No DTE for Team D this week :(

Well, it happened... I messed up. Can you believe it??? I'm still having a hard time accepting it myself-- ha, ha!! Terra (our "sub" family coordinator while Duni is away) emailed a confirmation on Tuesday morning saying that she got the Dossier. Good... Then she said that if there were any problems, she would call in the afternoon to let me know what needed changed. Okay... Well, we came home from our Tuesday afternoon errands, and sure enough, America World had called. My heart just sank. I called her back and she told me that two of my documents were missing state certification. I can't believe that I missed that. I think I just got confused with what was JAG notarized vs. public notarized (the difference being that the JAG notary does not need the extra step of the state cerfication, where as the public notary does). PLUS, Ethiopia changed their rules on notaries while we were half way through our process, so those two documents just got lost in the shuffle...

Yes, I had my little pity party and barely got off the phone with Terra without getting all choked in my words. And then, while I was crying and moving onto the next thing we had to get to (because lately, I just don't have time to stop everything and have a sob fest-- I have to multi-task even in my emotional outbursts), I prayed, "Lord, this isn't a big deal, right? Help me to let this go and not let it ruin my thoughts..." And, then as soon as I prayed it, He answered... "Have faith, I am more than able to bring back the time lost. Trust me and know that I am in the midst of this adoption... it is My adoption, in which your family is participating... With Me."
It was a quiet thought, that brought about a huge heart shift. Later, on the way to our "next thing", Tony sweetly reminded me, "Honey, maybe this week is the difference between one girl or two, becoming available." I love my man!!!!

I think that so far in life, this is probably one of the most faith-stretching/building experiences I have gone through, yet (I'm sure that may change once Tony leaves for Iraq this December :)). Or, maybe it's just ALL faith-building and stretching-- IF you have the eyes to see it. Every day, multiple times and in multiple ways, I have a choice to make-- live in Faith in God who cares deeply for me and this family and who is "more than able" to move and work to cause "all things to work for the good of those who love Him"... or try to put my confidence in my own abilities, the abilities of "the system" (ha, ha!!), or my money that is supposed to buy me "security", etc... none of which are fool-proof. For anyone reading our blog who does not have a personal relationship with Christ, I'm sure this whole adoption thing as "faith building" and all my "Jesus talk" sounds silly, or incomprehensible. I wish I could express the PEACE that our family feels deep down in our lives--- but I can't... It surpasses all earthly understanding...

So, now I'm waiting for those two documents to come back to me, then back to JAG to have them notarized so we can skip the State Cert process (this is what Terra said to do) and back to America World. THEN... it will go to ET NEXT Friday, AND THEN we will be officially "DTE" (Dossier to Ethiopia)

Grace and Peace,
Shari

PS... by the way, for anyone wondering about Isaac's wrist (Nana!)... he is doing great. He took off the brace last Thursday and has been gaining strength in it every day. In fact, I would venture to say that it is completely healed (baseball in the back yard, is my clue :D)

No real news, but a good article to read :)!

Our Yahoo Group has been hopping lately!! Lots of great discussion and debate and article sharing, too. This one in particular, I wanted to share with all of you adoring Team Dragovich fans ;D. It is an article from the BBC concerning adoption in Ethiopia, AND the orphanage they highlight at the beginning of the interview, Kids Care, is the orphanage that our agency is currently partnering with-- along with another orphanage we just began working with called Kingdom Vision International (you can find them to the right of our screen under "Adoption sites we like"). Anyway, here is the link to the article:

BBC article


On the paper chasing front... well, our home study coordinator received the green light from our family coordinator on our home study report review. She was supposed to get the report notarized yesterday, so I except to see it any day in the mail, now. She also would have sent a copy of the report to the USCIS office, so MAYBE.... SOON... we will have the coveted I-171H and can get this paper baby shipped off!! It's burning a hole in my dining room table... and I NEED that table!! It's going to be our homeschool table soon!!!!

