Well, it has been so silent over the last few months! I wish i could say that it's because we have been moving and grooving with adoption paperwork and getting the $$ together and all that or traveling to the PI...
but that's not it.
Out biggest slow down has been the recession that gave us the one-two punch starting in October. For a contracted consultant, that spelled t-r-o-u-b-l-e! Contracts were suspended and work re-focused and essentially, we went without pay until May. I will not even go into the April 15th "situation", but let's just say it was a dark day.
Thankfully, we had planned for the unfortunate emergency, and did not go into debt in these months. (let me be honest, we could see it from where we were sitting...but we were rescued just in time!) Suffice to say that David has secured work with reliable partners - and as a bonus, he enjoys them. Things are picking up financially, but we are still making up for the several months of "salary sabbatical".
We are back on the horse, applying ourselves to the paper chase daily. My goal is to have everything assembled and mailing to Ellen (a most wonderful social worker in Maryland) by 6/13. I am probably dreaming, as often paperwork involving several parties is s-l-o-w. But a girl can dream.
So it is coming down to money and time. We need time to chase the papers daily through the loops. If you read one of my first entries, it was full of frustration as we fill out the same info in 3 or 4 places...and call around to find that some of the forms are wrong, or that we have to re-do because of work changes...(For example, right now i have 2 forms to folks that have to get them signed and notarized, and returned to me. Then i have 2 applications that are nearly complete, but need a few chunks of info. We are re-doing some financial forms and then re-submitting to our local agency and wait for the fix there - and then when she's done we can assemble and send things to Maryland. I have a grant application (thank GOD) and will work on that today too. Lastly, employment reference letters are due.) And that does not complete the dossier checklist.
So that's where we are. We are struggling for time to do all the million things, there's a lot of "hurry up and wait" and then the overwhelming feeling that if i am not making progress, i just am not trying hard enough. Watching other families come back from the PI with their child is goose bumps and jealousy. And i have a feeling that we're going to need to put on a fundraiser soon. I won't diatribe on this, but i struggle with turning my family into a charity project. And it is hard to hear the "why is it so expensive" comments all the time. I'll discuss THAT later. but i have to say it doesn't matter. We'll pay it to get Rey here.
