Home Study: Check!

It has been a busy but wonderful week around the Hunt household! On Thursdsay, we reached a milestone - we completed our home study!!!!!

Sometimes I forget that not everyone is IMMERSED in adoption terms all the time like we are, so maybe I will explain a little about what the home study is (because until we did it, we didn't know anything about it!)

A home study is basically a series of interviews with a social worker who will be checking to make sure that your family is a safe and suitable fit for adoption. Obviously, it makes sense that they cannot just give children to anyone who asks - they want to make sure that it will be a good environment for a child. It is also an opportunity for the family to learn about the process of adoption, as well as parenting an adopted child.

Our social worker, "J", was wonderful - I may have mentioned before, but she also has 4 kids adopted from Korea, and has been an "International Adoption Specialist" for many years. She is calm, reassuring, and realistic, and has helped guide us through the process so far.

At our most recent meeting, we talked about our marriage, and she asked us questions about how we met, what qualities we appreciate about each other, how we deal with differences, etc. It was kind of scary going into it, but we just tried to be as honest as possible and I think it went very well. Thankfully, they are not looking for perfect people (we'd be in trouble!).

Before this meeting, we had to take some pictures that they will send to Korea. I was going to have my sister come and take some, but Brad thought the tripod would be an easier way to go... let's just say that we took a LOT of pictures and laughed a lot at some very bad ones! In the end, though, we managed to get a few that turned out well.

This is my favorite one of the two of us

And this may just be my very favorite picture ever of my handsome husband!

Of course, not wanting to be left out, Daisie did some posing too!

People's next question when we tell them we've finished the home study is "What's next?" Well, now our social worker actually types up a report from everything she's learned about us. We will fill out some immigration paperwork (luckily we're pros at that already!) and then they will send in the immigration forms along with the home study to the US government. This will be asking for approval for us to bring an orphan into the US from another country.

I'm not exactly sure of the timeline of that stuff, but at some point they also send our homestudy info away to Korea (this may be after the immigration approval but I don't really know).

And then...the wait for a referral begins (when we are matched with a child!). We don't know if it will be a boy or a girl, although J. mentioned this week that they usually receive more boys than girls from Korea. Either way, pretty sure I will be ECSTATIC!

So that's where we're at in this exciting journey. Thank you for your support and encouragement through this time - it has meant so much to Brad and I. We just can't wait to get our little one home!

It's Not You, It's Me...

Hello all. I just wanted to let you know that I will not be blogging this week. Last week Pastor G. suggested the "one week challenge" - taking one week with no tv, no radio, no internet (other than work of course) and to take time to be quiet before God. Brad and I have decided to do this starting today until next Sunday. I must say that so far, it has almost felt like I am on vacation! It's strange how much time I have found myself with now that I am not watching tv or blogging. It is not that I feel like I have to do this, but I really want to just spend some uninterrupted time with the Lord and to enjoy some peace and quiet this week.

I'm not sure if anyone will notice that I'm gone...but I will be back soon!

Ten Question Thursday

Questions I have been asking myself this week...

1. Why do I keep finding myself humming obscure Christmas carols? For example, the other day as I stepped into the shower I hummed to myself, "Up on the rooftops, reindeer pause..." WHY?????

2. Who decided on 5k for a standard race distance? And why couldn't they pick 2k (or even 3k if they really wanted a challenge)? 1k has a nice ring to it...

3. Why is it that I like hot tea, but not iced tea...and I like iced coffee, but not hot coffee? I am a mixed up British Canadian living in America.

4. My new favorite activity for 1:30am is navigating the trecherous obstacle course of dog bones, squeaky animals, and chew toys in our living room in the dark while carrying a dog. Why can't I just put the toys away before going to bed? Just my unwavering optimism I suppose, as I keep hoping that maybe, just maybe, tonight will be the night when I get to reach the REM sleep stage.

5. Howcome when I bought a package of 100 calorie brownies, they were each the size of a fingernail? That does not seem fair.

6. Why don't they spread out the Olympic events so that the Olympics lasts longer and so that I don't have to stay up until midnight EVERY NIGHT? Who do I talk to about that?

7. A mosquito family decided to bite my right leg all at the same time. Was it a planned attack, or am I just lucky?

8. Why don't I swing my arms when I rollerblade? (more on this one later!)

9. Why don't I ever charge my phone until it dies in the middle of a conversation? (I'm sure there are a few people also wondering this!)

10. Why does Brad like banana-filled things so much? This week it was banana-flavored filling in Twinkies and Oreos that got his attention. Gross. The banana flavor should stay where God intended it to be - IN THE BANANA!

