With the devastation that came from Hurricane Katrina, I've thought a lot about the blessings God has given me. We've had some issues with our house since we moved in and I've been the first to become frustrated and complain. But I have a home to live in and I have money to buy groceries and that is nothing to take for granted.
Tony left one week ago to go help in Kenner, LA., which is a suburb of New Orleans. He has been doing security details and other such business, helping the Red Cross workers when needed. He is homesick, but loving every minute of it. Tony has a servant's heart and I know if he could find a job where he could do this every day he would jump on it. I'm so proud of him for doing this work.
This of course has put the adoption journey on hold for a bit. We were scheduled to meet with our social worker on September 17th and we have had to postpone that for now. I am hoping that we can still get our paperwork in by the end of the year. This largely will depend on the INS and how fast they process our background checks. So we just need to pray they don't all go on vacation as soon as our paperwork arrives in the office. I keep reminding myself that God is in control. That our precious little ones will be ready when it's our turn and it will all turn out perfectly. Hopefully someone will remind me of that when I get stressed out later.
Last night I attended a local group that was set up for parents who are in the process of or who have adopted, domestic or international. Tony and I have been told about this group, and really wanted to attend to meet others who were going through this same journey, and especially to meet those who had made it through. Last night the topic was how to deal with people who ask questions about the child and/or adoption, especially insensitive ones, and how to teach your child to deal with it once they are old enough to understand. This discussion was really interesting and made me think a lot about my attitudes and my willingness to go up to someone and ask questions, not considering that maybe they didn't want to share their whole life story with me. Another part of the discussion that I had not considered was that this is the child's life story, and just as we were upset with our parents when they told their friends all of our "business" that there may be times our adopted children don't want us to share their whole story to anyone and everyone off the street. The parents who had already adopted shared how they were learning to be more sensitive to their children and how they had taught them that they did not have to answer all the questions that come their way because some are private, but at the same time how to be respective.
I think this really opened my eyes to an aspect that I had not yet considered. From reading other e-mail lists from other adoptive parents, there are issues that occur with adoptive children that I was unaware of. I have been naive in my thinking and hopefully through this journey my eyes will be opened to the attitudes that I have that are erroneous.
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