Pulling my hair out...

Well, I would be, but I need to keep every last strand I got!

Scenerio:

2nd to the last item I need to get for my dossier: Child Abuse/Neglect Clearance letter.

1. Ask adoption agency, "How do I get that?" You should get it as part of your homestudy.


2. Talk to Homestudy agency, "Can you give me this?" We already have your fingerprint clearance still associated with our office from your last adoption. So if you need a letter, contact Dept of Justice, this number, talk to Lena (in records) and she get can one for you.


3. Call Lena, get voicemail, says leave a message and she will call you back in two days.


4. 8 days later, still no call. Talk to Homestudy agency, is there another way to get this letter? Try this number xxx-xxxx


5. Call xxx-xxxx, get a recording that says if you need a clearnce letter, call this number yyy-yyyy and push option 3.


6. Call yyy-yyyy and pusch option 3, gives three more options, none that matches my situation, closes says pay $32 and get fingerprinted to get your letter. (I already AM fingerprinted) so I push zero hoping to talk to someone. Get an operator, tell my long story and she transfers me to...... hold on...guess...Lena's number :)


7. I talk to someone, (not sure if it is Lena, she's not saying) and I share the whole story, again. She says, for your agency your contact is Alberto, call him at zzz-zzzz.


8. I call Alberto at zzz-zzzz and I get his voicemail, he says leave a message and he will call be back in the order the call was received. (Doesn't mention how many days.) I leave the story.

I am now awaiting a callback.

Theory, the patience, self-control, organization, and persistance needed to complete all the paperwork for an adoption and work with all the various agencies involved, is very similiar to the patience, self-control, organization and persistance needed to parent young children while running a household, also similiar to the patience needed to glue 278 tennis balls to the undercarriage of a pick-up truck speeding down the freeway, using only maple syrup.

Guess my character is being built. I be characterized!

Speaks for Itself...

Chuga-Chuga-Chuga...

No, that is not the sound of me drinking milk out of the jug....that is the sound of my "Paperchase" train speeding on down the track! I am almost at the end of my collecting phase. My bank called today and they are mailing their NOTARIZED reference letter (those of you on this journey, know how hard it is to get some banks to notarize a letter)... ..

Check mark, another item checked off.

I am waiting on another clearance letter, then all I have left to garner for my dossier is my Homestudy (BIG THING) and my immigration 171H (LONG WAIT THING, with an imbedded long wait thing for fingerprinting).

But still, it is good, to be chugging along and getting my part done!

Chuga, chuga, chuga....toot toot!

Lemonade from Lemons...

So much has transpired the last three days..... and God makes lemonade from lemons...

So a lemon, something sour, and although beneficial, not too tastey alone....but with the sugar of God's Spirit, it can be quite refreshing.

The little girl I thought might be our "Olivia", turned out not to be. She had been referred to another family and accepted. I praise God that she has a forever family. I pray it is a Christian family and that through this her eternity is changed.

So..although it may taste a little sour to me...it is sweet for her...and it truly is sweet for us too. Sweet to know she has a family, yes. Also sweet because of the work God did in me through this. A couple things:

First, as I thought about this girl and how our life would change, how it would work, I came to realize a 6 yr old would be a better fit into our family. What I was reluctant,at first to consider, thinking it my second or ?? choice, has ended up being my first choice. So God used this possible referral as a way to open that door.

The second is that I got really sick on Sunday with a headache. I HATE when that happens. When it does, I just shutdown, throw up, can't move...etc. I am so self-reliant and HATE to ask for help. But, alas, my son Nicholas insisted, and I realized I had to. A dear friend became my Florence Nightinggale. Donna came over, cooked the kids dinner, got them in their jammies, did laundry, dishes, even went to the grocery store to stock us up on a few things, then stayed until 11 pm until all were sleeping. How awesome was that. This really showed me how special her friendship is and how giving she is. She really is a big support to my little family. Thank you Donna.

The third thing is in being sick, way in the middle of the night, dark, sad, feeling sorry for myself, I started questioning the adoption. Life can be hard sometime and was I nuts, adding more complexity to it? In the night I went over again and again the pros of adopting and the pros of not adopting. And did not come up with an answer. There is good on both sides of the equation. But the bottom line I kept coming to was, what about her? What about this daughter out there who would not have us? And how would it change us to not have her? I knew I could not make any decisions when I was sick and emotionally down. I thought, when I feel better, I will write this all out to God and work it out...The best decision.

This morning, feeling better, not 100%, I prayed about it. By what seems serendipity, I viewed a utube video called Ethiopia Adoption, by a family called Avery. I cried. It just renewed again in my heart why I am on this journey. I felt sad in the video, there is a daddy in it that is SO into adopting his children, you can tell. And that is something we lack, something God knows I long for. But I do not see that in our life. Regardless, walking this road as a single parent, I realized again, why I am doing it. And yes, it will not always be easy, but it is right..for us.

Later in the day, I found out the little girl we had been sent information on was accepted by another family. God works in strange ways. Rather than making me second guess my fresh resolve, it just reinforced it. I am so happy she has a family. God knows why He did not choose ours, but no plan of His can be thwarted.

So we continue with the paperchase and wait on God. He is leading, we are following.

Following Where He Leads....

I am not sure how all this works...but we may have found our "Olivia"(...although she has a beautiful Ethiopia name, so she may or may not want "Olivia" added to her name.) I received some information on a sweet and spunky precious girl Thursday afternoon.

I wish I could post pictures, but I cannot...and besides I want to wait until I know for sure if she is our referral....but she looks and sounds perfect!

As I contemplated the little bit of information I had, and talked to Jesus about this precious little girl, I just felt well of course. Why else would He have had her presented to us, if she is not the one?

I hope to find out more on Monday, but until then...I just keep looking at her three little pictures and re-reading the couple of lines I have.......

Oh my!

Oh and PS. It was on Valentines Day...now is that a precious Valentine or not?

Blog Stalking and other Ughs!

So I hate this waiting stage, this do nothing stage... I am waiting for the mailman to deliver a couple pieces of paper, and for the homestudy to start and NOTHING I CAN DO TO MOVE THE ADOPTION ALONG!

So, I stalk the adoption forum, looking for some interesting message....or check on other's blogs, living vicariously through their next milestone achievement.

Ha! Pathetic, huh!?

Well time to focus on the here and now and let the rest be taken care of by God. :)

Dossier Blues

I have the dossier blues this afternoon. Not so much as gathering all the paperwork, notarized, authenticated....I did that before with China. Just all the confusion over what is needed to be included. I have four different sources or lists indicating what I need to gather (five, if you include the home study agency's requirements) and none of the four match!

None! Nada! Zilch! It is nerve wracking. I go by one list and think I am getting pretty close to done, and boom....another item is dicovered from another list.

So I am just whining. Others have made this journey before me and survived. So I will too. I just have tired eyes and a tired brain...so I thought I would whine.

waaaaaaaa.

On a happy note, I finished my home study agency's "self-study" today and can drop it off tomorrow. :)

Mother-up

I read this today on an Ethiopia adopting forum I belong to and I just loved it. Julia is another mother, that is in Ethiopia today meeting her precious son, Michael for the first time.

"I had a man who put shoes on my horses who also raised cows and sheep. He had a term I just loved that he used to describe how after the calves were separated from their cows, for shots or whatever, and they put the whole herd back together and then the cows and the calves would shuffle around and find each other again.... it was called 'mother-up'. The cows would mother-up with their calves... that is what Julia will do in the morning."

Isn't that a great term? Mother up? I love it.

One Adoption Story