Needing Help With Some Very Unimportant Decisions...

Something you may or may not know about me. I have a hard time making small, insignificant decisions. Big ones don't trouble me too much, but it's those little ones - which candy bar to buy, what to have for dinner, what color socks to wear...those are the ones that cause me to freeze up. I know they don't really matter...so why can't I just decide???

In just a few weeks I will be running another 5k race. I have been training really hard and hope to do well, but more than that...I need to be wearing the right outfit!! Over the past few years I have been gathering some cute running clothes, and this week I picked up my first ever running skort (which I never thought I would have the guts to wear but since Rachel got one too I think it's okay!). Now I just need help deciding which outfit to wear for the race! Please vote on the poll (and yes, I do realize that it doesn't really matter what I wear!) Maybe I should get some therapy (I'm sure heads are nodding everywhere as that statement is read).

Oh well, thank you for helping me anyway!

Outfit choices:

(**Note - outfits A, B, and C are with the skort. Outfit D is with black shorts, and Outfit E is with grey shorts)

Craving the Word?

"Like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord."

1 Peter 2:2-3

Pastor G's messge hit home this week. He has been talking this summer about falling in love with Jesus again. To be honest, I haven't been that challenged by the messages yet...because I have been pretty complacent in my walk with the Lord lately and haven't been too open to hearing His voice. I want to be closer to Him, but I have not been willing to spend any time with Him. I have tasted that the Lord is good, but I have just been feeling so far away from Him. I have been wrestling through some issues in my life, trying to reconcile some things that have happened in my life with what I know to be true in Scripture...I've been doing a lot of thinking and reflecting, but not a lot of reading and praying. To tell the truth, I have missed Him. I have missed that closeness and intimacy with Him that I have come to know over the last couple of years. But I just couldn't seem to get it back.

So on Sunday, I didn't go to church expecting much. My dear friend, Sue, and I have been talking about this very thing just the day before (and after the sermon she leaned over to me and said, "Did he hear our conversation yesterday?"). What do you do when your spiritual life seems dry and God feels so far away? What do you do when you start to not even care (other than feel guilty about it)?

As soon as 1 Peter 2:2-3 was read, it was like a little spark was lit in my heart. I remember what it is like to crave His Word. I started thinking about what it means when newborn babies crave milk. They are consumed with that desire - they will not be satisfied with anything else. They can't be distracted, they won't forget their hunger. The only way they are happy is if they get milk! As I reflected on this and thought about my own life, I realized that I have not at all been craving His Word. I have seen it as a burden, something I have to read to be a "good Christian", a chore to get done. But I have lost the passion of knowing that in my hands I hold the very Word of God Almighty! I treat it so lightly, use it for my convenience to make me feel better, and then place it aside for when I might "feel" like reading again.

Let's just say that with that message, the Lord got my attention. I was reminded again of how amazing it is that I can read my Bible anytime I want. I have taken His Word for granted and have missed out on knowing Him. But no more. I want to know Him, more than anything else in this world. I cannot claim that this will be it and I will never stray again...I know myself too well to believe that. What I do know is that He is faithful and gracious, and He keeps calling me back. How thankful I am for that!

Rachel the Time-Waster!

I came downstairs to enter receipts into our financial software program and to balance the checkbook...but somehow I ended up with a new blog layout instead! Maybe my checkbook will magically balance itself...

????

Award Winning Yawn

And the Gold Medal for longest tongue (puppy division) goes to...

Daisie Hunt!!!!!

Nascar Weekend - Day One

Our international (Canadian) friends have arrived for our Nascar weekend of fun! This Nascar weekend is fun for Brad and Stan, because they get to go to a race, and it's fun for me and Sue...because we don't have to! We always enjoy our "girls" weekend and have already done some warm-up shopping today in preparation for tomorrow's big day.

I sent Brad with the camera today with instructions to make sure to get some pictures of him and Stan, as well as Curt and Kristy and their boys (other friends they went to qualifying with today).

He returned with many, many pictures of different cars (multiple shots of each car) and three pictures with people in them. Oh well, maybe next time.

Brad by "his" car...he keeps claiming that he will be switching allegiances,

but always returns to the number 2. I think it's just too big a

part of him to let go of it.

Stan was a teeny bit excited about the race!

And by the looks of things, Kristy was pretty excited about qualifying, too! Brad made me laugh because he said he couldn't get Curt to look up for the picture - he was too busy with his scanner! I must admit, when I saw this picture I had a **teeny tiny ** twinge of "I wish I had gone." This, however, quickly passed by and I again felt thankful that Brad has friends who love Nascar!

