Delightful Changes

The adoption has taken some delightful little turns for the better. We've decided to un-pause the the process, and move forward with full steam. Some things have changed though, and the remainder of our adoption will be rolled into our family blog.

On Sunday I leave to visit family friends in Thailand for two weeks, but hopefully by the time I return we'll have more news on what's been brewing. Good news. News that may include pictures.

So Discouraging

The good news? The school Donald was scheduled for this spring (which we expected to possibly effect travel) has now been pushed out to August. I was so happy when we found that out :-)

The bad news:

http://adoption.state.gov/news/ukraine.html

The Ukrainian government has partially passed a bill which would halt further adoptions from most countries, including the United States. All the bits of information I've received so far have been, well, bits. It's hard to piece everything together to get a clear understanding of what exactly is going on over there, but here's what I've gathered so far:

The bill has passed one vote, but still must pass one more (one source I heard from said two more votes), after which the president will sign it into law.

The process could take roughly six months, but the link I provided said it could be completed before 2011.

The new law would also effect those who have already submitted their documents, including those who are already in Ukraine for their adoptions.

After all the random delays we've had, we're now grateful because they prevented us from wastefully spending thousands of more dollars on an adoption that might not happen.

We've decided to wait until the bill is completely dismissed (which could be between 1-7 months) to proceed with the next steps in the adoption. So far we're only out a few thousand dollars, but unfortunately we're not in a cushy enough financial position to proceed on optimism, because from here things get dramatically more expensive.

Jeremiah 29:11 KJV

¹¹For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

I have no idea how things will turn out for us, but I know that our Heavenly Father does. Hopefully I can keep a stiff upper lip until His plan eventually comes together.

Joy, Joy, LOTS OF JOY This Morning!

1. My physical went well! Donald had the week off work for his hike, but is on his way to work right now, and is getting the physical notarized, which will then be sent out this evening! I HAVEN'T BEEN THIS HAPPY IN MONTHS!!!!!

2. Some eastern European countries won't pre-match you to children, such as Ukraine. However, there is an organization, Reece's Rainbow, which specializes in special needs adoption, and some profiles are offered for children in the country Donald and I are adopting from. We never heavily considered using their organization in general, but there was one little boy who I was drawn to for months. I emailed them and inquired about him, and prayed... but this little boy was not meant for us. He had been listed for quite some time, and I was honestly losing hope that a family would find him. I continued to check his profile every few days, hoping to see a missing picture, and a new adopting family listed on their "new commitments" page.

This last month, I noticed that he was no longer listed, and I was overjoyed that he had found a family. Through another adopting parent, I found his family's blog, and am happy to see that this precious little man will be coming home very soon.

There are so many waiting children out there, but to know that a child I cared about has found a family brings me so much peace and happiness. Check out their blog, and take a few extra seconds today to send prayers their way.

Physical Tomorrow! Yay! EXCEPT that...

MY PHYSICAL IS TOMORROW!

FINALLY!

Okay, so technically I only have a "new patient appointment" with my doctor (which I made a month-ish ago), and I've been told that they typically do not perform physicals if it's a patient's first visit... but I'm going into their office tomorrow with complete confidence, assuming that they'll give me what I need. If I meet any resistance, I will very sweetly and charmingly DEMAND that she signs off on my paperwork, and will proceed to have a complete meltdown until they sign my documents or call security.

It sounds like a good enough plan to me.

Donald is in the Olympic mountains with a friend this week, going on some manly hiking/camping trip, and it's not possible to contact him. So... if things go badly tomorrow, I'm grateful to have 2 loving dogs to come home and cry at.

Now that my physical will be out of the way, we're at the end of our homestudy, and will soon be able to get documents translated! YAY!

EXCEPT that...

we've recently been informed that there's a small chance Donald will deploy in February for a year. Yep after being gone 12 months, and then home for 6, he might be gone for 12 more. It's a "very small chance", but we've learned that there is no such thing as SMALL CHANCES with the Army, so we're waiting to dish out the $4,500 for translation until we know for sure that we will actually be able to complete this adoption.

Hopefully they'll let us know soon either way.

*forced optimistic army wife smile*

Oh, this blog... it reveals the most stressful bits of my life.

On all non-adoption levels, life is nearly perfect right now. No major complaints at all. :-)

Perfect Prints for Little Winn's Room!

Decorating Little Winn's room as proven to be one of the single most exciting things I've ever done. Holding something tangible helps me connect with him/her, and the challenge of decorating for a child of unknown gender (and age, to a degree) has been quite the enjoyable challenge!

With exception to a few flexible details (which are at the mercy of what treasures Craigslist, Goodwill, and the DI can offer me between now and this spring), the entire "nursery" has been decided upon, and is coming together nicely.

My most recent purchase sums up the general vibe of Little Winn's rockin' pad, and I couldn't be more excited to display such adorable art to celebrate their heritage.

I purchased them from Cowface, a small seller on Etsy. They're called Ukrainescapes, and I'm in LOVE.

They shipped yesterday. :-)

Eeek!

Believe it or not, completing my physical has gotten trickier.

