Sleepless Mama calls out to the universe

Recently, I have dwelled on the children I was not able to bring home. Over this past weekend, I checked on the other young men I had been considering when I started the process to adopt my son over a year and a half ago; Four boys still wait. One ages out next month. I don't want that young man's future to be one of marginalization and that feeling will not let me sleep. I cannot believe no one will scoop him up and give him all that he needs in life! Can you make room for one more child in your life? He's healthy, does all right in school, is an athlete, plays well with the other children and has a big heart. Act now. Contact me for more details and contact an adoption agency. He doesn't have time to wait.

This article appeared on one of the boards I subscribe to. It was the first thing I read this morning. Do you think it was chance that it fell into my hands to read on a night when my heart burns so much to find a young man a family that I cannot sleep? It is a long article. My heart broke all over again.

http://aeon.co/magazine/world-views/whats-it-like-to-be-disabled-in-china/

Immanuel Needs a Miracle

When I started this journey three years ago, I called this my faith adoption thinking I would name the little girl I would adopt something that meant faith. Boy, was I wrong. Pun intended. This has been an adoption testing my faith at every turn. Folks who've been on this journey with me  know the long hours I have put in to raise funds via work, selling Tupperware, making crafts to sell at bazaars, and my fundraising efforts through organizations such as Reece's Rainbow, Go Fund Me, and Bonfire funds. People have graciously donated to both of the first two funds for which I am forever grateful. I've applied for foundation grants and was very, very grateful to receive one grant which will cover a third of the mandatory orphanage donation fee.

Immanuel needs a miracle now.  Funding fell through for my plane tickets--there's a long story there of what happened and didn't happen while I was dealing with a crisis due to actions of a bus driver at my kids' school. Airplane tickets now are $2700 and above, and rising.  I have to get to China by December 28th. There's no budge room, not even a little. I have to get Immanuel on December 30th or he loses his chance for a family forever. This weekend, when I should be making final preparations, cleaning house, and finishing up stuff from work,  I am now in crisis for this child. I am his last hope. I cannot, will not, let him down.

Donations to either Reece's Rainbow or Go Fund Me are needed now. Word needs to be spread beyond the base of folks following the journey here and on FB. Make Immanuel's dream of a family come true this Christmas.

Ginger on a Mission

So incredibly grateful for this support! You have got to go check out their designs! So beautiful! Thank you thank you thank you!

 

Ginger on a Mission is feeling lead to help a specific family racing against time and would like to donate 75% of our sales to the Terry Tomaszewski family as they need to get their aging out boy by January 1st! This is a desperate situation as in Immanuel's country, he will lose his chance to be adopted on that date!

Please consider donating or purchasing from our site: https://www.etsy.com/shop/GINGERONAMISSION and specify the Tomaszewski family. Read their story here: http://reecesrainbow.org/67597/sponsortomaszewski

 

 

We need it now, Chihuahuas in the street, and a wild ride

If you've been following my blog for a while, you have already come to the conclusion that I will get my elbow stuck in a tuba case once in a while. Okay that one really didn't happen to me. I just heard about it. But it could have happened to me.

You see Janet, it's this way (time to run and hide this signals long, impossible or headshake producing stories that actually happened-- to me.):

 Just before work a little over a week ago, I got notice of LSC receipt--early (And hooray too, the folks over in China rock! Very grateful to them. Very.). Only problem was, I was just going in the door to work, 15 miles away from my computer and the needed paperwork with no way to extricate it or get to it in anything resembling the near future. Paperwork needed now. Now. And by the by, can you get it notarized? Cleared my schedule to get the needed paperwork out the door and on its way. Almost. Meanwhile, there were Chihuahuas running in the street, bicyclists jumping out from between moving cars and one and all trying to get me to hit them. Didn't work. I made it through the gauntlet. Docs out the door and overnighted, hah!

Or so I thought. Phone call the next day: you forgot the I-864. Horrors! No, really.  The I-800 can't go in without the I-864. It just can't. It's a permission and the I-800 will just sit there, smiling on someone's desk just as if it had good sense. Or worse. It will sit in the lock box. No one really knows what the lock box is. Well, it's probably a box and has a lock on it...or maybe not. Your assigned officer cannot go get documents out of the lock box. Not even if you beg and promise to be good or say pretty please with sugar on top. I'm not sure if the supervisors can either. This is a Fort Knox kind of thing. Procedures have to be followed. I imagine a kind of Mission Impossible sort of scenario.

