Saturday night we finished the adoption finalization package and yesterday I had it photocopied and we mailed it in to the local circuit court!!!

WOW!  Can I just tell you how happy I am to be done with that?

I AM SO VERY HAPPY!!!

Adoption is quite a long process.  I have found this last round of paper work extremely challenging.  With 3 kids now (one of whom is a teething baby who was waking up from 3 to 5am during this)…it is just quite challenging to get anything done these days.  So when it comes to important adoption paperwork that takes all of our attention/focus (meaning we have to work on it at night when everyone is asleep and we are tired)…well I am sure you get the idea.  It makes for a very long day.  Please take my advice, if you ever adopt, hire an attorney for the finalization part of things.  I barely had it in me to accomplish this round of paper work.

Can I tell you something else I am SO HAPPY about?  Let me show you…

LOVE.  This is our sweet baby.  We waited so long for her.  I am so very thankful it somehow all worked out.  And we are almost done with “the process” and can just concentrate on our family.  I am so happy.

…some of the time.

I mean, she can sleep from 7pm to about 6am-ish when she isn’t too cold or her diaper isn’t too wet or she hasn’t had too much dairy or she isn’t teething or sick.  Did I mention she is teething now?  Yeah.  In the last week she has been up from 3-5:30 am-ish about half the nights.  I have to be  up at about 6am-ish these days to start the morning school routine…So, I guess what I am trying to say is that for the last 10 days or so I have gotten up at about 3am and not really been able to go back to sleep.  I am very tired.  I have been lying down during her nap time.  Which works as long as we don’t leave the house in a car (in which case she will fall asleep regardless of the time of day).  So if she falls asleep for 5 mins in the car and is awakened, she will not nap at all.  Yesterday I had just put her down for nap when the neighbor boys came calling for Liam.  Mila was awakened so shortly after I put her down, I thought maybe she hadn’t even fallen asleep yet.  But she had, because that 5 mins was all the nap we got out of her yesterday.  WOW!  Then she woke up from 3-5am this morning cold and wet.  So I am thinking she needs an early nap and I can fall into bed and pass out…hopefully.

Needless to say…it is almost impossible to keep up with house work/laundry during teething.  So Sundays Darling and I have to work super hard to play catch-up.  It is pretty exhausting.  And no fun sewing/crafting has taken place at all.  Which is hard for me.  But it is only a season.  As soon as teething eases up, I find small bits of time here nad there to fit in hobbies again.

Did I mention we are working on adoption finalization paperwork?  That is what we were doing after a full day of cleaning yesterday.  I don’t know how people do it!  I mean we have 3 kids now (one is a teething baby) and we are supposed to find time for more paperwork???  Hmmmm….It finally dawned on me after seeing G last week that a lot of  people hire an attorney to do this portion of the paperwork!!!  Oh!!!  If we weren’t 90% of the way through it, I think I would do that…honestly.  I am just having a moment of being overwhelmed.  I know it will pass.  And we are almost done.  Just one last push tonight and I maybe able to get it photocopied and in the mail tomorrow!

What a relief it will be in a few weeks to be going to court for the official finalization…I am so looking forward to that!  I mean I know there will be citizenship and birth certificate and social security paper work to follow (and all must be done by Jan 1)…but the major emotional part will be done.  Adopoting is so emotional and there is an added layer of stress that comes with that.

I am so thankful for Mila.  She is so perfect for us.  We are all so happy to have her home at last.  And I am looking forward to the day when she is legally ours.

1 day to go!

Can you stand it?

I just want to take a minute to write down what I am thinking about right now.  Someday maybe Mila will look back at this because she wants to know what we were all thinking.  Mila’s foster mom is getting her ready for a long plane journey right now.  It is almost time for her to say goodbye to the baby she has loved and cared for for the last 10 months.  Can you even imagine the heartache?  She is a better woman than I am.  I don’t know if I could do it!  And Mila has no idea that she is leaving the only mom she has ever known.  I feel such sadness for her.  The babies do grieve for their foster mom.  One adoptive parent explained it “Where ever we sit in the house my baby constantly cranes her neck to watch the door.  She is waiting for her foster mom to walk in at any moment.”  The babies cry and want to be held and walked all the time.  They may sleep a lot or hardly at all.  I am comforted when I think that she won’t have any memory of how hard this time was for her.  She will soon be safe and loved and here in our lives forever.  I am so thankful for her and that the time has finally come to meet her.  What a process this has been!  I wonder what she will be like?  What kind of personality does she have?  I pray she has a safe journey.

I warned the boys yesterday not to worry if I cry at the airport (I have already been crying off and on), they will be tears of happiness.  Liam said he felt the same way and then he actually cried right there in the car (he told me later).  Isn’t that the sweetest, kindest thing?  We are all so happy and excited to meet the baby sister!  When I ask them both what they are most excited about they both say “just to hold her.”  I think I might have to agree!

2 days to go!

I am going to have 3 children in 2 days.  I can hardly believe it!  We have wanted a third child for so long and worked on this adoption for so long…I can hardly believe we are almost there!  It is strange because I have flashes of it feeling real but most of the time it just feels like the wait is still going on indefinitely.

We need to focus mostly on baby-proofing the house.  Darling’s car is still broken after a lot of work on it this weekend.  So, he had to take my car to work again today.  That is ok because I have a lot to accomplish at home today.  Laundry and cleaning and Mila’s heart banner and another new Mila project that I’d like to finish.  Hopefully I will be very productive today!

Almost there!!!!