So, How Was Your Friday?

When I came downstairs at 7:15 Friday morning, the first thing I did was send off two emails.  The first went to CCAI telling them that Dan's long awaited Nebraska child abuse clearance should have been faxed to our social worker on Thursday and giving them a heads up I would really like our approval letter to be sent out today.  The second was to our social worker nicely stating that I hoped our Nebraska clearance form had actually reached her office by now and that I really, really wanted our home study finalized and in the mail before the end of the business day.  Then, I waited…  Well, actually I fed four hungry children breakfast, walked Jolene to school, unloaded the dishwasher, walked 4 miles in my living room, and planned out the order in which I needed to bake the many items I was making for Sunday’s fund-raiser bake sale.

Sometime just before 10 o’clock, while I was using my living room as a treadmill, I received an email from our social worker stating that she had indeed received the Nebraska clearance on Thursday afternoon and she would be able to finalize the home study as soon as she put in the receipt date.  The email also stated that she would put the copies I needed in the mail today unless I wanted to drive out and pick them up.  Wow!  I hadn’t even thought about that, but picking them up rather than having them mailed sure sounded good to me.  We live in Maryland and our social worker’s office is in Virginia, about an hour away, so this would mean a major change of daily plans, but it was definitely doable.

I quickly picked up the phone and called to ask if our social worker had spoken with CCAI regarding the certificate of completion we needed from them for our home study to move on to the next step of the process and she had not done so yet.  Given all of the hold ups in the process so far, I quickly volunteered to do the calling and handle that aspect.  (Control-freak, I know, but come on, this has been going on for a month now!!)   I promptly called CCAI, spoke with the head of the home study department and verified that our social worker needed to send a final copy of the home study (meaning stick in that Nebraska receipt date and hit send) and then the approval letter would be sent out.  I then called our social worker back, shared the news, and learned she was doing this task as we spoke.  Yeah!  No more waiting!  The light at the end of the tunnel was so bright it was blinding me.  Or so I thought… you’d think I’d learn, wouldn’t you?

Anyway, by this time it was almost 10:30 and I had already made plans to drive to church – the opposite direction from Virginia, of course – to pick up bake sale items for Sunday so I had to do that first.  And my usual go-there-if-we’re-not-home neighbor had left earlier in the day for New York so I was going to have to pull Jolene out of school to go with us in case we didn’t get back before school let out.  And I had to feed everyone lunch.  And, if I wanted to really get this job done right, I needed to print out our I-800A form (for immigration) and go by Dan’s work and have him sign it all before we left base so that once I had the home study in my hand I could head straight for the post office and get things on their way to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration offices in Texas.   And I needed to do all of this before people got off work and the Friday afternoon traffic wave hit the Capital Beltway we would be driving through D.C.   And we needed to be home by 5:30 so that we could make it to Sophie and Becca’s end of session “Art Show” on time.  No problem, right?  Sure!

Well, I must be honest, the next couple hours were a bit of a whirlwind, but we got it done.  We picked up the bake sale items and quickly returned home.  We then walked over to Jolene’s school to check her out for the day.  (Crazy to walk when it was 30 degrees out, but my goal was to let the twins run a bit since they would be in the car for a long time.  Plus, I wanted to tire them all out.)  We returned home and I quickly made cheese and olive quesadillas for lunch, as requested earlier in the day by my lovers of ZeFronk.  Then, as the girls ate their lunch, I filled in all the little blanks on the I-800A form, printed out the necessary paperwork, checked and rechecked (and rechecked) the stack of papers that needed to be mailed to Texas, and called my loving husband to inform him he needed to meet me outside in the parking lot in about 10 minutes.  Ready, set, go!

By one o’clock, the time I had told our social worker I would aim to arrive in Virginia – ha!, I had everyone fed, pottied, settled in the car with pillows for naptime and was pulling out of the garage.  First stop, gas station – where, of course, we chose the lane behind the woman who had obviously never pumped gas before in her life and had to scan her card and type her information three times!  Second stop, Dan’s office - where he met us outside and signed his name through the window of my car several times.  Third stop, McClean, Virginia!  Luckily, traffic was not bad and we arrived at our social worker’s office at about 2:15.  I quickly woke up my sleeping beauties, buttoned up coats, and herded everyone across the parking lot and into the elevator.  Whew, we made it!

