Renewal.

Next week we are having our annual home inspection for our license renewal. I had hoped to have a serious placement by now. We don't. We haven't had an actual placement since December. At the training I went to in June, I was informed that the majority of placements they've had this year have been teenagers. We're licensed for ages 7 and under, so they haven't had any calls for us.
This has been a very hard year for me emotionally, and not having any movement at all in this has been depressing. I did have one short bright spot a few weeks ago. We got a call asking if we could do respite for a family in Anchorage. They have 5 older children and had twin 3 year old boys in foster care. Mom had just been in the hospital and needed a bit of a break and they had heard from members of our church that we had a foster license and didn't currently have a placement. There were some other things going on as well, but we had the boys with us for 4 days.
They were four exhausting, wonderful days where I was tired, but oh, so very happy. We bonded very quickly with the boys and I still miss them terribly. It's kind of cruel and funny that we left Anchorage so we could provide a better home, yet, if we were still in town, we'd have better luck at getting an adoptable placement.
Anyway, so I am busy prepping for our home inspection. I'm not worried about it. I know we have a good home environment, and I'm pas the point of panic for the licensing inspection. I'm also trying to deal with a sudden abundance of produce that we've gotten and am busy trying to do a lot of canning, freezing, and may even fire up the dehydrator.
And, because there must always be some minor disaster, our washing machine has broken. We took the whole thing apart last weekend to figure out what was wrong. It had had some drainage problems and was making horrid clunking noises. We did find the problem, and it is fixable, but we did have to pull it out into the middle of the basement floor and take it completely to pieces. The part has been ordered and we await delivery, but odds are it will not arrive before inspection, and we don't want to put it back together just to take it apart again.. and no one is in the basement at present, so, we shall just hope for the best on that score.. We also have a few bits of furniture down there still that need to go to Fairbanks for B2 who is now up there for college. A few things did not fit in or on her car, so they are awaiting another trip.
Things are crazy, as always. While we are waiting for the washing machine part, I have been visiting laundromats, which about shocked me to death at the rates these days.. I mean, sure, it's been 12 years since I've needed to go to on, but, yikes! $3.50 a load just o wash?? So after our initial "catch up" loads, I've been doing most things by hand at home. Thankfully our dryer still works, though, as warm as it's been, I'd just make Hubby put up the outside clothes line we have tucked away in the basement and pick up some clothes pins :)
Life is always a challenge. I just have to keep hoping that the placement I want and need will find it's way to me soon. Meanwhile, sounds like I"m about to come into raspberries :)