little rainbows in the storm ⋒
It has been a doozy of a week. Not much adoption news to share, minus our next Zoom home study visit being this weekend (08/28). But we’ve had a bit of a bummer week with our home renovations, which is intrinsically tied to being able to move to the next stage of the adoption process. It has kind of being the trifecta of bad news. First our HVAC/electrician/plumber (one guy who did it all) ghosted us, and our plan had been that he would start next week. So we’ve been scrambling to find new contractors to do the work and thanks to Thomas, I think (fingers crossed) we have people lined up to start. Next up our windows that were meant to be here in October, which then moved to no later than November 8, which has now become “we will do our best to get them to you by Nov 8”. Thomas once again has been on the phone daily to Pella (our window company) to try to figure out a way to move the process along. This is the main things that will hold up our two county inspections that are required to complete our home study and get our dossier to Bulgaria. And finally, when our contractor removed our old large bedroom window, which is in the bumped out section of the house over our porch, he discovered that a lot of the wall was being held together in places by shims. :-/ So the whole wall had to be removed and rebuilt (this coming after we realized the support beams for this room were completely rotten and also had to be replaced). Needless to say I threw myself quite the pity party for a few nights.
Now the good news, our rainbows in the storm. Our contractor is AMAZING, works quickly, and does impeccable work. He already has the new exterior wall up, the window hole reframed for the new huge windows (come on Pella). I don’t have any happy updates on the windows yet, but I’m staying optimistic. And like I said above, I think Thomas has found tradespeople who seem nice and can start soon for the electric, plumbing, and HVAC.
Totally unrelated to renovations, but I also bought a crib for Tippi off Marketplace. I know we can’t/shouldn’t buy much until we are further along in the process and know a little more about her, but I also need little hits of sunshine during this impossibly slow period of waiting. After finding and sending Thomas about 3000 different cribs that are perfect, we found the truly perfect one we could both agree on (aka that Thomas also loved). I picked it up from the loveliest family in DC today and when they found out we were adopting, they gifted us with a beautiful tray of Grimm’s blocks that had been beloved toys of her children. Naturally I cried - it was the most thoughtful gesture at a time I really needed a boost. People really are so good.
