Hi friends!
I can’t believe it’s already September. I haven’t been on the blog these past couple of weeks because I’ve been working on the backend of my blog. Lots of technical things that I still don’t quite understand but hoping it’s making a difference in the load speed. Everyday for the last couple months I’ve gotten attempts of hackers trying to hack into my site so I’ve also worked in adding extra protection to my site and cleaning out any malware. Plus this site will soon be getting a makeover, which I am so excited to finally get done. So while that has been happening a lot has also happened in our life including Jayden starting first grade! It’s crazy to think that it’s a new school year. With a new school year we’ve also have some updates on current projects I’m working on plus house building updates. So read more below if you want to know what we’ve been up to lately in this August life update.
Jayden Back to School
I can’t believe Jayden started first grade already. He was so happy he got his teacher of his choice which also happened to be the Gifted & Talented teacher for his grade. What I love about his class is they teach independence, foster personal choice, and do not send extra homework. Jayden has loved every minute of school. In fact he told me he wishes he could go to school everyday. Jayden loves to learn. He is advanced in reading so I’ve been taking him to the library all summer so he can check out World War history books. He loves all things War history. I wouldn’t be surprised if he ended up growing up and going to West Point. He did add becoming the President in his list of things he wants to do when he grows up.
Volunteering at Habitat For Horses:
This past month I started volunteering as a ranch hand at Habitat for Horses an organization that rescues and helps rehabilitate horses. They also train horses to be adopted. I wanted to volunteer there because eventually we would like to adopt a few horses for our farm, and I wanted to learn as much as I could about taking care of them. It really has been a highlight of my week to volunteer. I go in the mornings after I drop off Jayden and head straight there. These horses are so special in their own way, and I love being able to build relationship with them. I honestly could just groom and braid horse manes all day lol. I have one name Jethro who is blind and currently working to gain weight. He is older but has so much patience with me when it comes to grooming him and giving him a new hairstyle every week. It is such a special bonding experience.
Fostering:
Currently we are done with all of our classes with Fostering. We are just waiting for our home to be built so we can get a home study to get certified. I did sign up to be a Foster Mentor which has been a great hands on learning experience working with Foster children who might need a little more guidance. I was able to build a relationship with the Foster Mom and get some guidance on the whole process and journey as a foster mom. Being a foster parent is definitely not a walk in the park, but just like parenting the benefits of making a difference in a child’s life is what makes it worth it.
House Building:
Who knew that the house building process when starting from scratch would be a long tedious process with many moving parts. From dealing with the design aspects, the permits, approvals, the county, the builders, drainage, sewage, water, and financing, the hardest part is getting everyone on the same page. Because if everyone isn’t on the same page then no one can really move forward. So currently right now we are waiting for the design, as well as in the process of trying to split our property so we can build two separate homes.
Our dream home build and design is predicted to take a lot longer than we expected especially since we will be starting from scratch, and our goal was to be out of our apartment by next May. We have so much riding on this house being built within a specific timeline with Jayden being in school, with us wanting to be Foster parents, as well as wanting to have horses on our farm. So we have shifted gears and are looking to build a smaller guest home that will sit on the pad that is already built up. The pad was not in our ideal location for our dream home plus it would have cost upwards to $60k to move and build up. So we decided to work with what we have and while we are living in our guest home we can gradually work on our dream home. Eventually that guest home would be open for our family and friends, and hopefully in the future provide a home for transitioning young women who have aged out of foster care and need a home for when they are going to college or transitioning to living on their own.
Whoo I feel like that was a lot of updates in one post, but it’s been awhile since I’ve done these. But now you are all caught up to date on everything now that we head into this new school year. I hope this August update answered any questions that you might have. Thanks for stopping by!
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