So far, the weekend is off to a good start!

"The Table"

Am I the only one with this problem? Does everyone have that "one place" in the house where stuff just seems to accumulate? Growing up, we had "the island" in the kitchen. Now, I have "the table." It's the first stop when entering the house from the garage, so I guess it's just an easy target. I could have sworn that I just cleaned that thing off! Where does all the stuff come from? Why can't we seem to just put it away? So many questions, so many piles...so little space to eat!

Confused

If you were born in England, moved to Canada when you were 7, had lived in the US for the last 8 years, and were adopting from South Korea...

Who would you cheer for in the Olympics???!!?!?!

I feel so confused.

She's Finally Online!

Look at me, blogging from my HOUSE!!!! We finally got the internet and I am very excited. Blogging just got much easier.

What to write, what to write.

Well, I am extremely tired because Daisie has somehow gotten all off schedule. I think she is just too excited about the Olympics. She now takes an evening nap around 9pm, but likes to wake up in time for swimming or gymnastics (those are her favorites). We have been up until at least 1am the last couple of nights.

This is Daisie watching women's gymnastics the other night. She would sit for ages watching it and we finally managed to get some pictures.

When I try to take her to bed (which is like 2 or 3 hours after Brad has gone to bed) it goes something like this:

(Me in a hushed whisper) Daise, lay down. Daise, I said lay down.

(The whisper gets more desperate). Daisie, NO. Stop biting my le....OW STOP THAT (shouting whisper). {Side note - We are currently experiencing the joys of a puppy who is teething}

(Brad groans and rolls over)

(Me back to my hushed whisper) Lay down, Daisie. Come on, snuggle down, you know you're tired, that's it, good gir.....NOOOOOO Daisie! OW! LAY DOWN!

And back we go to the living room for a few more hours of Olympic excitement.

This is Daisie the next morning. Brad keeps saying she is my kindred spirit because she HATES getting up in the morning. I say that maybe both of us would enjoy getting up in the morning if we weren't staying up UNTIL ONE IN THE MORNING! Of course, when morning rolls around and she snuggles up or looks all cute in a blanket, I forget all about our late night escapades and tell Daisie how much I love her.

Even though I've been tired, I have been doing a LOT of running. Last week I think I ran 5 days. A new Rachel record. Tonight friend Rachel and I are going to do the 5k course again. We'll probably walk a bit in the middle but we have been consistently running over 20 minutes straight before walking which is very good. When we get home, our husbands Brad and Chad are going running together. I never thought I'd see the day!

We are gearing up for our annual Nascar extraveganza (wow I have no idea how to spell that word!) and our friends Sue and Stan will be arriving on Thursday. Brad and Stan will be having Nascar fun while Sue and I enjoy our girl time. Should be lots of fun - and it has been good motivation for house cleaning!

I love blogging from home :)

Piggy Picture and Precious Puppy

The requested picture...my favorite part is the "Rachel the Pig" title across the front. In this picture my friend is feeding me a quarter as if I am in fact Rachel the Pig...don't worry, she didn't actually put it in my mouth (although I'm thinking that might be a nice, easy way to make some money...)

I just had to post a few pictures of Daisie. Look how big she is getting! She is really such a sweetheart and I love coming home to her every day.

She still does the tongue thing when she is tired - so cute!

And last but not least, I had to try to capture this...at the very tip of her tail, she has this little poof that always makes me laugh. When she is wagging her tail it's really funny because it's like she's waving a little pompom. It seems like the bigger she gets, the poofier the poof gets!

Have a great weekend!

It's Okay, You Can Laugh

While in Seattle, Brad and I made an interesting discovery. We were at the top of the Space Needle, and found they had these cool computer things that told you all kinds of info about Seattle. It was there that we first saw her.

I had to laugh to see that I shared my name with this lovely brass pig! Brad was quite amused and I had to get him to tone down his laughter since other people were trying to enjoy the Space Needle .

Rachel lives at the Pike Place Market and is a giant piggy bank. I guess she raises a lot of money each year for charities. At least she's a good pig!

Brad and I found a t-shirt that says "Rachel the Pig" across the top and has a picture of her on it. The money was out of Brad's hand and the t-shirt was in mine before I even knew what was happening.

This week at work, Brad was telling his (guy) coworkers this story. He said they were very concerned and promptly asked if I was laughing about it too! He assured them I was.

Rachel the Pig, I will never forget you.

General Ramblings

Why won't the photocopier work today?

Oh, I forgot - it's because I have tons of stuff to print! Of course!

