Dude—it’s been a long, long time.

I have started and stopped with trying to write a blog entry, but I always seem to run out of words before I complete my thoughts and end up posting nothing at all.  

It has been about six weeks since I started at the new bank.  I have been very consumed with getting into a new routine which has included lots of writing and planning.  I love the challenge of the work, but am quickly discovering that there is enough work for me to do it 24/7 and never be done.  Needless to say I have been perfecting the art of prioritizing and even prioritizing my prioritizing.   I am working with 2 individuals who have been rebuilding the bank’s marketing team over the last year, but they have been on fire patrol rather than trail building.  I have been able to clear a few trails, but there is a lot more to do.

Hope (seems weird to type that name again) is doing well.  When I went back to work, she started to have security issues and went back to having some of the sleep difficulties that she had when she first joined us.  The kiddo has been through a lot of change in her 34 months of life.  Hopefully she is starting to realize that change is the constant in our life.  We discontinued dance class when she started having the security issues, but in the time since then she has really shown signs that she is getting back to normal.  There was a little concern that she was having some sort of attachment issue, but as it turns out, it looks like she is age appropriate for her bonding age and therefore is about six months behind chronological age.  In all other areas, she is doing very well.   Early Childhood Development has really helped her grow and develop.  While she is still shy in class we have seen her little personality come out.

This year for Halloween she dressed up as a ladybug—the new area had some extra chances for hope to go out and dress in her costume including at the volunteer fire department’s event.   Our experience in the current section of the town has made us realize that we want to remain in this area when we begin our forever house search. 

Mom has had a few health concerns come up as we thought that she has had four sinus infections since we moved, but in a recent CT scan we found that there was no evidence of that many significant infections.   She currently has what presented as bronchitis, but it is something chronic instead of just an infection.   We will continue to let you know what we find out.  It is likely a stomach issue, but it could be an MS issue.

A couple of weeks ago my grandmother was blessed with the mercy of a peaceful death and an escape from rapidly progressing Alzheimer’s disease.   She was a great influence on me and even worked in the industry that I love so much.  Her memorial service will be on Monday. 

Our Holiday plans are starting to take shape, I am going to be off the Thursday and Friday of the week before Christmas,  so we will be hoping to visit in South Bend for at least a day in December. 

Well, I need to jump off and get ready for a video shoot in the morning.  Love ya all.

Past Due

Sorry to be behind again in my postings, but it has been a wild and crazy time. Hope has been doing great in preschool and we are settling into a good routine. She also does dance. I am returning to a salaried position with a new bank on Monday as the Marketing Manager. I am totally excited and so thankful that my business was strong enough to allow me to get enough distance between my previous bank and the present time so I could realize that I belong in a bank.

I am so blessed to have been presented with this opportunity to take a great leap of faith. It was a bit terrifying at times, but in almost hindsight, it has been great opportunity to complete the adoption of our daughter, build confidence in my business insight, and move my family across the state. This is somewhat similar to how things happened when we moved to Michiana where everything just fell into place. Some people say it is good luck, but I assure you it is by the grace of our loving God.

Thank you to all of you for your prayers during this time of transition and please continue to pray that I transition into this position nicely.

Surprise Vacation

We decided to run off to my Grandma’s house in Northern Michigan last Thursday.  The trip was a very last minute thing, originally we were going to try to put stuff together and leave late in the day on Thursday, but we then realized how much we really needed to get ready for the trip and left early on Friday.  This  was our first out of state trip where we didn’t need to get a court order and there were lots of family members who haven’t met Hope yet.

We made side trips all over the northern part of the lower peninsula including Traverse City, Petoskey, and Mackinac City (but not the island).

Thanks to everyone for welcoming us and the Dizzler up!

 Hope just listening to her DVD on the way up.  This was about hour 5.  Thank goodness for the new in car DVD player.

 Hope & my 3 1/2 year old cousin at Mackinac City's playground.

 Hope riding on my aunt's horse at my other aunt's stable.

 Going to the beach at Grand Traverse Bay

 Sand in my hand.

 Hope & Mommy at the beach.

 Wave Jumping

 Family at the beach

 Hope on the dragon

The dragon in the sand

 I spy with my little eye

 Welcome to the wheelhouse

Daddy got me

 Hope with Grandma Great-- this makes it worth the drive

The Dizzler sleeping between the front and back seats and Hope sleeping behind Clifford in her car seat.