Donald managed to get me signed up for off-base care with a civilian provider. When he got stationed at Fort Lewis and switched us from TriCare Standard to TriCare Prime, it took a month to take effect. That was the first 3 weeks of waiting, and the most reasonable.

Well, after I had all my labs taken (on the 9th) and had set up an appointment for the 20th, he hastily signed me up for civilian care. I'm grateful, I really am. I would have done the same thing, but... well, he didn't think to ask when it would take effect.
Well, it took effect immediately... and we didn't know it.

On the 15th, I drove to Fort Lewis after work (a 1 hour drive) to have my TB test read.
...and then was told that I didn't belong to their clinic anymore, and thus were not sure if they could read my TB test.

In very friendly and professional terms, I essentially told them to just shut up and read my freakin test because they had given it to me 48 hours prior and if they didn't read it then nobody could.

I then used my brief moment with the nurse to request my lab results from the 9th. Turns out I'm disease free! Everything came back clean.
Except HIV.
Which is to say, I couldn't be given the results to that test. Only my primary care doctor is authorized to give me those results due to some reasonable, yet highly inconvenient, privacy laws.

At check-out, I asked the front desk if there was a way around my HIV results (secretly, I wanted the results on paper so I could take all my results to my off-post clinic's PromptCare). They say no... then inform me that they must cancel my appointment for the 20th due to my switch to off-base care.

I spent the next hour being sent from office to office, trying to find someone authorized to bend some rules to make up for the misery I'd been put through.
No dice.

The best they can do is to "try", and then promise to call me back. They called once (a few hours later) to tell me they were trying, and then promise to call with an official answer later. We never got that call. I wasn't shocked.

The soonest my new doctor can see me is mid-October. EEK!

So I call TriCare and ask them how to have my HIV test sent to my new doctor's office. They tell me that they can't, and that my MD must submit a form to have the results forwarded to him by mail.
Which would-- you guessed it -- delay things even further.

Prompt Care would be a different physician, and not my primary care doctor, so they could neither submit the form nor be given the results.

Upon finding this out, I was on my cell phone while sitting in the clinic's parking lot - an uncomfortable place to have a meltdown.
So... I call Donald at work, hoping to calm myself down by maturely explaining the situation to him. Instead, I cried. A lot. And it was the UGLY CRY.

Luckily, I have the most amazing husband ever, and he came home early from work, let me cry more, and then took me shopping. After an hour at the mall, I managed to spend $12 on a bottle of body spray. Such a small thing, but it made me feel better. Then we picked up dinner from Safeway so I wouldn't have to cook, and finished our evening in front of the TV.

On Monday I'm going to find out if the clinic will allow me to have another HIV test drawn locally without having to meet with my doctor first.
I'm sure they will. It's a perfectly reasonable request.
If they say no, I'm going to have another meltdown. Possibly a loud one, right there in their office. Maybe it will get me a sooner appointment. Unlikely, but at this point I have nothing to lose.


The physicals are supposed to be some of the more straight-forward and simple parts of the home study and dossier, so if I wasn't experiencing this all for myself, I wouldn't believe any of it.

I'm choosing to believe that God needs us in Ukraine later rather than sooner.

I was listening to my favorite radio show host yesterday morning, and he said he wondered about how sick God must get of us complaining, and if he ever felt like telling us to shut up. Then, he reminded his audience that God gives us EXACTLY what we need, even if it doesn't come in the cute little package we want, and that instead of complaining about our less-than-perfect situations we should all just SHUT UP and be grateful.

So, I'm trying to be grateful. Hopefully, all these delays might finally make sense once we're in Ukraine.

PS - I have a cranky boy on the couch with me who's pushing random keys and poking me in the face. Someone's ready for bed, even if he says he's not.
...that someone would be my spouse.

Complications, Complications

The Army is sending Donald to BNOC (leadership training) smack dab in the middle of our "most likely to travel to Ukraine" timeframe. He'll leave in late March and return in May.

Assuming we FINALLY get this physical situation sorted out, our documents would (we assume) be translated and submitted in November-ish.

After reading other Ukrainian-adoption-bloggers timelines', that would have us receiving an SDA appointment somewhere between February and May.

I ran my first 5k this morning (a big deal for me), then we went to the Puyallup fair, and then we went shopping. It was a full day... a perfect day.

Until we came home and found this out.

BNOC is a school required for soldiers after they are promoted to SSG. He was promoted back in 2006, but due to deployments, other training, 2 moves, and one paperwork mix-up, he has yet to be sent. If he had recently been promoted, they would likely allow him to push it out by another few months, but that's looking unlikely right now.

I consider myself to be a very optimistic and generally happy person, but I feel so defeated. The past 2 months have consisted of one depressing setback after another, and I've never felt so discouraged.

Ultimately, I know everything will unfold in the way God intends... but when life is continually so complicated, it makes me believe that He is paying extra attention to our life. As if he's taking more time to orchestrate things in the most intricate, detailed, and, well - COMPLICATED way possible.

And right now, I don't find that the slightest bit comforting. I should, but I don't.

I'm working on that.