April 2007
 
Well a lot happened in April. We have completed our paperwork update and are ready to update our home study. It has been a long wait and our time should be here soon. Our friends and family have been so supportive through this hole waiting process, but we think they are just as anxious as we are to get our daughter and get back home. Our local newspaper had a front page article on the long wait in the international adoption world, it was kind of nice to see that, so others can understand what is going on, some people don’t really understand what you are talking about, until they read it for themselves.

On a sad note, we reluctantly had to put our cat Heather asleep, she was 18 years old (human). It is so weird coming home and she is not here, every day for the last 15 years, she would greet me at the door after work. At night she would get up on the bed and lay beside me for hours. I still catch myself at night looking to put her up on the bed, because the last year or so she could not jump up on the bed anymore. “We have a pretty tall bed”. My wife adopted her from SPCA in Houston, TX. Before we met and she named her Heather Dawn, after a missing child.

It is probably the one of the hardest thing to do when you have had a pet for so long, but is the best thing to do, before our Daughter Chloe comes home, so she wont have to get attached to Heather, then she dies soon after . A death of a pet could be devastating early on, we know she will have to deal with it some day, but right now we can avoid that anguish. “In loving memory of Heather Dawn”

On a more positive note, I tried my hand at wood flooring, and it turned out great! We took out the carpet at our front living room, hall, vanity area, hall closets and Chloe’s room and put in cherry block flooring. Not to bad, we like it. I had two bad cuts, not to bad for a first timer.

We did not intend to install it in the baby room, but I had a little mishap. When I finished the floors, I went to install the transition strip and ended up cutting the carpet a inch to short, so I thought, no big deal, I will advance the transition strip up a half inch or so, then stretch the carpet to the correct length. Well things don’t always work the way you like. I did not have the knee kicker in to the carpet deep enough and I plowed into it pretty good, well unfortunately I had ripped the carpet in two areas. (that was real great) The carpet had been discontinued a couple years back, so “Hey, let’s put wood down”. This actually turned out to be a good thing, the room looks fantastic!

The down side of the installation of wood floors in now I am staining all new floor trim “which is done and installed”, and in the process of staining all new door trim to match. “I am NOT a fan of staining”.


We can not hardly wait till our good friends from California move back up, they have been through every step with us and have been a super support net for many years, Cindy was our maid of honor and Steve was our best man. We have watched their children grow from young kids to young adults. They now have become God parents for us and will always hold a special place in or hearts. Last year we attended their daughters wedding and we are so proud of them. Marissa married a great guy named Brian and currently living in Hawaii “nice place to be“. Brian has been in the military for a while and has stayed safe through it all, Thank God! We wish them well for all time.

We were walking through the mall the other day, and there was a new little gift shop and my wife had found this cute little panda bear holding a lady bug, it was so fitting, we could not resist this little guy.