Craziness

We're over our heads in paperwork. Last Monday we received the packed with all of the information we need for our Dossier. Wow! A little overwhelming. We need physicals, blood work, TB tests, birth certificates, letters, family scrapbook pages, financial information, employment letters, and more. And everything has to be notarized! Then, last Sunday night we realized my wallet was missing. We looked EVERYWHERE. Went over every place we'd been since the last time I knew I had it (Saturday night). Monday we called the church we'd been to and the restaurant. No luck. I drove to the church to look the parking lot and sanctuary. Called the restaurant again and even though they said they hadn't seen it, drove down there (30minutes away) to look around. Just my luck, the restaurant was closed. Nothing in the parking lot. Monday afternoon we got an email from the social working who will be doing our home study - another HUGE amount of paperwork on top of the Dossier. I'd always heard that the paperwork was overwhelming, but never truly grasped how much it is. Of course, I was still thrilled to get it - I'd much rather be working on paperwork than knowing I have so much to do but not be able to start. By Tuesday morning we decided the wallet was gone. We put a fraud alert on our credit. There hadn't been any activity on my credit or bank card, but we canceled them anyway. Yesterday I hauled the kids to the DMV to get another license. The first DMV I went to (the same one we had gotten our licenses from a month ago) was closed due to their computer system being down. Of course I didn't see the sign until I got the kids out of the car, strapped into the stroller and walked up to the door. We tried to make a list of all of the things in my wallet that I would need to replace - AAA cards, health and car insurance cards, etc... So, needless to say, with all of the paper work I need to do, I spent a lot of time on the computer and phone today. Since we live on the center, Damien gets our mail delivered to his office. When he came home today he had a strange package addressed to Michele Daspit (you can probably see where this is going). No return address. We were a little confused. As I was about to open it, I knew - it was the wallet. I was right. There was a small post-it saying where it was found (about a block away from the restaurant we ate lunch at). The cash was gone (no big surprise but it was only $30 or so). You never know, someone else could have found it, taken out the cash and then left it where it was where this person found it. I do wish that they would have put a return address so I could send a thank-you. Even if we hadn't canceled our cards and filed the fraud report with our credit already we still would have done it. Never can be too cautious. People can easily make photo copies of things. So I guess the only thing I could have avoided was getting the license. Since my keys were attached to the wallet, we're still going to have our locks changed on our apartment (the request was already put it).

Today was Damien's physical for the adoption paperwork. Last Friday we got chest x-rays for TB, Monday we got extensive blood work (HIV, Hep B, etc...). He was most worried about his BP and cholesterol being too high. Thank God they were normal - almost high, but still in the normal range. This means that he doesn't have to get an extra Doctor's letter written. Plus China is pretty strict about health issues and will reject people because of it. Tomorrow Orin has his physical. Poor kid has to get a TB test. Unfortunately, they couldn't fit me in for two weeks. Not a big deal since we have plenty of other stuff to work on until then.

Tomorrow the boys and I are going to try out a play group for people who work here. I think it's the first "social" thing I've done since moving here so it will be nice to meet some more people. I've enjoyed taking it easy and just hanging with the kids though. I don't feel the need to rush into commitments. I've enjoyed hanging out with our neighbors. Two other families have children our kids age, so often in the afternoon, the moms and I will sit on the porch and talk while the kids play. They are both on furlough from two different countries so it's been great to hear their experiences and perspectives. Ironically, one of the families just adopted a little girl from Vietnam. The weather has been beautiful so I've just been loving it. We put our two camping chairs out on the porch. Sometimes I just sit and read or work on the laptop. We often go out 30 minutes to an hour before Damien comes home and just play until he gets here. He'll walk home and Micaiah is usually the one to spot him - and he's the one who gets most excited these days. We'll often sit outside a little while longer all together. I'm really enjoying living here. God is good!