133 of 365...Well That Was Crappy

Saturday evening I had an unexpected GNO. My friend and I had a blast hanging out at Boomers, watching our first UFC fight. We did have a slight bird problem and as a result, see picture below...



Yes that is bird poo floating in her beer!! Good times...


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132...Rules Rewards Consequences...

I found this on Amazon.com for our foster placement...



Thinking about ordering one for Drama Queens...lol

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131 of 365...A Letter To My Flowers...

Dear Flowers,
When I bought you a few months ago, I was out to prove a point to the world. I wanted to prove that I could nurture you by watering and feeding you properly. I envisioned you growing and thriving in my beautiful flower bed. I envisioned neighbors stopping by the house and admiring how colorful you are and asking me for gardening tips. After living in the neighborhood 9 years, I envisioned finally getting Yard of the Month.

But then I got this in the mail today...



So this weekend you will go to flower heaven....

I tried!!!

Love,
Diva


- Posted by Diva Finch using Blogpress

130 of 365...Don't Strain Yourself

So I asked Older Drama Queen to do a load of laundry and this picture shows the fruits of her labor...sigh...I just love teenagers!!



- Posted by Diva Finch using Blogpress

129 of 365...We Are Family

Geek Boy has been wanting us to have our family pictures taken for about a year now. I'm cheap and didn't want to spend the money on going to an indoor studio where the pictures would be fake and cheesy. I've always wanted to do an outdoor photo shoot but was discouraged with the price tag. But our prayers were answered. A close friend told me about a photographer in the area and I shot him an email. Within 20 minutes or so, we had our family photo session scheduled.

Here are just a few he took...

If you're in the DFW area, please visit John Hock Photography on Facebook. If you schedule an appointment, please tell him Dara sent you. John is wonderful and he has a great talent. I really would like to see his business grow.

128 of 365...Broken Record

You're probably sick of me blogging about the adoption process. My goal is to help other families out there who may be considering fostering or adopting. I also plan on make my blog into a book at the end of the year so this is also a journaling process for me.

This week has been MUCH better than the last two weeks. Geek Boy and I finally seem to be on the same page. We have sat down the last two evenings and did homework together. It has been really nice to sit down and actually communicate on how we would handle certain situations.

Sooo...here's the latest....
Man cave is all gone!!!! We need to paint and then Older Drama Queen can move into that room.

Once Older Drama Queen is out of her current bedroom, we will clean the carpets and paint the room. Hoping to find some bedroom furniture that is suited for a boy.

We have our home study on Friday, August 12th. So next week will be spent cleaning, organizing and making sure we can pass the health/fire inspection.

On Saturday, August 27th we have one more training class. We were supposed to take this class last weekend but the trainer had a death in her family so we had to reschedule.

Continue to work on our family scrapbook for the adoption. We had pictures taken on Sunday by an amazing photographer so I should be able to wrap up the scrapbook by this weekend. If you're in the DFW area and are looking to have pictures taken, please visit www.johnhockphotography.com

127 of 365...My Turn

So I guess it's my turn to have a little panic attack about the fostering/adoption process. I think it all started around 11:30 this morning when several of our friends and family received a reference letter from our Family Specialist. I happened to be with one of my friends when she received the email and I got a "sneak peek" at what was being asked.

I really do feel like this whole process is guilty until proven innocent. I immediately started doubting myself as a person and a parent. I wear my emotions on my sleeve so people generally know when I'm stressed out. How do I handle stress???? Depends...I can shut down all together. I can yell and scream until I get my point across. I blog. I Facebook. I turn to my friends for advice. More often than not, when I'm stressed out and feel totally lost, I call Geek Boy because he is my true sounding board. He is amazing at handling stress. He is great at calming me down and just listening. Are any of these traits productive in raising a foster child? I don't know but I feel I'm totally screwed in this area.

So when my friend let me see some of the questions, my heart sank and I got sick to my stomach. She has seen me stressed out and more often than not I have not handled myself appropriately. I can remember totally losing it and she literally had to hold me up and walk me to her office to calm me down.

How am I going to handle myself in these stressful situations? I'm sure in most fostering situations I will have to handle and deal with stress right on the spot. So I really have to dig deep and figure out how I'm going to be prepared.

There is just so much to do before the home study and I'm just sick of it. I'm sick of filling out paperwork, which will not end after we become licensed. I'm sick of second guessing every conversation I have with my girls wondering if they'll talk about this or that during the home study and how it will be perceived by our Family Specialist. I'm sick of worrying about putting together a damn scrapbook so we can do a match adoption. I'm sick of worry about locking up all of our medication. I'm sick of thinking about how we can provide structure to a child that is in the system. I'm sick of trying to figure out what age child we want to take in. I'm sick of worrying about Geek Boy getting the man cave ALLLL cleared out. I'm sick of worrying about finances. I'm sick of not knowing the unknown.

Well my laptop is about to die so I better wrap up this blog and try to get some sleep.