Of course going into this, we knew there would be a lot of paperwork. Gathering and signing documents. Writing our autobiographies. Submitting background checks and re-writing the same information about yourself on what feels like one hundred different forms. There is a lot of work to be done still. Even just today I spent about 4-5 solid hours just filling out forms, locating proofs of various insurance, sifting through bank statements and averaging our net income vs our net expenses vs our net worth! When I thought I must have gotten every last bit of information I could possibly be asked for, something else came up that I had to find amid all our purged or not yet filed piles of papers. Occasionally I'd take a form to Bradley to review and sign and sneak in a hug to boost me for the next hour. I have to say, as much time as it's taken to just do a portion of one of the first steps in the process, this is some of what I've gotten out of it:
1) I was very productive today. I managed to make breakfast and serve it to B in bed for a nice anniversary treat, got laundry done, did dishes and had a little singing time, cleaned up the kitchen, took care of the cats and jumped on-line here and there. All this was done before I ever started the paperwork because I wanted to have no distractions tugging on my mind. So way to get moving and on it, Me!
2) It occurred to me about 3 hours into the paperwork that as much as I sighed and huffed each time I marched down the stairs only to realize I needed to march right back up for something else, I was collecting this for the chance to be considered by a mother out there to raise her child. Each of these redundant forms is going to help the agency and a mother feel confident that Bradley and I meet the most basic qualifications to be parents. The paperwork alone won't give a clue about if we will be "good" parents but it will help the agency to know that we have no major holdbacks and that like anybody wanting to adopt, we too deserve a chance to be considered, so bring on the paperwork if this is what it takes!
3) If you've read my first or second blog you may remember that I have always been very fascinated with pregnancy and all the things that a woman goes through as she cradles a baby in her womb. Knowing I am not likely to have that, I can re-direct my energy to working towards this child by way of doing... all the paperwork it entails. It may not be as fun in some peoples' eyes, but I'm going to try to convince you otherwise! Each stroke of my pen and each clickity clackity on the keyboard is my time spent preparing for this child outside of my body rather than my preparing a child in me. And once the forms are all signed and dated, the autobiographies completed and the scrapbook of our lives closed, I will spend my time praying for the mother who will host our child and that she will be healthy. I will pray for her as she comes to terms with her decision to give her child up for adoption and as she seeks out the right home for her child. And I will pray for the child who could even already be born at this time. IN fact, (brace yourself) the child to join us some day could be delivered as I type this very sentence and the mother could be thinking about the future parents of her child! Wow! How's that for deep?! While the connection to our future child is unknown still, this paperwork, crazy and a bit of a stretch as it seems, is our proverbial pregnancy...
So I send this out into the great wide world; good night sweet mother and child or future child. May your time together be blessed with safety and health and know that we will love you/your child with all that we have in us.
No comments:
Post a Comment