I can't believe we have been living in Texas for almost two months now. My how the time flies! Having a job helps and I am so thankful for work. Of course the money is nice, but I am so blessed to have wonderful co-workers. So far, work is the main thing I've immersed myself in and my co-workers are my first "friends" in Texas. They have been so kind and genuine. I feel truly welcome and "at home." It's just an all around good feeling! TCU is a beautiful campus and it's great to see students have pride for their school. I never thought I'd work for a top ranked school, but I love it! I can't wait to go to my first TCU football game in October. David's pretty excited too! He's happy that one of us finally works for a school that has football!. Go Frogs! (Yes, TCU's mascot is a horned from!).
Work is going well and my Thirty-One business is still hanging in there. I'm thankful for all my customers from Indiana who have stuck with me. I love you all! Thanks for keeping my business alive. I've gotten the chance to also meet a few women through Thirty-One. I've attended one Thirty-One meeting here in Mansfield and enjoyed meeting new people. One woman I met, Kim, invited me to work at a vendor event this weekend. It was outside (ugghh!), but it was great to talk to people and sell a few items. Hopefully, I'll make some contacts and build my business in Texas!
I got a great care package from my MIL this week too. Books for my baby boy and a locket from Origami Owl. I love it! It really made my day. One of the books I got was written by the Pioneer Woman (as seen on the Food Network). It's about a basset-hound name Charlie! I can't wait to read it to Bennett, or at least that what his name is....for now. It's the name we agree upon until something better comes along. I have his first care package ready to go, complete with an outfit with a puppy dog on it and a blanket buddy, also a dog. See the recurring theme here? I also got a photo album filled with photos of David and I (Frank and Annie too). I just need to write a letter to his foster mother (the agency will translate this for us) and put it in the mail to our agency. The agency will then send the package with a traveling family. I hope to send him another package in January for his first birthday. We are limited to the number of packages we get to send him. Considering there are a lot of families in the process and only a handful of families traveling each month, we only get to send 2-3 throughout our entire process. I wish I could send him something every month, but I understand the package policy.
Speaking of agency policies and news, families who were matched in August 2011 traveled in August 2012. I am slightly...REALLY hopeful that we will get to travel next summer/fall too! I know that the agency is "predicting" 15-18 months, but I hope/wish it will be sooner. The wait seemed long for us to get matched, but looking back on things, we were quoted a wait time of 2-4 four months. It was about 4.5 months wait time for us to get matched. To put some perspective on how quickly things can change. As of September, the wait time to be matched for boys has gone up to 10 months (The wait time for a girl is 22 months and I've never understood why the wait for girls is always longer either). I can't imagine waiting that long to be matched (4.5 months felt long enough) and then waiting another year and a half to travel! It's another thing that has me feeling good! I'm thankful that we were matched quickly and that the wait did not go up once our paperwork had been submitted. It's just a reminder of how quickly things can change in the adoption world!
We had our home study update meeting this week. It was a piece of cake compared to our original home study. It should be done by the end of October, which means we'll need more money (about $900) to file an application to adopt with Immigration! I'm taking Thirty-One orders now to submit the first week of October. I've added an adoption fundraiser link to my website www.mythirtyone.com/duvall. I'll post the October special there as well. Start shopping for Christmas now! After all, it's only 3 months away! As always, we appreciate your support.
Hugs and love,
Amanda (and crew)
