Wherever you are my love will find you...

Today we are 46 days into our wait for the next step in our adoption.  Time is so surreal in general, but this experience time takes on a whole new meaning.  When we submitted our LID and began this waiting period, the average time to anticipate the next step was 62 days.  Then it went down to 61 days, which I commented my excitement on in a previous post.  Now the wait average is up to 64...and the last four people who have posted in my group have waited between 71-103 days.  Not good.  We are still optimistic that we will travel sometime between August and October, but I so look forward to the light at the end of this tunnel.  I just want my kid home.

Today I talked with the Lakeville School District about setting up an evaluation once we come home.  From the time I make an official request the district has 45 calendar days to complete the process.  I am hopeful that Lakeville & New Prague Schools can find  way to work it out for me to have Christian evaluated in our district.  I know the team who would evaluate him and work with him and I would love to see him consistently receive services with the same people instead of starting one place and switching to the next.  Soon I need to start calling the medical professionals who will be involved him helping evaluate his medical needs.

I believe we made great gains in the area of my adoptive leave this week.  One HR lady shared that I can have staff donate days towards my sick days, which means that not only will I get my health insurance contributed as if I were working, but there is a chance that enough staff will give me the days I need to stay home and be paid my full salary all twelve weeks.  A lot of the credit on this goes towards our family doctor, who was willing to write a statement that there as a medical need for me to stay home the full twelve weeks.  Praise the Lord.

We have still not heard anything about receiving a grant or loan, but I have received two emails this week and a phone call from different foundations saying they are processing our request, which hopefully is a good sign.  I have started collecting things for our garage sale fundraiser and now have 12 tutoring hours each week booked for the summer. Adam really impressed me with his realization this week.  He shared with me that even though it would be awesome if we had all the necessary money for this adoption sitting in our pockets and we didn't have to work so hard to raise funds and pay off debts in the future, we have learned so many good lessons through this process.  We will walk away from this experience as totally different people than when we started, hopefully for the better.

I have started picking up a few things for our next care package to Christian.  I bought a book at Hallmark called, "Wherever You Are My Love Will Find You".  Yes, I was the person crying reading through the book at the store.  It is a beautiful story, but even better:  It records you reading the story.  So, Adam and I took turns reading and recording ourselves read the story to our son.  He won't know what we are saying, but he will hear our voices.  There are a few people at the orphanage who speak English, so hopefully they will translate the story to him and the other caregivers.  These are the words in the book:

 At the beginning of the story we can record a page with whatever we want.  We shared how much we love him and used the Chinese words for "mom" and "dad" - mama & baba.  We used his Chinese name as well, so hopefully we pronounced it right :)

I wanted you more
than you ever will know,
so I sent love to follow
wherever you go.

It's high as you wish it.
It's quick as an elf.
You'll never outgrow it...
it sretches itself!

So climb any mountain...
climb up to the sky!
My love will find you.
My love can fly!

Make a big splash!
Go out on a limb!
My love will find you.
My love can swim!

It never gets lost, never fades, never ends...
if you're working, or playing,
or sitting with friends.

You can dance 'til you're dizzy,
paint 'til you're blue...

There's no place, not one
that my love can't find you.

And if someday you're lonely,
or someday you're sad,
or strike out at baseball,
or think you've been bad...

just lift up your face,
feel the wind in your hair.
That's me, my sweet baby,
my love is right there.

In the green of the grass...
in the smell of the sa...
in the clouds floating by...
at the top of a tree...
in the sound crickets make
at the end of the day...

"You are loved.
You are loved.
You are loved," they all say.

My love is so high, and so wide and so deep,
it's always right there, even when you're asleep.

So hold your head high and don't be afraid
to march to the front of your own parade.
If you're still my small babe
or you're all the way grown,
my promise to you is you're never alone.

You are my angel, my darling, my star...
and my love will find you, wherever you are.