Adoption Update

Yesterday we got our Letter of Approval (LOA). It's wonderful news, as it gives us a window of travel - should be early September. Thankfully, Matt is home on vacation this week because we have family visiting and he was here to sign and date things. I had to print out a bunch of papers I had filled out for Immigration Services. They had to be signed and dated and overnighted. Things had to be copied and scanned into our computer. Some things had to be photocopies, some had to be originals. It was all very complicated, as government things usually tend to be. It was wonderful timing though, as my lovely brother and sister-in-law took the older two kids out for ice cream and my good friend, also visiting, cleaned the kitchen and swam in the pool with Noah. I had about two hours to get everything done and mailed out before I had to go to class and I just barely squeaked into the room with two minutes to spare.

In the midst of the paper craze, I caught sight of a sentence on Talitha's referral papers describing her status as abandoned and without anyone to care for her. It was one of those professional sentences you would expect to find on a government paper. That's it. That's her - abandoned. A few quick types on a keyboard and her situation is summed up in a bleak and dreary combination of words.

It struck me as quite awful and hot tears pricked my eyes.

Sometimes I get so caught up in this day to day of living that I can't see these big huge amazing things that God is doing in our lives. The endless laundry, the screams of a toddler, the apple slices, the bandaids, the papers in APA format. Often I look back at my life and I can see all these amazing things - some bad, some good. I often just can't see them as they're happening. It just looks like life. But really it's a grand adventure, stitched together with all these little things.

She's out there now, sleeping in a blue metal crib in a row of blue metal cribs in a room full of blue metal cribs. Her life has been stamped and labeled and it's a pretty depressing one. She has no idea we're over here, working and working and working to get her. She doesn't fully realize the gravity of her situation but we do.

Once, a long time again, God worked and worked and worked all things together for my good. He rewrote the sentence of my life. No longer condemned but free.

One day Matt and I will cross out that sentence and sign our names on a piece of paper that states she is no longer labeled abandoned. Her sentence will read that she has found a safe place to land - and she is beloved.

Things to Think On

No big post to write. Sorry to disappoint. My in-laws moved to town (hooray!), we're still waiting for Talitha's surgery and that letter from China (boo). Finishing up my research paper for my nursing research class. Am befuddled much of the time. So nothing new here.

A smattering of articles and things for your enjoyment:

Bono on Jesus - Patheos blog

Yes. Love. Shared by a good friend. Anytime someone paraphrases God and uses the word 'cretins,' I agree. Simple and true stuff.

Adoption and Trauma - Gobbel Counseling

Adoption is not for the faint of heart...

Black holes and other fun things...

Also, our new favorite science channel.

Medical School and the Cost of Medicine

Teaching would-be doctors to take the actual cost of medicine into account. Lots of raised eyebrows in hospitals over seemingly unnecessary but expensive tests. Hmmm...

And also a cute picture or two. Because I can.

Random Ramblings - and more than just a dash of stupid

Shoes

The other night it was dark and I was looking for a pair of shoes in our room. I saw some flip flops and put them on. They were huge. And my first reaction was that my feet had shrunk. Not that I had on Matt's shoes. No - it was that my feet had shrunk several sizes.

Bumps in the Night

Once when we lived in Savannah, GA several years ago I heard something in the middle of the night. I told Matt and he threw me his cell phone on his way to investigate. I thought it was really nice of him to give me a light so I didn't have to wait for him in the dark. When I told him that later, he was incredulous that I thought it was for the light and not to call the police if need be.

Last night my parents offered to watch the kids so I could finish my research paper and Matt and I could do some work around the house. I slept the entire night (no toddler to summon me with squawking). Matt told me in the morning that he had heard a noise and went to check it out. He also said he didn't bother telling me and giving me a phone because I would just say "Ooh, pictures to look at! How cute!" and while Matt was in the fight of his life with a burglar, I would think "Why is he making so much noise? I can't hear this video..."

Yup, he knows me.

Dignity? I've gots it.

My in-laws are moving down here, as you all know. The other day I was in Walmart and was checking out my groceries and thought a bit about the move. We live in a typical little southern town. I never really traveled to the South as a kid and I truly thought that the South was like 'Gone With the Wind.' I imagined genteel ladies and gentlemen, carrying parasols and saying things like "Goodness gracious me!" Certainly there are plently of sweet, polite, more-sweet-tea-darling? type of Southerners but a good amount, at least where we live, are, um, a bit lower on the social ladder.

When we moved down to FL from Ohio, I was 17. My first day of senior year I saw a pick-up truck with absurdly huge tires. It had a Confederate flag and was doing donuts in the parking lot. I was befuddled. Mainly because I never saw a Confederate flag outside of a history book. And I couldn't figure out why someone would purposely raise the body of their truck that high. Isn't the center of gravity all weird? How do you get inside it without pulling muscles?

Also on that first day of school, a guy told me "Go home, Yankee!"

You go home, too. You're not Native American. We're probably both European.

This town is wonderful in a lot of ways but tough in others. Small towns are notorious for being close-knit and southern towns seem to be a bit more extreme. Many people see no need to open their lives to others outside their family and friends they've had since preschool. Not so much fun for new people. We've been here about 7 years and we still feel out of place and lonely sometimes.

Wow, was that a sidetrack to the story. As I was thinking about Southerners while scanning my groceries, I thought "You know, I really should try to be genteel. Dignified. Yes, that's a good idea."

(Yes, I was thinking about gentility and dignity in Walmart. Near the fried chicken counter.)

I headed out to the parking lot and since it was still raining, I got out my umbrella. I was opening it as I was lifting it over my head when one of those little metal stick things got caught in my hair. So I had to flail about trying to get it out of my hair. And it was raining, you remember, so I looked like a crazed wet rat. With an umbrella stuck on its head. While I was thinking I should be more dignified.



As I was telling Matt all these things, he said "If you were as efficient in life as me, you would have nothing to write about."

So true.