My case is not severe, but it’s enough to get me in trouble. I switch numbers around very frequently. I have to pay very close attention when dealing with those dodgy digits. It is hard for me to memorize a long string of numbers because I am frequently second guessing myself. My dyslexia is manageable… most of the time.
Now a bit of an adoption update with some dyslexic drama thrown in there to mix things up a bit.
In order to adopt in Bolivia a formal request must be made to the judge. The judge evaluates you and then assigns a child to you. You can request gender, health condition and age, but in the end the judge makes the final decision about which child you adopt. To make this formal request to adopt we have to have all our papers in order. Since December this is what we have been doing… documents, papers, certificates, etc.
Finally, our lawyer told us that we had all the documents we need to make the request. She wrote up the letter to the judge called a ‘memorial’. After running around getting all the official stamps and seals and paying all applicable fees we presented our request at the judge’s office. Two days later we received our request back telling us we needed two more documents. Our lawyer said this is normal to expect that they will request something new that they have never requested before. She told me that to give them what they needed we had to get a legalized photocopy of each of our Bolivian i.d. cards from immigration.
Oh, how that word makes me cringe! Immigration. Bless their hearts, I am sure they do their best. It just seems we have problems every time we are down there. To get the legalized photocopy of your i.d. card it should only take 48 hours. Ours ended up taking 7 days.
Truth be told, for what they had to accomplish that is actually pretty fast. When I returned after the regular 48 hours the gal told me there were problems. She said that the card I had got from their office had the wrong passport number on it. There are two numbers on the card: your passport number and your Bolivian identification number. Two numbers were switched around on my passport number. The gal brought in the guy, David, who had processed my i.d. card. This is how our conversation played out.
David: Do you remember when I handed you the sheet of paper with your information on it to verify that everything was correct?
Me (with a pathetic frown and eyes beginning to mist) : Yes.
David: Do you remember signing the page as an approval that the information was correct?
Me: Yes. But it is just that I have dyslexia.
David (eyes popping out of his head in surprise) : Ma’am, you have dyslexia?! Why didn’t you say so when you were checking the document?
Me (more pathetic frowning and worried eyes) : I didn’t think it was important to say.
David: It is so very important that you inform us of things like that. Stay here. I will see what I can do.
As he left I was thinking of the 19 other reasons I had not mentioned it before. Not the least of which being a fussy two year old on my lap in a small stuffy office waiting for three hours for our turn in line that fateful day. My wallowing was interrupted by a solution. Yes, you read that right, a solution! Quoting Willy Wonka quoting Shakespeare, “So shines a good deed in a weary world.” What’s more is that he took responsibility for the mistake as his own.
I was still in a speechless daze as he ushered me to the door and told me to come back the next day to get a new i.d. made. Amazing! Sure, it meant more lines, waiting, fees, forms, etc. But it was a solution! That is why I said I was surprised that they got done what they did as quickly as they did. Thank you, Jesus, for favor! Thank you, friends, for praying!
So, then with the legalized photocopy of the corrected i.d. card we were off to the lawyer’s office to give them these documents. She printed out another letter of intent. Told us to get it stamped and pay the fees to turn it into the judge’s office.
I turned it in on Monday. They told us that they would inform our lawyer of the results of the request by Wednesday. The lawyer called me this afternoon (Thursday) to let me know that they wanted a legalized photocopy of our marriage certificate. We had that one done already! So I ran that down to their office. The lawyer says that we should hear from them in the next couple business days and that they shouldn’t be asking for any more documents at this point. Let it be so, please Lord.
When we get the judge’s approval of our intent to adopt we will take her official permission to the social service office. They will then have thirty days to complete three different studies of us and our family. I think that they are medical, social and I can’t remember the other. Anyway, after those reports are complete social services will present their findings to the judge. At which time the judge will them assign us a child to adopt.
Are you capturing what this means? If all goes smoothly we should know which little girl we are adopting by the end of June! It is like the ominous sonogram to reveal the gender of your baby when you are pregnant. That will mark seven months of this process. Sonograms at that stage in the pregnancy are very revealing.
So after the assignment there are another two months of frequent interactions with social services, a few audiences before the judge and turning in documents. We will also be able to request court orders to visit our new daughter at whichever home is caring for her.
It may turn out that this adoption will take nine months start to finish. How poetic! Unless she is a premie; I wouldn’t mind that in the slightest.
I do apologize for being repetitive. These long posts are mainly to keep the family abreast of where we are. It is also for posterity. I would imagine, too, that there may be a future adoptive family that will benefit from hearing our story.
Again, thank you so much for your prayers. I have felt needed strength that I know did not come from myself on various occasions these last couple months. It is your continued prayer that makes all the difference in the world.
