When Melvin and I decided to actively pursue our decision to adopt, we started the process and didn't stop. I had a time table in mind and we were going to keep it! Great things had recently happened for us with work, I was starting my third semester with my second Masters, and work was really picking up on all fronts so I wanted to make sure that we had not only started the paperwork, but that we were making progress before we got busy and didn't finish the process until months down the road (can you tell we want a baby??...). I had our home study scheduled on a Monday for that Saturday, and over the course of that week and the next we had most of the paperwork done or at least close to. We started the application process with LDS Family Services and the adoption classes, and were moving briskly along when....I started to feel burnt out. Melvin was doing such a good job at juggling everything on his personal plate while giving his undivided attention to our adoption plans, but I know he was feeling overwhelmed, too. To top it off, there has been a super flu coming through our area, and it has killed close to 80 people in Oklahoma. Both of us work with the public, and the probability of us getting sick was high, something that we could not at all afford to be hit with (I have had so many kids out sick from school for close to TWO weeks at a time).
But no wonder, I guess, with everything we had going on. I had worked myself up into such a state of "we have to get this done, or we'll never get chosen!!" that I started to get discouraged at the tiniest setback. I say "setback," but they are really just a part of the process: waiting on certain portions of the paperwork to get processed, trying to figure out the logistics of juggling everything, etc. But despite all of that I have already been able to look back and see how far we've come. We finished the entire application process in less than a month and are just waiting now. I really do believe that we were able to finish in such a timely manner because of the kindness and help of so many good friends as well as strangers (people at doctors' offices, records offices, our local hospital, customer service reps I've talked with recently, and the list goes on). Small acts of kindness really do mean so much when you least expect them, and yet need them the most.
Adoption, as we are learning, is all about the kindness of other strangers (the birth parents and the adoptive parents) that have the opportunity of mutually sharing in a beautiful experience that leaves no one a stranger. I really do like the old adage, "It takes a village to raise a child". It's so true, and at least in our adoption story there are so many people that have already had a hand in our child's story.
I absolutely LOVE this video that came out last year. You never truly know how much a small act of kindness will mean to someone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPOVwKPMG8o
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