We got to work!
Fingerprints, passports, required documents retrieved (i.e. criminal checks both state and county, employment verifications, guardianship statements, copies of birth & marriage certificates, etc....), FBI checks, Adoption parent education classes, medical appts., interviews (4 total) by social worker, country specific information, fundraisers, etc....
Fast forward to May 31st when our completed dossier was registered in Rwanda. Now we wait. We quickly realized that the waiting game was going to be tougher and WAY longer than we had thought.
The end of this month marks 8 months of waiting. I'd love to say that I've waited well. Reality says this has been one tough year. It's true though, in the hardest times, that is the best time of growth. I have grown deeper in my walk with the Lord. I hope that I am a better person and have a deeper sense of strength and character than I did a year ago. My aim is to glorify my God. I have learned a lot about the Sovereignty of God. I'm learning to surrender to His will and timing. That can mean some pretty "ugly" days for a stubborn, control freak like myself.
Thank you for your kind words and your prayers. Your support matters and affects us deeply.
Enough of all this heavy stuff, I will leave you with a funny but oh so true story.
The other night Josh was walking down the hallway to check on the girls in their room before he and I called it a night. I was in our bedroom and I heard him make a funny little noise. I asked if everything was alright and he said he wasn't sure. What??? What is going on? I stood in the doorway of our room in our L-shaped hallway. Josh said I think a mouse just ran past me into the playroom. Where did a mouse come from? There have been no "signs" of a mouse? Really, are you sure?
To say that rodents scare me would be a grossly exaggerated understatement. I loathe rodents! I hate them. They turn my stomach and I squeal like a little girl if I see one. Call me a baby, I don't care. Yuck! Can't stand them. Soooo... now I am kinda freaking out. Josh turns on the lights and is checking the room and YEP, we have a mouse that is now behind the dresser. What do we do???? I could run a half-marathon at this point with all the adrenaline pulsing through my body. I go and put my boots on. Josh leaves wimpy me there on post and goes to the garage to retrieve his big work gloves and a broom. Say your prayers you nasty rodent.
Josh closes the door and barricades himself in the room. He had to cover up the little space underneath the doorway. No pesky mouse was leaving that room alive. I'm still standing in the doorway of our bedroom and the playroom is directly in front of me and the end of the hallway. All is quiet and then "Whack, whack, whack" Josh is swinging that broom and I am jumping up and down. Get that sucker. He needs to die for invading our territory. :)
Josh starts moving the stuff he had placed in front of the door so I think yes, the mouse is dead. Hooray. All of the sudden....... that darn mouse comes flying out from under the door running for his life. STRAIGHT AT ME! I figured this little guy was a goner so to have him shoot out from under that door took me by total surprise. This is the part where I so wished I had grabbed the video camera. I would have won the grand prize on America's Funniest Videos because I came unglued. No explanation will do it justice. I yelped, turned, and jumped for our bed. Of course I didn't try to stand my ground and stop this mouse from running through our house. I didn't even stand there long enough to see where it went. Down the hall? In another room? Towards the front living room? Guess what....we have NOT found the mouse! To this day there are no "signs" of our furry pest and no traps have been touched. I'd like to think that he ran in and ran back out to where ever he came from and is long gone.
sidenote: Josh did hit the tar out of that mouse. It "played" dead and then when he moved the stuff from the door it jumped up and ran. Can you believe it!
The mouse ran out and the chicken remains...ME!
blessings.
