Yes, it's official I am going back to work tomorrow. I am excited to be starting my new job, I will admit it is a little scary to be starting some place new, but I am mostly just thankful for the opportunity. I lost my job on September 5th, and if my calculations are correct I will be officially starting my new job 47 days later, which is basically unbelievable. My new job is at a federal organization and it usually takes months to get hired on and begin. I will have to admit that I had nothing to do with it! Although I have received a lot of help and support from the people who work there, I cannot give them all the credit either. Things around here have been kind of crazy, but then again I have posted about our crazy home life before, right? But I have to tell those of you who don't know the details the good stuff. So here it is from the top; We were gathering our paperwork to complete for our home study, we had our family interview and home inspection scheduled for Sept 8,& 9th. On September 5th I lost my job, on Sept 6th I picked up my belongings from my old job and interviewed for my new job (yeah, you heard right! I had an interview the very next day). When our wonderful social worker showed up on Saturday, I met him at the door and said "I lost my job on Wednesday, but I have already found a new one! Are we still good?" Now I say that jokingly, but the truth is I new this was going to slow us way down on our paperwork. The next week they offered me my new job, if all my background stuff checked out. Then I found out from our family coordinator that a lot of our paperwork was going to expire, because the HS wasn't going to be completed due to my job loss. Boy was I upset!!!! So the race was on to get new copies and documents and try to put the dossier together, so when I did start my new job we would have all the other papers ready to go. What's the hurry? Our dossier has got to get to China by January 25, 2013 or some of the paperwork will be expired. The HS has got to be completed and on file before we can fill out our USCIS 1-800a, and it takes up to 2.5 months to get the 1-800a back. I was afraid that I wouldn't get to start my new job until November, and that our time was running out. Oct 16th was a bad day, despite my best efforts to finalize several documents that day I came home with nothing. I fought all day on the phone with a company that owes us money desperately needed to bring Hadley home. Then after being told that I would have to drive over an hour away to get a form notarized, I broke down in the car and all my sweet husband could do was sit there. I was so ready to give up, I felt completely defeated once again. Through tear-filled eyes I looked out of the window I saw it... God showed me his plan with just a few simple words "Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear." God was telling me that Hadley was closer than I thought she was.
The next day I drove the distance to get that simple form certified. As the kind lady was working on the paper I saw the posted sign that said "we do not take debit cards, and no out of town checks". I just started laughing out loud, and said you have got to be kidding me? I never carry cash, and I am most definitely out of town. The woman across the room at another desk looked up at me as if she thought I might be one of those crazy people that carriers an entire conversation on with themselves (which I do, by the way). I start digging through my purse in hope that God put money I didn't know about in there. When the lady returned with my form she smiled and said "it's on me, I will contribute to your adoption", I just started crying my eyes out as I told her thank you. Thursday, I was going over the paperwork I still needed with my mom, and she made the comment that we might not make the time line, and she wanted me to be prepared. I said "where is your faith? It's going to be fine". Friday at 4:15 I received the phone call I had been waiting on, and it was the start date for my new job. So this week I will be able to get the documents needed to complete our HS, dossier, and start to complete our 1-800a. That is 2 weeks earlier than I had hoped for. Thank you Jesus!!!!
I do want to say that since the beginning of this journey I have encounter many different emotions, opinions, advice, questions, criticism, and judgements. I say this in hopes that if someone who reads this has a dream or an idea of something great yet to happen in their life they are not discouraged, but encouraged. From the very beginning I have had many challenges, many sleepless nights, many scary what-ifs, many believers and many more non-believers. I have been loved and supported by family and friends, and I have been non supported by them too. I have been asked many questions on why, when, how, and what? There have been days when I am unstoppable, and days when I want to lay down and quit. What Brian and I are doing is not so people will think we are the "perfect" family, who have done such a wonderful service to this world. We could be no further from perfect if we tried. We are just average parents in an average house, who live in a small hometown in Kentucky. We have a tight budget, but believed that God would provide the financial means to get her home. We have no idea why God has picked us to be parents to this precious child he has chosen for our family. Hadley will not be blessed to have us, we are blessed to have her.
Although I fill out form after form, have days I want to scream, and worry about all of the things still yet to come I will not give up. I dream about what life will be like when she is finally home with us, I look over at her pillow every night while laying Haven down for bed. I look in the rear view mirror where her car seat will be, I think about teaching her about trust and love and all about the wonderful and loving God we have. I can't wait until I witness her blowing out her birthday candles, given that she has never ever had a birthday cake. They don't even know the exact day of her birth, let alone celebrate it. But mostly I think about how wonderful it will be to hold her in my arms and tell her that she is loved, loved more than she will ever know. I will tell her about all the wonderful people who helped to get her home, about the people who held fundraisers for us, the people who put money toward helping bring her home, the lady who paid for the document fee in Adair county, and all the people who pray for her safe homecoming. None of this would have been possible without God, he has done it all.
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