When It Rains, It Pours

Please pardon my mess, I'm currently trying to figure out this new layout for the blog.

Life happens.  These past couple of weeks have been quite out of the ordinary!  You know the saying, 'when it rains it pours'?  Well, it has poured at the Kelley household.

first downpour
As you read in our last post, Caleb's grandma past away so we went to Indiana for the funeral.

second downpour
The same week that we got back from Indiana, I had a car accident and totaled our car.  I rear-ended someone.  The air bags deployed (the smell from them deploying was bad and there was smoke coming from them; I was told this was normal after the fact), the windshield on the passenger side cracked, the hood got bend in half. The car I hit barely had a scratch on it.  The weather was snowy and there was a slight hill, so when I slammed on the brakes there was no traction.  I was in the process of making a right turn.  I definitely wasn't paying attention.  I looked down for a second, looked up and knew what was going to happen.  Poor Charis was so shaken up and cried for about 10 minutes.  I was shaken up as well and couldn't really do much for her.  We had just gone to Wendy's and got some food.  Her french fries flew to the floor after the accident and she was quite upset about that.  I had my hamburger on my lap at the time and it splattered on me, the door and window.  Thankfully, no one was hurt just really shook up.  I also felt like such an idiot.  The first thought that went through my head was, 'Aw, I'm going to get a ticket!'.  Weird thought, I know, but I've never gotten a ticket for anything.  And guess what??  I didn't get one!  I couldn't believe it.  The cop said these accidents happen a lot because of the weather.  We were needing to get a bigger car anyway with our upcoming adoption, just didn't have it planned THIS way!

                            Um...yeah...

                            Hardly a scratch...

third downpour
A couple of months ago, Charis got the flu shot which is to PREVENT the flu, right?  Well, she got the flu and bad this past week.  She hasn't been this sick since she was a baby.  She is finally better!  Now, hopefully sickness has left our house and no one else will get it.  Thinking happy thoughts.

Now, we are in the process of buying a new (new to us anyway!) car.  We were looking at an '04 Chevy Malibu, but after looking at the carfax, we saw that the car was totaled before.  We will be looking at an '03 Saturn Vue on Wednesday.  A great family from our church is letting us borrow their car until we can get one, what a blessing!  Thankfully, God has provided the money we need for another car without having to take out a loan.  With our upcoming adoption, we don't need to add anymore expense to our financial statement or raise any red flags which could delay this process.  

3rd home study done!

We had our 3rd home study last Thursday.  I wanted to blog about it that day, but we had to travel to Indiana because Caleb's grandmother was not doing well.  We knew that she didn't have much longer here on earth.  Caleb's mom wanted the family that could come down to be there for her and Grandma Carnahan.  We arrived in Indiana late Friday evening.  Grandma Carnahan was 89 years old and passed away on Saturday February 4 at 4pm.  She had been battling Alzheimers since she was 80 years old.  We were glad that we were able to be there for Caleb's mom and for the funeral.  The funeral was beautiful and a fitting tribute to Grandma Carnahan.  She was a woman who loved the Lord, her children and other people.  She had 9 children, 3 of which were born with physical/mental handicaps and she dedicated her life to caring for them.

Our home study went well.  Our social worker took a tour of our home--I was a little nervous about this!  You know, when someone comes to your home, you think about all the things that you need to do different, clean or fix.  I have not put any pictures on the walls because I know this place is not going to be permanent (we eventually want to buy a house).  I really don't want to have to wrap and pack pictures--again!  Packing pictures is so tedious.  I've been contemplating unpacking my pictures and putting them anyway.  I love having pictures up around my house.  Anyway, our social worker's main goal was to see the sleeping arrangements we would have and the basic safety for our place.

We have one more home study to go.  Hopefully, we'll be able to get that done within the next couple of weeks.  After we are done with our home study, we will be able to focus full force on our dossier paperwork, the paperwork that will go to Ethiopia.