The past few weeks have been a roller coaster for David and I. First we had ACSI at our school to see if we were ready for accreditation. Then we were told we would have our home study the next week - eight days in advance of it happening. We went into a mad-dash of getting ready; everything from organizing the house, to paperwork we had been trying to get together, to adoption education work we thought we still had "plenty of time" to complete.
While it was hard to hear that it was cancelled, it turned out to be a major blessing. We had been procrastinating too many things and it gave us a kick in the pants to get moving. We have been working hard since to get things ready, both for the home study and to become parents. We are required by our agency to read a book called "The Connected Child" and it has given us so much insight into what we are approaching with raising our kids. There are some really great techniques taught that show how to handle discipline without yelling or spanking (for those of you wondering, we will NOT be spanking. There are too many kids who have been abused to some extent, that any kind of discipline in that way would be detrimental. Having Psychology background we tend to agree).
This past week, I've been in a sort of frenzy. Getting ready and feeling the need to prepare. I ran out of big things to do in the house Tuesday, which has been a major de-stresser for me, so I just started getting stressed. I have had several stress induced nightmares so I decided to go for a run to relieve some stress. I feel so much better now! Sore, but less stressed! The one great thing about all the stress I was feeling extremely productive! It was really great eustress!
On top of getting ready for stuff, our AC in our upstairs is not working due to the fuse box blowing every time we even try to engage the switch connected to them... We haven't had AC in days, and this far south in China, it's been a little miserable. We moved some bed-mats downstairs and have been sleeping on the floor in the living room. Our landlord has been trying to help us, and we've had a repair man in our house almost every day this week. We'll see if we can get everything in order by the home study.
Be in prayer about our home study if you would. Pray for the words to speak and answers to give. Pray we don't explode from stress and for reassurance that we're following God's plan.
I was reading a lady who adopted from Bulgaria today and in her blog she said "we adopted not to be hero's, but because of fear. Fear of standing before our God if we had chosen to leave our child behind." I want to leave you on that note, because we are not saviors or heroes, but rather acting out of the fear of God.
