Becoming Home

My posts are very boring these days sans photos, but in our current state of disarray, I have no idea where in the world our download thingy is. I guess I could go to Walmart and get a new one, but it's still taking my brain a while to adjust to the fact that I can easily go get the things I need. It also seems that our computer and our friend's computer (who also lives in HK and is home for the summer) have contracted some Big Brother China virus that won't allow us to connect to the internet in America. And finally, I'm having a blog identity crisis. I started this blog as a way to keep our friends and family updated on our lives half a world away. We're just down the street now, and there aren't quite as many blog worthy moments when you're living the American life that we all know and love. Hopefully we will soon be somewhat more "settled", and I can revamp the blog. Our adoption agency has asked us to advocate on our blog once a month for various issues related to orphans and adoption, so I'm excited about that.

And onto the house, which we have lovingly dubbed "Pandora." It seems that the more we try to fix, the more we uncover that needs to be done. The electrical issue that we thought would be an easy fix turned into "Pay $8000 to bury the wires or tear down your deck." So we are currently sitting on that little problem waiting for money to start growing on trees. I started ripping down wallpaper in the bathrooms on a whim one night, and that turned into Jon ripping out the old vanity, installing a pedestal sink, installing new bathtub hardware, ripping out the old shower doors, and hopefully getting the tub resurfaced. The painter has finished the walls and started on the trim. Unfortunately, when we went over to look at the fantastic job that was promised us, we saw paint dripping from the crown molding, paint puddles on the window sills, and drips running down the window frames. I was less than happy, to put it mildly, and our contractor promises us that it will be fixed. It makes me sick, to be honest, but I'm trying to get over it and tell myself that it's "just paint." The colors are gorgeous and I love them. Our stuff is supposed to arrive in Cincinnati this Thursday where it will then clear customs, be released, and be picked up by a moving crew to be delivered to our house. We got word that our container was singled out for "screening". Not sure what that means, and we're hoping hoping hoping to be moved in before school starts on Aug. 13. Until then, we are filling our days with soccer camp, pool days, friends, family, trips to the park, and marvelling at the beautiful blue sky and puffy white clouds that we will never take for granted again!