Potluck Fun for Southern California Ethiopian Adoptive Families... and more updates!

Wow, what an amazing weekend Joe and I had. On Saturday, we finally reunited with other Ethiopian adoptive families from all around Southern California for a potluck! It was the first potluck our group has had since November and it was so exciting to see everyone. As before, it was exciting and inspiring to see all of the amazing families. I felt so fortunate because we had the opportunity to meet our friends two beautiful new girls that arrived from Ethiopia only two weeks before! I can't believe how great they were doing as a family after only 2 weeks! Joe seemed to have a blast playing with some of the older kids, and I lucked into playing dress-up and having my make-up done by a couple of the younger girls.

The potluck was a welcome break from the showings at our house. Just about anytime we start to feel relaxed or comfortable, we seem to get another call for a showing. Since we have 3 d0gs, that's a bit of an ordeal! Straighten up the house, load up the dogs, water bowl, etc. into the car, get all the dog beds and dog toys out of the house, and go for a drive until the showing is over. We had the dogs in the car with us for about 4-5 hours on Sunday! One of the showings lasted about an hour... and that's after I walked in on them looking around the house! Whoops! It's definitely good to have lots of showings, but it's been rather stressful for me on workdays. Even if I'm on a conference call I have to answer the house line, because it could be a realtor calling to schedule a showing and if I don't answer, they can come over! So, I've been trying to become proficient at conducting meeting with my laptop in the car with the 3 dogs whining to go back in the house! If I keep the car parked close enough to our back patio, I still get internet reception and can get my work done! Not ideal, but I know I have to try and be flexible right now.

Oh, and to make things even more exciting, our house had a little gift in store for us... We listed the house on April 23rd (a Tuesday). The following Wednesday, I discovered something rather devestating. We had a hot water SLAB LEAK!!! NOT what you want to have happen ever, but especially not when you're trying to sell it! After re-prioritizing my day and calling around to try and find out what we'd have to do, I got an estimator lined up to come out that evening. We've decided it's best to have the pipes epoxied. They determined the hole in our pipe is small enough it should be able to be fixed with the special epoxy mixture, and at the same time, it'll seal all the pipes in our house and prevent any future leaks! AND, it's 100% guaranteed for life! The problem is, it's not cheap. There's $8,000 out of our adoption fund. Grr! But, the likelihood another leak will develop, and soon, is quite high. So it really is the best choice. Plus, they shouldn't have to do any drywall work this way, so all that new drywall in the ceiling of the kitchen that was done about 2 weeks before this happened SHOULD be able to stay untouched! HOORAY!

So, that, in a nutshell, is how it's going. We are planning on trying to nail down our start date for the adoption in about 14 more days! That's 30 days into having the house listed and we'll decide whether we want to start moving forward while the house is on the market. It may not sell... and I'd hate to wait another 6 months to start the adoption for nothing! If it does sell, I figure we can coordinate the details and deal with that as it arises. Sometimes I think you just have to have faith in yourself that you will be able to work things out. That's life... you never know what's coming next.