Get'r Done

Right after I scheduled our first home study visit last Thursday, I received an email from our newly assigned Family Coordinator from our agency. After the long break of the holidays, things are rolling again. I'm guessing that you might hear a lot about Johnna (pronounced Jonah), our Family Coordinator, in the coming months as she is going to help us with our Dossier. Our Dossier is our complete paperwork put together into one packet and this is what will be sent to Honduras.

Anyway, when I opened the email from Johnna, there were 11 attachments and over 60 pages of material to read. I was pretty overwhelmed all weekend by the thought of it all. We were busy this weekend so I put it off until last night to break it open. I'm glad I waited until I had enough time to sit and process it all at once. I can't think of exactly how to describe what was there. The closest I can get, I think, is shocking. We will have to gather around 40 documents and 32 of those have to be notarized and apostilled....wait, what? What was that? Apostilled? For those of you like me who couldn't even begin to pronounce that word, it is when you have to turn all notarized documents into the Secretary of State so that she can verify that the notaries are real notaries. Wow. Also each document has to be an original. So, you have to add a "Notarized Copy of an Original" to those documents, which of course have to be notarized and also apostilled. Hmm. Okay.

So last night I hunkered down in the bedroom to get away from kids and daddy's tv noise and got down to business. Did I mention that I couldn't use the birth certificates and marriage certificate that we already had? We have to get newly issued, certified certificates. That was the one area where I felt like I had it together. Silly me. So, I got online and ordered 6 new shiny birth certificates and got the written request for our marriage licenses ready to send into the Dallas County Clerk. I sent out several emails to get some things rolling and I made a list of things Jonathan has to get done. It felt good to get those things done and familiarize myself with all the paperwork. Jonathan checked on me a couple of times and made sure I ate dinner. He told me how this might be the very reason God led us to be married. :) God led Jonathan to adopt and knew he needed me to get'r done. I went to sleep at a decent hour after finishing the book I've been reading: The Help (which was fabulous, by the way). And woke up today ready to go. I made oatmeal for the kids, taught them some Anatomy and Physiology, and got them started on their other school work. The day was off to a good start. And then the phone rang.

(Side story: Most of you know I am NOT a phone talker. I will avoid the phone if I can and sometimes even when I shouldn't. I am working on this and the adoption process is just what might kick this bad habit. This is my opinion because I have a good friend who WAS just like me when it came to the phone. She would put off phone calls as long as she could. But, it all changed when last spring they started the adoption process. I guess it is because you put so much into all the work and when the phone rings you are hoping that it is a call that is going to move you one step closer to your kids.) 

Okay, back to the phone ringing. I picked up and it was Austin, TX calling saying that the birth certificates I ordered can't be processed through their office. :) Thank goodness I had had a good night's sleep and the morning was rocking along. And it didn't hurt that the lady on the other end was so helpful and kind. She gave me the correct website and phone numbers and talked me through the whole process. Lord, You are good.That, along with several other things, have been crossed off the list, at the least the "I've Started It" list.

There are a few things that we really need wisdom about, so if you think about it, we'd love your prayers.
I read last night that Honduras does not accept home schooling as a valid form of education. No exceptions. So, we have to figure out what we can do about this. I was researching this online earlier and found out that a lot of states have public schooling online now! What? Awesome! Oh, but New Mexico is at least a decade behind, so no such thing here. I looked at some private schools in Santa Fe and geez, do they really cost that much EVERY YEAR? Or is that a one-time payment? And online private schools are just as expensive as local ones. We don't live close enough to Santa Fe to go to a little public school in a small community (El Dorado). Or Santa Fe for that matter. I don't know if we are in the Pecos or Las Vegas school district. But, we just aren't really ready to go there. So, pray that we will figure this one out. We have our first home study visit next week and our social worker might be able to help us with this.

Also, one of the most important documents that goes in the Dossier is our acceptance by the USCIS (US Citizenship & Immigration Services). We need to apply for our future children to be granted citizenship with our government. They process this application for up to three months. But, we can't apply until our home study is done, which can take up to 3 months. So, we are praying that we can finish our home study quickly. I haven't spoken with our family coordinator, Johnna, yet, but my goal is to submit our Dossier to Honduras by the first of May. It is a lofty goal. And lots of things are going to have to run very smoothly for that to happen. But, as He has proven, God is in the business of making the impossible a reality.
Sorry for such a long post. I want to get a lot of this in writing so we can clearly see God's hand at work.

PS. So, I told you about my lack of interested in answering the phone and my new found motivation for doing so, right? Well, about an hour after I got the Austin, TX call, my phone rang again. And so I answered it. And guess who it was. The Washington Nationals. Yep. They were calling to see how my trip was to their stadium this past summer.