Paperwork

This post is for my own personal venting. We are in the beginning stage of our second adoption. At this time during MK's adoption, I remember being so excited. I remember feeling like I was on a mission and I loved having something to do that would bring us closer to our daughter. This time around, not so much. It has been one frustrating detail after another. Really. I have talked with more government officials, listened to more voice recordings, visited more FedEx/US post offices, sent more faxes and emails this time around than I would have ever dreamed of doing during MK's adoption. Just yesterday, as we were walking into the movie theatre, my phone rings. Low and behold it is a TX number....the Chinese Consulate's office no doubt. Very helpful people and they kindly let me know that our Secretary of State's office had not certified the right name so they are going to send us our document back.....OH.MY.WORD. That was the straw. It broke.
This is all of the little stuff. This is all of the little stuff that I LOVED during the process with MK. I looked forward to this part when we began adoption number 2. Really. Now, not so much. Now I am really looking forward to the wait....the part where we sit by our phone hoping it will ring with news of our new daughter. It is funny though, the emotions of adoption. As much as I anticipate moving forward with our adoption, as much as I look forward to our paperwork being out of our hands and in China, I also don't want it to end. I do truly feel as though this will be our final adoption, our final addition to our family. With that in mind, when I do feel overwhelmed and frustrated by the process, I try to remember and savor this time in our lives. Even with its obstacles, adoption is a wonderful experience. I have one beautiful little girl to remind me of that. And that beautiful little girl will sit with me and view the faces of those children who wait for their families to hold them. And that beautiful little girl will tell me, "Momma, make her picture big. I want to see her. Is she our baby? Can we go get her now?" That beautiful little girl is my reminder to focus on the big stuff.

A Talk With Jesus?

Mason-Kate was told that she needed to clean up her room. She has this big canvas bag that most of her toys are held in.....every.single.item. that was supposed to be IN the bag was on the FLOOR. Imagine. She declared that she could not clean up the mess. I agreed to help her get started and then I proceeded to pull down her bed and prepare it for her nap. As soon as I began to get the bed ready, she declared once again that she could not possibly clean up the toys all by herself. I asked her, "Mason-Kate, why in the world did you take all of those toys out of the bag?" She said, "Jesus told me to do it." I thought for sure I heard her wrong. We (the boys) have had a friend over for a few days, his name is Joseph so I figured she was referring to him, surely, so I said, "Joseph told you to do this?" to which she responded, "No, Jesus told me to do it. He say my camera was at the bottom of the bag and I needed to get it out." My mouth was wide open not knowing quite how to respond and then she added, with her hand on her hip, "Ugh, I think I should not listen to him!" What makes this even more funny, is that she had been walking around all morning with a little bag of her "loot." I looked into the bag a little later to see what was inside. Sure enough, her Bible and her camera were in the bag.

More From MK

After having run more than enough errands in one morning, the children and I went to lunch. I picked up MK, hugged her real tight and told her that she was my favorite little girl ever. She hugged me back, real tight, looked up at me and in her sweet little voice she said, "And you are my best old mommy ever!"