Thrifty Tuesday

Last week, I talked about Matt and me celebrating 50 months of happy marriage here: http://2kidneybeans.blogspot.com/2012/07/fiftieth-anniversary.html. I also mentioned that we were planning to go to my favorite places on Saturday to celebrate. Saturday morning we slept in and started out at about 10 on our way to go thrifting, to the Cheesecake Factory, and Pottery Barn. I love all three of these places! I had planned to take my camera to capture the moments forever but totally forgot it. I did take a picture of my finds to share with you though.

3 tops, 1 pair of capri pants, 1 dress, and 1 dress shirt for Matt.

After going to many thrift stores I found some really awesome stuff. The best find that I’m really excited about was a book written by Dr. Sears The Premature Baby Book. I had looked it up on Amazon right before we left and I was able to buy it for only 75 cents, What a deal! I also found a book about parenting adopted kids at the same place. I’m pretty amazed that these were both at the same place and I was already going to buy Dr. Sears’ book. It was truly God’s provision for us. I think that everything I bought added together would have cost what the book would have cost brand new. Ok, that may be an exaggeration, but I was pretty excited to find it. Here is a link to it on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-Premature-Baby-Book-Everything/dp/0316738220

I’ve started reading the book and it has helped me understand a little better everything that Malakai went through. I’ve enjoyed it and it is written in a very easy to understand way. I hope and pray that the next time we get pregnant we make it full-term, but since we don’t know what will happen I would rather go ahead and learn what I can about preemie care.

I'm so thankful that my husband thought that going shopping was a fun way to spend the day together, and I'm amazed at the great finds for the day! What I am most amazed and thankful for is that God knows exactly what my heart desires and He know exactly how everything is going to work out and He is providing for us every step of the way. 

Don't forget about the giveaway that ends next Friday. You can earn more chances to win by becoming a follower on my blog, liking my facebook page, or telling your friends about my page. Don't forget that you must comment on my blog to get credit for liking me on Facebook. Share this post on your facebook page and get DOUBLE POINTS! Just make sure you let me know below in the comments section.  For more details and rules read yesterdays post.

Monday GiveaWay

Today is Monday, and I just realized it’s also been over a month since I started blogging. I think this calls for a celebration! Let’s do a give-a-way!

The winner of my giveaway will receive a pillow cover which can even be monogrammed with a special date or your name. I like this one I did with our wedding anniversary on it.

To enter: like my facebook page http://www.facebook.com/2KidneyBeans and become a follower on my blog. Each one will give you a chance to win. In order to keep up with all entries I will need you to comment below stating that you became a follower and liked my facebook page.

                Example: I liked your facebook page and became a follower.

You can have friends earn points for you as well, they will earn you a point for liking my facebook page http://www.facebook.com/2KidneyBeans and for becoming a follower, and they just need to comment below that you sent them and what they earned a point for.

                Example: Moses sent me, I liked your facebook page and became a follower. 

The contest will end next Friday, August 10 at midnight and I will announce the winner on Sunday, August 12. I will allow you to pick a color scheme and if you would like the pillow monogrammed. It will take about a week to have it in the mail to you. I will ship it for free to anywhere in the world. You must provide an e-mail for me to contact you if you win.

UPDATE: read all about it!

Finally, I can announce that we have completed everything for adoption through the state foster system. Tonight was our final home visit! We started this process back in February and it is such a relief to finally be finished. Now, our social worker will complete our home study and it will be submitted for a final review at the state. After it is approved we will wait and see what doors God opens for us and what kids we are matched with. It feels like I am on the interstate and there are several exits I can take that all get me to the same store, but instead I am pursuing becoming a mom and I am looking at several ways to grow our family. We know we want several kids and so we are open to sibling groups under the age of 8.

When we were going through the classes it seemed like the home study would be so hard and they would be asking prying questions, but that was not the case at all. The process that led up to the home study included 10 weeks of classes from 6-9 for a total of 30 hours. During each class we would go over different topics, for example one week we discussed how to discipline abused children. Obviously, a child that has been abused and beaten is not going to respond well to spankings and so we discussed alternatives. From that meeting we would do a homework assignment called Strengths/Needs. Taking what we learned we would write one strength and one need. For example, I would write that a strength was learning alternative discipline methods when I was studying for my psychology degree and a need would be to maintain consistency and follow-through each time. They were not hard at all, but they really made you think!

The home study basically takes all the strength/needs we submitted and we talk about them in more detail. They use these to learn more about our personality and how we handle different situations. Our social worker was really surprised that we don’t fight in our relationship- we never have. We had to go into detail discussing how we handle conflict if we don’t fight (I guess not too many people know this, but you can disagree and discuss issues without fighting and screaming?). We were also surprised at the questions she asked in concern to dealing with the grief of our babies. We have had peace about all three babies and know that God has a great plan for our life. She said that most couples that would have gone through that would not have been able to remain married. What shocked me the most is that she asked us to go see the agency counselor so they can have in the file that we met with someone to discuss it and that we have handled the grief. I was also a little surprised that I was asked to get a formal letter from my nephrologist stating that my disease is not life threatening and I would be healthy enough to parent. The reason that was so shocking is that I already had a physical for this whole process and there was an entire paragraph written at the physical discussing my kidney disease and that it is stable and not life threatening.  I was so scared when I had to get a physical because I normally call my nephrologist for any problems I may have and I don’t have a family doctor. So when I got my physical I was seeing a stranger and he didn’t know a thing about me, I was so scared he would say I was not healthy enough.

I’m so glad that this process is complete, we should hear from the state in about 2 months that our home study has been approved and then we wait to be matched. 

If you’re excited about the good news leave me a smile please! :)

Fiftieth Anniversary

Yesterday, Matt and I celebrated fifty months of blissful marriage. When we got married we decided that on the 24^th of every month we would make it a special day and celebrate. I’ve read several books that say you should make one day of every week a date night, but we thought one day a month would be easier as our family grows. Celebrating our anniversary every month also makes it hard to forget the big one every year. So if your spouse has a bad habit of forgetting the big one every year, then maybe celebrating every month will help them remember better.

Even though we have not been married for several years,  I think we still have experienced a lot that most couples our age have not. Like experiences that most couples would probably not be able to weather, but that has helped us grow closer together. Experiences like the disappointment of three pregnancies that didn’t go full-term, or the roller coaster of my kidney disease.

The best advice I received before we got married was to not fight over the little things, because we are not guaranteed tomorrow and if our spouse was gone would it have still been a big deal worth fighting over? I also think having an understanding that there is more than one way to accomplish a task has helped us a lot, knowing that it’s ok if I do something a different way than he would. Most importantly, our beliefs have been the cornerstone that has strengthened our marriage. 

Fifty is big, so we are going to celebrate in a big way this coming weekend. Matt is taking me to my favorite place and I’m so excited. Yesterday, we had lunch together and, since tomorrow is a big day we need to get ready for, we decided to wait until this weekend to really celebrate in a big way! I’ll update you tomorrow night on how things went.

Do you and your spouse do anything special on a weekly or monthly basis? Please comment below.