1. We bought another ranch
and...
2. We are all ready to start our application process for adoption!
I get giddy and/or more like panicked just thinking about it all! This time next year we could possibly have a child, in a brand new house, on our very own Idaho ranch! Joey, his older brother Brett his dad (Monty) all decided to expand our ranching business, and even though this new ranch (Winecup Land & Livestock) will be a "separate" operation from the Winecup Cattle Co. here in UT, we will still just be "The Winecup Bunch". Joey will still continue to work for the WC Co. and someday, however it all works out, it will all be one big operation. But, for the sake of not losing our minds with the particulars they will be considered 2 different ranching operations run by the same 3 guys... Make sense? As for The WC L&L ranch.... It's located on the northern side of Bear Lake, in a beautiful location. It is smaller than the WC Co., it has 450 acres and can run around 300 head of cows and we also have a summer forest permit close by for the same amount of cattle. It has a super nice shop, barn, bunk house, scales, corrals and outdoor arena. AND... it comes with about 1000 head of cats... They run the place. We're in love with it. As for the cattle, Joey has applied for a 1st time Ag. loan and we have already bought 5 bulls and are looking at about 90 head of cows at the moment and are in the market for around 100-200 more before they start to calve and prices sky-rocket more than they already have (so, if anyone knows anyone with bred, nice looking, Angus cows who calve around the end of March/early April for sale PLEASE let us know!). And wish us luck... this is a big step for us all!
As for our adoption process, I'm glad to say we have decided on one adoption agency for now. We decided to go through LDS Family Services and we are working with a couple different offices here in UT. The wait has been because of 2 things... the first was the decision of which adoption agency(ies) to go with and second was when we decided on LDSFS we had to have our LDS Bishop fill out a letter of recommendation and he must have been pretty busy because it took him quite a while to get them that letter. But, as of this past Friday we are now in the LDSFS adoption system and working on getting all of our paperwork started, finished and turned in! We also have to take some classes before we are all ready to be eligible to adopt! I will keep this blog and also the blog we made for our adoption updated on how this process is going and when exactly we are "up" for adoption! Hopefully it will only take a couple months and then when all of our paperwork and classes are done with it can take anywhere from that next week to... well, a long time. So here's to prayer and faith and hoping that we are meant to adopt a beautiful little person into our family someday (soon we hope!).
Here is the blog we made specifically for our adoption process. We would love it if you would share this blog with others. It will be a little less about our personal everyday going ons and more about us and our adoption journey. I will be working on it more and more (right now it isn't anything special and I have hardly written anything on it...). If anyone has any suggestions for this blog or would like to help "spruce" it up a little please, let us know! Thanks for your thoughts and prayers we have gotten this far, we appreciate every little bit!
