Whew!

What a day it’s been!  All of us loaded in the van this morning at 6:30am and headed for Olympia to try to knock off several things on our adoption paperwork list.   It is now 7:30pm, and we just finished our Costco and Walmart shopping, and are heading home as I type.  We’re all pretty exhausted, but so thankful for a productive day!

We started the day at 8am at the State Patrol office to get our first set of fingerprints and also a notarized criminal clearance letter for our Dossier.  (More fingerprints to be done later for the Dossier.)   We were excited to be the first ones to arrive and we were very blessed with the sweetest, Christian lady behind the counter helping us.   Soon into our conversation, we started talking about our mutual love for the Lord, and she asked us if we had ever read the book “Kisses from Katie”.   Oh boy, did that ever get us talking about like-minded things.  She shared with us that she has good friends (a family with 11 kids) that are serving as missionaries in Uganda, and she is going to go there in April to spend a month with them.  And she is going with the mindset of seeking God’s will for future service there.   It was so sweet having this encouraging conversation right there between the bulletproof glass window. J

I can get easily discouraged, and right out of the starting gate, I have already had many moments of wanting to wave the white flag on this mound of paperwork.  But, we KNOW without a doubt this is our assignment from the Lord for now, and that we need to keep our eyes fixed on Him and the end result.  I’ve also decided to anticipate, and look for God’s little blessings and encouragement in the journey, and this sweet lady was just that!   

We all surely needed a boost for what came next on our agenda.  (I think I heard Victoria say it will go down as her worst day ever!)  It was time for the dreaded physicals that are needed for each one of us.  But here again, another huge blessing from the Lord that we were able to schedule 8 physicals in one place, all on the same day, and less than a week from when I made the call to schedule them!   Oh, and all for free, without even a co-pay! 

I quickly became discouraged again though, (see, I told you how easily I get discouraged!) starting with the health forms the kids had to fill out.  We were really shocked by the questions that were on the 13-17 year-old forms.  It was such an eye-opening, and stomach-turning awakening to the signs of our times.   I was also surprised by the constant underlying tone of side-lining parental involvement in their health care.   It seems to be another sad sign of our times.   (Or, I guess it could be a good thing in the case of true abuse or neglect?)   Then, came the push for all the vaccinations that we were “delinquent” on.   We declined some, but felt it necessary to oblige on others for a good report, much to the dismay of the kids!  I don’t know which was worse to the kids, the immodesty associated with a thorough exam by a strange doctor they have never met, or the shots!   For myself, I was treated to three shots, as without a spleen, it was necessary for me to renew my pneumonia, meningitis and flu shot. (And the arm that took two of these three is VERY swollen and painful at the moment!)  I really can’t describe the discouragement at every turn I felt in that Olympia (if you know what I mean) office.  It was so very different from what we are used to with our wonderful, small-town, Christian doctors.    

On a more positive note again, : -) we were so proud of the kids for how well they handled such an unpleasant experience.   It was a long day for them, with helping watch the little ones and being stretched far beyond their comfort zones!   But we are so blessed to see their resolve in doing what it takes to be able to welcome an orphan into our family in the near future.  Even the unpleasant experiences can be good, when we are on this "mission" together, as a whole family.  We also kept encouraging one another as we thought about how tiny a sacrifice all of this is in comparison to what an orphan might go through day-to-day and without a family.   We are also so very thankful for the kids' sense of humor, that keeps us all laughing on our journey!   (Victoria and I had a great chuckle while she sat upon the examining table in her lovely hospital gown waiting for the doctor!  And I wish you could have seen Joseph's depictions of what he endured while getting his shots, drawn out on the little pad of paper he picked out of the nurses's treasure box!  She really was a very nice lady, just doing her job! :-) 

And another blessing we were grateful for is that, in between our appointments strewn throughout the day, we accomplished much!   We were able to get a financial report notarized that we had pre-filled out for our home study, and a certified/notarized letter started from our bank stating we are in good standing.  (This was actually just requested, and they will mail it to us when it is complete.)   And we also had a quick trip back to the State Patrol to pick-up our clearance letters, and the Post Office to get money orders to send to the FBI with our fingerprints!   And upon our return home, we had received Benjamin’s health report in the mail that I was able to request from his pediatrician, since he has been routinely seen these past 2 years.  Woo hoo!

The only glitch to our day was that the 3 notaries normally working within the Group Health building were all out today, so we were unable to get our good health reports/letters from the doctor notarized all on the same day.  (Since there are so many strict rules about how the dates all need to be the same on the letters, and the date of expiration of the notary’s commission needs to be out a couple years, etc., it is a little nerve-racking to leave today without our notarized letters in hand. ) We will have to wait until probably Tuesday, when this particular doctor we saw, who is a “visiting” doctor, returns to the clinic.   We need to pray that this goes well, as these letters are the more important ones for our Dossier. 

Well, we’re home now, and it is 10:00pm, so better get to bed so I have lots of `energy for giving lots of thanks tomorrow!   And on this Thanksgiving Eve, I want to thank you all, our dear family and friends, for the blessing of all your love and support!

Have a blessed Thanksgiving everybody!