To Ask or Not to Ask

How long has it been since Iowa received my home study information?  I really want to ask my LFS guy whether this is normal, but I have a feeling it is...But I really, really want to know something.  All this waiting is, at the very least, draining.  It definitely is stressful, and certainly could be described as frustrating...I don't like being frustrated.

Concert Sunday Afternoon (29th)

The Lincoln Lutheran Choir is joining several other choirs at First Plymouth Church this Sunday afternoon.  Should be lots of fun.  It will be a huge choir and some really fun music.  Below are the details for those interested who haven't already heard or planned to be there.  :)

HOW CAN WE KEEP FROM SINGING?
SUNDAY, SEPT 29 || 4 PM
Celebrate the release of the new Hymns at First Plymouth CD recording as Abendmusik launches its 2013-14 season with a Hymn Festival. You will be invited to sing along with the Abendmusik Chorus, Doane Collegiate Chorale, and Lincoln Lutheran Choir, accompanied by the Plymouth Brass Quintet and the inspiring Lied Organ. When the entire community is gathered together, how can we keep from singing?
TICKETS
ADULT: $12
SENIOR: $10
STUDENT: $5

First Plymouth is at 2000 D Street (in Lincoln, of course).  :)

Hope you can make it!

P.S.  Lincoln Lutheran Choir will be participating in a Reformation Sunday celebration at Redeemer Lutheran Church on the last Sunday in October, too.  I'll try to post those details sooner than I did these.

Random babblings of a lonely person.

(Maybe that should be the title of my blog.)

Have you seen the commercial for some car that's supposed to be able to predict accidents "two cars ahead"?  I'm thinking bull *fake cough*.  How is that even possible - especially in the scenario in the commercial where they are behind a truck there's no way any driver could see around let alone any car.  What protects them from the accident is not riding the bumper of the truck!  It has nothing to do with some magic trick the car supposedly can do.

I have a stack of books in front of me.  One is a self-help book about dealing with ones past.  Another is a Buddhist thing that basically says the same thing as Philippians from the New Testament of the Bible (for the random non-Bible-reader who might accidentally run across this post).  The last is a book full of information on essential oils.  I have the rather irrational belief that I might look at one or all of them over the course of the evening.

I made something really awesome for dinner.  There's no easy way to record it in my "food tracker," though.  It's rotini pasta, some pseudo-cheese, some pseudo-butter, spinach, tomatoes, bacon pieces, onion, and a splash of chipotle sauce.  That probably sounds weird, but it actually is very awesome.  But it's also organic and homemade, so putting it into the "food tracker" is unfortunately very difficult.

Speaking of the "food tracker"...Work gave everyone in my department this bracelet thing that's supposed to be able to track my steps, whether I'm awake or asleep, etc and the website lets you track food, water, BP, mood, allergies, and even more.  It's pretty neat.  I'd never have done it if the thing hadn't been given to me for free as this bracelet thing costs about $100 on its own.  According to the sleep function, I wake up at least 3 times a night (12 last night, but who's counting...besides the bracelet).  So it's been pretty interesting.  I've also learned that though my eating habits are atrocious at best and my activity level even worse, I'm actually 9 times out of 10 burning more than I'm taking in...and yet my weight stays the same, so that makes no sense.  However, I intend to change that.  It also has a function for setting up goals and tracking them, so I've finally set a weight goal and it is using my activity level and calories consumed and sorting out how much I should be consuming compared to how active I am.  If nothing else, this will be an excellent exercise in futility, but at most it should be a good tool for meeting some goals and sorting out a few health things.

And speaking of health things, I've been on a sort of "new agey" (to use a made up phrase from a friend) kick and have been looking for natural remedies for as much as possible where it comes to my ailments (thus the aforementioned book about essential oils).  It's been rather interesting learning about foods, teas, oils, and so on.  Hopefully I learn and try something that actually helps with enough significance to improve my health or at least give me tools to deal with it better.

Well, I'm distracted by a movie now, so I guess the babbling will have to stop for now.

Only Mondays

Apparently nothing happens in the foster/adopt world except on Mondays...Well, things were sort of happening last Friday, but I think that was just for the purpose of giving me false hope that there would be things happening on days other than Monday this week as well.  I'm not sure why I'm surprised let alone disappointed.

