Getting Rid of Worry

My friend Kathy sent me an email this week that was a story about a man who always had a positive attitude all the time and when someone asked him how he stayed so positive he said that everyday he had the choice to be positive or negative and he chose to be positive. It was a nice email and was inspirational but at the end of the story there was a bible verse that has stuck with me ever since I read the story:

Matthew 6:34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Wow! What an appropriate verse for a person trying to complete an international adoption. I know I can be a worrier. I worry about reaccredidation for our adoption agency, I worry about what Putin is doing to the Russian govt, I worry about getting all our paperwork done in a timely manner, I worry about how we are going to pay for the adoption... I can really worry myself if I let it go. But after reading that verse, it is starting to sink in that I need to let that go and let the worry go. Thank you Kathy for the email, I really needed it at this point in our adoption and it has really touched me.

Earlier this week I had decided that at the beginning of each week I would type an "inspirational quote" blog in an attempt to start my week off on a good note and pass along a funny or touching quote to others. After getting Kathy's email I decided that today's entry was a no-brainer on which quote to use. Hopefully, someone will find as much value in it as I did this past week.

I'd Like to Thank the Academy...

That is what people say when they've been given an award right? Thank you for the emails and comments on "Blog of the Month". I was pretty surprised when CHI contacted me about it a few weeks back. I've never blogged before and I have no formal training (isn't it obvious) in writing. But I did have a great 2nd grade teacher named Mr. Gerard that loved to teach us creative writing. He was the coolest teacher to have in 1977 and he was your classic hippy. Long hair, scraggly beard, and he'd wear these huge, black biker boots everyday. He used to bring in his guitar and teach us songs like "House of the Rising Sun" and "Yellow Submarine". As a teacher today it amazes me that he got away with teaching seven year olds the lyrics to "House of the Rising Sun" but it was the 70's. Singing aside, the man did a great job instilling a love of writing in me and it's something I enjoy doing to this day.

I hope that my blogs can bring a smile to someones face and help put a little humor into the llllooonnnggg and sometimes painful road to being a parent that many of us are facing. There are just some things along this journey that you have to laugh about, otherwise you would go insane.

But beyond the "Blog of the Month" title, my greatest compliment came from my mother a few weeks ago when she started reading my blog. She told me, "You write like Erma Bombeck, very witty and funny." Wow, that was the BEST compliment anyone could give me and I wish I had just 1/10th of Erma's talent. I think I'm a pretty funny person and I like to make people laugh. Randy is THE funniest person I know, besides my dad, so I hope we get a child that loves to cut up and be silly just as much as his parents do, otherwise the poor boy is doomed to a lifetime of rolling his eyes over his parents sense of humor. I have faith that he will catch on, we'll make a class clown out of him in no time!

I'll leave you today with my favorite Erma Bombeck quote, "When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and I could say, 'I used everything that you gave me'."

That Was Fast!

We mailed our home study packet on Tuesday and figured the United States postal service would do its darn-dest to get it on the fastest mule they had available and figured it would be several days until our packet made it up the road to Dallas. Wrong! It was in CHI's office the next day much to our surprise. Our CHI rep sent an email to say she needed a couple weeks to review the packet and copy it and would get a social worker assigned to us for our home study. Surprise #2...we received an email the next day with the name of our social worker!

We also found out that the paperwork has changed for the dossier and country registration and the change looks like it is for the better. I sent an email to our CHI rep to clarify a few things before I get my hopes up too high but from what I can gather, a lot of our paperwork is already complete minus the 171H and the home study verdict. We've had some great news this week and I've been humming that song, "I'm Walking On Sunshine" since we got our social worker assigned to us, which beats the "Do Your Ears Hang Low" song I've had stuck in my head since I taught it to my kiddos on Wednesday.

Randy is flying late tonight so I'm getting ready to settle into the recliner to watch "Blades of Glory" and feed myself heaping spoonfuls of chocolate chip cookie dough straight from the tube. TGIF!!

Birthday Girl

No, its not my birthday yet, you have 33 shopping days left until my birthday, but we have a four legged birthday today...our chocolate lab Bella! Actually, we call her Bella Jean since she's a southern gal. She's one year old today. Bella is the GREATEST dog and has brought us so much happiness. Two years ago our beloved lab Bailey died from cancer and it absolutely devastated me. She was with me for 11 years and everyone loved Bailey. The vet used to tell me that she was a "once in a lifetime dog" and that all our subsequent dogs would all be horrible after having such an incredible dog. I swore I'd never get another dog again after going through all that pain but God knew differently and along came Bella. She is a great dog and even our vet agrees that she's another "once in a lifetime" dog.

