The plan was for me to be taking time off this week (and next) to work on the house, but all of the sudden I've got at least 4 days of work stuff booked in. This is why I usually take holidays away from where I live! I enjoy my job, but the nice days of outdoor work are slipping away... And I've been really anxious about the house progress.
In other news, I had a good talk with my wife about our house-building goals and budget. Because the key help can't assist us like we were trusting, we'll be hiring a few more things out because this is taking a LONG time. It's been tough to keep seeing progress on the house with so much unexpected work things coming up over the last 6 months.... This has been a very unusual (but good) season of work for me. But at least we're on the same page as a couple and regaining some confidence that we will see the end of this project eventually! And we are very fortunate to be in the position we are in to have payed for the rest of Dude's adoption expenses by selling our last house.
Adoption news: found out on Friday that whenever we get a referral & need to travel, that it will be at least 6 weeks away this time instead of at least 4 (like last time). I'd be really excited for 6 weeks if we didn't have 4 children at home already. I'd love to be able to afford to take all of the kids with us! We've pretty much decided that Super Lu will come home earlier to be with the rest of the kids & I'll spend the remaining time with our son/daughter over in Africa. Which will be cool, but strange to only live with 1 kid instead of 4. Good for attaching & bonding though I hope! I can't imagine what 6 weeks (+ travel and who knows what other delays....) will be like to be away from the kids. And even to be away from my wife. In the last decade, the longest we've been a part at one time is 12 days. The 3 older kids have done 4.5 weeks when we traveled to bring Dude home - which was quite long for them when they are so young.
I guess this is why the house has been getting a lot more stressful too. The plan was to get this house done before a referral so that we could 1. have a home to accommodate everyone & be settled in. 2. Be able to get a secure loan to pay for this next adoption (which will probably be very difficult to do with a construction mortgage still open). You can see why this might be stressful! We've got some time before a referral is even possible... but on the other hand, we have set our dossier up toward adopting an older child (or sibling group) that might have medical needs - so a referral may come quicker since there is a need for families who want to adopt these kids & we are in a child-centered program (needs of the child are prioritized in finding a family).
So we're trusting God to figure out the timeline, details, & funds since we felt quite strongly that He was leading us this way in the first place.
Have a great week - I'll get some house pictures up soon!
I.B.
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