Nesting

The delay in Grace's arrival is her passport, and besides hopefully January, I have no idea when this passport will be ready. The funny thing is that most people don't even stress about the timing on their kid's passport because their I-600 takes so long to get approved, it is done by then. We are excited that everything went faster, but now our very speed is actually holding us back! Bottom line is, until we get the passport, we can't request the visa interview, and thus no visa print date.

Still, as by reasonable expectations all of these steps could be done by the end of January, we are working hard to be ready for her to arrive at any time. I don't feel that I am nesting in the sense of cleaning the house (though I am trying to clean it) but I definitely feel the pull of getting her room ready and making sure we have all the items we need.


One big project is painting her closet doors. When we bought the house they were gold/ brass framed mirror doors, and we talked about replacing them (1- I don't like gold, 2- it looks awful with the yellow). As it came down to time to get her room ready, we decided that it would be less expensive to paint over the gold instead of replacing the doors. We started two days ago, and probably have another day or two to go, but it is feeling great to get it done, even if her room looks like a construction site for now.

Thanks to my great family support system, all of the items that I feel like are needs (as opposed to many wants) are purchased and on their way to our house, so once we finish the doors, finish decorating, and make one more trip to Ikea, we should be able to rest easy knowing that whenever she comes, we are ready to welcome her into our home.

Another aspect of nesting, I think, is preparing for the quickly approaching one income time. In the past, I just made a shopping list, and we bought all the items at Sprouts because it was easy and convenient.  In the hopes of saving every penny possible, I have spent the last week or so doing major price comparisons with our store, amazon, costco and a new website I found called azure standard (where you can buy bulk organic items for really low prices). It is interesting to see that when you do the math, there is no clear winner in every category, but the way to be the most cost effective is to buy each item at the cheapest location.

I also started selling teaching items on a website called Teachers pay Teachers (link at the top), and today I made my first sale! I sold a worksheet I made for 2 dollars, and after the website took their cut out, I only earned 90 cents... but that is 90 cents more than I had when my worksheet was just sitting on my computer, and now another teacher benefits from it, win-win!

On a random note, one of the most interesting things about this Christmas was receiving and opening Christmas presents for Grace. Next year, when she is home, she can open them herself (with help) and we can see her excitement, and enjoy the items with her. I love that our family members thought of her as they shopped this Christmas, and bought her these cute and fun toys:





But at the same time, it made me miss her so much! I know she will have fun with all of her new toys and games, but it is hard not being able to share them with her now. In the grand scheme of things, if it is only a month, it will pass quickly, but for now... its hard.

So we will continue to plan, and prepare, and get everything ready, and hopefully, soon, there will be a little girl here to enjoy all of the items that we have waiting for her arrival.