It took us 7 hours to get up to my grandma's then a couple each day driving to the different cities and 6 hours back on Monday.  It was great to be able to introduce Hope to many people who hadn't met her or haven't been able to spend much time with her.   We all had a great time-- even the Dizzler.

Preschool and Dance will start just after Labor Day, so we wanted to get our "vacation" out of the way while we could.

 

Pics, pics and more pics.

We had the great pleasure of sharing one of our favorite places, the FW Children’s Zoo, with Hope’s sister’s family.  What a great experience and great way to kick off the anniversary of our families meeting and changing in ways we never imagined.   Here are the zoo pics.

One Year Already

Believe it or not, but one year today we met our little Miss Hope.   It is incredible to think that she has gone from the shy little child who could barely babble to a caring and compassionate 2 and a half year old who is full of her own opinions.  It is remarkably hard to think that just 12 months ago mom and I were both working, we owned our own home in a different county and the thing we wanted most was to share our love with a little person.   Now fast forward 12 months and Mom has retired, Dad has his own business,  we have sold our house and moved back to our home town,  and we are parents.  

It is hard to put myself back in my old office sitting at the back of my wraparound desk trying to scribble down notes as fast as I could while I was on a conference call  with Mom and the caseworker.  I don’t know how I managed to work for the rest of the day until we met Hope at 6pm on that night.  We knew Hope was a good fit for our family, but little did we realize how much our family would grow.  Ladybug, Peanut, and their parents have become an extension of our immediate family and our families have been fully integrated.  It is just second nature to talk to them on a regular basis and meet up at least once a month with them.   It is just one of those things that has been an unexpected benefit to adopting Hope.    They have been able to help us invaluably as we have been through the adoption process. 

While this is a day of great joy, we know it was an incredibly hard decision for T&D to make to let us come in as perfect strangers and take one of their children.  They had no idea about us or the relationship that we would develop.   We are thankful for their faith in letting us create the amazing transition that transpired to create our family.  

We have had a whirlwind of activity since we moved back to Fort Wayne.  We will be posting pictures and more stories soon.  Thanks to everyone!

Adoption Day

Today was the big day- after exactly 11 months of Hope being in our care legally, we have completed her adoption.   The 2 hour drive seemed to fly past as we drove up to our old home town, then we met our caseworkers & lawyer, then we stood in the vestibule of the court room for what seemed like 20 minutes, and finally went in for about 2 minutes of the hearing followed by a few photos.   We walked in as foster parents and walked out as a forever family.  As it turned out, we were one of 3 adoptions taking place that day.   We then took photos out in the waiting area as we waited for the adoption decree to be copied and given to us.  

 After we finished with stuff downtown, we had to run to her pediatrician to get her files released to her new doctor then we made a stop at a playground before leaving for home.

When we got home it was time for a bit of a nap, then it was off to a before dinner art & craft time.  Mom and I made some special toasting goblets at the time we got engaged, so we went to a ceramic painting studio and made a special plate with her hand print and adoption date that Hope got to paint on her own.  We added a little dog to the corner of the plate that was painted to look like the Dizzler.   She then had a little meltdown, so I took her to the car and got ready to head to get pizza.

We went to the Pizza Hut buffet (folks not use to FW area Pizza Huts don’t know what you’re missing—not like any other area locations).  Hope dove into the all you can eat pizza and jello.   It was a very nice relaxing and filling dinner.   If she could have told us exactly where she wanted to go, this would have been the place she would have chosen.   After dinner we gave her a sucker for the first time, and boy did she like it.

When we got home, we decided to take a walk and explore the walking trails around our new home, we were pleasantly surprised by how nice the trials were and they extended into 3 additions.

We have her FW adoption party tomorrow, and her baptism on Sunday.   Then what????????

New Photos

Hi All,

We are still getting settled, but we did have the den re-carpeted today, so we were able to move lots of stuff in to there.  The builders are working really well with us and we will be receiving our new dryer and dishwasher tomorrow.  That should put us in good shape.  In the midst of the craziness of getting ready for the adoption and following parties, we took some time out to get new family photos taken.  The first set with the Dizzler will not be back until Aug 4, but then we dropped the dog back off at home and then went to get Hope's formal photos taken.   Here they are.....

