home study

Yes, today was the "big day" for our home study. It went really fast actually. Adrienne came over and asked us a few questions (ie. do we have a fire extinguisher, if we have our meds. locked up, do we have safety gates for our stairs, etc). She then talked to us about our birth parent letter. She gave really good advice. I'm hoping to have Jared re-work that tonight or this weekend, the latest. We then took her on a little tour. Yeah, not to much to see in our house. Anyway~ that was about it. We're finally done with that! I think we can be approved before we finish the letter. She also wants to have us put a paper collage together. We have one on-line, but she wants one to physically hand to birth parents as well. Hope this wasn't too confusing. If it is...

Moral of the story: we're a step or two closer to being approved for adoption!!

slacker

Yeah, I'm a slacker. Sorry. Here is this weeks family letter:

This week started out with a few exciting events for Devin and me. Monday and Tuesday we went to LDS Family Services and had our individual interviews. They asked questions about how we plan to raise our family and we gave them the answers they wanted. Our case worker, Adrienne, is very nice. When I started my interview Adrienne just talked about how darling my wife is. I agree my wife is the most darling thing ever in the existence of the word darling. As a matter of fact I believe the word darling was invented just to describe Devin. Adrienne also told me Devin just talked me up something fierce when she was being interviewed. I think that I was a let down when she actually met me. I do want to point out that I was asked what I love about Devin and I replied that I just like being with her, holding her hand, and talking. There is not much better than being with the one you love, being in love with them. We where also told that there where not any red flags and this week we are going to have our home inspection. I do not know what day it is but I am sure that Devin will remind me and let me know the night before and the morning of the interview. We really are excited to get things rolling.

Saturday morning Devin and I were preparing for company this next week. Granddad and Grandma Hurst are coming into town for doctor visits and Mom Z. is coming to help with the appointments. This means there was a little prep work to be done. Like go grocery shopping for stuff. When we got home from the store we were putting things away and we ran out of room in the refrigerator. Devin looked at me and told me that we had to break one of our rules on where things go in the fridge. Devin insisted that we needed to put fruit in the crisper drawer. Now this may not seem like a big deal to many people but this is one of the items that drives Devin nuts. In the past Devin put fruit in the crisper drawer and I never looked in them to find the fruit. I looked and decided that just because it was out of sight we did not have any fruit. I could have looked in the drawers but that thought never crossed my mind. Devin caved and began to humor my bad habits and started not to use the crisper drawers after throwing out lots of food. I told her that I would not remember my apples for work on Monday if they where in the crisper. I started to think of how unintelligent I must be not to be able to look in the crisper drawer. I told Devin that we needed a sign on the door to remind me that the fruit is in the crisper. I have missed looking in the drawers already and hope to get better at it over the next few weeks. I am afraid that we may need to revert back to not using the crisper for anything but we are hoping for better results this time.

Earlier this week Devin and I ran the nursery for another ward while they had their enrichment activity. Devin let me play and have fun with the kids I spent about 30-45 minutes running around the room trying to catch the kids while they kept saying what delicious things they where made out of. Devin made a sly suggestion and told them to say they tasted like caramel, my favorite thing to eat. This drove the Jared monster crazy and we ran and ran around the room until I could not run any more. I am sure that the kids could have run for hours but I was tired. Since then I have had one thing on my mind, CARAMEL. Saturday night we spent some time with our neighbors EJ and Mollie. We got a movie and Devin volunteered to have me make caramel corn for everyone. I said yes and went to cooking one of my favorite deserts. I got out our binder with family recipes and started making the delicious confection. I started to add the last ingredient and realized that I was not making the correct thing. I was making real caramel and not popcorn caramel. I was devastated except for the fact that I got real caramel. OK, I was not mad at all I just wanted to have the caramel. I used half the caramel on the popcorn and saved the rest for another delicious day. I was very happy to have the caramel and was ecstatic that it turned out so good. Also the caramel on the popcorn was wonderful as well. I hope that my cooking works out that good for the rest of the week. We are excited to have everyone come over and play with us. Well I am. Devin is sad that she needs to study and not play. Here is to you having as much fun as we do.

for those of you who are anxiously waiting...