This photo of the House of Dreams Orphanage was taken in November of 2007, 18 months ago. At the time we had 21 children and had been in operation for just over a year. Some children had even been adopted by this time.
Since this picture was taken six of these kids have been placed in loving homes. The circles indicate who those precious ones are. We have also received more children to take their spots and then some.
I am trying desperately to wrap my brain around all that this photo and those circles imply. What’s more, I am trying to wrap my heart around it all. I am wondering what this picture will look like another year and a half from now.
Do you know we haven’t done a group shot since then? I think we are due for one.
I am over here today:
The title of my post is “The Wall”. Here is a taste.
I felt sure that the only way God was going to use me was stated clearly in Isaiah 28:11 “For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.” The stammering lips being my Spanish and the other tongue my English. He was just going to have to give the Bolivians the gift of interpretation of tongues if I was to do any good here.
Hyperlink to post: http://everydaymmoms.blogspot.com/2009/05/wall.html
As always, feedback is welcome.
Being conscientious of the precious time of my readers I feel it is necessary to forewarn you that this post is uncommonly longer than I usually post. Mostly it is for my family and reasons of posterity. Though, it is in bullet style so it can be skimmed by the average interested patron.
This is a fun questionnaire that a few of my friends have done on their blogs and facebook. It was a hoot to hear some of the answers my family came up with. By the way, each interview was done privately yet some of the answers are the same. Interesting.
RAIMY - 11 year old daughter
1. What is something your mom always says to you? Okay
2. What makes your mom happy? Coffee
3. What makes your mom sad? Lot’s of work
4. How does your mom make you laugh? Telling jokes
5. What was your mom like as a child? Active
6. How old is your mom? 32
7. How tall is your mom? Seventy nine inches
8. What is her favorite thing to do? Go to a garden
9. What does your mom do when you’re not around? Take a nap and talk
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? Because she’s a pastor
11. What is your mom really good at? Talking
12. What is your mom not very good at? Heely riding
13. What does your mom do for her job? Preach
14. What is your mom’s favorite food? Sushi
15. What makes you proud of your mom? How hard she works in one day
16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? A new character that I made up or a character I have seen before? (me: Whatever you think.) She would be… um… Miss… Miss Andrea who lives in Washington DC. (me: Is that one you made up?) Yes.
17. What do you and your mom do together? Talk
18. How are you and your mom the same? We both like to draw
19. How are you and your mom different? She has straight hair I have curly hair
20. How do you know your mom loves you? She treats me nicely
21. Where is your mom’s favorite place to go? Into bed with Papa
TIMOTHY – 9 year old son
1. What is something your mom always says to you? Time to go to bed
2. What makes your mom happy? Obeying
3. What makes your mom sad? Disobeying
4. How does your mom make you laugh? Tickling me, of course
5. What was your mom like as a child? Happy?
6. How old is your mom? 31?
7. How tall is your mom? Higher than me
8. What is her favorite thing to do? Write on the computer, I mean type
9. What does your mom do when you’re not around? Work
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? Acting in lots of movies like Eddie Murphy
11. What is your mom really good at? Talking
12. What is your mom not very good at? Chess
13. What does your mom do for her job? Work
14. What is your mom’s favorite food? Chinese?
15. What makes you proud of your mom? Her taking care of me
16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? Her! Herself.
17. What do you and your mom do together? Talk
18. How are you and your mom the same? What color eyes do you have mama? (me: blue) Not it. Ticklish! We’re ticklish.
19. How are you and your mom different? Height. Eyes. Voice. Feet.
20. How do you know your mom loves you? Because she always says it
21. Where is your mom’s favorite place to go? China… no not there. To get her hair cut place.
GABRIELLE - 7 year old daughter
1. What is something your mom always says to you? What was that word? “Okay Mama.”
2. What makes your mom happy? When I obey her
3. What makes your mom sad? When I disobey her
4. How does your mom make you laugh? Tickling me
5. What was your mom like as a child? An adoption sister
6. How old is your mom? 33?
7. How tall is your mom? I don’t know
8. What is her favorite thing to do? Play on her iPod
9. What does your mom do when you’re not around? Miss me
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? Work?
11. What is your mom really good at? Writing messages to her friends
12. What is your mom not very good at? Doing a flip in the air
13. What does your mom do for her job? Preaches
14. What is your mom’s favorite food? Let me say steak
15. What makes you proud of your mom? That she hugs me
16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? A doggy
17. What do you and your mom do together? Eat
18. How are you and your mom the same? With the glasses
19. How are you and your mom different? With the color of skin
20. How do you know your mom loves you? Cause she kisses and hugs me
21. Where is your mom’s favorite place to go? Oh what was it called? Crane park? What was it called Mama? Christopher… Col… oh what was it called mama? Crane park.
