Saturday, November 20, 2010

Quickly before bed...
Joseph does NOT have to report for jury duty!!! 
Can I hear you say "Hallelujah!!" ??
So we are heading to Spokane for Thanksgiving...
plans a little different than before.. 
But going to be oh so fun!

We saw Harry Potter 7 this morning... AWESOME!
Loved it! so so much...
Went to a friends Harry Potter Marathon...
Tasted butter beer (alcohol-free)
Finished some crafty Christmas presents 
(can't tell you what, someone might read)
Joseph Birthday/ Christmas shopped for me
 (with my parents)
Made treats for Primary
(read: 80 mini chocolate chip cookies, 
 baking while I was working on my crafts. 
Joseph told me I was doing too much all at once...
 but did I burn any cookies? Nope!)

Oh, we got our blog published...
came in the mail last week...
LOVE it! I am so glad we did that,
it's gorgeous, and amazing to have.

Sorry this was random,
but I am tired, and we are just so excited,
we can see our family for Thanksgiving...

And I got my scarves and gloves etc. out of storage...
there may be snow on Monday.
Bring on the Hot Chocolate!
Goodnight.

Monday, November 15, 2010

When life throws you a curveball....

hit that sucker out of the park!
And lately we have been up to bat, a lot.
I hate not making solid future plans with family and friends.
The thing is, we just can't. 
We don't know what life has in store for us even a month or two in advance,
sometimes even the next week, even day to day,
so I feel guilty making plans if we'll have to break them. 
Life right now has made this absolutely impossible!
This month's example (and reason for no updates):
we had made plans to stay a few days in Spokane,
in a cute inn,
for Thanksgiving (with the Mechams and Toths),
Forgotten Carols,
Sam and Kaelee's reception.
And just some quality alone time.

We had budgeted the money and I have that week off anyway.
But we had received an email from our adoption caseworker,
 a very strongly worded email,
 about possibly closing our adoption profile.. 
it has been inactive for over a year.
 and to keep it active we would have to pay the transfer fee,
 (which happened to be the same amount we put away) 
then bust our butts to finish again. 
Now for the clincher, given our current situation we may not even be eligible anyway. 
So sent off an email back explaining that although we would love to adopt, 
but our situation is what it is,
 and it isn't going to change instantly. 
And that we understand and accept that it may make us ineligible, 
but we needed to know before we handed over the fee. 
We waited impatiently for two weeks before he got back to us, 
then he set up an appointment for two weeks later... 
giving no hint at all as to whether or not we even had a chance. 

That appointment was Thursday. 
We politely chatted with the man and when he finally asked if we had any questions, 
we had only one...
 and the answer is no. 
We are not eligible to adopt with LDSFS.
 And we're okay with that, 
but he could have told us a month ago, 
in an email!! 
We just needed an answer! 
But he did have to forward our blunt email on and up,
 to the head honchos of LDSFS to get a real answer,
 our situation being very unique. 
 He said " I felt inspired by your attitude Joseph and Shaylee. How you have accepted your blindness and are in training for full time employment. Such a healthy desire, thinking, and a beautiful attitude backed up with inspiring actions."

So we were free to go forward with our plans... almost. 
Now we wait to see if Joseph ends up having jury duty... 
which happens to fall right at the same time as our planned trip.... 
this week he doesn't have to report,
 but now we have to wait until friday to see about the week after.  
Whatever, so we already cancelled our reservations. 
 We will have to wait and see.... 
and we are getting tired of waiting.

Monday, November 1, 2010

I love it!

About 3 times in the past week, we've been asked if we were newlyweds. I then ask why, people have offered a few answers, the way we look at each other, the way we sit together, etc. 
It's sweet. Well we're not really newlyweds, coming up on 5 years in May.

Wedding


Here we are fresh out of the temple, newly married newlyweds.
This was just the beginning.
The beginning of our love.
The beginning of some of the biggest challenges of our lives. 
But we're here together
Always together.