I totally spaced until yesterday that I should post how our individual interviews went. As you can guess... they went great! Our case worker, Adrienne, is absolutely wonderful. I am so excited to be working with her. So an update on where we are at:

home inspection is on Thursday, June 25

After the home study it is a waiting game. We'll wait to get approved... then we'll wait some more to get picked for adoption!!

our week

The beginning of the week was pretty boring. I spent lots of time fixing computers for friends in the ward. I am sure that you do not want to hear much about that so I will skip to Thursday when my week started to get interesting. I was at work when Devin sent me a message telling me that she would like a grape slushy. Devin was at work down in Provo so I knew that she would not have an opportunity to get one until after work. I had finished up work a little early and decided to head down to Provo and get a slushy for Devin. I tried to sneak up behind her and surprise her but I poked my head around the corner and there was my beautiful wife smiling like always. I only had a minute before Devin was called into a patients room. I foolishly headed back to my car. I decided to take the stairs and walked down 6 flights before Devin called me on the phone and told me to come back up. I headed back up the stairs and met my beautiful bride most of the way up and I had about 15 minutes to hold her and talk with her. I enjoyed my lime aid but mainly I enjoyed being with Devin. I know this may not seem like a big deal to others but I love to be with my wife and 15 minutes with her is like 15 years in heaven. As an example of being with Devin making me happy, I want to point out that over the past month or so Devin and I have started to run a couple times a week. We run a couple times a week there is always a compromise on when we go running. I have a very boring job sitting at a desk and not getting a lot of exercise during the day. On days Devin works she spends most of the day walking around, lifting, and bending. As you can see our days are filled with very different activities. I end up running by myself most days. I do not like running but I do enjoy going out and running with Devin. She really makes the time go by fast.
Today was a very busy day for both Devin and I. I had meetings this morning at 8:45 and when I got home Devin had left for other meetings. She eventually got home at around 1:00. This worked out good for me because I had a talk in church today. I got a kick out of how I opened my talk so I want to tell you how it opened. I started out by bragging about my horrid singing skills and apologized and told everyone who is musically inclined to plug their ears. I then sang the song “The Prophet said to plant a garden”. I then talked about my 4 square feet of garden and about a news report I had recently heard. The report talked about the fact that for every dollar you spend on your garden you get roughly 50 dollars of produce. I then talked about the 49 dollar profit from 1 dollar of investment. I then stated that “the PROFIT said to plant a garden” . I waited for about 2 seconds before people started to laugh at the very dumb joke. Most of the rest of my talk was taken from the provident living website and I talked about the ways the prophet has instructed us to profit and how to manage our lives. Before priesthood our bishop came up to me and thanked me for not singing any more. Other people said that I was very brave for standing up in front of the whole ward and poorly singing a song. Devin's scouting assistant was talking down the hall with her boys and said that after I sang the song her boys went wild with laughter and she had trouble calming them down but they did listen to the rest of my talk so I guess that it worked.
After sacrament meeting I was a little sad. Devin started her new calling as the Assistant Primary Chorister so she did not come to gospel principles with me. Devin was a little worried about how to handle the kids. As she started singing time Devin felt like a freight train plowed into her from out of no where. I mean have you ever seen rail road tracks in the church. Well Devin found the invisible ones and got smashed. Devin said the kids had lots of energy. I can not blame them after listening to me give a talk and singing bad I would want to get out of the building as well. Devin had an apron with lots of little cut out pictures relating to songs. Devin would put the apron on the kids and let them pick a picture and everyone would sing the song. The primary had a tradition that the class that sang the best got a reward. The kids think it is very exciting to get to put a pair of bunny ears on their teacher. The kids seemed to have a good time and Devin survived. She already has ideas for next week. Devin is excited about the calling and is really going to have lots of fun. We love you and hope that you have a really fun week.