PAPA – AKA my husband
1. What is something your wife always says to you? I love you
2. What makes your wife happy? Sushi and coffee
3. What makes your wife sad? I know that these are probably going to be posted somewhere so I am going to think… would it be vague enough to say, “When she messes up”?
4. How does your wife make you laugh? When she tries to talk slang
5. What was your wife like as a child? My wife was weird when she was a child
6. How old is your wife? One year older than she was last year. My wife is 32 years old.
7. How tall is your wife? She’s 5’ 6’’?
8. What is her favorite thing to do? Chat with her friends online. Blog.
9. What does your wife do when you’re not around? Watches movies and talks online
10. If your wife becomes famous, what will it be for? For marrying a famous person
11. What is your wife really good at? Is there enough space to answer this question? Being Angie.
12. What is your wife not very good at? Don’t think I want to answer that question
13. What does your wife do for her job? Take care of them kids
14. What is your wife’s favorite food? Sushi
15. What makes you proud of your wife? When she overcomes an obstacle
16. If your wife were a cartoon character, who would she be? Wonderwoman
17. What do you and your wife do together? … we go on dates.
18. How are you and your wife the same? Missionaries. Parents of the same children
19. How are you and your wife different? Man and woman
20. How do you know your wife loves you? ‘Cause she said it when we got married and she hasn’t said any differently
21. Where is your wife’s favorite place to go? To bed. No. Probably any place outside the house
Mama – about Papa
1. What is something your husband always says to you? The point of the matter is
2. What makes your husband happy? bowling
3. What makes your husband sad? Seeing potential and not having the resources to reach it
4. How does your husband make you laugh? Saying silly stuff and tickling me
5. What was your husband like as a child? Eight or eighty
6. How old is your husband? 34 years old
7. How tall is your husband? 6 foot. (WRONG!)
8. What is his favorite thing to do? Hang out with his kids
9. What does your husband do when you’re not around? Watch movies
10. If your husband becomes famous, what will it be for? bowling
11. What is your husband really good at? Being strong
12. What is your husband not very good at? I plead the 5th
13. What does your husband do for her job? A missionary
14. What is your husband’s favorite food? Whatever he is in the mood for
15. What makes you proud of your husband? His faithfulness
16. If your husband were a cartoon character, who would she be? Superman
17. What do you and your husband do together? Have good times.
18. How are you and your husband the same? passion
19. How are you and your husband different? In how we express that passion
20. How do you know your husband loves you? Because he tries to make me happy
21. Where is your husband’s favorite place to go? To what could be in his mind’s eye. That or bowling.
My younger daughter was then inspired to do an interview of me!
Gabrielle’s interview of me
- What do you like most about your daughters? That they are mine
- What do you do most with your daughter Gabrielle? Talk
- Do you pray to God? Yes
- Do you love your kids? Yes, very much
- What do you do most with your children? Have fun
- What do you do most with your husband? Have good times. (Gabrielle: Dates? Good times?) Yes
- What do you like most about your husband? That he loves God
- When do you spend most time with your kids? Saturdays
- When do you spend most time with your husband? Nights
- When are we going to go back to the United States? After we adopt your new sister
- What do you do most? Stuff on the computer. (Gabrielle: is stuff that PH thing or just F? Do I put laptop or computer?) Two Fs and whatever you like.
- This is a tricky one so think hard on it ok? When are we going to adopt the new sister? I think three months
- Last one. Think hard on it. It is a hard one. What does your daughter Gabrielle like most? Having fun. Am I right? (Gabrielle: There are no right or wrong answers. This is an interview and I am just writing down your answers that you think are the answers.) Ok, but am I right anyway. (Gabrielle: It doesn’t matter.)
What a wise little girl I have! Even though what matters most is that we love each other we had a good time doing these interviews.
- Right now I am listening to Yakko Warner sing the countries of the world (in which are NOT EVERY country of the world, yes, the endearing little animated whatchamacallit does NOT know all the countries; or if he does he did not include them all in his catchy tune).
- I had to look up Yakko to check it was spelled right. I spelled it Yakko first. I was right!
- “All better…” is the post that gets the most traffic on my blog. My theory is because they are snatching the image that I snatched from somewhere. We like to share in the blogosphere.
- Sundays are my lowest hit days here on www.angiewashington.com. My theory is because most of my readers like to do other things besides blogging on Sundays. Bravo! I think that is cool.
- Yes, I still say ‘cool’. Should I upgrade to coolio? I don’t think so. It sounds too much like Julio flavored Kool-Aid to me. How does Julio taste? Well, seeing as Julio is a guy’s name and the name of a month (both in Spanish) it would lead me to believe that it tastes like watered down flavored sugar water. I will stay with cool, even if it makes me uncool in doing so.
