Musings of a Whimsical Realist

It’s hard to believe that my last blog post was only 8 days ago – they have been busy, emotional, crazy, exciting days! Roadblock #2 As I mentioned in my last post , we didn’t met a criteria for adopting from China – the net worth requirement of $80,000.  So we knew that we would need to be willing to adopt from the Waiting Child list to even have a possibility of adopting from China.  Well, no sooner had I posted that blog, then roadblock #2 arose via a question that I put to our case worker.  A part of my journey in 2013 was recognizing a need for some medical intervention due to stress-related symptoms.  I began taking a low-dose prescription, which has been very successful for me.  However, ANY type of medication for anxiety/stress/depression in China is considered a mental health issue.  So we had just failed another requirement. This was not an easy thing to hear.  Feelings of inadequacy and being “broken” flooded me, as well as fear that our door had closed.  However, whil

While financial wrangling was a huge part of our process last year, we also found ourselves “making life-changing decisions.” That particular aspect continued into this year, the last month seeing us putting down some roots into those decisions. Part 1 of this post was written at the end of April -- even since then, things have progressed! The biggest decision that Hubby and I have been praying over and discussing is whether or not to adopt from the Waiting Child list. This list includes minor to severe medical and/or mental issues and older children; some of the medical issues are correctable with better treatment options in the States. This is a daunting, challenging, VERY personal decision to make! I have to admit to struggling with myself for months about this. Thoughts flew through my mind, including: “Can I take on the extra challenge that a Waiting Child will bring?” “Am I a horrible person for thinking that I can’t handle certain issues?” “Will the extra needs of a Waitin

This is Part 1 of a long-awaited blog to answer a frequent and important question -- where are we in the adoption process? Last time I wrote about adoption , I said that "2013 will see us doing mountains of paperwork and making life-changing decisions and trusting God for financial provision to bring our next daughter home."  That was certainly true but not necessarily in the ways I expected.  Let me go back a bit, to the beginning of our marriage.  I worked full-time and Hubby part-time for the first two years that we were married as he completed his Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems.  After that, we learned the crazy mess that at-will employment is in this area.  In 8 years, Hubby has worked for 5 different companies, with both voluntary and involuntary switching of jobs.  Two periods of unemployment and a couple of lower-paying positions have left us with some “bad debt” that we are not comfortable having (ie. debt not tied into a home, vehicle, or