Sootie on the roof

Yesterday morning Sootie was outside playing and I called her to come in before I headed out to work. I heard her crying, but I couldn't find her - she was on the roof of the porch! I went upstairs to get this picture and she jumped in through the bedroom window. Very cute!



My dad came over this afternoon and he and Ryan installed the new dishwasher - it is beautiful! Thanks Dad!

August 27 - renovations

This weekend we started a couple of major renovation projects around the house. This is a picture of our front hallway - now without carpet and freshly sanded and ready to be painted. The walls are also freshly painted and there is new trim. The front room (off the stairs) is also mid renovation - we have sanded it down and are now ready to get started painting it. Now all of the stuff that was in the front room is now in the living room and dining room, so we have extra incentive to finish the projects. We just need to pick a paint color and the flooring (carpet, hardwood, laminate - the options and decisions are endless!).

We have been working like crazy on the house to try to get it ready for the homestudy and eventually a new baby - we are crossing more and more off of our list! Nothing new adoption wise to report - we have been learning more about baby products, etc. but we shouldn't have any more adoption progress until after we meet with the social worker next week.

August 19

This afternoon, Ryan spent some time working in the upstairs rooms that we are making into the master bedroom. He has made a lot of progress! It is going to be great - once we figure out where to put the closets. When he took the rugs up, he found newspapers layed on the floor from the 1950's - pretty cool to see them! I think that was the last time the house was updated.

This is from Monday night when we went to camp for a BBQ. Mom, Dad and I are helping Mike, Allie & Michael do some fishing. We didn't catch anything, but had a great time! Maybe next time!
We went with Joanne and Ryan to see a redsox game yesterday - pretty exciting to see Big Papi hit a grand slam! We drove home after the game - we were all pretty tired by the time we got home!

On the adoption front, not much new to report. We have officially signed up for our mandatory adoption education class - it is a one day class, and I think it will be good for us to attend.

Update

I think this is Brinkley's way of saying "Mom, please don't make me pose for more pictures", don't you think?

We received a letter in the mail yesterday from our agency - we have been assigned a social worker for our homestudy. We are pretty excited about it because she is the same women that we met with originally to learn more about the agency and we really liked her. They also indicated that it would be an estimated 6 weeks from the start of the homestudy that they would have it be complete! That is very exciting for us - we know a homestudy can take up to 6 months, so a 6 week estimate seems fast - let's hope their right! Now we need to buckle down even more on the house - we are going through our own "nesting" period, I think.

Summer Pics

Saying goodbye to Grammy Sophie.

Nellie really wants to join Uncle Dan on the green monster!


Brinkley, Ryan and Sootie enjoy the hammock.

We are sending our second batch of paperwork in to the agency this morning - we should be matched to a social worker soon!

First Post!

Post #1. I have some spare time while I am in Biddeford this week, so I have decided to get our blog started! I am hoping to use this blog to keep everyone updated on our adoption process. We formally applied last weekend and now we have completed much of the first round of paperwork. We are starting to look at nursery furniture, etc. as we get settled in for the long process. I will try to post some pictures soon!