Third Homestudy Visit

We had our third and final homestudy visit two weeks ago on Thursday.
...Two days before our visit, I realized my husband has schedule Thursday to be the day, the wood choppers come to chop down our one hundred fifty foot tree that towers above our house. We found out six months ago that it is dying and if we do not have it cut down with in a year, our insurance will not cover it if it falls on our house. So... we thought it was best to get it cut down! Most people told us it would be really expensive to get it cut down, but we found a company that did it for dirt cheap. We were encouraged that God was providing for us!..Anyway, the day before, the wood choppers told us they were going to have to turn off the power, but that we could still be in the house. We debated back and forth what we should do, but we decided to stay at our house for the homestudy visit, because our social worker might not come if we can't have the meeting at our house.

    On Thursday morning, I head out to run some errands, knowing I need to be back around 11:30 to feed the kids and get ready for naps. Realizing what time it is, we leave the Teacher/ Parent store and head to the car. As I am buckling Mary Taylor in her seat, I realize what a mess she is from her snack and her hand it bleeding from a paper cut. ( I guess she got it in the store). I try to wipe her off, but I decided to deal with it when we get home in five minutes. As I park in front of my house, I see the wood chopping team has already started taking the tree down. I get the kids out of the car and start heading into the house. I approach the man that owns the wood chopping company and make sure I can walk under the equipment. He then proceeds to tell me that I cannot stay at my house and I need to leave as soon as possible. I yell because of all the noise, "What? I thought it was ok!" Well, he yells, "I did not realize how big the tree was!" I am thinking, 'How could you make that kind of mistake?' I walk in the house with two bags on one arm and bleeding Mary Taylor on the other arm. She really needed a bath, because her shirt and body was now cover in food and some blood. I guess now I need to get packed up and figure out a place to go. It is time for the kids to eat lunch and take naps. The power is off and a tree might fall on the house at any moment. I call my husband and tell him the situation, but he does not see the urgency in it all. I tell him to call his parents to see if we can have our homestudy over there and then call our social worker to see if that is ok. Yes, I am pretty stressed and I am not handling it well! In the mean time, the wood choppers take a break and go eat lunch. I guess they realized I needed some time to get out of there!...About twenty minutes later we were ready to head to Dee's parents house.
   In the thirty minute car ride over to Dee's parent's house, I managed to get my thoughts together, take a deep breath, and manage to open my fist up to the Lord. Not easy to do in stressful situations like that! The little things really get to me, especially when dealing with young kids!  Mary Taylor took a nap at their house and Henry watched a movie. Our third homestudy lasted about two hours and it was our best one yet! We even talked about our my conflict early in the day. I just had to get it out and apologize to Dee for treating him so badly in my frustration of the tree situation. I think we felt pretty comfortable at this point! I guess we should, considering he knows everything about us and he is still letting us adopt a baby! He said it should take about a month to get all the paper work in and then our homestudy will be finalized and sent to the USCIS (I think?)
... It was a crazy day and I was exhausted in every way! Glad the Lord worked it out! Then the next day, it snowed! Not normal for us southerners...

The wood choppers could not finish cutting down the tree until four days later. These trucks and tractors sat in our yard during the beautiful snow, which only comes once or twice a year. Oh, well, no good snow pictures of our house this year! The tallest tree is the one we had to cut down. Sad... it is not there anymore. :(

 We had fun in the snow despite the tractors! Dee and Henry about to go sledding!

 Yes, this is our boxer, Bell! (we also have a springer spaniel, named Milo) We just let the dogs run free outside in the snow. They loved it!

 

 Mary Taylor did not like sitting on the stump with Henry.. at all! That day they chopped this stump into mulch. Now our yard is full of mulch and mud from the tractors!