15 Miles From Nowhere

SO, Monday it OFFICIALLY came. We received our USCIS approval! This is the last approval needed on this side of the ocean. I knew it was coming last week - I had called USCIS, and they confirmed that it was on it's way.  Here's the funny thing though - there was part of me that was still a little bit surprised. To me, the word "approval" is a scary word. Every step of the way I have been extremely stressed when we face another approval. You see, I have this picture of adoptive parents as completely perfect parents. They have to be perfect to pass all of those inspections and stuff, right? And part of this picture of perfection is the perfect looking mom wearing the cardigan and heels while effortlessly maintaining an immaculate house while her rich husband golfs. Yeah, I definitely don't fit that picture. So here I sit, midway through our second adoption, having received another approval, wondering when the heck I became perfect enough that someone would actua...

I'm continuing with the story of WHY we chose special needs adoption. If you haven't read it yet, check out part one here . I started this series by telling you about when we learned that our princess L has special needs, and how it affected us.  As time went on, we began to embrace our new life.  Life went on, as it always seems to do; and our family continued to grow.  One son joined our family through guardianship (we were later able to adopt him) and then we had another son.  We moved to a rural area to be near my family, and our children thrived. Everyone was happy and healthy. There are moments when life turns on a dime, and your entire life changes in an instant.  I had one of these moments in the middle of an ordinary day.  I was killing time on Facebook, like I do all too often.  I ran across a blog post that a friend had shared, and I read it.  The blog has been taken down since then, but I'll never forget it.  This post gutted ...

So, maybe a garage sale doesn't need it's own blog post, but in this case, I think it does. So, here's the story of how one small garage sale turned into a great big blessing. I'll just start with my dirty little secret: I did NOT want to do a garage sale.  The last few garage sales I've tried have been a nightmare, and not at all worth the time and effort.  However, my cousin suggested that we do a garage sale, and said that she would help, and I figured that I can't turn down good help, so we went for it.  We planned it for her front yard (I live in the country so my house wouldn't work).  Fast forward to the week of the garage sale: we had very few donations, she was scheduled to work for basically the entire sale, and my daughter and I both got sick that week.  I was in tears the day we decided to postpone it.  We've had a lot going on in our family lately, and I was sick, overwhelmed, and defeated.  So, we postponed one week. It's funny how ...

The internet is a depressing place lately.  It seems like every time I get online I see a new article or hear a story from another parent about their special needs child being abused at the hands of a caregiver.  So this goes out to you, the caregivers: the bus drivers, teachers, classroom aides, Special Ed teachers, Special Ed paraprofessionals, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, Sunday School teachers, Children's ministers, babysitters, and anyone else who has access to my child, both past and present. Thank you for loving my daughter. I see the way you interact with her, I hear the way you talk to her. I SEE the love, I KNOW you care. I don't need her to use words, I see the way she reacts to you, and I can tell how you treat her. I have always said that she is a good judge of character, and I can tell when she trusts someone. She trusts you, and that is a high compliment. Thank you for taking the time to enter her world. You will never...