Grace and Peace to you all,
Shari

Nothing to blog about

So why even blog? Maybe if I blog, it will SEEM like something is happening, even though it's not. Not that life isn't happening here at Team Dragovich headquarters-- plenty of life is happening here every day!! Even more life than I care for, some times-- and that's saying a lot! In fact, because we have had so much "life" lately, I decided to skip soccer practices and stay home for one whole day without going ANYWHERE!!! Now that felt weird-- but not for long. I was happy to not suck the money out of my pocketbook and into my van and I think my van was happy, too!

But, what doesn't seem to be happening is movement forward with adoption. We are still stuck on those two pieces of paper. The homestudy report and our I-171H form (immigration)-- which is waiting for the homestudy report. We have seen the draft and it has been sent to our coordinator, but I haven't seen a copy in my mailbox or gotten any confirmation that it has been sent to USCIS so they can finish their piece and get us our form. I read on another family's blog that our coordinator is getting ready to go to Ethiopia for a month beginning on Friday-- YIKES!! That is great, but I hope she finishes reviewing our report before then! And I guess if I need anything, I can contact the other coordinator at our agency??? I was REALLY hoping to have our Dossier to Ethiopia by the end of April. Okay... let me be frank here, I thought we would have it done before now. But that is not how it is working and based on watching the many families who have gone before us... I better just count this as practice :D!!

I have to say, that when I start to get anxious about how long this paperchase is taking and whether or not we have been forgotten (that sounds silly, doesn't it?), I hear the whisper of the One who knows all, sees all and directs all things... He quietly speaks, "Keep your eyes fixed on Me, Shari. Delight in Me and I will give you the desires of your heart". My head is up, Lord!! Don't let me trip!

Grace and Peace,
Shari

Home again, home again; jiggety jig...

So... I have been hiding away in the mountains of Nevada for the past week. I have to say... hiding is fun sometimes ;D... but it got to be too much hiding, and so we had to come home. I missed home... North Carolina really does feel like home and I love it!! But, we had a great time visiting Tony's family in Nevada. His parents live in an undisclosed location-- which I will never tell, lest it becomes discovered and more people move in and ruin it for them-- ha, ha!! They live outside of Virginia City, NV; up a big steep hill from Reno, NV and it is a fun getaway. We spent our week playing in the snow, mud and rocks. We spent three days skiing (the boys made two of those days) at Mt. Rose, and Sugarbowl in CA; we bowled, went out for Thai, Tony made a UNR basketball game with his brother, and I caught up on some reading. And of COURSE, we found a way to stop in at the bookstore while we were there... We did other things, too; but you get the idea :)

We even made it back without too much hassle-- our baggage on the other hand, did not. It should be arriving tomorrow morning sometime. Not so thrilled about that, but it is not really high on my radar right now. Unfortunately, I'm already taking inventory of my week, calculating the hours in my days and the amount I need to cram into them... and my little internal calculator just blew up-- guess I'll have to spend another week on vacation!! HA! And of course, you know the "coming home" drill-- look through all the mail, listen to all the phone messages, delete-- I mean, READ all the emails... Then try to make sense of it all. Well, my happy surprise mail I got to open was my passport in the mail-- that wasn't supposed to come until the end of March or even April. My UNHAPPY mail was the State of Maryland telling me that they couldn't process mine or Tony's fingerprints because the prints were "illegible", and we must have them redone. They kindly included a training letter that I guess we are supposed to "offer" to our local officers in case they need extra "training" on how to take fingerprints??? Of course the training is offered in Maryland and so really it is for MARYLAND officials-- yet somehow we received this bit of information... whatever. The best part is they cashed our checks-- they didn't actually do anything, but they still cashed my checks... Nice. So, now I get to call them tomorrow and try to make sense of their chaos...

My other unhappy mail was a letter I have been waiting for from our family coordinator from our agency which she was supposed to sign and have notarized so we could then go have have it sent BACK to VA for certification... this would be a second attempt on this particular letter-- the first one was notarized wrong and therefore rejected by the Commonwealth of VA. When I finally got the second one, it looked good at first and I thought it was HAPPY mail-- but it turns out that the notary forgot to put her seal on the document-- kind of important when you are notarizing something!! I'm glad I caught it BEFORE I sent it back for try #2! Guess I have to get this paper figured out, now, too. But... I just got back from vacation... I am refreshed and ready to handle all these minor challenges!!

