Home Study

It's finally here!  Tyler and I are scheduled to have our home study tomorrow night.  I'm so excited to finally complete this step!  I'm really not that nervous....but I'm definitely anxious.  It helps that we know our social worker and she's been to our home before and already said our home is great for a baby:)  What I'm more anxious about are all the questions she has to ask us.  What if I say something wrong?  Or make a stupid joke that offends her (I tend to do that when I'm nervous:/)?  And Tyler keeps joking about playing a prank on her some how.  Someone please tell him what a dumb idea this is!  He thinks it will break the ice and calm nerves.  I think it will get him killed....because I will kill him:)  And what should I wear?  What says "I"m a good person to give a baby to"?  Should I have home made cookies baking in the oven to show my domestic side?  (I've never made anything from scratch in my life by the way)  I actually can't even cook.  I probably shouldn't mention that during the home study.  Ok I know I'm being silly but this is definitely a weird experience.  We went into adoption because we feel strongly about providing a loving home for a child who needs one.  We plan to adopt multiple times because I really am passionate about helping as many children as possible.  But this whole process of being approved and chosen is very humbling.  Why should our social worker approve us?  Why should a birth mother pick us?  Why would God pick us?  It makes the gift of this child feel that much more precious. 

Please say a little pray for us Wednesday night:)  And that I get some sleep tonight.  I have a feeling I'll be up late cleaning and re-cleaning my entire house.....


On a completely different note.  Walker has pink eye:/  Poor guy!!  I had to put drops in his eyes today before nap time and it was awful!!  I HATE eye stuff!!  I can't even handle it when I get an eye lash in my eye.  In college I went on a team retreat with my Young Life team and got something in my eye while riding 4-wheelers.  It took 5 people to hold me down and flush water in my eyes.  When I was little it took 6 nurses to put drops in my eyes.  I'm not even exaggerating which is really sad.  So when Paul told me he had to be on a conference call and I had to be the one to put the drops in Walker's eyes I tried not to let my panic show.  I'm not sure who it was worse for.  This is scary and painful for Walker and I was trying to comfort him but I really needed someone to comfort me too.  Gah!  I'm such a baby!  I swallowed my fears and pushed down my desire to run out of the room and held the poor boy down and pried his little eye open.  He handled the first drop pretty peacefully but then freaked out!!!  He was so upset and miserable my issues quickly vanished and all I cared about was helping him through this.  I tried praying together.  I tried singing together.  Both usually calm him down pretty well but he had reached the point of no return.  So I just cried with him and put the drops in the corner of his eyes and hoped the tears would help the medicine get in there.  He then begged me to never do that to him again.  Unfortunately for us both, I'll be doing this all over again in 4 hours.  At least I'm not worried about the eye part anymore.  Just the emotional damage I'm doing to this poor boy. 

13.1

My half-marathon was a few weeks ago but I wanted to share with everyone a few pictures and some of my favorite parts:)

 My little brother and I about to start

Had a beautiful view of the ocean for part of the run

Feelin good!

Yay I did it!! 2:04:51

 Huggin my mama:)

We did it!  Very proud of my bro!

My mom came out to cheer us on and walk the 5k

My crazy awesome husband crazy loves me

My awesome friends made the BEST poster!!

I was kinda surprised how much fun I had running the half!  The beginning was a little rough.  At mile 3 I was thinking there was no way I was gonna make it.  I was tired and questioning why I decided to do this in the first place.  And then I remembered this was all Keith's idea and I began cursing him in my head.  Then I felt bad because he was running too and probably needed me to pray for him, not hate him for making me do this:/  And lets talk about how annoying these speed demon runners are.  They were passing me like I was the slowest person to ever attempt to run.  I mean who are these people?!  Didn't they know they were messing with me head?  I kept thinking  "Apparently I'm barely moving.  But I'm tired and this hurts.  How am I gonna finish this damn thing....ugh damn Keith, this is all his fault!!....I mean God be with Keith and give him strength.....And I could really use some strength too...."

But somewhere around mile 6 I was having the time of my life!  I think it was a combination of working out all the kinks in my body, getting out on my own and finally starting to pass some people myself, and listening to some really good music on my ipod.  I had switched all the music on my ipod to worship songs and they worked great to pump me up and keep me moving and keep me praying.  I can't remember everything I was thinking while I was running.  There were miles that I must have mentally blacked out because I don't remember anything.  I sort of compare it to dance marathon.  32 hours of staying on your feet with no sleep.  I definitely forgot hours of my life there.  But what I do remember was surprisingly a lot of fun:) 

Here were some of my favorite parts of the half:

• Running with my little bro:)
• My crazy incredible awesome husband being the best cheerleader I could ask for
• My Mama coming to cheer us on and walk her own 5k too:)
• Alyssa (Keith's kick ass wife) and her brother, Alan being awesome cheerleaders and dealing with my craziness before the half-marathon
• Miles 6-10.5 were awesome.  I felt great and had a great pace!  
• Tyler, Alyssa and Alan moved around to cheer us on at different parts of the race.  It meant so much to see them cheering and holding posters for us!
• When I looped back I got to pass Keith and give him a high five.  It was great to see how well he was doing and it was just encouraging to know he was doing this with me.  (looking for him for almost a mile also gave me something to do to stay distracted from my sore toes:) 
• Mile 12 Tyler caught up to me on his skateboard.  At that point I couldn't tell if I was still moving so it was so great to have him next to me to talk to.  He stayed with me till mile 13 and then went up to the finish line to cheer me on there.  Man I'm crazy lucky to have him.
• Crossing that finish line!!
• The "Katie Potter" poster!!  Amazing!!  Thank you Elysa, Ryan, Dan, Melissa and Rene!!!  I laughed every time Tyler held it up for me:)
• Watching Keith cross the finish line.  I'm such a proud sister!
• Getting so many encouraging messages from friends and family
• Spending some much needed time focusing on God and not myself.  Switching to worship music on my ipod was the best thing I could have done.  
• Destroying  CiCi's pizza buffet after the race.  Ate a whole large pizza and then some:)  They never saw us coming....

The worst part you ask?   My bruised and bloody toe nails and blisters the size of Texas.  My feet may never be the same.  But it was worth it and I can't wait to do it again!!