Bella is s-p-o-i-l-e-d rotten but she spoils us rotten too. She gets to "snuggle" with Randy on our recliner and she gets to sleep in the bed, she is convinced that she is still the little 8 lb dog we brought home from the breeder and can sit in our laps. She even gets gravy on her dinner as a treat. Funny story, a month or so ago we were talking with neighbors and were talking about putting gravy on Bella's dinner. One of the guys said, "You don't have kids do you. Because nobody with kids would actually take the time to put gravy on their dog's food." True, so true! But she's our baby! So until we get a two legged baby, you have to endure pictures of our four legged baby.

Bella's first day home:

Bella loving on the neighbor's daughter when I was baby sitting. She would be awesome with a little boy or girl running around here.

And here she is, one year old!

It's done!

Finally, everything is finished for our home study packet and it will be mailed out tomorrow. We had our physicals today which weren't without some sort of drama. We saw a resident so we could get in earlier but I had no idea we'd be seeing Doogie Howser! He was really young and just a little thing. When he came in the door he introduced himself and shook our hands and literally did a spinning, twisting jump up onto the examining bed without using his hands and holding onto our files the entire spin/leap. Pretty impressive gymnastics for early morning. He led our appointment sitting on the bed with his little feet dangling off the side. He asked us some standard questions, listened to our hearts and lungs and then signed off on all the paperwork. As he's leaving to get it notarized I mention to him that we need to get a copy of his medical license so we can check the medical report for the dossier while we are there. He says to us, "I don't have a medical license." Excuse me? "I only have an in-house license good for Scott & White." You've got to be kidding us. Then he proceeds to tell us he is not even an M.D., he's a D.O. which is not acceptable for international adoption. I specifically asked the scheduling lady over and over again if he was an M.D. and was assured over and over again that he was. He ended up finishing our paperwork and we were quickly on our way home. I called our case worker today and explained it to her and she told us not to worry, that she would make it all work out for us. Whew! Getting a medical evaluation has been the hardest part for two run-of-the-mill healthy people to get.

It doesn't matter anymore, it is over and we are done with our home study packet!! On to the next task...the dossier, which I'm not worried about because we have a lot done already and after this health physical ordeal, I'm thinking, "Bring it on, I've taken on bigger giants than you!"

Back in the Saddle Again!

Sing it with me...'cause I'm back in the saddle again!' It has been crazy the past few weeks. I have had so much going on with school starting back that I haven't had a minute to blog. As you know I moved schools this year and moved to a new grade...Pre-K! Oh what fun Pre-K was. I liken the first few days of teaching Pre-K to herding cats. It's not something for the faint of heart. Pre-K kids are quite the challenge the first few days and I had a really good class; only a couple toots to keep me on my toes, like my beloved J who was in the class bathroom for several minutes when I heard him yelling, "crash, boom, bang". Worried, I opened the door to check on him, and saw him standing there buck nekked with a very startled look on his face as shreds of toilet paper were trickling to the ground like confetti at a parade. It was at that moment that I think I felt grey hair number 72 pop out of my head.

Anyway, our Pre-K numbers were "too low" at 14-15 per class and our Kinder numbers were high at 25-27 so the district made the decision to move me to Kinder, in the middle of the week, and on Thursday I got to move my ENTIRE classroom that was already fully set up, to the Kinder hallway and I was given a class this past Monday. Fortunately, my admin team helped me A LOT and the teachers on my grade level all pitched in and the move went smoothly. I have a great kindergarten class and I've really had fun with them the past few days. They walk in a straight line, they sing with you instead of watching you sing, and they have yet to strip themselves down to use the bathroom. (knock on wood) It's good to be back in Kindergarten.

And just to keep things interesting, I came down with a really bad cold after three days in Pre-K that is just now going away. As most of you know, I don't drink alcohol of any kind, but I was at the point in my head cold that I was chugging Robitussin straight from the bottle and following it up by wiping my mouth with the back of my sleeve and slamming the bottle down like a gunslinger in an old west film. Thank you Robitussin people, whoever you are!

We are less than one week away from our physicals. As soon as the doctor fills out the form, it will be lovingly placed in our home study packet and sent to our social worker and we will be finished with our home study paperwork!! We have heard that our referrals from our friends and family are starting to show up to the adoption agency so everything is moving along nicely (knocking on wood again) and we are looking forward to the next phase of the process.