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Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Adoption Update v.2
Sorry... I accidentally hit the "publish" button before I'd finished this one... here's the full story:
Anyone who knows me well knows that I suffer from occasional bouts of insomnia. It comes and goes. I'll sleep wonderfully for months at a time and then suddenly, the insomnia hits and I'll go 2 or 3 weeks sleeping only a few hours a night.
Insomnia can be truly miserable but I have discovered one good thing about it -- it is one of those things that forces me to realize my complete dependence upon the Lord. I mean at my house, 7am is go-time. Whether I've had 2 hours or 10 hours of sleep, I've got to get up and get going in the mornings -- there are carpools to drive, breakfasts to cook, lunches to pack, babies to feed, hair to braid... and that's all before 8am.
Last night was not a 10 hour sleep night. It was more like a 2 1/2 hour sleep night. And today was a doozy of a day. Two carpools to drive, the baby's 9 month doctor appointment, an unavoidable trip to the grocery store (assuming my family wanted to eat dinner tonight) and an important homestudy appointment with our caseworker. So it's probably obvious that I woke up this morning knowing I was spending my day completely dependent on the Lord. And honestly, that's a good place to be.
Today's meeting was our third and final meeting with our caseworker, Donna. Though our adoption situation is unique -- we are adopting two unrelated, older children and we have young children in our home -- Donna does seem satisified and convinced that Dan and I have the resources and support system in place to handle this adoption. And that is pretty fabulous news!!!
From here, we wait for Donna to write our homestudy which should take 1-2 weeks. Then we file our homestudy and I600s with the USCIS, get fingerprinted and wait for approval. We're going to pay for the expedited processing so we're hoping it will move quickly. And once our paperwork is complete on the US side, we'll just wait for a Ugandan court date. Are you sensing a theme here?? There is a lot of waiting. Which is not really my strong suit.
On a lighter and much more exciting note, our dear friend Scott Harty is leaving tomorrow night for Uganda. He's taking care of some Sixty Feet business but also planning to spend some time with our two favorite little Ugandans (have we mentioned that we're naming them Joseph and Hannah?). We are sending some small gifts and treats for all the children in their foster home and (I'm so excited about this!) a photo album including pictures of our family, extended family, our backyard, family activities and more. Here are the teddy bears we're sending, how cute are they?
So there is a lot of emotion in this house... we are excited about completing the homestudy process, thrilled that a close friend of ours will get to spend time with Joseph and Hannah, nervous about the timing of everything and all that still needs to happen to complete this adoption and also, I'm very tired.
And on top of it all, I've also been feeling a little sad lately. Our baby Charlotte is at such a fun, sweet age. She is a crawler now... we call her our little explorer. She's at that age where she is experiencing so many "firsts." Her first attempt at standing, smelling her first flower, learning to roll a ball for the first time. I love, love, love watching her and consider it such a privledge to be a stay-at-home-mom and behold all of these firsts. But lately, it's been making me sad too. Because I think that for two of my own children, and for millions of other orphans around the world, no one knew, cared about or watched any of their firsts. And that is just wrong.
Anyways, time to get to bed. I know this post is all over the place but that's sort of how I feel these days.
Anyone who knows me well knows that I suffer from occasional bouts of insomnia. It comes and goes. I'll sleep wonderfully for months at a time and then suddenly, the insomnia hits and I'll go 2 or 3 weeks sleeping only a few hours a night.
Insomnia can be truly miserable but I have discovered one good thing about it -- it is one of those things that forces me to realize my complete dependence upon the Lord. I mean at my house, 7am is go-time. Whether I've had 2 hours or 10 hours of sleep, I've got to get up and get going in the mornings -- there are carpools to drive, breakfasts to cook, lunches to pack, babies to feed, hair to braid... and that's all before 8am.
Last night was not a 10 hour sleep night. It was more like a 2 1/2 hour sleep night. And today was a doozy of a day. Two carpools to drive, the baby's 9 month doctor appointment, an unavoidable trip to the grocery store (assuming my family wanted to eat dinner tonight) and an important homestudy appointment with our caseworker. So it's probably obvious that I woke up this morning knowing I was spending my day completely dependent on the Lord. And honestly, that's a good place to be.
Today's meeting was our third and final meeting with our caseworker, Donna. Though our adoption situation is unique -- we are adopting two unrelated, older children and we have young children in our home -- Donna does seem satisified and convinced that Dan and I have the resources and support system in place to handle this adoption. And that is pretty fabulous news!!!
From here, we wait for Donna to write our homestudy which should take 1-2 weeks. Then we file our homestudy and I600s with the USCIS, get fingerprinted and wait for approval. We're going to pay for the expedited processing so we're hoping it will move quickly. And once our paperwork is complete on the US side, we'll just wait for a Ugandan court date. Are you sensing a theme here?? There is a lot of waiting. Which is not really my strong suit.
On a lighter and much more exciting note, our dear friend Scott Harty is leaving tomorrow night for Uganda. He's taking care of some Sixty Feet business but also planning to spend some time with our two favorite little Ugandans (have we mentioned that we're naming them Joseph and Hannah?). We are sending some small gifts and treats for all the children in their foster home and (I'm so excited about this!) a photo album including pictures of our family, extended family, our backyard, family activities and more. Here are the teddy bears we're sending, how cute are they?
And on top of it all, I've also been feeling a little sad lately. Our baby Charlotte is at such a fun, sweet age. She is a crawler now... we call her our little explorer. She's at that age where she is experiencing so many "firsts." Her first attempt at standing, smelling her first flower, learning to roll a ball for the first time. I love, love, love watching her and consider it such a privledge to be a stay-at-home-mom and behold all of these firsts. But lately, it's been making me sad too. Because I think that for two of my own children, and for millions of other orphans around the world, no one knew, cared about or watched any of their firsts. And that is just wrong.
Anyways, time to get to bed. I know this post is all over the place but that's sort of how I feel these days.
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2 comments:
Good photo of the Crazy Owens Family!! :-)
I'm praying things continue to move along at God's timing with the adoption process.
What sweet pictures . We are praying for all your paper work to go quickly and that Hannah and Joseph will be home soon and you can see your two new little people do some first with a proud family to cheer them on.
For the sleep thing -as a fellow non sleeper ,I understand how hard it is to get up and get going after 2 and half hours of sleep . Thank goodness for the Grace of God to get us through the day and thank goodness for nap times so we can rest too.
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