And then I got the news.  Yes, I had said I would be there at one.  Yes, it was now after two.  No, the paperwork was not ready for me to pick up.  Yes, our social worker had spoken with the home study representative from CCAI.  Yes, CCAI was going to send the approval letter we needed.  No, the letter was not there yet because CCAI had just called to confirm things so we were going to have to wait.  Okay, deep breath.  It was coming, all would be fine.  We just needed to wait a few minutes.  We could do that.  I mean, we’d made it this far right?  What was a few more minutes?

Well, let me try to paint the scene for you…   The waiting area at the Virginia America World Adoption office is about 10 by 20 feet.  Approximately one-third of that space is occupied by a desk, book shelf and receptionist.  Another few square feet are currently filled with a fully decorated Christmas tree.  That leaves the other half of the space available to host two small couches and a corner table covered with brochures, books and a couple of toys.  All together a nicely decorated and welcoming space, but not really very conducive to housing four children who have been in the car for an hour and their waiting mother (who brought nothing in from the car because she thought this would be quick) for what could potential be far more than a five minute wait.  So, what happened?  Our social worker quickly assessed the scene and suggested that we actually leave the office, take the elevator to the bottom floor of the building and wait in the atrium area where there is a much larger waiting space.  Okay, sounds good.

 

So that is what we did. We went downstairs and waited.  And waited.  And waited.  After the first twenty minutes I started to realize the problems with this plan.  The girls were being great, they were quietly drawing and being very patient, but I had no way to find out what was going on with our paperwork without taking everyone back upstairs and into the office.  After 30 minutes I started to get a little agitated.  The girls were still being really good, playing quietly and still getting along well, but I was getting more and more worried about the traffic we would hit on the way home.  After about 40 minutes I announced to the girls that I was giving it 5 more minutes and then we were all heading back upstairs.  Now, I know what you are thinking, some of you would have headed upstairs long before now, but I was trying to be realistic – the fax had to arrive, the social worker had to make four copies of everything, someone had to notarize all four copies, etc. - and I really didn’t want to press my luck by taking everyone back upstairs. We had escaped the waiting room once without knocking anything over, but I wasn’t sure after waiting this long I would be so lucky again.  Thankfully, just as these thoughts were crossing through my mind, our social worker stepped off the elevator, file in hand.  Hurray!  There it was!  After a month of completely ridiculous hoop-jumping, the light truly was shining brightly in my eyes.  And I could not wait to get out of there!

 

After going through the folder of papers with our social worker and a bit of small talk we were out the door.  I bundled everyone back up, headed back to the car, buckled everyone in and spent the next 20 minutes driving a total of one mile.  Yep, the Friday traffic had begun - not a good sign as we were a good 50 miles from home.  Luckily, God was truly looking out for us as once we got back on the Beltway traffic miraculously lightened up.  I had told the girls I wanted to mail off the immigration paperwork, but that we were going to drive back to the Fort Meade area first as I didn’t want to stay on the wrong side of D.C. any longer than we had to.  Amazingly, we were back within 10 miles of home in under an hour, and no I did not drive crazy fast.

At approximately 4:15 I was once again pulling everyone out of the car and this time heading into FedEx.  I quickly made copies of all of the papers Dan and I had signed in the parking lot just hours before and loaded it all in a mailing envelope along with our home study.   After telling Ellie fifteen times that I understood the bag of m&m’s on the display was candy and that we still weren’t going to buy any, I paid the amused FedEx lady to deliver my most valued paperwork possession to Texas for us and we headed back out the door.

After a fast french fry stop through the first drive-thru we spotted, remember we had left the house almost four hours ago by this time and anyone who knows my girls knows that is about four hours longer than they are happy going without food, we finally headed home.  Traffic was heavier now, but luckily we were just miles from base and we actually came through the gate just after 5 o’clock.  We made it home at 5:15, the girls had about 10 minutes to run “wild” before we got back in the car, and we headed out to our previously scheduled evening of art show and Chinese food.  

Aw… we made it…  our adventure was over… and if reading this has made you tired, I completely understand because by this time I was ready to collapse as it had been a crazy day.  But I also must say, crazy ain’t bad when it is for a good purpose.  Perhaps the most appropriate verse to quote at this point would be:  2 Corinthians 5;13a – “If we are ‘out of our mind,’ as some say, it is for God.”  To God be the glory, and may we be crazy for His purpose everyday!  But perhaps with more notice and more sleep…