During this hectic hodgepodge of working and keeping days straight, our official home study came in the mail - we're all approved! We also realized that while we do really want to start a family, foster care and fostering to adopt, are not in the cards right now. This means I'll be digging out the paperwork for Catholic Charities and having our home study sent to them to decide if they want an addendum or not. Unfortunately, this is the part that makes me cringe. Through the foster care system, our home study was free so long as we went through their fostering course, which we did because we then had plans of fostering first. Catholic Charities, if they require an addendum, can charge us fees up to $2,500. When they match us, they require a placement fee of $13,000. This means we'll be jumping back on the fundraising trail soon - that's half of my student loan debt for four years!! Crazy right?
We've also been super busy because we've started the tear down of the parts of the house that we're going to do our way. The carpets have all been torn up to reveal pretty hardwood, albeit painted black and in dire need of stripping. The green wall paneling is starting to come down which revealed a clean slate for the most part in the foyer - gray sheet rock, and some awkward peachy colored stair halls, that have been partly covered up with a white textured wall paper.
Shortly after our anniversary, we also ended up coming home with a new furbaby - yes, we are insane. Please don't ask me why we did it, we just did. My only guess is that like many people who can't have their own children, we adopt. We just happen to have found a lot of reciprocal love in the four legged, tail wagging adoptees. Anyways, we found a beautiful Shar Pei mix at the pound and seeing as how our other two dogs loved her, she came home with us. She's finally starting to get along with the two cats and she's really fitting in. So far, he only downside to having adopted her, is that I appear to be allergic to her fur and I seem to be the one she wants to cuddle with. Oddly enough, her fur gives me hives. Oh well, you win some and you lose some right?
Well, I need to go get some coffee. I will update with pictures later.