We've landed

Hi All,

Just wanted to let everyone know that we have landed in our new house, had a couple of minor hiccups along the way, but I'll get in to that more tomorrow, but for now We're Here..   Now off to find more business or a 9-5!  Thanks be to God!

Final post from Michiana

Is it really that time so soon?  It seems like God had just called us back to Fort Wayne a few weeks ago, and we are already at closing.  We are closing tomorrow on the house and tonight I am taking down our network, so I will only have access to the internet via my cellphone for the next 2 days.   Once we land I will post again.  Happy 4th to everyone and thanks to Ladybug's mom & dad for taking Hope today and tomorrow.  Movers arrive at 10!  Thanks for all of the prayers, Mom took an antibiotic and is feeling great again today!

On the Move

Well we're on the move, our gas powered items are Grandma's farm, most of our things are in boxes and we have about a dozen empty boxes left.  Closing is on Tuesday, and our stress has been incredible.  Despite Hope's room not being emptied yet, she is starting to show that she knows what is going on and is getting nervous-- we're trying to keep most things as stable as possible, but let's face it, we're in transition.  I am praying that I will have most of the house boxed tonight as Mom is starting to have some signs that she is going to be sick on the day of the move, but we're praying that it will pass overnight. 

I am going to stay up late and continue boxing and try to really get a good grasp on things and I pray that tomorrow will only need to be a partial day of boxing and cleaning.   Please keep Mindy in your prayers so she has the strength to help out tomorrow.

Thanks all-- we'll see everyone really soon!

A long overdue post

Sorry for not posting in a long time, so here is a bit of a brain dump…

Well, I have gotten my business going a bit more than what it has in the past.  My website, logo and business cards are done (for now), and I’ve had more success at getting clients in the door.  I am still holding back a bit until we find out if we are going to have the sale go through or not on our home.   Once we either move or realize we are here for a while, I’ll set down some more stakes in the ground and try to get the business rolling far more.

On the house front, we put it on the market on the Tuesday after Memorial Day, and by that Friday, we had negotiated a full asking price offer by that Friday.  We had the home inspection done a week ago which came back and the buyers agreed to take the house as is without further requests, but the Radon level registered as 4.9 where it should be under 4.0.  This surprised us as we had one done when we bought the house in 2008 which registered as 2.0.   We spoke to some experts and they felt that the test was done too close to a wall and having a contractor in and out of the house resulted in an incorrect result.  We were willing to have the radon taken care of, but when we spoke to the radon remediation expert, they said that with a reading as low as ours, we should have it retested and make sure the doors stay closed for as long as possible and make sure we don’t open the garage door during the test.   The new test will start at 8:30 tomorrow morning and I have the house sealed up as tightly as possible in preparation for the test.   The appraisal will be back Monday or Tuesday of this week.  Please be in prayer for us and the appraisal to come back so we can finalize this sale and move soon.

On the new home front, we had been trying to not look for a home in the Fort Wayne area until we had the appraisal and inspection done, but we got to the point where we needed to find a place to stay and have plans in place incase everything goes through.   So we found a place last week, it is a 5 year old house that is in a newer neighborhood and is being rented by the builder.   The home is occupied now, so we are going based only on blueprints and the quality of the contractor’s work to have put in a conditional deposit on renting the house.  We went on a full out search for homes in the area and we couldn’t find anything even close to what we needed without needing to get a storage area  and within our price range.   I ended up making 3 trips down to  Fort Wayne in 5 days including one as an early morning trip on Mom’s birthday to get the down payment in on the house.    We are scheduled to close on July 5 but the house wont’ be available until July 6—so the movers will be holding our entire household on the truck overnight for one night and we’ll be staying with Grandma for one night then sign the lease and move into the house.

On the final front, Hope’s baptism is scheduled for July 17 which is the Sunday after her adoption is completed in the courts on July 15 (yes it is 10 days after we are scheduled to move back to Fort Wayne).  It will be done at our church in Michiana as there is no way that we will be settled into a home church in our new town, so we will be holding it at the church that has been so rewarding for us.  The details on the adoption party are pending as we wait to find out if we are moving.  If we move, then the party will be on Saturday the 16^th at our new home in Fort Wayne, if we don’t move, then the party will be on the 17^th after the church service at our current home.  Details will follow on Tuesday when we have all of our numbers.

Thanks to all for your patience during this time of great change and opportunity,

Dad