During the month we were waiting to bring home our son, we decided to keep ourselves occupied with homestead projects.

Here’s the list…

1. Create a secondary water system for the orchard
   1. Dig trench 2′ deep x 25′ long,
   2. build box, and
   3. install electrical wiring for the secondary cistern pump
2. Restore Krista’s grandparents’ Adirondack chairs and rocker of 80+ years of age.
3. Replace the home’s primary cistern booster pump
4. Increase house water pressure to 30-50 psi
5. Install an operating float valve to fill our cistern using the well automatically
6. Plant the garden
7. Set up hoses, sprinklers, and timers for both the garden and orchard
8. Finish all the window sills in the house
9. Replace the power steering pump in the truck
10. Rebuild the truck’s carburetor
11. Replace the spark plugs, spark plug wires, distributor cap, and rotor on the truck
12. Make ice cream
13. Make banana pancakes and extra coconut syrup
14. Collect firewood
15. Pull weeds
16. Mow everything I could with a new push lawn mower
17. Apply to renew my teaching license
18. Send in required civil servant form for jury duty in August
19. Make Sushi and a lot of it
20. Repair the garden gates
21. Build  a shelf for our son’s room as well as a sign and coat rack
22. Create a welcome home video for our new son

Three is a magic number… After 21 years our family has begun.

Now after completing this list, we decided it would be great to take some time to rest and relax with our new son. So, we rented a house and took the week off to make the transition for our son be as smooth as possible. Our son is amazing. His foster family is amazing. His social worker and CASA worker are amazing, and we haven’t been this happy in a very long time.