Social worker and such

As I sit here, my belly is resting on my legs a little.  It it pretty funny, and I am leaning forward for it to happen, but still pretty funny.

We had our 2 hour interview with the social worker.  I feel mixed about this whole social worker thing.  I feel angry that my partner of over 9 years is being scrutinized about a child that is hers as much as mine in my opinion.  She is the one quitting her job to stay at home with him and honestly if in the end, they deny us the adoption, that will not change.  I then feel happy that this can even happen as there are some states that it is not even an option.  All in all, it makes me mad to have to go thru this because one of us does not have a penis, but in the end, it will totally be worth it.

Back to the interview.  It is funny that both our lawyer and social worker are a bit quirky.  Strange birds they are.  I expected from both positions for them to be type A personalities and it be more like an interrogation whenever we meet with them.  Not the case, and honestly, I think that is a good thing.  She was very casual and asked a lot of questions.  In the end, both her and the lawyer do not see any reason this would not go thru, which makes it all worth it.  We are going to Bexar (pronounced Bear) county for the adoption, but Liz and I like San Antonio, so no biggie.  (this will not be until Feb. at the earliest)  We like to go there and stay at the Emily Morgan hotel.  They have HUGE bath tubs and it is one of our romantic get aways.  I am sure with Jude that will ruin the romance part, but it will be a nice little escape to go there and spend the night and take a bath and sleep in their really fluffy beds.

She asked us about our families, our lives together, our beliefs with Jude as far as the donor, etc.  It was interesting to me what she did ask and what she didn’t.  Overall, it was pretty painless and Liz got the most questions thrown at her.  She had much better answers than I did and I think the social worker asked some of the questions out of sheer curiosity.  I am just glad that all is left is the home visit.  Our friend B will come and clean up the yard before they come and I think we will hire someone to come and clean the house and that will be that.  There is nothing here to hold us back.

On that note however, I woke up to our little guard dog Emma losing her mind.  It turns out the young girl dog from next door was in our backyard and Emma was not having it.  We have had this ongoing thing with the neighbors and their dogs.  They have 2 pit bulls.  Both are friendly, and both hate their yard and want to live with us.  However, both are excitable and jumpy and with a baby strapped to the front of me, I like them less and less.  We split the cost for a new fence between our yards.  I thought that would solve the problem.  Instead, now they break thru the back of their fence and come in thru another neighbors rotting fence.  sigh.  I am so over this!  I do not want that big excited dog coming over and jumping on me or coming over when Jude is hanging out in the backyard with us.  I am at a loss as to what to do.  I am to the point where I might just start calling the pound when she is out, but that seems like it would punish an already unloved dog and not the owners.  What do I do??  This morning at 7:30 am on my day to sleep in, I decided to wake the neighbors and ask them to get their dog out of my yard as I have many times before.  Maybe that will make them more into fixing the problem, but I doubt it.  I am going to go to Home Depot today to try to get chicken wire or boards to patch up the current holes.  I would need 10 whole boards to patch up their fence, which is why I am leaning towards some kind of wire I could just attach a sheet of.  Either way, what a pain!

The pregnancy is still going well.  I am starting to slow down a little.  I have a rule at work that I climb the stairs 5 times before starting to take the elevator, but lately, I have leaned towards the elevator.  I am tired most of the time and my tail bone has been giving me some pain.  This belly is a little hard to shift around at night and Jude rather enjoys hitting me in the bladder.  Fortunately, he does not kick my ribs yet.  That is something my mother “hopes for me” as payback for when I bruised hers as a baby.  I feel like I am doing really well for being 8.5 months along if that is all that is bothering me.  

We took our animals to all get vaccinated the other day.  (one of the social worker requirements)  and it was quite an adventure.  We have 2 dogs and 2 cats.  We got the cats in crates and the dogs on their leashes and loaded them in the car.  PJ, Liz’s cat, meowed the whole ride there, while he was there, and the whole ride back.  He got the other cat, Malcolm, all worked up and then Pedro the pug started whining.  It was a 30 minute drive to and from the place.  Then on the way home, Malcolm pooped in his crate!  Yuck!  The poor guy was just stressed, but my preggie nose, was not happy about it!  I am glad to have that adventure out of the way.  There is a place that does full vaccinations for about $40 an animal, so it was not as expensive as going to the vets.

5 more weeks.  wowsa.  I need to start packing a bag for the hospital today.  That is on my to do list for Wed.  We only have 2 more birthing classes and then, it is just a matter of dr visits and the holidays.  I am so very hungry.  The other day, I ate breakfast, 2 lunches, 2 dinners, a slice of cake and 4 cookies.   Yesterday, an employee of mine was talking about how she thinks a pizza place made her sick and I just go, “man their pizza and bread sticks sound so good right now”.  She ofcourse just looked at me like I was crazy.  I figure this is the time to eat, so I am.  Now if I go to my Drs. apt on Wed and have gained 5 lbs, I might reconsider, but for now, I am going with what my body is telling me.  I made a 12 hours play list of relaxing songs for the birth.  Liz is going to make a more upbeat one for the birth in case that is what I  decide I like.

We finished decorating the Christmas tree yesterday.  It looks so nice.  Hopefully I can get Liz to put some belly pics and tree pics on here for you to see.  You know I am technologically unable to do such things:)

I hope all of you are enjoying this holiday season!
-S