| Trip to Mykayla |
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| Saturday, June 02, 2001 The June referrals for my agency finally came in yesterday. The package from China has been lost in the mail for a week! This must have been torture for those poor waiting parents. Thankfully, the package was found and GWCA was able to get the news to them before the weekend. Even though the package was lost for a week, it has been a year of waiting for the may/june group. Someone posted on APC yesterday that the next group in the matching room only goes up to July 11. I don’t know yet if that is just one agency. It’s looking more and more like my referral will not happen until the fall. Fall is better for weather, but it is a bad time to travel in China because of the trade fair that happens in October. I don’t think we would be able to stay at the White Swan hotel and I think that travel costs go way up. I don’t mind so much about which hotel we stay at, but the extra travel cost will hurt. I started to work this week on a Trip to Mykayla website. I finally bought a scanner so I can start scanning pictures. I’ve been trying to decide whether to include this adoption journal in the website. It seems very personal, but it has helped me so much to read other people’s experiences and about their emotions during this process. I think I will just edit it a little and go ahead and include it. Monday, June 11, 2001 I had another dream about Mykayla last night. In this one, as soon as I received her I had to go to church and sit through the service before I could show her to anyone. Everyone oohed and awed over her, but I was upset because she had blue eyes. She was also very tiny, like a newborn. She was very floppy like a newborn and I was bumbling and having a hard time holding her right. I was so excited to have her, but so disappointed because she didn’t really look Chinese! Someone was explaining to me that she was from a very remote area of China and that this is what the people looked like there. They also kept saying that it was good because her blue eyes made her look like me. I was just so disappointed! I received an email from Bonnie at GWCA a few days ago. They are now saying that they recommend to all singles to go ahead and get an addendum to our homestudy addressing the new guidelines. I am actually very relieved. I had asked about this about a month ago, and they were noncommittal about whether or not to get this done. Basically just said it was up to me to decide. I had decided to wait and see, but I was so afraid I would regret that later. Now, they are officially suggesting that all of us singles get this done. I don’t know yet how long it will take the social worker to get the addendum written or the cost. I hope to hear from her soon. I think I have a part time job for the summer! Last week I got a call from the Director of the library at Marshall Public. She is looking for some part time librarian help for the summer. I went over there and met with her for about an hour, then went ahead and filled out an application at City Hall. I have to go in this morning and take a drug test. It will probably start later this week, but I don’t know what days yet. The pay is low, but the hours are from 10-5 just 2-3 days a week, so I can’t pass that up. We were going to have a garage sale this weekend, but it rained and flooded! Tropical storm Allison hit Houston pretty hard and we also felt the effects. We will try again next weekend. Sherry and mom spent the night on Friday night. Mom went home early on Saturday. Sherry went ahead and stayed most of the day and we started working on the toy box. It is going to be so cute! We sanded it and put the first coat of white on it. Sunday, June 17, 2001 We had the garage sale yesterday. The weather cooperated this time and it was a perfect day for it. My sister spent the night on Friday and we sorted stuff and made posters, etc. People started arriving at 7:00 (even though we advertised 8:00) and we stayed steadily busy until around 12:00. Tomi brought some of her things over as well. She’s trying to get her house cleaned out and ready for her baby, too! I sold my saddle, which made me sad. It wasn’t doing me or anyone else any good sitting in my laundry room and it was starting to get chewed on by the mouse problem I’ve been having. Anyway, I haggled with one lady over it and came down to $60. Our total for the day was $412 (not counting Tomi’s stuff). When we were going through the stuff that the Emory’s donated, we found some jewelry that we thought had some tiny diamonds, so Sherry took it to a jeweler. They weren’t diamonds but they were 10k gold and she got $42 for jewelry we would have sold for about $4! We had lots of stuff donated from Jack & Betty Emory, Sherry and her crew, Mark’s brother Kevin, my parents, and Larry’s family. Everyone was so generous! The adoption fund is starting to recover from the pipes disaster! Still no news on referrals this month. I’ve heard a few rumors that they may come next week. My social worker has finished the addendum and she emailed that it was on its way to me. I got the guardianship form from Sherry & Mark. I have to send a copy to the social worker for her files. The original will get added to the addendum and then I have to send that off to get certified and authenticated. Bonnie, at GWCA, said that once they receive it from me, they will attach a “letter of support” and send it on to CCAA to be added to my dossier. Hopefully that will satisfy any questions they have. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason as to which “single” dossiers they pull and question. But, if they pull it, then it looks like it holds up your referral for at least a month. I have to get myself emotionally ready for that in case it happens. |