Today's Barbara Conversation

I called Barbara today to let her know about our decision regarding Colin and to see if there were any new bulletins.

There were a couple of new bulletins, but none that were a match for us. There were either babies or 8-9 year olds, which is the exact range that we have blacked out.

I did ask finally ask her if she knew what the average length of time was for a family to have a placement after having completed their homestudy. She said that she didn't have any statistics like that, but that, in her experience, it's longer than we've been at it. She said that another family she's working with who were looking for a child in more or less the same age range as ourselves just got a placement after going to 4 committees and waiting (from homestudy completion) for one and a half years. Yikes! That's a long time.

Barbara also said that I was much more active and involved in the process than most families that she works with, so she thinks that we might get a placement sooner. With our second committee coming up, she feels like we're average to faster than most families that she's worked with. So, that's that. While it feels like a long time, it doesn't seem to actually be the case. I do know that it's much faster for some people in other states, but have also communicated with people for whom the process is longer in other states.

Davan and I rode bikes to a program at the library this morning. Davan almost got hit by a truck making a left hand turn! It scared me near to death. Davan was crossing with a green light maybe 20 feet ahead of me. It was an intersection where the left turn doesn't have an arrow. This pick up truck came whizzing through, not looking at all. I yelled out "SHHHIIITTTT!!!!!!" Which did seem to get the truck driver's attention, as he did change course at the last minute. They passed within a few feet of each other. I then yelled after the truck, "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU THINKING!?!?!?!" There was a guy in the open back of the truck who kind of shrugged apologetically at me and they were off. Obviously, I'm very eloquent when scared.

Davan and I stopped just past the intersection and hugged for a while. She was trembling. Then we agreed that it was good that no one was hurt and both thought about all the many times we've ridden our bikes without any such thing happening to us. We rode on.

The performer at the library was a ventriloquist/illutionist who was somewhat entertaining, but, as Davan said afterward, "All of his puppets told the same sort of jokes and they were a bit mean." So, it wasn't a great hit.

Afterward, we went to Toy Bear, which is a really great toy store in Gresham. Sadly, they are closing. They're having a closing sale, so we stocked up on some gifts. I think I've got Christmas and birthdays covered for the rest of the year for children we buy for other than Davan. We also picked up a couple of Gamewrite games for ourselves because we love them. Davan picked out a set of new doll house people. At some rash time in her past, she decided to pass on the boys from her doll house family and is now regretting that. Her families are now meshing. I think the older doll house mom might be being passed on, though. We'll assume that's not a commentary on what she'd like to see happen with me...

On the way home we stopped at a cherry tree that doesn't seem to belong to anyone, as it's standing in an empty lot, climbed up and procured ourselves some cherries to go with lunch. We didn't get a ton - there were many, many more up higher than we could reach - but we got plenty to have with lunch. At also turned out to be just as well that we couldn't get more, because they were only so-so. Not as sweet as we're used to in a cherry. I don't know why.

We'd talked about maybe going swimming again this afternoon, but we didn't get back from our morning adventures and done with lunch until about 2:30, so we've opted not to swim. I do have a date to jump on the trampoline with Davan shortly, though. We've talked about putting the sprinkler under it for hot days, but I don't think it'll be necessary today. It's not burning hot and there's actually a bit of a nice breeze, as well.