I Lost My Craft Room But Gained An Addition

Is anyone still there?

I have been busting at the seams to share the latest changes in our lives! I’ve just been afraid to count our chicks before they’d hatched. We have an addition to our family! At the very beginning of the new year, we became unofficial foster parents to a very sassy, lively 15 year old girl. This past week the last of the legalities were FINALLY completed and she is now LEGALLY ours!

The past year has been quite a journey!

It seems since October of 2008, we have been, … hindered – for lack of a better word. Deaths of family members and pets, temporary physical problems such as backs going out (me) and cricks lasting weeks in necks (hubby), the little depressions all of these potholes brought on,… just to name a few. I just did not get it. Why was all of this stuff happening when we had finally gotten our acts together, ready to purposefully walk forward into the next chapter of our life. I mean with a real agenda and everything?

Just before all of this craziness started, I presented my husband with our next DIY remodeling project. One I picked out for a change. We were going to turn the awkward little conjoined rooms in our home into a craft room/office for me and a space for him to tinker. The plans were completely drawn out including the measurements and prices for all of the cabinets, peg boards, electrical needed, all of the financing and phases figured out…. the whole darn kit and caboodle! He was just as excited as I was! We couldn’t wait to get started! (And I could not wait to blog about it!)

In hindsight, I can’t help but marvel. If we had been both physically and emotionally ready at any given moment over the past year to follow up on those plans, we would not have had the space to make a bedroom for this marvelous girl in our home. I guess I am just one of those that try to believe things happen for a reason, even if it takes a lot of time to discover what the reason is.

Which makes me wonder. How do you keep sane when times get tough? What helps you get to the other side? Do you think bad things sometimes happen for a good reason?

While I am at it…

I could really use lots of help!

It is going to take some time for me to get back into the swing of writing here again, AND with so many things to write about! We are in the process of setting up her room now that the walls and floors are done. We will be working on bringing these individual people into a cohesive family.

That means organizing teen and kids spaces, all of the things that come with trying to get the nontraditional family to work like getting kids to cooperate, house rules/responsibilities, home schooling and public schooling, ……. I’m going to share what we are working on and the things I DO know.

Any guidance/tips you have to offer would be fantastic! I am going to try to figure out Mr. Linky so those of you that blog can link up very regularly to share on the current topic.  For those of you that do not blog, I beg you to be brave. Do not just lurk behind the scenes. Give your two cents. How you agree, what things worked for you, your war stories. Especially if you disagree or do things differently.

How about it? Are you in?