This is the post I have been dying to be able to write!! We have finally gotten the final home study done!!!!! We just have to get the notarized copies from our social worker in the next couple of days, and then we can send everything to Columbia for them to "apostille", which pretty much means they will notarize our notarized stuff. Then....off to our government to get our appt for the federal fingerprints, and at the same time...off to Russia to start going through al of the translation and government stuff over there. It is so awesome to get to this point!!!! We've been waiting for this that was supposed to take 1-3 months now for 5-6 months, and if you know me, you know that patience is not something that I have alot of most times!
I think I'm kind of in shock right now with this....we have been waiting and waiting, and now this step is done. I have all the other paperwork already done, it has just been sitting in my binder waiting for this day so that we can send it all...and here it is. So, I'm glad we have made some progress on her room, the walls are painted, crib should be up tomorrow, the window stuff is being made, and the rest of the furniture should be done within a month or so. I guess this is really going to happen after all!
This week has really been amazing all around. I got to spend some great time with my boys on Monday and Tuesday, which unfortunately I don't usually get enough of, then Wednesday it was off to school for them. Of course they did great at school, and they both seem to have amazing teachers this year. I feel certain that they are going to to great this year! I had my first taste of working from home while the kids are in school and I am home to get them off the bus. I was able to get my work hours in while they were at school so that when they got off the bus, I was done and could relax or start schoolwork or just sit on the porch with Audrey...which is so awesome! Starting next week I'm cutting my hours by 8 so that I can start back to clinical and have some time to breathe! I really feel like this is going to change my life and stress level, which will be incredible. I can put them on the bus, work for 8 hours, and then get them off the bus and I'm done! It's just amazing to have a few more hours to get schoolwork done earlier. I can already feel my stress level coming down. Granted, its only the first week of school, but I know this semester will be one week at a time like all the other ones, and it will be over before I know it like it always is!
I can't help but just be so thankful for everything going on right now. We have had friends lately with tragedy in their lives, and it really just makes you want to hang on to the people you have in your life. We have been so blessed in so many ways, and it truly is overwhelming sometimes to think about it. I would have not made it this far with everything if it weren't for Jeremy keeping my sane and reasonable, and so many amazing friends listening to my craziness! Everry night when I hear the boys say their prayers and they pray for Lainey and that she is safe (whether she is born yet or not), and that she would get to come home to be with us soon I get overwhelmed with how amazing life is all over again. Life is not always easy, and there are for sure some rough times, but I couldn't ask for it to be better. It just doesn't get much better than this!!!
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
A better perspective
As I've had a break from school for 2 weeks, I have really gotten into getting Lainey's room ready and getting more things done as far as education requirements for the agency and things. I have been painting and planning and it really makes all of this so much more real for me. I had my first dream about her last week, which was scary and exciting all at the same time. Of course I can't even explain how excited I am to be able to bring her home, but at the same time, it's all so scary because we really don't know what to expect and there are so many unknowns at this point.
I have been doing some required training for the past week, and it really has been great. It gives good insight into things that could happen without making it too much more scary than it already is. I am a huge believer that the more education you can have, the easier it will make things, but this is just so huge that I'm sure years of education couldn't prepare us for it. It does make me think though...when we had Gavin, we were young and had no idea what we were doing, but somehow we figured it out. Then, we had Noah, and yeah we were a little older, but he is completely different than Gavin so it was pretty much like starting over. Not to mention that trying to figure out how to manage two kids instead of one was a challenge! Obviously we have managed to make it to this point with them...that's not to say that I feel like we know what we are doing even now though. I think every day is full of decisions that you make and you keep wondering, is this going to be the one that totally screws them up? So, I guess that gives me a little more peace about being able to parent a child that has no idea what a parent is and is also a girl (honestly, I'm probably most worried about that part!).