Updates for Monday

Today was a day for movement on the foster/adopt front.

First the less exciting news.  I received a "no thanks" type of message regarding the gal in Colorado.  So that one's done now, too.

Now the more interesting part of the update.  Friday I wrote that Iowa requested a copy of my home study.  Today she should have received it...once I explained what a release of information form was (Iowa - go figure).  My guy said he was sending it off, so she should have it as of sometime this afternoon.  This is the first one to request my home study.

It is both exciting and nerve-wracking.  I am anxious to find out if I'm found acceptable enough to proceed...which I think means the case worker talking to me, asking and answering questions.  Having not been through this, it's rather difficult to tell what exactly is next.  Will just have to wait and see.  Good thing I've had practice doing that.  Fingers crossed and prayers raised there will be more to share soon!

Latest News from Yesterday and This Morning

Following up was definitely a good thing.  Yesterday afternoon, the caseworker for the little girl in Iowa contacted me asking for a copy of my home study to review.  So this morning we are in the process of getting that to her.  I am hoping it can happen today so she has it to review right away.  I hope I will have some additional progress to report later today or on Monday.  :)

My sister is famous...ish!

Check out this commercial.  See if you can pick out Sandra.  :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7klCJX--Mw

It never hurts to follow up, right?

Today I decided to be impatient and sent some follow up emails regarding the inquiry on the girl in Iowa.  I heard back almost immediately - from a Lutheran organization (!) - with contact information for the child's caseworker.  So I emailed that person.  I received an out-of-office auto-response, so I probably won't hear anything again this week, but that was at least a step in a direction of some sort.

I also logged back in to the national website and discovered I had a message regarding the inquiry I made about the siblings in Missouri.  It said to contact such-and-such person directly, so I did.  That message was posted Monday and their status also changed on Monday to being on hold for their caseworker to review home studies.  I don't know what that means except that their caseworker is probably very, very busy, so I doubt I'll hear anything there, either.

Meanwhile, I submitted an inquiry regarding a young teen girl in Colorado and added a couple other kids to my "favorites" list for me to think about and go back and look at again later to decide if I want to submit an inquiry there, too.  We'll see.  I also tweaked my "story" on my profile while I was on the website and uploaded a photo of Samson and myself.  I figure if it's supposed to be a family picture, it should include Samson.

Meanwhile, I received the invitation for the informal meet/greet thing to happen in October (see the first post about the foster/adopt business).  It's a Saturday afternoon in Omaha for just a couple hours.

God willing I hear back from those follow up emails sooner than I expect.  I like having something to share instead of answering "have you heard anything" with yet another "no."

They need to update their website.

A small update...
I found out today that the little boy in Nebraska about whom I inquired is actually "on track to be adopted" by the foster family with whom he's currently placed.  Their website is apparently not current.  But, it is good to not be sitting around wondering...at least about that one.  So that's one down out of three.
The gal did ask permission to review my information and see if there was a different child who seemed like a good match, so I agreed to that.  Who knows.  Something may come of it.  And this is the Nebraska folks, so maybe that will go more quickly than the other two information requests which are out of state and about which I have not heard a peep.  I wish I knew how to follow up - especially on the Iowa one since it has been so long since I submitted that request.
Yesterday I received a phone call from the national one asking me to upload a picture.  I tried that the same day I registered, but the photo I wanted to upload was too large a file.  I guess I need a solution.

So, that's the latest.  Pray that soon I'll have more to tell!

More Information Requests

Nothing really has been happening on the foster/adoption front.  I still have not heard anything regarding my information request about the little girl in Iowa.  In the last couple days I submitted an information request regarding a little boy here in Nebraska.  I also have submitted a request for more information regarding a sister and brother from Missouri.  Those requests are only a couple days old, so I am not surprised to have not heard anything.  I am hoping that the Nebraska one at least will move faster since we are all in the same state.

It feels strange to be looking at children's "profiles" online and then requesting information.  Feels too much like shopping or online dating.  *shudder*  I much prefer the additional way the national website is set up.  I can submit requests, but I also have a profile (like the children do) at which the case workers can look and decide if they want to find out more about me.

So, the update is that I'm doing more waiting.