Life can be crazy, stressful, and sometimes happening faster then we want.
Domestic Infant Adoption isn’t like that.
At least Jeff and I try to make sure it isn’t.
We control the things we can and put the rest in God’s hands.
Since March private adoptions have been pretty much at a stand still. We can’t control expected mothers deciding during a pandemic to keep their babies, hell we can’t control them normally, would never want to. We had no control over hospitals not allowing private agencies visiting birth mothers who decided at birth to chose adoption. And the hardest things to accept during it was we had no control a change in our agency staffing. We had adjust our thinking while the world shut down that it was time to put adoption in the back of minds and focus on the house.
So we did just that and finished the nursery. (And I know people think it was wrong. Get over it our life not yours) Then we started on the living room and dining room. First we swapped them so we could bring my piano home. Next my dad and I replaced the front door. Then I painted the living room to a similar color of our family room. Now I’m finishing putting up molding in both rooms and doing touch up paint. One day we will gut the downstairs and have all new floors and a new kitchen, but until that day I am very happy with how it’s going.
This summer we also had the opportunity to host a very special birthday for my mother-in-law. To make sure we had a level place we had a pea gravel patio in. Jeff did an amazing job putting up a retaining wall to make the patio look finished.
The other changes that happen because of Covid is I was temporarily released from my job. The company I work for depends on the restaurant and hotel industry for sales, we manufacture and sell to those industries. We started noticing in January sales are dropping and as Covid hit the US I can’t say I was surprised when everything started to shut down. I knew it had happen overseas and I knew my job was majorly effected. Sadly I watched as my co-workers were let go in hopes it would only be a short time. Finally there was three of us left in our department, and we had nothing coming in. New Jersey was on complete shut down, New York was on shut down, Disney World was closed, Disneyland was closed, and we knew things were getting a lot worse. The day they let me and my co-worker go was not really a surprise for me. I honestly hated walking out leaving my boss alone to handle everything. She normally was expect to move mountains and I knew now she had to create them too. I hoped to be back in a month or two, made I would be back for my birthday. But as the months passed and things didn’t change I realized I will be home for the long haul. So I sit and wait, drive past my office, wonder how my desk is doing, miss the stress of trying to get as many orders processed as I could, and know that once things pick up I have a job to go back to.
Meanwhile I knew I didn’t want to do nothing with myself, well other then cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, and all the normal house stuff like renovation. So I decided to start my own Mary Kay business. Of course starting a business isn’t free, so we invested in it knowing over the next many months I would pay us back. Instead of taking a loan from a bank I used our savings. We are shooting to be debt free and I was determined to start my new business that way. So I am excited for this new opportunity, but honestly I can’t wait to completely pay our savings back. I love being a Mary Kay Beauty Consultant, the amount of education that they have provided is amazing, and to be associated with a woman empowering company that’s been around for 57 years is incredible.
Meanwhile Jeff had been working two jobs. He actually started a part time job when I had my Achilles surgery last October. We had planned once I went back to work to use the extra cash to pay off credit cards and finally pay off his car. Then by the summer he would leave Lowe’s and enjoy life again. But he really liked working there and when we spoke about him leaving the concern of Covid came into play so he stayed a little longer than planned. Finally in July his schedule on the railroad started to get filled with overtime and Lowe’s kept adding hours. He was exhausted, and missing life because all he did was work and sleep. Finally I told him I would rather eat noodles for dinner every night, then for him to keep it up. So he left Lowe’s and started to enjoy doing things he hadn’t had the time to do.
Now back to the adoption journey.
This summer we got to meet our new social worker and she is a sweetheart. She has been honest with us about how Covid effected everything but slowly we are seeing a return to the new normal. We are preparing for our annual home visit, and background check. We are being proactive trying to complete paperwork that has to be submitted to the state, since we know everything takes longer now. Finger printing appointments alone are further out then normal. But we know we are our best own advocate when it comes to life so we are keeping focused.
Keep us in our prayers that and adoption placement happened soon and know that we are trucking along on this little journey.
