Just found this sign at a discount store a couple weeks ago!
What a find, only wish I'd had this when my 3 sons were small
and we had social workers in our house at least once a week!!
Just the two of us! We can make it if we try, just the two of us, You & I!
What a find, only wish I'd had this when my 3 sons were small
and we had social workers in our house at least once a week!!
I tend to be a procrastinator in some areas of my life. And, have found that I get things done at the last minute pretty well, though I do realize I add stress to the family this way and need to resolve this unbalance somehow as I grow up, whenever that happens. As if the time crunch helps spur me on or something! Weird, I know! Anyhow, that's what happened last Friday (3/19/10) when I was trying to get out the door to our little church's Spring Women's Retreat. I wasn't planning to go to the retreat this year, much to my dismay, as it was our 22nd wedding anniversary on Friday, so I thought I should honor my hubby and hang out with him. Only, he knew how much I long for these retreat times away in God's Country, with the conversation of ladies and crisp mountain air, a nice hike, etc, etc. So, he leaned over in church on the Sunday prior and said, "Just go, we can do dinner anytime. The retreat's only once a year." WOOHOO!!! You don't have to tell me twice! Thanks!!!
Just the two of us! We can make it if we try, just the two of us, You & I!(Grover Washington, Jr, circa 1981 :)
We are family!
Meanwhile, we needed about 10 photos of different areas of our home and of the residents of our home, aka: THE FAMILY to submit to the judge in Russia!! Sooooo, the first photo I sent to both of our social workers from both the placing and homestudy agencies, was the one up top, lol!! I sent it on a Monday morning, just to help them start out the week with a giggle! It worked!!
We are family!For the next almost 2 weeks we worked on getting just the right photos figured out, posed (or rooms cleaned,) taken and processed to submit to the judge in Russia. Just as I thought I had it all figured out, I decided to send, via e-mail, the photos I thought we'd use, to our agency and ask what they thought. I sent what I thought would be a great set, only to find out I needed to scrap about half of the shots and redo them. Our little dog had been helping me with the photos and showed up in most of them. I was the only one home when I took the photos and being quite a social critter, she was right along side me!
Well, actually, she'd go plop on the couch or bed or wherever I was aiming at, waiting for me to be ready to move on. Turns out, we shouldn't share our love of our pup with the judge JUST IN CASE she/he doesn't share our love for the canine in our picture! By the time I'd thought of asking our coordinator whether or not this "great" set would work and found out they wouldn't work, of course, we'd lived in the rooms again :) Back to square one! Where's my sign?!?
Well, actually, she'd go plop on the couch or bed or wherever I was aiming at, waiting for me to be ready to move on. Turns out, we shouldn't share our love of our pup with the judge JUST IN CASE she/he doesn't share our love for the canine in our picture! By the time I'd thought of asking our coordinator whether or not this "great" set would work and found out they wouldn't work, of course, we'd lived in the rooms again :) Back to square one! Where's my sign?!?So, on Friday, I was going about my business of packing and mothering and had been told by Mark that he'd come home early so I could get off "work" early and head up the hill to the retreat. I had completed the retakes of the photos and wanted them in the mail, but wasn't too worried about it as I knew our Social Worker wasn't totally ready for them yet, so I wasn't going to worry about them on what was to be my first day off in a while.
However, that all changed with one phone call! I called our placing agency's Russian coordinator (referred to as social worker earlier in the post) to check in to see how things were going on her end as I'd asked her to look into some details for me over in Russia and in the midst of the conversation, she casually mentions that our Jewel is in the hospital following a seizure episode. Now, in Russia, an orphan may be hospitalized for something that here, as families, we can care for them at home under the same diagnosis. Simply because the orphanage staff doesn't have enough arms to mother, nurse, feed, educate, etc. But, in this case, we don't know if that's the case. Perhaps it is serious. Perhaps Jewel is quite ill and is all alone and feeling miserable. We don't know. Regardless of how she's doing, she is only 10 years old and in the hospital without any loved ones there to reassure her of their love for her and to comfort her fears and insecurities. To simply let her know she's loved and missed back at home! This did not hit me until about 10 minutes after we hung up and THEN it hit me like a ton of bricks! I started crying and there would be no leaving for the retreat until I had completed my next step of the adoption paperwork! Regardless of the homestudy social worker's speed, I was getting the photo documents in the mail that afternoon! So, I collected my photos, my paper, some rulers, and my adhesive and set to work, making two identical sets of 10 photos each spread over 5 sheets of plain white paper. When they say identical, I take that literally, so I had rulers going every which way to make sure all of my borders were equal. Once all was said and done, I was off on another of my Friday night dashes! And off to the retreat! But, first I updated my Facebook and Jewel's Facebook pages in order to rally the prayer support throughout the weekend! I may never know how she weathered this experience, now that she has a loving team over here willing to lift her up in prayer. But, that's okay, our Heavenly Father knows and cares and is taking care of her.
This I do know, without a doubt.
He also knows we need another nearly $45,000 to complete this rescue and I believe He has that in someone's pockets here on earth just looking for a treasure to invest it in. We just need to meet, I know of a Jewel that is priceless!
Last Friday (3/5/10), as we were hurriedly trying to get out of the house for a quick camping/dirtbiking weekend, we went and got our fingerprints done first. Now, this is quite the big deal for us because getting the six of us out of the house for a weekend is usually quite the ordeal, (we think we're doing good just getting to church before the first song ends on a Sunday morning. Once the new little ones arrive, I guess we'll just have to start the night before getting ready, oh wait, we already do that ;) so we never plan extras into those days that we're leaving town!! Doesn't make for a pleasant Mommy and Daddy if we are feeling time pressure along with the added pressure of a long drive ahead after an already long day. And, for this trip, we were both going to be driving so that Mark's fun 1947 JEEP WILLYS could come along, also. It doesn't fit on the trailer so it needs it's own tow-vehicle. Which, by the way, gives Mom a bit of a chance to catch up on my reading (currently on Autism) via audiobook since all the kiddos want to ride in the RV. WooHoo!!(Don't tell them I said that ;)
However, we'd chosen our agency, been accepted as clients, and knew that those fingerprints were going to take a loooooong time to get processed at the FBI so we really wanted them on their way before we were on our way. And, we did it!! We'd already lost 6-12 weeks processing time on this adoption while we were in discussions with another agency that we were hoping to use. They got cold feet and we had to move on and find another agency to get these girls home.
I did say, "TRY," right?? Of all the funny things, the main UPS hub in our area doesn't have the capability to print a pre-paid return envelope, which I was told to include with our prints in order to help with the return shipping timeline!! Both of the people that work there are friends of mine, one from church and one through Special Olympics and church. So, I always choose to go there if I have anything to ship so I can have a little catch-up time. We all agreed that it seemed a bit odd that they could not do something that a contracting location could do! So, we had a bit of a visit, a bit of a chuckle and back to my dash! Found a UPS Store, did my business, including writing
