Showing Up

The other day a friend of mine linked to an article entitled "Showing Up". It was much-needed encouragement for me. I work on writing novels -- I have several works in progress, and hopefully someday soon I'll finish one of them. I've always known that as great as it is to write when I feel inspired to (and that's when some of my best writing comes), I never really make progress unless I make myself sit down and write a certain amount every single day. So much of our work, whatever our work is, is simply showing up and doing it.

So, since I haven't been very good about writing lately (it's something I love, but it's also one of the first things that gets pushed to the back burner when life gets out of control), I decided I needed to renew my goal to "show up", and write a certain amount every day.

While I'm at it, I decided I needed to do the same thing for this adoption process. I've been frustrated with the lack of news from our daughter's country, and our resulting inability to move forward with many things. I realized, however, that there's still a lot to do, and rather than spend my time being frustrated, I just needed to do my part. So every day I'm going to "show up", and do something to work on making this adoption happen. Some days it'll mean paperwork (there's lots of that). But even when I don't have paperwork, and am waiting on others in that regard, I can always do something -- cook freezer meals for whoever's going to watch my boys while I'm gone, make cards to sell to raise money for the adoption, or work on learning a little more of my daughter's language. So far it's going well, and it's giving me some satisfaction and direction in this whole process, even though we're still in limbo.

Still Waiting

The new list of special needs in our little girl's country has not been published yet, even though it was supposed to be. Hopefully it will be out by the end of the week, but in the adoption world you can't really take anything for granted. Please join me in prayers that it will come out soon, and that our little girl's need will be on it!

In the meantime, I'm working on a few other things, like unpacking and writing an autobiography. I'm also going to update a few things here on the blog. I got the code for a button so you can donate to the little boy I'm a warrior for, so hopefully I can get that put up soon. I also unpacked my crafting supplies and will hopefully have an etsy store up and ready to go soon so that you can buy cards and I can donate the profits to him! I also really appreciate seeing what people are raising money for and spending money on when it comes to international adoption, so I'm working on a list of our costs to post here. Check back for the updates soon!

One Week

Actually, by the time I post this it'll be 6 days, close to 5. So, less than a week before a crucial decision is made in our little girl's country. The government of her country ruled a few months ago that children under the age of 5 were ineligible for international adoption unless they had a special need that was on a very limited list. Since that time advocates in that country have been working with the government to expand that list of special needs, so that more children have more chance of being adopted. Next Monday, October 10, those in charge of making the decisions will be meeting to determine which special needs will be included on the expanded list. Right now our little girl is unadoptable because her special need is not on the list. I'm hoping and praying that her need will be added. Even if it's not she will be 5 next June, and we will go get her then, but right now not having any idea of the possible timeline, and no control over it, is eating me up. I'm trying to focus on other things for the next week, and I'm hoping at that point she'll be available and I'll get to post her picture here and really start working to go and get her! If you're so inclined, prayers for those working on the list would be appreciated.