Phone call continues: The signed LSC copy sent back immediately--we need the original signed and dated, not just a photocopy as you'd been told.  Send both back together. A day's delay. Not good. Not good at all. There's so little time. That was Friday. Saturday, no document. Okay, it will still get there in time if sent next-day delivery on Monday. No document Monday morning. No document Monday noon, Monday afternoon, and no document Monday evening. I'm going bonkers at this point.  I call and email my case manager even though I know she won't get the messages until the next day.

I can't sleep. I'm eating chocolate nuked with peanut butter like there's no tomorrow. Try it!! It is way better than a chocolate confection made with those ingredients from the store. Make sure to use dark chocolate and don't burn it. The pieces will still have their shape, they don't have to be liquid. Add Adams peanut butter about two huge spoonfuls. After nuking, not before. About one minute in the microwave. And you'll have bliss. As long as the pyrex measuring cup doesn't explode. That didn't happen--this time.

(Note: Nothing worse than burned chocolate....well, maybe cat pee in the toaster or on a hot stove top. That is truly awful. Truly. Toaster cat exhibited either great talent or sneakiness and cunning beyond belief or maybe total insensitivity. No clues left behind to alert an unsuspecting human who can't smell.)

 Anyway, just after midnight: delivery attempted over the weekend but no one home. ARgh! They knew I wouldn't be home and it had to be sent so it could be left! Livid. And what's with sending it via USPS? Wasn't it supposed to come FedEx? Water over the dam. USPS dated the notice for February, not November. It almost got shredded. More chocolate. Try to sleep. Get up, race to post office for the document so it can get out and I can get to work. Only, there's no way they can return it same day. Not even at this early hour. No way. No way. No way. Kind of like a bad dream. FedEx can't perform the deed either. UPS? No. Suggestions? Hiring a private jet. Are you kidding me?!! You're not kidding. You leave me no option. Mama's gotta do what Mama's gotta do: Cancel work. Like I don't need the money. Immanuel's life is worth more than anything. And I'm not going down. He's coming home. That's IT!

Grab the kids. Grab the dog. At least he's happy. He gets a ride. Rides = good to him. Call and email the agency, I'm coming. Adrenaline combined with prayer and purpose carried me almost the entire way to Seattle, despite the lack of sleep. As I drove, I practiced controlled breathing, prayed, reminded myself how lucky I was to be able to take off to do something so vitally important. I counted my blessings and admired the beautiful scenery and tried to enjoy the sunshine. The original LSC got signed and submitted. The I864 had to be redone anyway to conform to new instructions which we wouldn't have been able to do without the delay and drive. Lots of times these things happen for a reason. Best of all, we got provisional I800 approval and can look forward to the official approval starting Monday (which actually, technically is today).  "Fast away the old year passes..." "Time is slippin' slippin' into the future..."

Wrong turns can be good too--especially if you end up at Ikea and get items you needed anyway plus a yummy lunch.

Freight train a comin'!

That's how I'm feeling today. Tons of paperwork all due at once from every quarter. New system at work which isn't working any better than the new healthcare site. Computer keeps needing to be pushed to load webpages. My brain feels like something ate it, or it dropped out, or I lost it somewhere in my purse. I'll never find it if it's in my purse. I do clean it out. There's a black hole in there.. Honest.  Stuff disappears. Do you think it's related to the worm hole between my microwave and the car--cuz there must be a correlation someplace. Scratch that. A conspiracy. Logically, I know it doesn't take 20 minutes to walk the 30 feet from the microwave to the car. The time has been checked on both. It takes 20 minutes to walk from the microwave to the car. Just does. Cats to dodge/put out. Dog to bribe not to guilt me for not taking him to work. Lights. Grab the stuff Miracle Man was supposed to take out to recycling. Go back for paperwork I forgot.

Anyway, I'm feeling incredibly pressured right now. Only six more weeks. At most. Then HH will be coming home. So much to do between now and then. I wish I could clone myself several times. Or that I didn't need sleep. Or that the ADHD would go back in the box it came out of. God, please make it go away!

Really being tested right now, aren't I? I will win.

Pick me! Pick Me! OOOh, ooh, oooh, pick me!

