"Be Ready"

When I was pregnant with both of my boys, during the 8th month, I began to nest. I had tons of energy, and I was motivated to get the house and everything ready to bring a new child into the world! Both Chris and I accomplished a lot during that nesting period.....

With our adoption we really don't know enough to be able to "nest". Back in February we spoke to the then director of our agency and he had two words for us.... "Be Ready". That was 4 months ago, and I still don't feel like we are "ready" yet. How can you be ready, when you don't know the gender or age of the children you are being referred? I mean we don't know clothing size, and we don't know if they will be in a crib or a toddler bed.... how about pink or blue, trucks or baby dolls?

Perhaps I can't be ready in those areas, but their have to be other things that we could be doing to prepare for these children.....So, tonight I spent the better part of 2 hours cleaning up and organizing our playroom with my boys. It was a job that I started over a week ago, and finished for Father's Day. Yes, that's right...it was driving Chris nuts to have that thing all messy... so for Father's Day I cleaned it all up. :-)

It looks much improved, but as I look at all the small pieces of toys, I can only think we have a long way to go! Baby proofing! Even though we probably won't be getting babies, we could be referred toddlers. My toddlers were great about putting lots of things in their mouths. So, as I stare at all the legos, and small pieces to the action figures all I can think is: "How am I going to make this work?" How can I possibly keep this area a safe area?" I'm pretty particular about that, so this is going to be interesting! Maybe I should talk to a few of my friends with 4+ children and see how they managed it! They probably are much more relaxed than me..... um on second thought as I think about them, yep they are way more relaxed. LOL!

So, I'm thinking about the playroom, and then the spare room that will soon become their bedroom. Currently the closets are filled to the brim with all kinds of junk. It's being utilized as a storage closet. I need to clean that out as well! And we have to put screens on the windows, and gates for the stairs, and little plug things for all the outlets. Ack! I still want to put the rain gutter book display idea that my friend Karen implemented. I just don't know where to put it!

Which brings me to my first point in this rambling.... The director said to "Be Ready", which as I look around here...we are clearly not. I sure wish I could start nesting....