Good Effort

Great comments and suggestions from friends after my last post-thanks guys!

On Friday we decided that we would try to get as much done as we possibly could for a couple of reasons. The first being that we want to hurry through this process because the sooner we get it done, the sooner we get to Ukraine. Second, to do each of these things on individual days would be a lot of time and a lot of gas.

Because we were going to be gone all day and well into the evening, I pulled the girlies out of school at ten so that we could head down to town. I had my doctor appointment for my physical at eleven. Did I mention that I had SEVEN kids with me? Ages 10, 7, 5, 4, 3, 3, and 8 months. It was a full suburban. I was prepared to bribe, if needed, but the kids were all really well behaved. They especially liked the part where they did the blood draw. Several of the kids were worried at first about how they would get home, assuming that the nurse was taking ALL my blood out of my body. As we paraded through the halls of the medical center, I got lots of looks and even one old guy dragging an oxygen tank behind him yelled to me, "When the h... do you have any spare time?" haha. My kids don't really look alike, so the group as a whole could have passed as siblings. Or not at all related, however you want to look at it. Anyhow, they were very well behaved and that was the most important part. phew.

Next we had about an hour to kill before Huz could meet me at the credit union to have all of our documents notarized so we bought donuts, ate sandwiches and drove to the park in my old neighborhood where the kids played, stopped in at a friends house to borrow a spoon (to feed the baby her food) and a bathroom. Then we packed up the 'burb again.

I met Huz at the credit union and we had everything notarized quick as a flash. Thank you notary lady! I can't remember your name, but you were very nice and I liked your outfit! Next, we were off to be fingerprinted for our USCIS paperwork. To give a little perspective, we had already been in the car for almost two hours at this point and were headed for another 45 minutes. Then, we were going to need to at some point drive back home which would require another two hours in the car. Yuck. Somehow, I managed to forget to bring the address to the fingerprinting place, but I knew the general idea of where it would be (maybe it was because I had to home school for an hour, feed a baby, get 6 kids ready and out the door, make sure I had all the other documents we'd need, make lunch for everyone and pack baby's diaper bag and a kid diaper bag. I didn't even attempt to shower). Huz was not very excited about not knowing exactly where we were headed, but it didn't really bother me. It's all good, right? Once we got to the general area it took us about two minutes to figure out which building it was.

We decided I would go inside to see how long the wait was before we unloaded all the kids. This turned out to be the brilliant move of the day. The office was empty. Well, actually, there was me, a front desk lady and a guy in an office. After giving the lady my paperwork and explaining that I knew I didn't have an appointment but that they could use the SIM number on my receipt to pull my account and could I please be seen today if they weren't too busy? I was told that the paper I had was not an appointment. Duh. Isn't that what I just said? However, through my mind the phrase "more flies with honey, more flies with honey" was running and I explained my situation once again. The lady said she'd have to see if the guy in the office had time to check. That was fine, almost funny even as I was the ONLY other person in the office:) Anyhow, the guy comes out, says that I don't have an appointment, and so for a third time now I explain my situation and he grumpily mumbles about having to look me up in the data base and if I'm not in the data base there's nothing he can do... I call after him, "Thanks so much for trying! I really appreciate your effort." And I said it nicely, not sarcastically. The lady and I are sitting there, watching him through his office windows. Every couple minutes he calls out to us, "I can't do anything if you're not in the system." and "You only got this letter five days ago, how fast do you think they are?" yada yada yada. What I was thinking was that my friend had come in the day after receiving her receipt and was in the system, so five days should be plenty of time, right? Wrong. I wasn't in the system. I thanked the lady, thanked the guy and told them I'd be back as soon as I was in the system, thanks for trying...

So, that was a bummer. But, there was no point in being upset or even bugged about it, they did what they could and I did what I could, so what more can we ask for? I did find out this weekend that I can place a call to the USCIS to have us put into the data base. Now we just have to find another day this next week that we can jet down there.

If I let myself, sometimes I feel a little anxiety. We have friends over in Ukraine right now trying to complete an adoption with a sweet teenage girl who is having a hard time deciding for sure what she wants to do. Stay in Ukraine and be homeless in 3 years or go to America and have a home and a family. It seems like an easy decision, but would YOU be willing to give up your language, your land, your life as you know it and embrace someone you hardly know and trust them to take care of you and provide for you when your own flesh and blood didn't/couldn't? Anyhow, it stresses me out a little because I'm fairly certain that we will have a similar experience with our BoyOne when we get there. I could be totally wrong, but that rarely happens. (J/K:)) But seriously, it would be really easy for me to say no thanks on this Ukraine thing, this isn't sure enough for me. I want to know that everything is going to work out just perfect before I drop that kind of money and fly half way around the world for three weeks, come home and do it again in another week.

Then, I have to remind myself who is in charge. Just because I have plans made for the next day and likely know how the day will go, doesn't mean that it's all going to happen. I just think I know how it will go. I just think I know the sun will rise in the morning. I just think that my day will go as it is laid out on the calendar. I don't really know all of this, but I have faith that it will happen and that's what I need for Ukraine. Faith. I'd like a 100% guarantee as to what will go on, but I need to be faithful and know that I do have a 100% guarantee in Him. I know that He is the creator of all things. I know that He is the ultimate planner and preparer of all things good. I know that when something bad happens, He didn't cause it, but He will turn it into something good-if I let Him. I know that 'if He leads me to it, He'll see me through it.' I know that He is the only real guarantee that I can have of anything. If I follow the feelings and promptings I have and the inspiration I receive, where I go is where He wants me to be and He will make sure that whatever is supposed to happen does. I know that He is good and by following Him, good things will happen.

And then we drove back to Kaysville for dance and grocery shopping and dinner and then drove home just in time to put everyone's tired little bodies to bed.