Finally... an update

Wow, it has been way too long since I last posted.  I guess it's just a sign that we've been super busy and things have been going pretty smoothly, so I haven't needed this outlet so much.  Having Sweet Pea's biological parents' right terminated was such a huge relief for us and there has been such a shift in attitude and a peace that has come too.  We know that very little if anything could take her away from us now.  We are still looking forward to the actual adoption, but really it's only a matter of time.  It will be very special I know, but she already is such a part of us, such an integral part of our family that I couldn't imagine us without her.

Sweet Pea turned 14 months old recently, then we had the 7 month anniversary of when she came to live with us.  Now that means that she has been with us for over half her life and that is such a good feeling.  All the struggles she experienced before she was with us are in the past now and we can just look forward to our forever future together.

Her personality is continuing to grow and come out too.  She definitely has her own opinion on things and makes it very well known.  My mom (who spends a great deal of time with Sweet Pea) has already bought us a book about the strong-willed child for when we're ready.  She is getting really close to walking now.  Just a couple of days ago, we discovered she can walk holding on with just one hand and now this is all she wants to do all the time.  I know she physically could stand on her own and even probably take a couple of steps on her own now too, but she still doesn't trust herself yet.  If you let her go, she simply sits down and cries for you to stand her right back up again.

I started a new contract job a few weeks ago.  It's been going well overall, but definitely overwhelming at first and I'm still figuring out how to balance it all (which I imagine I always will be trying to figure out.)  I ideally would like to work 2-3 days a week, but it's been more like 4+ here at first.  We are so very lucky to have my mom to take care of Sweet Pea while I'm working.  They are so bonded to one another too that she even prefers her Nana over myself or Shannon sometimes.  With this new job, I decided it was time for me to stop keeping my friend's baby every day too.  It was a difficult decision and one we discussed quite a bit.  We do miss him, but I really do think it's for the best.  It's been freeing for us that we can go more places and do more things with just one baby now.  I'd never imagined how difficult it would be to get out of the house with two one-year-olds.  I used to think I wanted to be a stay at home mom or even run a daycare out of my home, but these past several months showed me that's not the best fit for me.  I think our arrangement now hopefully will be ideal once I can settle into a more set schedule.  Getting to work outside the home and getting to stay home some too has been a good fit for me so far.

As far as the adoption, we still waiting to hear what our next step is.  Sweet Pea has a new adoption caseworker from CPS and we have another case manager from our agency who will help us with the adoption.  We chose an adoption attorney and filled out all our paperwork from him.  We were at a standstill with him about a week ago because he couldn't file our paperwork until we chose a new middle name for Sweet Pea.  We will be keeping her same first name, but changing the middle and last names.  I never imagined it would be so hard to chose just a middle name, but it took us quite a while to settle on.  We finally did, so now our adoption paperwork should have been filed with the court, whatever that means.  Everyone keeps saying it should just take a couple of months, but it's hard too know when it will finally be completed.  I can't wait to finally be able to introduce her publicly and show pictures of her on here.  Soon enough, I hope I hope...