Well since I was last on here talking about life, we have made more progress with the kitchen, and Nathaniel got a palate expander.
I know that may not sound like much, but I got an email from our kitchen designer company saying that everyone wants their new kitchen by the holidays. That makes sense, I want my new kitchen by the holidays!! However we are very close to actually doing so. We were actually running a bit ahead of schedule. And when I say a bit a head, I mean, we didn’t hit any hiccups and so we were ON schedule! Shocking I know!! So I was able to get our cabinet delivery moved up. Yay!!!! This makes it more and more likely that we will be able to have our kitchen complete by Thanksgiving (November 28). More about this in a minute.
Nathaniel started the dreaded braces this last 2 weeks. He is starting with a pallet expander. This is a torture device that attaches to his rear upper teeth and pushes them further apart gradually by means of a screw that I (as Tony is afraid to touch it) tighten every night. Near as I can figure, this makes it so his front teeth have a bigger gap. We have noticed this in the last week. Nathaniel is doing well with it. The first day he said his mouth was sore. Now he occasionally complains about his nose hurting (I am assuming this is normal as it seems logical to me). Oh and by the way, this is NOT a torture device, but as a person who had SEVERAL years of headgear (which all evidence is now mysteriously gone… or is it??) I feel I have the right to call it a “torture device”. Nathaniel will be going to his orthodontist in a couple of days to check his progress.
One final note on Nathaniel, because of his new found gear in his mouth, I have taken to teaching him the ways of how I keep my pearly whites. I have a complex system of interdental brushes, floss, water pick, electric tooth brush and mouth wash to keep me from having issues with my teeth. It is a long process but one that I have been rewarded as in the last 2 weeks I saw a dentist and instead of the hygienist running out of the room screaming, she actually said I could wait 6 months to see her again. SHOCKING for me as I am convinced that God may have made my teeth, but They forgot to change my saliva to something that wouldn’t eat my teeth. Nathaniel has been complaining about having to do so many steps, but ultimately, I think he knows it will be good for him.
Okay back to the kitchen.
As you can see we have done quite a bit to the kitchen. The walls are not a solid color because cabinets will go in many spots. The spots where cabinets will not go that are white, some of them also will have tile (backsplash). The floor is amazing! Amelia loves it and we often find her in there. She used to eat the floor, but I think now she just likes sunning or cooling down in there!
Finally today is my 48th birthday. Yikes! It was 85 degrees here today. I would say it hasn’t been this warm on my birthday where I lived since I lived in Florida, but on the one birthday where I lived in Florida, I was back in Oregon visiting family (actually surprised my father on my birthday that year). So I can’t even say that! I am really hoping for snow this year but time will tell. I could do for a nice Nor’easter this year! I want 2 feet of snow… will I get it??
I am personally ignoring my birthday. I don’t want to go out to eat, I want to eat in. However with only a refrigerator and a range in my kitchen, this is not the time to cook an elaborate meal. So we will postpone my day till we have a working kitchen (I am thinking homemade TV dinner again).
Tonight we worked on window and floor casing. Then tonight we are going to work as a family to find the next person to join our family. I want the boys to be included on this, so I have told them we will do 1 hour of this only. It will likely take a while (there are sadly a lot of children in the foster care system) but I think it is very important that Max and Nathaniel are in on this decision from the very beginning. We need to find 20 children to be on our “more information please” list. Currently there are roughly 3639 families looking for a home in the United States from foster care. This includes children that are about to age out, sibling groups, and single children. They range in age from under 1 year to 21. I also included all genders. These are just children that are free for adoption too. This doesn’t include children that are almost free for adoption, or who have been bounced around a lot waiting for free for adoption. So we have our work cut out for us. However, whomever we find will know that we all wanted them and choose them. That I think is pretty great!!
I should also mention that our desired group is smaller then the 3639 families but not a lot smaller!