I see you standing on that chair waving your arms about as if you were a windmill, screaming at full volume. You want this so bad you can taste it, right? Right? Wrong.

I need to start sending Murphy birthday cards, presents, build an altar--something. Murphy who? You know...Murphy. The famous one. That Murphy. Of Murphy's Law fame. The man loves me.  Or maybe he hates me and has put a curse on me. I can't tell. All I know is that he and I do a lot together. Too much. Hasn't he ever heard of absence makes the heart grow fonder?

Jury duty. Grand jury duty. For a whole month. And no, they do not let you out of it if you write them a letter explaining what a hardship it will be for you, the plans you have that it will ruin, the impact on your boss' business. Not anymore. Yeah, if you're over 70, sole caregiver to small children for whom you cannot afford daycare or not a US citizen.

Did I need this a month before travel? Did I? When I need the income the most? And, I'm sorry, the puny $10 a day compensation really stinks (of which the municipal parking lot eats half and the burger joint the other half. So they may as well save a dime by not paying at all since they're getting it back anyway.)  I understand they don't want jurors to be in it for the money. But seriously, the guy at the freeway on ramp makes more in an hour!  It feels like my life will be held hostage. And the adoption. And the people I'm contracted to serve who won't get their services because I'm not there to help them.

First round of grant applications and more fundraiser stuff

Got one pre-app in tonight, another application finished and ready to go, a third one printed but not filled out (11 pages long). References alerted. Also looked at t-shirt slogans and graphics for that sale and fundraiser. Didn't really like any of the ones already created so I'm going to have to design one myself. That will be part of tomorrow's project.. I'll be at a holiday craft bazaar at the end of the month and an lining up some more for both the fundraiser and Tupperware. I'll post the t-shirt fundraiser as soon as I get it up and running. Hopefully by the end of the week? We'll have to sell 50 shirts or more before they'll print them. Should make really nice holiday gifts for people!

How many times must a woman go to get a document notarized....

before she actually can find
someone who will do the stamp?
Not the bank!
And not the other bank!
FedEx doesn't do anymore
The realtor? No!

Yes, how many trips must a woman make
before she can drive
to the secretary of state
to get a stamp, to get a seal, to send the thing
to the consulate?


It's not as easy as you think
It should have been, but it wasn't.
They'd never seen...
They didn't know...Shouldn't there be somewhere to sign?
Shouldn't there be a typed line?

How many trips must a woman make
So the courier can take the approval
from the feds to the consulate
How many trips must it take!

The answer my friend, you will hear
The answer my friend, you will hear

But give me your guess
give me your guess

I800a approval

Hey, all! Exciting news! We received our I800a approval on Friday. I'll have to race around this coming week to get it notarized, verified and off to the consulate to be authenticated! This is the last document for our dossier. If I can get courier service to handle it that should shave a week off the turn-around time for the trip to the consulate. Then it will head up to our agency to be translated and sent with the rest of the documents to China. I'm thinking we should be DTC in two to three weeks if all goes well and LID should follow thereafter. We simply have to travel by the end of the first week in December--say prayers for us, okay? Everything has got to go without any delays or bumps from here on out or HH will lose out on getting a family and it is just not acceptable for that to happen! Remember too, to click through and make a donation to his adoption fund--any amount greatly appreciated.

Hopefully, I will have more exciting news by the end of the week--stay tuned!

Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back

The totals came out today and I made more than I thought from consigning at Superkids! Oh, happy day! During Superkids, I came down with 'the bug' and have been out sick from work all week so far--not much of it left!!

At the beginning of the week, my adoption worker informed me we do not have until December 30th to finalize HH's adoption; We have until December 23rd. I know, you're thinking. "big deal." Well,  each part of the process takes x amount of time and without any expedition the whole thing should take 5-6 months, not three. Right now, we're waiting to be assigned a caseworker with the National Benefits Center who will hopefully approve our I800a on the first go round. Next week, it will be 60 days since the old I800a hit the lockbox at NBC. I was updated today by one of the officers there that we should expect to be assigned our worker during the coming week. That is slightly longer than the average has been over the last year and if all goes well. The paperwork has to get sent to me, then go to the Chinese Consulate, back to me, then to our agency who has to have it and all of our other documents translated. That part should take about a month to six weeks. Then everything gets sent over to China for an approval which takes a few weeks. That puts us at the end of November. We then have to file the I800, get article 5, arrange to travel, get to China, spend two whirl wind weeks there while stuff gets processed there and come home. Do you see why I'm so concerned?