- I could really go for some sushi to soothe my dyslexic wounds.
- My friend Laura is in the States and I miss her.
- We had dinner Saturday night with a family whose mom I met on the net. She and her husband live in Bolivia now. They are Canadian. They have a couple kids around the ages of our kids. My kids are happy to have some new friends.
- Found a fabulous new Italian restaurant with lovely ambiance and good food. The owner is Italian. When my mother in law was in France she ate at an Italian restaurant that was wonderful. I know that because I talked to her on the phone yesterday.
- Including her I have spoken with 9 family members on the phone or by Skype in the last two days.
- It makes me miss them more. Beam me up! Wouldn’t that be nice?
- We watched the new Star Trek at the movie theater. It was very fun.
- I prefer candied popcorn over salty or buttery popcorn. And I like to munch on Nerds during a movie. I bet it is annoying to the other movie goers to hear those tangy nuggets sliding down the side of the box, through that cool open and shut opening onto my tongue to then be crunched around (with my mouth closed of course).
- Speaking of movies we watched some previews online yesterday. Julie and Julia looks like a fun show.
- Speaking of food I am back from the gym and wanted to blog so I did so, but now I am hungry. My kids are starting to forage. Hoped to get 500 words of whatever was popping into my head to answer the question “Know What?” And you know what? I did it.
This morning an early Mother’s Day greeting found it’s way to my inbox. It seemed fitting to share with you the sentiments of my family. Mothers, I hope that this weekend you feel appreciated, loved, and valued.
Link to see it: http://family42.blogspot.com/2009/05/try-jibjab-sendables-ecards-today.html
In other mom news… it has been a while since I gave an adoption update.
In a word: paperwork. Somehow our ability to accumulate documents, stand (semi)patiently in line, pay fees and blindly follow instructions given to us by lawyers and government officials is proving that we are suitable parents. We are so close to the next big step as we get this and that together. Big step: present our intent to adopt to the judge. To do that we have to have all the right documents. Hopefully, a document that is being process which we are picking up Monday afternoon will be the last one we need to be able to do that. I will be so glad when we have our official request in. So glad.
In closing, I am interested in hearing what is super about your mom. Why not share a comment?
Happy Mother’s Day!
“I will prepare and some day my chance will come.” Abraham Lincoln*
It was probably in a Maxwell book that I first was exposed to this quote. It appealed to me because I am a preparer. Planning, weighing the options, making comparison charts, looking at pros and cons, attending classes, studying, plotting time lines and just plain thinking are some of my favorite things to do.
Since the beginning of the year I have been looking into writing more. My personal writing has increased. I also want to branch out to more public writing (i.e. books, magazines, articles, etc.) I even did some informal research. Like old Abe, I have been preparing.
A chance came! I have been invited to be on the writing team for a blog. Ana Degenaar has her own blog. But she has also put together a site for moms. She is so sweet! We are neighbors, sort of. She lives in Brazil with her husband and baby. They are missionaries. The greatest part about this set up is that Ana is an artist so she is encouraging creativity and giving us lots of free space to write what we want, how we want to.
My first instinct was to think about it. After a bit of that I remembered that this was something I had been hoping for. Instead of me searching for a venue the opportunity found me. I am so happy! I am now the Thursday writer for the blog. Yeah!
Here is the link: “Everyday M. Moms” **
Today my first entry is featured there: “Grass Green”
So, how about that? This is going to be fun!
*Quote taken from: ThinkExist.com
** Or copy and paste this in your browser address bar: http://everydaymmoms.blogspot.com/
Photographer: Lacy Inscho, Kansas City area. She came for a week to Bolivia to photograph the kids at the orphanage and graciously did a session with our family. We are so grateful!
Slouch your shoulders. Droop your head. Hang your hands down like limp lettuce leaves. Fix your gaze on the location of your belly button. Curve down the corners of your mouth. Mumble out the following phrase in the most pathetic voice you can muster, “Welcome to my pity party.”
Congratulations! You have just learned the stance of the Belly Button Gazer.
Belly Button Gazeritis - (also know as ‘navel fixation‘) A chronic case of self pity. Symptoms include a critical and negative outlook on life manifest in posture and vocabulary. Due to the highly contagious nature of this disease all precautions to avoid infection should be taken. In the case of contamination immediately seek to selflessly serve a person in need. Repeat if symptoms persist.
I understand that hard times come. I get that there is a time for tears, lament, weeping, mourning and sadness. Yet these attitudes should not mark our personality for a lifetime. There also comes a time for fighting to not be overcome. There comes a time to focus energies on others. There comes a time to lay aside the belly button gazing and lift up our eyes.
Let’s work together to eradicate this pitiful condition. Join in the campaign!
Together we can rid the world of chronic self pity… one belly button at a time.
