Progress

Well, we're back from vacation and slowly yet reluctantly readjusting to reality. I am gearing up for a monster post about all the fun that was had so stay tuned... I spent yesterday playing catchup with work. I don't talk much about my job here because I want to respect the privacy of my clients, many of whom I now consider friends. Many if not most of my home study clients have returned home with their children and are ready for readoption and post placement services which I truly enjoy. It is one thing to talk and speculate about attachment/adoption issues with families as they are preparing to adopt and quite another to sit down with them and their child(ren) and talk about what reality has been for them. I love that it always seems as though the child has always been a part of their lives even though I knew them when they weren't yet a family. It is also nice to have that reaffirmation that babies come home and ours will too. My favorite sw moment yet was when I showed up at a family's home for another follow-up visit after the adoption of two older children and was greeted at the door with hugs from them. I write tons of reports and shuffle lots of files but my job is so not about the paperwork.

Believe it or not, I sat down with the intention of discussing bedding! I finally made a purchase for the girls' room!!! After searching every store and website I could think of in every price range imaginable and consulting Audrey of course, we finally decided on these two numbers from Wally World. Matt claims that moments like these (when my decisions save him $), he actually loves me a little more-so everyone is happy! Audrey loves the flowers and I love the colors. I also find it very cool that this bedding style comes in two versions, a quilt and a comforter. We bought one of each so Meili (once she's ready for a twin bed) and Audrey will have bedding that coordinates but is not actually identical. Now the big task is to choose a color or colors for the walls. Right now the room is banana yellow and we are leaning towards a medium/light purple. I hope we(I) can decide on paint faster than it took to decide on bedding!

In other exciting news, I dropped off 100 squares and fabric to Betty (Jackie's mother-in-law and master quilter) just before we left on our trip and I received an email this morning that the quilt top is done!!! I can't wait to see it. It's going to be emotional to see all of the squares put together. It has been almost 2 years in the making and at times seemed like it would never happen-kind of like the adoption! We chose a basic 10X10 (squares not feet) pattern with black sashing (1" strips) between the squares. There will also be a 4" or so border around the squares that is red with black fans and then the edges will be bound in black. The backing will be black flannel with a ladybug pattern and the whole quilt will be stitched using red thread, of course! Lots of black but it really makes the squares stand out individually. I can't wait until it is finished!!! I'll be sure to post pics as soon as I can.

I have enough extra squares to make a small crib-sized quilt for Meili to cuddle with and I've already bought an awesome flannel material with lanterns and cherry blossoms to back it with. I'm thinking of buying an extra set of sheets from the sets we just bought and trying to make a bumper pad and a dust ruffle out of them along with some more extra squares. I may have to wait until the kids are back in school to accomplish much of anything, though. Only 2 and a half more weeks!!!

All right, back to laundry.