In other good news, NBC, and other bodies affecting adoptions are not impacted by the government shut down. I was sooo relieved to learn that! I have a bunch of necklaces almost completed for Friday's fundraising tent at First Friday but no knitted hats finished. I also have the preliminary application for the first grant just about completed. I should be able to send that in tomorrow.

Last call!! Scentsy fundraiser ends tonight!

All proceeds will go toward HH's adoption fund! If you love Scentsy and want to contribute to a great cause, now is the time!


https://scentswithadele.scentsy.us/Scentsy/Buy

Countdown?!!

I spoke with a very nice supervisor at the National Benefits Center today. While HH's case doesn't qualify for expediting at this time, she assured me that our file would be reviewed in the next couple weeks. Meaning, if all goes well, we could be looking at travel authorization in as little as six weeks. OMG! Now, before anyone gets too excited, from the look of things, there are a couple of Chinese holidays that might make a couple weeks impact on the other side of the ocean. On this side, we have to pray we don't get an RFE. What's an RFE? Returned for errors. The homestudy that has to be turned in with the I800a application has to have very specific questions asked and very specific wording. Some adoptive families have had their I800a's RFE'd 3, 4, and even 6 times. Which means the homestudy has to be rewritten, re-reviewed, re-submitted, returned to the queue, re-reviewed...you get the idea. If we get an RFE, that would probably put us into late November or early December. More than one....I don't want to think about that. That would be a very bad place. Especially with our holidays and holiday closures starting then. Time is running out. Lord, bring my HH home. Remove all obstacles for him. Don't let this one go to places unknown.

First we scurried, then we hurried, melted a little, and, now, we wait.

By afternoon, the San Francisco Chinese consulate will have our dossier documents to authenticate. It feels so good to be at this point! Most of the paper-chasing finished! Getting that last document on Friday after so many challenges, delays, stops and starts. Thus is the adoption journey.

We traveled to Salem to get the documents verified on Monday with the plan of sending them off for authentication on the same day. We didn't count on being pointed in the wrong direction in 90 degree heat to get a money order to pay the consulate to look at and approve the docs. (Anyone hear, "I'm melting, oh what a world!"? After trudging several looonggg blocks flanked by a pair of 12-year-olds who were trying very hard to be patient, I learned we had to back track and go the other way. More trudging.

Upon reaching the cool oasis of Safeway and basking in its refreshing air while waiting for the clerk to alight from her backroom haven, she informs me: cash only for money orders. Trudge to car dragging said 12-year-olds behind with promises of McDonald's on the race home. To drop them off. To head to work. Too late to get to the store with cash. Cash. Who knew? Mffff...well, I knew--about ten years ago! But that was then, this is now. Sorry. I forgot. Like, I've only bought money orders maybe three times in my life!

Off too late from work Tuesday to get docs off.

Wednesday. Off early. Traffic. Too late to get money from bank. Think. Think. Think. Solution found. Off to get money. Off to copy and FedEx docs priority or express or whatever they call it. Docs checked twice. Return envelope inside. Money inside. Whew!

The docs should come back next week so I can turn around and send them to our agency. If all goes well. It must. Clock is ticking. I hear it reverberating in my sleep. Waking. He must come home. He must. Must.

Good news from the agency: They've almost finished the written part of the homestudy. That gets to go to the consulate as well. But they will have the adventure of sending it.

USCIS so far has been silent on the I-800a but then they may have just gotten it. It had to go through the agency first. Praying for a miracle there. Usually, it takes them 55 or more days to send back the approval. God moved the mountains for Miracle Man. God, please move them for HH!

I never thought I would run up against anything as challenging at the Indian domicile certificate. If you're not familiar with this document, any person in India can go down to their local police station and obtain one. It verifies who they are and where they live. Should be easy, right? Back when I was adopting Miss Sunshine, I spent two weeks on the phone with various state, regional, county, and city employees trying to get an equivalent of the domicile certificate here in the states. I can tell you that the police here will not do it. The county property assessor's office will not either. City hall won't. Strings had to be pulled to get someone in the state government to do it. I can hear you thinking, "Couldn't you have had your lawyer draft a letter to that effect for you?" Which is what several people asked in those two weeks of calling. No, it had to be on government letterhead.

