Sunday, March 25, 2012

Hurry Up and Wait Some More


We are heading into another period of waiting. But we are OK with this. I guess before I go much further, I should come up with a fake name for our future daughter. Let's just call her Sweetie. I spoke with Sweetie's therapist on the phone Friday and he was telling me how this needs to be a slow transition for Sweetie. She had one failed adoption and then more recently the family from Korea went from wanting to call her obsessively to pulling out completely. I can not imagine how difficult that has to be for a 12 year old to process. Needless to say she is going to have some trust issues and we now need to take things slow. I left a message for the foster mom today. I want to talk to her first before we set up a Skype with Sweetie. This will slow down the progress of moving her in, but that is OK. We want to make sure we do this right and give us the best chance at a smooth transition. Putting the child's needs first...that is what being a parent is all about right? Ultimately I would like to get her moved in by early July...giving her time to acclimate to us and the community, before starting a new school.More updates to come.:) 

Monday, March 19, 2012

We Are Going For It!


We received the email today about  the preteen girl  in Florida stating that the other family that was also interested in her has had to back out. I am not sure why, I am sure it would have been difficult to coordinate a transition from Korea. I have been praying that if we are meant to be her family that it would go forward easy and if not that the other family would have been chosen. What a relief to not have to wait for the call to see who was chosen at the Match Meeting. They are still going to meet just to discuss us and work on a transition plan.
Her therapist is going to talk to her about us on Thursday of this week and then we will talk to her on the phone next week. After that we will go down for a visit a couple times and then do a few weekend visits her. I think it will be best to let her finish up school in Florida.
I will update everyone as we receive more details :) Yay!




Saturday, March 17, 2012

Just a Good Day


Today was just a nice day. No major ups or downs. Just a beautiful spring day here in Charlotte. 
I went to our SPAFA meeting this morning, where we had an awesome speaker, Melissa Robinson of Whole Child Coaching. We had several new couples come in. They made me think of how far we have come in the last 15 months. How much I have learned, not only about adoption...but also myself. I have been pushed beyond my comfort zone so many times that I don't even think I have one anymore. I look at the positive changes I have made in my life over this time. I have cut negative people from my life, I have grown some wonderful friendships, I have educated myself and I have found a church that I really like and feel comfortable in. I look at how this process has actually improved my relationship with my husband Cris. Not that we were having any major issues before. But, the process forces a lot of communication between a couple. It is completely uncomfortable at times and you learn to lean on each other. We have really found out so much about ourselves and each other during this process.And for this I am grateful.

There was something about seeing the faces of people that are so hopeful and eager to get started and I remember being there. I realized that during all of the giant ups and downs I lost that feeling somewhere. Reflecting on that I have a renewed sense of excitement and hope. 
Friday, one of my best friends gave me an adoption tee shirt that says "Yes I am adopting. No I haven't heard anything yet.......But each day brings me closer to my child."
So many times I have gotten caught up with the first part of the statement and forget about the last part.... EACH DAY BRINGS ME CLOSER TO MY CHILD!  Wow, Right?  So, I need to just appreciate that each day that I am in fact getting closer. 
The next 3 weeks will be pretty eventful. We are being considered for 3 different kids during their Match Meetings. We have a matching event next Sunday where we will go bowling with a bunch of foster children from our county. That will be fun! 
This coming weekend my brother, wife and my niece are coming to visit from NY, the weekend after my parents are coming to visit. The following week I go to Disney with Kim and Nia! So this is going to be an amazing few weeks. Lord knows, with things being so crazy busy, this will probably be when we get called for our match! And you won't  hear this girl complain if it happens that way :) 







Thursday, March 08, 2012

Hope and a Future



So, I have been pretty down for the last week or so. The process of reviewing children bios and submitting ours to committees only to be rejected has been weighing on me very heavily. I was talking to my friend Kim today about how isolating it is. At this point we have been doing this for over 14 months. The novelty has worn off and I think people are tired of hearing about it. I don't blame anyone...if I am to be honest with myself, why would anyone want to hear about kids that are not ever going to be be a part of my life. 


I received a bio on 3 girls the other day. Ages 9,6 and 3. They are cute, sweet and very happy children. I asked my social worker to submit our home study to be considered for these kiddos. Normally there is not any information on the home study for the social worker, but this bio had her phone number. So, I was able to call this am to see if she received my bio and shocker (insert sarcasm here) she never received it from my social worker.


We talked for about 20 minutes about us and the girls. The social worker said she was very excited about us and asked for our home study and photo profile scrapbook. She said she would review and get back to us. 
I am praying that these girls are the reason things did not work out with baby Leah.  :)