New Chapter

It is hard to believe that it has been over two months since I last blogged. This is not a reflection on the fact that my life has been boring since January 21st, but just the opposite. I'm not even sure where to begin, so I think that I am just going to do some bullet points that lead up to the new chapter in our lives.

* February 4th we met with CPS and an eight year old boy.
* February 11th, this sweet little boy was placed with us for adoption.
* February 11th I turned in my letter of resignation to the City of Scottsdale after almost twenty years.
* February 14th I reduced my in-office hours to six hours/day and worked the other two - four hours from home in the evenings.
* March 11th we signed the Intent to Adopt papers for our eight year son
* March 14th we headed to Disneyland for Spring Break
* March 25th was my last day with the City of Scottsdale
* March 28th I began a new chapter in my life, stay-at-home mom.

So, now I "stay" home. Not quite what I had imagined. The six hours a day that I am home with just Tyler and Jessica fly by. I thought that I would have plenty of time to get housework done and homework done. Not happening. I am still up late at nights getting things done. About the only thing that has changed is that we no longer go out to eat for dinner and dinners are typically ready no later than 6:00 PM. I think that once I get a handle on things and eliminate all of the one time items on my "to do" list, it will be a lot easier. I am also doing preschool with Tyler every day, which is a huge joy to me. I do have some down time each day (Tyler's nap time), which I am trying to leave as down time so that I can prepare for a future job opportunity if it were to come my way.

This has been a huge adjustment, which I expected, but I didn't expect the emotional roller coaster that I experienced last week. It was difficult to not get up each day and go to work, interacting with my great group of employees. My co-workers waited two days before they called me and my supervisor waited four days before he emailed me. They made me feel a little guilty not being there to help them, but I was able to talk them through it.

I also found out last week that I do not have enough credits to graduate after I finish these last two classes in June, so now I am having to take three additional classes. The financial impact of knowing that I am out of student loan money was hard to take, but we think that we have figured it out. I will be done by October, which will allow me to still walk graduation in May. God is so good to provide for us and I hope to use my degree later on in my life by substitute teaching and helping Mark run his education consulting business that he dreams of starting after he retires.

I am totally loving my life even more so, and feel totally at peace with our decision. Mark is so much happier and he is still very much involved in the day-to-day operations of Eley Castle. I was afraid that with me staying home, he would work longer hours and not touch base or help out, but these past two weeks he has still doing doctors' appointments when we have two children that have conflicting appointments and coming home at a decent hour when he is able to do. He calls or texts me just to say "I love you". I personally think he is checking to make sure that I haven't run away yet! (Just kidding!)

God is so faithful and has blessed us so much and we are so thankful that He has given us our beautiful children and that He has provided us a way so that I can stay home with them. My days are still filled, but with different joys and blessings.