Well, now I have the China process equivalent of that challenge. . And it doesn't seem like it should be that big a deal. Because I am self-employed, my agency needs a statement from an accountant verifying that I make what I make. My businesses so far are fairly simple so  I don't use an accountant. Twelve phone calls today with several of the accountants telling me that since they didn't do my taxes and didn't know me from Eve, they couldn't possibly verify my income. One may call me back tomorrow with what they need to do the job at $140 per hour with an estimated 2-4 hour time frame or about $540 at the projected high end. I need to get this done asap since my son has only until January 1 before he ages out.

"And another one's gone and another one's gone and another one bites the dust!"

Magic Chef waved it's wand for the last time this morning. Lights on, nobody home...we killed another microwave today. It just couldn't take the strain of daily use. One year and one week since purchase, don't ya know! So thankful I bought the extended warranty this time! It  is the fourth or fifth microwave in six years. I've lost count. I think it is fifth. I bought a pricier one last year in hopes that it would last longer.

Kind of disgusting the way they don't last. Mom's microwave bought in the late 70s worked fine when I sold it ten years ago. Probably still working for whomever bought it.

Home Depot will credit me the purchase price of my latest kill before the weekend is out and I'll be able to get number six. They were really great about it and asked me to dispose of the deceased  responsibly. The county recycling center is right across the street from the  Home D location nearest us but the guy in customer service at the 1-800 number has no idea.

Any recommendations on microwave brands? I've killed Panasonic, Sunbeam, Samsung and now Magic Chef. Who should I try next? Think I should get an extended warranty again?

We will not give up!

While it could have been worse, it couldn't have happened at a worse time. A few hours ago I was rear-ended by another driver. The car in front of me had stopped and I had stopped as well. Thankfully, there were no broken bones or life-threatening injuries. I am hurting and will  see the doctor tomorrow. The trunk of the car can't be opened because the fender is crumpled up over part of it. The lock is unoperable and to my dismay, the trunk light was on. I called the car company after discovering this and while playing answer all their questions, repeatedly telling the lady on the other end of the line that I couldn't understand her  and to speak more clearly, the car's battery went dead. In my driveway. Nose in. When towing this vehicle you're supposed to do it from the front.

My plans for this evening had been to finish installing the vinyl plank floor in my living room and to do some painting. I don't know how that will happen now. I'm going to delegate as much to Miracle Man but he, after all, is still a boy. The final home study visit is this week and we have no more budge room to finish repairs on the house. I am down. I am not out. I will find a way to get everything done. I will not let HH's future go into darkness because of this or any other roadblock. I will go over, under, around, break through or blast to smithereens the difficulties in the way. I will break on through to the other side. HH will know a family. My family. We are coming HH. We will not give up!

1/28/2013 Keyed chucks and melted fasteners

In this day and age of keyless chucks, why is it that my only surviving drill is the keyed one from my father? That chuck wastes my time with having to crank, untwist the key, crank, untwist the key, repeat, repeat, repeat to get a bit tightened in. Process in reverse to get the bit out when I finish drilling pilot holes, then forward again to tighten the inserted screwdriver bit. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Last night, I put in a new hand towel ring and after three attempts finally got the new toilet paper holder in place. Never could get the set screws to stay tight in the old ones so out with them! While the towel ring didn't give any trouble, the toilet paper one proved problematic. The fasteners didn't want to go in right and when I did get them in, they melted or had to be pulled out again because the screws that followed wouldn't go in all the way. I ruined several fasteners and screws  while contorting myself around the toilet to fit drill, screw, and hand in between cabinet and potty. And finally...found the second piece of hardware was off by, oh, half an INCH!!! Start over. Ruin more hardware. ARGGGHHH! Moved everything the wrong direction. Start again! Finally got it. Most of the goofs won't show thank goodness. I decided the grab bar should wait...especially since it would need a stud finder to ensure proper installation. Thought I would get to that today, but no. The "short" errands needed to accomplish this and other parts of the other projects took way too much time. Tomorrow morning, it's the grab bar's turn. Then the only hardware will be the towel rack which is on order. Phew! After all the running around, I found the melamine shelf I had had cut to size wasn't dimensional and didn't fit into the unit I'd cut them for. There must be a reason. There must be a reason. I'll keep telling myself that.