Thank you, copier.

On the brighter side, it's been a great week. We're enjoying Daisie so much (she is getting enormous by the way) but the older she gets, the more energy she seems to have. Last night it was 1am before she would settle down to sleep. I had a talk with her about it and I'm sure that tonight will be better (but if not, it's for sure Brad's turn for doggie duty!)

I've been doing lots of running this week and am looking forward to another 5k race coming up in September. It's been fun for me having some running friends and it's been fun for Brad to not have to go running.

Also big news this week - the fair is in town! Brad and I went to the fair for one of our first dates, and I every time I go with him now I think about a few memories:

1 - While we were walking around I kept thinking he was going to hold my hand, and he would bump my hand with his...but never held it. I was so nervous and excited. Funny how much I remember that...

2 - He was very (very) excited about the tractor pulls. I was concerned that things were not going to work out with us after all.

3 - That man can really handle his greasy foods! If it's deep fried, he loves it!

4 - Once we were getting "more serious" (about two months in - yep, it happened quickly!) I remember sitting at another fair watching a horseshoe competition (riveting) talking about the future...and he casually says, "We could just get hitched" followed by silence. Wasn't sure what to say to that (I think I was still debating if I could spend my life with someone who loves tractor pulls...) Turned out the answer was yes - a month later when he really proposed, I said yes!

I am looking forward to going to the fair on Friday with Brad and his family. I hope my stomach is ready for some deep-fried yum yums!

The adoption stuff is kind of in limbo at the moment because we were away, and now our social worker is away. Once she gets back, we have one more meeting and then our homestudy will be complete! We have 10 hours of online training to do before the next meeting so we're hoping to get some of that done this weekend. I seem to alternate between excitement at learning all kinds of stuff about adoption and parenting, and frustration that it takes so much for us to start our family. I just keep telling myself that it will be worth it in the end...

I think that's it for now. Tonight I am off to an all girls pool party. Yey summer!

Cross Country Adventures

What a whirlwind! We are back from vacation and I cannot believe how fast it sped by. Looking back, it was a fabulous vacation, but not particularly relaxing. It was so much fun and we got to do and see so many things, but now we feel like we need a vacation to recover from our vacation! Still, I don't think I would change any of it and I am so thankful for all the new experiences.

We started out in Seattle, where we did the "touristy" things like going up the Space Needle and going to a very cool market - more about that in the next post. Brad loved Seattle and said he wants to go back. I had fun but was much more excited to head to the mountains.


Next stop - Vancouver, British Columbia. A dear friend was getting married (apparently she hasn't told all her friends that she was getting married this summer so I'll post pictures later so as not to ruin the surprise...just in case!)

But, this is me and Brad at the wedding. Lovely day, nice and laid back, perfect weather, lots of laughter, backyard wedding. It was great and I'm so glad we were able to be there.

My very favorite part...heading to the hills! I don't know what it is about mountains but I just LOVE them! I think I pretty much talked about moving to the mountains for the whole trip (don't worry, Mom, just talk). They just make me remember how big God is and how little I am. We were able to go to the top of Grouse Mountain and see some incredible views.

We were also able to visit with some of my family while we were there - my Uncle Malcolm and Aunt Val, and two of my three cousins (Ian, sitting beside me, and Anna sitting across from him with her fiance Brian). I have seen Uncle Malcolm a few times in the last few years but I had not seen the others in 20 years! It was so good to do some catching up with them and I hope it won't be 20 years before I see them again.

After dinner, Uncle Malcolm took us out to his workshop where he does glass blowing. He makes some amazing pieces and I was excited (and nervous) to learn that he planned to teach us how to do it, too! We had a crash course and he helped us along the way, and Brad and I were able to make a beautiful paperweight. Brad's blue flower turned out much better than my red one (which is on the other side of the paperweight) so every time we show it to someone he says really loudly "I MADE THE BLUE FLOWER!" just so that they know. Thanks, hon!

I would have to say that my favorite thing about the trip was just being with Brad. I don't know if this is normal or not but sometimes we find that our marriage has grown a bit....stale. I don't know how else to explain it. It's not that it's in trouble or anything, it's just that everyday life takes over and we get busy and tired (which sometimes leads to crankiness) and it's easy to stop having fun together. By the end of the trip, Brad and I were just laughing so much and enjoying each other again. It was good to feel close again, and to be "on an adventure" together. Trying to navigate the streets of a big city you've never been to will definitely bring you closer together!

I have more to share but it will have to wait.

I think this layout has to go, too. Turns out I don't actually like it that much!