Now, while I was in Nevada, I had time to try to process some things-- like running and why there is such a lack of it lately and how much I hate that and what I am going to do about it. Now, we have a plan ("we"-- meaning Tony and I) to get me running again... I figure maybe if I post it, then I am more accountable and more likely to be guilted-- I mean, motivated to follow through! The goal is 20 miles a week. I almost went into sharing my plan-- that is probably boring for 99% of you :)... BUT; I am GOING to get over this running slump!! Sooner rather than later!

I know I processed lots of other things-- but that is for me and God alone :) Trips are good... home is wonderful... my life is full and rich and blessed!

My utter lack of Control

This week has been tough. I think it is just a culmination of many weeks that have been tough, and this is the week that I finally broke. At least I hope I broke, because I don't really care to have to break further, if this was just a chip!! Of course, we "knew" that adopting would be a LOT of work and there would be a lot of moving parts, but I don't think I was counting on the emotional battle being so strong, nor does knowing really even matter :) . And it isn't just adopting. It's not like I can put the breaks on everything else in my life, so that I can just adopt. I wish that were the case-- or maybe I don't-- but life still happens. Meetings still happen, homeschooling still happens, Tony's crazy work schedule (or should I say project demands) still happen and somewhere in there, I still would like to have running happen-- which it isn't, and that is worse than it NOT happening! And to top it off, there has been this trip to NV to visit Tony's family (which normally I am very excited about) looming for next week (we actually leave today) and I just wasn't ready to go anywhere! There are too many things I need to take care of here, too many adoption papers floating across the U.S. which need to come back to me, too many appointments I want to not miss or have pushed back, etc...

Yesterday morning, in the quiet time of my life (very short :)), I was reading in Acts towards the end of the book-- all about Paul's missionary journeys. I have read through Acts before, so unfortunately, I wasn't all the way tuned in. But, there was this whisper-- "See how I am in control? You can trust in Me... just as I led Paul, I can lead you, too". All the sudden, a series of snapshots from the past month began playing in my mind of all the ways I was trying to control my life and everyone else's life as well. My children, my husband, the state departments (that ought to make you laugh!), people I serve with, and the list goes on... Outwardly, I'm not so sure it showed-- except with my husband, don't ask!! :)-- but inwardly, there has definately been a defiance; or constant pondering over all these things... like a quiet ( or not so quiet) whining with myself (sometimes with other people) about how painful all these things are in life. As long I continue to "mull" over all these areas, I am trying to manipulate and control. I am only seeing life through my tainted lens-- not letting go and letting God give me a new lens in which to view everything.

Ahhhh!!! This is so hard! I wish I could say that once there was this realization, I was able to exhale and just "let go"!! In some ways I have. I'm not anxious about getting on a plane today and leaving North Carolina behind for a week. I'm not really fretting over adoption papers anymore-- it helped that IL FINALLY sent back our birth certs, and marriage license :)--and I was able to express my heart with the Leadership Team members I serve with in a way that I think God was leading. One day at a time, one choice of release at a time...

On another note, I am so PSYCHED that I had a comment already on our blog :)!! Anyone who is reading this, will know that we have created a website nightmare-- which we refuse to give up on, by the way :)... I almost hesitate to really announce to my YG that we have a blog on blogspot! They are probably thinking, "oh, my goodness!! That girl just cannot get it together!" Ha, ha! This is true, but that's okay...

Finally, can I just say that every day I am more and more thankful for the other families adopting from Ethiopia and their candidness and hearts for one another. I noticed that this seems to have been a hard week for a lot of people-- a lot of people a lot farther along than we are, which makes me feel somewhat like a weenie for struggling just in the paper chase! There isn't a day that goes by which I don't think of each of them, wonder how each one is doing for the day-- or moment-- and send up prayers of peace, joy, patience and never-ending hope to be poured into their lives.

Grace and Peace,
Shari