I was talking to a friend today (thanks Steph for being blog fodder) and she was talking about how amazing it was going to be that we can save this child from a life of who knows what to be a part of a loving, though crazy, family. While I get a little overwhelmed to think of what would become of her if we decided now to not pursue this, I can't help but think it's almost the other way. I can only think of the amazing joy that we are going to get by being able to be her parents. We have been amazingly blessed with the biological children that we have, and I can only assume that she will bless us in those ways too. I think about all of the ways we have already grown as a family in just going through this process by talking about things and making decisions about it together. She has brought us joy already and she may not even be on this earth yet. I feel every day that God is leading us to do this, and that the perfect child is going to be there waiting for us. I know that it isn't going to be all roses and kittens, but then who said being a parent was?? I think you have to live for those moments when it is, and those take you through those moments when you want to just hide under the bed and say, "mommy is on vacation!"
On that note, one last thing that has been on my mind about this whole thing....I can't stop thinking about this child's birth mother. Of all people, I am probably one of the biggest supporters of the theory that just because you birth a child, doesn't make you a mother. I honestly don't even like the term "surrogate mother" because I think that the term mother is so sacred (I think I've talked about that before). But I think a birth mother gets a whole other part on her own. We may never get to know why our child ended up where she is and why no one in her own family could take care of her, but I have to think that as a birth mother, there is nothing harder than to give up your child knowing that someone else could raise them better. I can't even fathom the pain that must cause, and the amazing strenth it must take to be able to let them go. So, even before we know she has even been born, I have been praying for that birth mother. Her selflessness and strength is going to let us have a daughter that I believe has been planned by God. There will never be words that could say thank you to her, and the only way I believe to repay her for this gift is to raise this little girl the best we know how and to let her know that we were not the only ones to love her.
I have been doing some required training for the past week, and it really has been great. It gives good insight into things that could happen without making it too much more scary than it already is. I am a huge believer that the more education you can have, the easier it will make things, but this is just so huge that I'm sure years of education couldn't prepare us for it. It does make me think though...when we had Gavin, we were young and had no idea what we were doing, but somehow we figured it out. Then, we had Noah, and yeah we were a little older, but he is completely different than Gavin so it was pretty much like starting over. Not to mention that trying to figure out how to manage two kids instead of one was a challenge! Obviously we have managed to make it to this point with them...that's not to say that I feel like we know what we are doing even now though. I think every day is full of decisions that you make and you keep wondering, is this going to be the one that totally screws them up? So, I guess that gives me a little more peace about being able to parent a child that has no idea what a parent is and is also a girl (honestly, I'm probably most worried about that part!).
I was talking to a friend today (thanks Steph for being blog fodder) and she was talking about how amazing it was going to be that we can save this child from a life of who knows what to be a part of a loving, though crazy, family. While I get a little overwhelmed to think of what would become of her if we decided now to not pursue this, I can't help but think it's almost the other way. I can only think of the amazing joy that we are going to get by being able to be her parents. We have been amazingly blessed with the biological children that we have, and I can only assume that she will bless us in those ways too. I think about all of the ways we have already grown as a family in just going through this process by talking about things and making decisions about it together. She has brought us joy already and she may not even be on this earth yet. I feel every day that God is leading us to do this, and that the perfect child is going to be there waiting for us. I know that it isn't going to be all roses and kittens, but then who said being a parent was?? I think you have to live for those moments when it is, and those take you through those moments when you want to just hide under the bed and say, "mommy is on vacation!"
On that note, one last thing that has been on my mind about this whole thing....I can't stop thinking about this child's birth mother. Of all people, I am probably one of the biggest supporters of the theory that just because you birth a child, doesn't make you a mother. I honestly don't even like the term "surrogate mother" because I think that the term mother is so sacred (I think I've talked about that before). But I think a birth mother gets a whole other part on her own. We may never get to know why our child ended up where she is and why no one in her own family could take care of her, but I have to think that as a birth mother, there is nothing harder than to give up your child knowing that someone else could raise them better. I can't even fathom the pain that must cause, and the amazing strenth it must take to be able to let them go. So, even before we know she has even been born, I have been praying for that birth mother. Her selflessness and strength is going to let us have a daughter that I believe has been planned by God. There will never be words that could say thank you to her, and the only way I believe to repay her for this gift is to raise this little girl the best we know how and to let her know that we were not the only ones to love her.
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