Tulips against the forecast....

I resist the urge to start out with "It was a dark and stormy night..." but it looks like it is turning out to be just such a night. Winter weather advisory for slush tonight and tomorrow. This matters because our heat pump is on its last leg...and the compressor is nearly done on this thing. Three days ago I was taken by a scam artist regarding the repair of my car to the tune of 1250 dollars, unless you add the fact that I probably totally ruined the car by driving it, then it really begins to add up. A minor detail is that my car tags were stolen as well...the good news is that I have work (galore) and Tully is also working. Perhaps we can keep digging long enough to get out of the sand trap we have rolled in to. This is also a find time to call up those sermons on how if you are being tested then God must really love you...man I am sooo feeling the love today! :) I am ironically at peace with things, except for waiting on furthering our adoption plans. Wondering if DSS will notify me if they send my home study on to immigration so we can be approved there. Our fingerprints were done in about 5 seconds and they stated they are only waiting on the home study. I did find some errors in our dossier but was able to fix those with no effort and have them renotarized. Now once again with DSS dragging their opinion around in circles we run the risk of timing issues and having to redo things yet again. If I am able to submit our dossier in March then we are ok not to have to redo everything...if too much time drags this into April I will have to start re-ordering documents. Ukraine has this crazy rule that nothing can be notarized for longer than 6 months in the paperwork that will be submitted to them. So, my prayer request is that you pray that Marina will be on the hearts and minds of every single social services worker that is involved in this process to the point that they cannot sleep until we are cleared. I know that is a bit drastic but we should be moving forward and as many nights as I have laid awake wondering and thinking of Marina, maybe they should be too. Perhaps they don't get the urgency of her situation.
Ukraine has a new president and cabinet members are coming into office, many members of the court system are being replaced...it is a veritable changing of the guards over there. We had hoped to beat this administration change because change is not often promising for eastern european adoptions. Already interpol clearance was added recently to the list of things we still have to do. The elusive moving carrot--I wonder that we will ever find our selves there. I watch the tulip buds at the end of their little green stems and wonder that they will bloom, and yet there is an air of promise seeing them, waiting until the exact right moment to surprise us all with what we knew we would witness. This is the hope that I hold on to. I ask for additional prayer for my friend Shelly who is bearing the weight of the world on her heart these days for her own adoption process. I know I have my friends and family to journey with us, but her, not so much. I forget that the world is a crummy place alot of days when it treats those so poorly who seek to do such a noble thing as bring an orphan (or 3) into their home and hearts and family. You guys around me, you are good to make me know that I have chosen my friends well. I have seen so much mean-ness in this world aimed at special needs children, but really, must we trample their parents to be to the ground as well? Thank you that you support us. I do not take your love and prayers lightly. Perhaps you might blanket her as well? We are all tulips waiting to bloom against the forecast....but I know with your help we can bloom and assist those children into blossoming as well. And that is the journey goal for them. Thanks forever and always, Cathy

Fingerprint appointment set!!!

Finally got our fingerprint appointment for February 16th at 11 am in Charlotte NC. I also have all my reference letters that were in addition to the ones already submitted to DSS and will drop those all to my social worker on Monday. The last thing I have to do is be approved by immigration. It is not a slam dunk so prayers would be appreciated. Oh yeah, and I have to raise about 9 thousand more dollars. I am sooo ready to go to Ukraine. Now if everything else lines up we should be there in March. Oh one other weird little glitch. I have put my passports somewhere in the house that is logical and safe...so logical and safe that I cannot find them. Only Evan's:) It is really important to locate these specific passports because new ones will have a new number will create a ton of new paperwork. They also cost about 80 bucks a peice. This is a stupid thing i do when I am stressed- and have done this for years. One time it took me three months to find my house payment in cash that was stuck in the cd shelf. And we all know I do not have the luxury of 3 months:) If they don't appear by next friday, I submit for new ones. Thanks, Cathy


2 Hours Later!! Passports found in one weird place--an old notebook I had started for our adoption 10 months ago??? Have no idea how they ended up there but I have them now, in a real place that would make sense. Thanks for whoever prayed along with me:)