Fotos, Fotos, Fotos, ahhh! Flying out the door on Friday again!

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!!

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 :)

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?!?

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!

First Social Worker Call!

Woohoo! Tonight at about 5p.m. our social worker calls to introduce herself and see if we can get together on Saturday for our first meeting. Okay, so we're supposed to be on our best behavior with social workers writing up our homestudy to be read by anybody and everybody involved in this rescue right?!? Soooooo, how do I answer? "Hold on just a second while I get out of bed and check my calendar." AAARRRGGGHHH! I burst into laughter realizing what I'd just said and that she probably had immediate first impressions of me on the not-so-favorable side of the scale and quickly explained that our heater was broken, it was below freezing outside as we'd experienced a bit of snowfall already today, and that I'd decided the bed was the warmest place in the house and I'd just declared I wasn't going anywhere until my hubby had fixed the heater. And, now I was joyfully getting out of bed because of her call! Thankfully, she joined me in laughter!!

We celebrated the phone call with Blueberry pancakes; real maple syrup; my friend, Missy's homemade wild blackberry syrup; and smoothies!!! Of course, when I handed Mark his smoothie while he was working his little heart out on the heater thermostat, he says, "It's freezing outside and in, don't ya think hot tea would have been more appropriate?!!?" HA HA!! Don't rub it in...

So, we are on our way!! Our SW comes out Saturday and I'll try and keep my foot out of my mouth. Wish I could keep a few other feets out of mouths around here, also. But, I'll just have to leave that in the Lord's hands and a have little flesh colored duct-tape on hand. :o) Or, maybe those big red wax lips?? Hmmm...

So, I'm sitting here at the computer a few hours later as all of the children were mostly in bed (Charissa and Daniel's beds have springs just like Tigger's tail in them and they get tossed out several times each evening before getting themselves successfully tucked in for the night) and Mark had said, "Be right back." I'm thinking he just ran back to the Depot for another heater part and I sit down to work on one of my online education classes necessary to complete this adoption homestudy. After a bit, he walks in with a space heater!! Does this mean my heater is NOT getting repaired tonight?? YUP!! He gets it all set up in the hall, blocks off the livingroom and kitchen doors, explains to the children that they have to leave their doors open tonight and goes to bed! So, I'm sitting here typing away completely bundled up in the cold living room and I go down and ask him if we're practicing for our first trip to Russia. "Nope, it'll never get cold enough here to say we're practicing for Russia." Oh, thanks, that really makes me anticipate our first trip which will, most likely, be in winter!

Charissa wants to know if we can roast marshmallows on the space heater tomorrow!!
Nope, we won't be home, we'll be at the dollar movies or in the thrift stores seeking out central heating so our noses won't be blue when Dad gets home from work :o)
That is, if the kids can convince me to get out of bed and get dressed in this igloo we call home! Wait, I know! I'll have one of them move the heater into my room and get it toasty before I venture out...