I had everything - dishwashing liquid, baking soda and hydrogen peroxide. Mix at all together and cover the dogs with it. So another round of baths and the dogs smell fine. Now I just have to get the smell out of my house. While I've been writing this I can't help but laugh, wasn't very funny this morning though.
On another note the Social worker will be coming by to do the home visit portion for our home study this Sunday. I hope the skunk smell is gone by then! I'm a bit of a nervous wreck about this. I know I shouldn't but I think it's just natural to be. We are in the final steps of our paperwork on this side of the ocean, hopefully in another month everything will be on it's way to Ethiopia!

Rainy days are fun days!

Today was a lovely autumn rainy day. It was raining when I got up and rained most of the day. A cool front moved through this afternoon dropping the temps into the 60's. Oh it felt just lovely. I'm not the only one that loves rainy days Caleb couldn't wait to go splash in the puddles. He came prepared wearing his green frog rain boots. He had plenty of opportunities during the day as we had loads of errands to do today getting lots of the paperwork done for the adoption. It was a good day with lots of things accomplished. I also managed to get a haircut this afternoon!

Pictures are of Caleb playing in front of our house. As he didn't have a raincoat he borrowed a jacket of Alan's, and one of my caps. Oh the innocence of childhood! to have so much fun just splashing in the water. The picture of him on the sofa is a picture of him in the outfit Joe and Kathleen (Alan's parents) sent him for his birthday. He is so cute in it. Thank you.

Will post new updates next week.

Yippee!! More Paperwork!

We received our packet of Dossier materials in the post on Saturday. Lots more papers to fill out, references to gather, and everything has to be notarized. Be really easy if I could notarize them myself, but that isn't ethical. Luckily my boss Bruce is a notary so it will really simplify things. This will be the last big batch of forms we have to complete. This then is when it will really turn into a waiting game. I must admit that the excitement is building. Last night we had Father Robert over for dinner, he is the priest at our church. We were hoping he would be able to provide insight into transitioning the children into life here in the USA and the Catholic church. Father Robert is from Nigeria and was introduced to Catholicism by Irish missionaries. We had a really lovely evening with him, he will be invaluable to us over the next year with his advice, support and knowledge. Alan and I fixed a nice Irish meal - stuffed steak, 2 kinds of potato, rutabaga and cabbage. We did go Texan with a peach cobbler for dessert.
So this looks to be a busy week, at least i won't just be sitting and waiting!

WAITING......

It's as I stated in an earlier post we wait...... Gathering information, returning it for the home study. So much of what we need is in the hands of other people and we have to be patient. We've only a few more things to turn in though and then we will have our home visit by the social worker. Once the home study report is complete and turned in we will be able to start getting matched with our soon-to-be family. We should be starting our paperwork for our Dossier soon. Expecting it in the mail later this week or early next week. It will be more paperwork and info gathering to assemble a packet that goes to Ethiopia to get their approval to adopt. We also have submitted our application to Homeland security to get the VISA application started. They also have to have a copy of the home study to approve and really won't do much until they receive it. We will also have to travel to San Antonio to their office to be fingerprinted. This process can take several months to complete.
WAIT.. wait... wait.....