Jared having happy bunny thoughts!



Devin in her singing apron

We've heard from our SW

Our social worker, or SW, from LDS family services FINALLY contacted us yesterday! So excited. We have appointments with Adrian, our SW, next week. So here's the outline of how things play out from here.

Individual interviews- Devin is on Monday at 9 a.m.
Jared is on Tuesday at 9 a.m.
Home study- we'll set up next week after the interviews

Then it's all one big waiting game. We wait to get approved. Once we're approved we wait to get chosen. We're just excited to finally get moving again.

We're late... sorry

Missionaries Family and Friends

I want to start out the letter with a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my little brother Teancum. He turned 13 today and now my parents only have teenagers at home. Lucky for Mom and Dad, Teancum is a good kid. I also have to say congratulations to my brother Josh and particularly congratulations to his wife Jill who brought a baby boy into the family on Thursday. Michael William Payne looks really cute in all the pictures we have received of him. Good luck with the new baby.
When it comes to cell phones Devin and I disagree on when I should carry my cell phone. Devin wants me to carry it with me at all times. This is so she can easily get in touch with me when ever SHE wants. I like to be left alone and do not want to be found very often. I am suppose to call Devin when I am headed home from work, especially when I ride my bike. This lets Devin know when she can expect to see me at home. Devin likes to hear from me as often as possible too. Well, Wednesday I was riding my bike and I remembered to call Devin but the phone was in my backpack so I did not call. This got me in a little trouble, mainly because where having company over and I got home close to when they were going to arrive. The next day I was trying to help keep in touch with Devin so I put my phone on my desk. That makes it easy for me to get text messages from Devin. I even used the phone to coordinate lunch with my cute wife. I headed to the hospital where my beautiful wife was working when I realized a few things.
1.I did not have my phone on me
2.I did not know where in the hospital Devin was working
3.I was not sure that I knew Devin's phone number
This caused a small panic because it took me about half an hour to get to the hospital and I did not want the trip to be a waste. I was eventually able to remember what Devin's phone number was and I tried to call her and let her know I was there. Unfortunately Devin did not recognize the number and did not answer her phone. After a few minutes I tried calling again this time it looked like I as calling from staffing, Devin's department, and she picked up. I got to have a delicious lunch with my wonderful wife and the rest of the day was fun because I got to see Devin. Devin was a little agitated that I left my phone on my desk. It just goes to show that no matter what I do with my phone it will probably not be what Devin wants me to do. That leads to the conclusion that I should just not have a phone. Devin says that is not an option either. Maybe I will be able to remember my phone in the future. Devin is much better at that than I am.
My sister Jeni and her family came and visited this weekend. Bart's brother was getting married on Friday, so they came down for the weekend. I felt bad because I accidentally over scheduled this weekend. I had plans to go camping with the 11 year old scouts. Jeni's family showed up late Thursday and we had a good time with them. Friday morning I got to hang out for a while before the wedding and had fun with the kids. I was sad to go to work. I ended up getting home early and barley caught them before they left. Everyone was in the car and I barely had time to steal a kiss from Devin before she left. Everyone left Saturday morning and I did not get home 'til the afternoon so I missed out on all the fun. Devin got to play with everyone all Friday. She really was lucky.
One of the exciting things to happen for Devin this week is that she got a second calling at church. Devin is now the assistant primary chorister. Luckily this is mainly a Sunday calling. Devin will be working with the younger primary. Devin is excited to get to sing songs and have fun with the kids. She may also fill in as the pianist from time to time. Devin is such a lover of music that this calling is almost a relief for her. We are happy to hear from everyone and hope that you enjoy your week as much as we enjoy ours.

**note from Devin: they say it's a Sunday only calling. We'll see about that one. Love you all!