Has it really been almost a month since my last post?? I'm not sure where to start... it almost seems that not much has changed since the last post, although for the last few weeks i've been thinking i really should get blogging because my mind has certainly been busy.

Jonathan put in 240 hours of work in September ~ that explains why it seemed like he was never home (and i confess, i was somewhat frustrated by that at times). On a brighter note, it is a financial provision that i can be thankful for as we are trying to save up to begin the adoption process. Officially, as of this morning, we are out of our line of credit... by less than $25, but hey! it's above $0!!! even if it is only for a few hours ~ lol. And our "homestudy fund" is over $400, so almost half-way there. Another blessing... i get the boys for 3 day shifts this week, plus a few hours on the other days.

Now that we're getting close to moving ahead, there's a variety of mixed emotions (well, that doesn't sound like anything new). Ya kind of get to a point where ya just need to decide what ya want and go with it! (I guess for us, we just can't say "no" so we gotta move ahead ~ lol).

I did manage to put a bit of "reality" into it all for the kids ~ after a few day shifts in a row, I challenged them with the question, "suppose we were going to adopt the two boys we babysit... how would you feel about that?" They weren't too excited about that ~ which had me wondering why not?? The answers i got were a little surprising... things like "he's too loud ~ we'd have to teach him to be quieter" and "they'd have to learn to get along with each other." Guess what?? International adoption "could" be a LOT more challenging than that... are you sure you still want to adopt? So there was a bit of re-consideration, but after a bit of time to think about it all, they're still saying "yes." Brenden might be a bit cautious still... but unless he's keeping things from us, his concerns aren't too big ("no, i won't expect you to change dirty diapers" ~ lol).

Oh, after a crazy-busy month of work for Jonathan (they switched him over to doing more feeding, etc. instead of just milking, so there was some extra training/learning time for mixing feeds/rations), we're confused about his October schedule. He's got every morning off except the weekends that he's working. Only three night milkings all month too. It's nice that he's getting such a big break, but if he's only working one shift a day, we'll notice it on the month-end pay cheque. The junior boss talked earlier about freeing him up some to do some welding around the farm, but the senior boss doesn't seem interested in having him do any welding. Oh well... he might end up with lots of hours anyway because they've decided to add a second person to do the night milkings. We're happy about that because on his own it would take Jonathan til well after 3am most nights. They are also considering going back to two milkings, but will try some changes to the feeding rations first. They just haven't seen the milk production go up like it should have.

Ok, i better run... Jonathan is on his way home and we're going shopping. Yipee! (Not about spending money ~ although i'm excited to save $30 on our purchase ~ but about spending time with Jonathan ~ and we don't mind grocery shopping most of the time).