Busy-ness

This week came with some tight deadlines, back-to-back meetings, hundreds of budget-related emails, and late nights at the office. Thankfully I really don't mind the work, but I've definitely been busy and not home long enough to do much more than sleep. Although the days were long, this week flew by. This type of work requires full attention and cognition so it really kept the day dreaming time about becoming a mommy to minimum.

What a blessing.

Another week closer to baby. That's what this busy week made me.

As packed with work as this week was, adoption came up a few times. Because some days it still doesn't seem real that we are going to be parents, each instance made me smile and warmed my heart. The first time it came up the finance director I am working for was showing me the department and one of the ladies in accounts payable recognized my name and asked if I was the Melissa that she just reimbursed for adoption expenses (thank goodness I already gave the director a head's up so this wasn't the first time he heard about it). We all chatted about adoption for a few minutes and I enjoyed getting to talk about it. I also had a nurse manager catch up with me while getting lunch to ask how the process was going. This lady has always been so enthusiastic and supportive or our journey. So sweet.

Lastly, my mom sent me a story. Someone in the building she works in has been trying to get approval to adopt. I didn't have a chance to ask all the details, but apparently this guy and his wife have had quite the journey themselves. He is a cancer survivor. His cancer has been completely eradicated, but having the history of it disqualified him and his wife from adopting through a couple of agencies. They were finally approved. The below story was shared with my mom and she passed it along to me. I think it's simplicity helps demonstrate how the different journeys to parenthood feel to different people.

I guess I should add that my work week wasn't all boring serious stuffy budget work...I did manage to order two dozen stick horses from a warehouse in the South. Have any of you ever tried to order stick horses in bulk??? Seriously not a readily available item. A story for another day...

Profiles and A Situation

I put our completed profiles in the mail to our agency this morning!

So, once I sent in our profile for review the coordinator at the agency we are working with took a couple of weeks to get back to us. She reviewed our profile and made some notes for revision and also had the caseworker who did our Idaho home study review it. They had great feedback and I was able to make the revisions pretty easily. It was nice having someone who has seen hundreds of profiles look at ours and help make it what it needs to be.

What I wasn't expecting from the phone call with our coordinator was talking about a situation. In the adoption world a situation = a potential birth mom. I'm still trying to wrap my head around it a bit, but our profile wasn't even ready for print yet and we were being shown a birth mom and being asked if we wanted her to see our profile! Our profile is being overnighted to her agency so they'll have it tomorrow. There is really no way of knowing whether she will like what she sees in our book or not, and the situation isn't a perfect match to us from what we can tell based on the limited information we have, but it is close enough for us to want to know more.

I feel catapulted into the next phase of this adoption journey and it REALLY feels real now. We are adopting and bringing a baby home is imminent. Crazy.

I still can't adequately describe what it is like having information on a potential situation in my hands. I read through her profile ten different times before I caught all of the details. Seeing her name, the gender of the baby in her belly, and her due date was surreal. This situation may not even be our situation, but it is still exciting to be throwing our hat in for consideration by a birth mom.

I think this is also the perfect first situation for Jake and I to be made aware of. There are some things about it that stretch our comfort boundaries and are making us talk about what is right for us. These talks are providing more clarity and affirmation and I'm glad we are having them.

Such an exciting week!