sunflowery's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's Public Service Announcement I am writing this entry for myself as much as I am writing it for anyone else. I need to get my butt in gear and don some research on this stuff so we can proceed when the time is right. Well, it's almost 1am and I'm still up coughing and sniffling and hacking away. Blech, I HATE colds. BUT I was watching the Oprah I taped earlier today and am just compelled to do whatever I can to adopt a little girl from China. Did you watch this show? Even though it's getting better, Chinese people still value boys over girls and if they have a baby girl, they will kill her or abandon her. Many baby girls have been found in boxes along the sides of the road, in the market, in the parks. Their orphanges are bursting with the most rejected of little humans. But the ones who are adopted have the last laugh don't they? Here come couples who LONG for a child to pick up their long awaited little girl only to bring them home to America, land of plenty and opportunity. As Lisa Ling, a journalist for the National Geographic Channel said, wouldn't it be great if all these abandoned and adopted Chinese girls grew up and got educated and returned to China to change it? I know last month was national adoption month, but if you have EVER considered adoption, I urge you to begin to take the steps to adopt a child. Any child who needs a home. As I'm finding, it does cost a lot of money. But as I'm also finding, there is help out there. Start with the company you work for. Many of them have adoption reimbursement programs. Also, the federal government will give you a $10,000 tax credit the year you adopt a child. That's a hefty chunk of change. With that and an employer reimbursement program, you could almost recoup what you put into funding your adoption. Also, most banks have home refinancing loans specifically for adoption. Check them out. If you still need resources, check out the following: You can also check out your state's waiting children by finding your state or county's department of human services website for more info. Here is the website for MN the state where I happen to live. There are so many children out there who need homes and so many of us with so much to share. So many children out there have NOTHING that coming to a home like yours, even if it's modest, would be like coming home to a fairy tale. So many just want a family to call their own. Won't you consider taking that first step towards adoption today? If you are interested in reading about all that's involved with adopting from another country, check out the diaries of these brave and wonderful women: Redhead Princess and her husband are thisclose to finally getting her daughter, Ella, from Guatamala. Mimi Smartypants and her husband adopted their beautiful girl from China. This ends today's public service announcement about adoption. *************************************** A Year Ago Today: December 03, 2003: More on Longing For Motherhood Well, yesterday was busy at work. The phones were constant all day. It was call after call and many times we had calls holding. It made for a busy, but quick day. I had to be in way earlier than I am used to as we were all off at 5 due to a work holiday party afterwards. The party was fun. We met at a nice Italian restaurant and had a room to ourselves. I ended up sitting next to our Division's President. He is the nicest big whig I have ever met. He is laid back and down to earth and funny. As we were making small talk, I asked him if he and his wife had any children. He was so open and honest and stated that they were never able to have children. He said the tried everything for a good long time and nothing ever came of it. He said his wife had always wanted to be a mom but it just never happened. He said now she volunteers at a women's prison by teaching health, nutrition and areobics. They've been married for over 26 years and have 32 nieces and nephews. We just had the most interesting conversation. The best thing happened during our talk. Have you ever been somewhere where you either said the wrong thing at the wrong time or you thought of the perfect thing to say 10 hours later? Well, last night, I said the perfect thing at the perfect time. In sitting and talking with The Prez, he said that since they didn�t have any of their own kids, he told all the brothers and sisters if they had a kid and named it after him and if that kid went to his alma matre, he would pay that kid's whole way through school. Well, he has a namesake and he said that namesake is top in his class. I was thinking this kid is a junior or senior in high school, but it turns out he�s only 12. Just as we are discussing this, the room becomes quiet and everyone seems to be listening to our conversation. As the hush becomes most pronounced, I say, \"well, if he�s only 12, you have plenty of time...if you put some money into an annuity now...\" (You see That�s our business.) And the room errupts into spontaneous laughter, The Prez actually high fives me, and people applaud. It was...so perfect. I know it doesn�t sound that great here, but believe me, it was the perfect thing said at the perfect time and I made a favorable impression on The Prez. Later on, while I was driving home, I got to thinking. Here is a man and a woman who lack no good thing. They have love, money, family, support, and the deep longing and desire for children. They did everything. Tried everything. And yet they NEVER had kids. Not for lack of anything. What makes me think it will be any different for Sweet Baboo and I? What we lack is good health and money...but we have an abundance of the rest. What I was thinking was, when does the pain ever go away? When does the dream finally die? When does that longing finally lessen and life just goes on? I wish I could talk to The Prez and his wife about it. Maybe it will come to that some day. But right now I am just left wondering. On a completely different subject, Sweet Baboo went to see the neurologist that had originally diagnosed his Muscular Dystrophy. The Dr. is concerned about the pain he has been experiencing that is supposedly outside the rhelm of his MD. She wants to run some tests on him to see if he might also have some kind of arthritis. She is also ordering his records from his hospitalization this past spring. She suspects that his breathing difficulties might actually be related to his MD, but she has to look everything over in order to prove it. She also told him that he should start seeing an internal medicine specialist as his primary physician, rather than the family practitioner he is seeing now. He felt good about his visit with her, though he is not looking forward to more tests. I am so proud of my husband. He is amazing. He is taking 2 ministry training classes right now and today, he had 2 papers, a book report and a reading log due. He didn�t wait until the last minute, oh no! He has been working hard on these things for days! He went to class today prepared. He went tired, but he went prepared. Last night when I came home, I was a little down due to the whole baby/motherhood thing. He put aside all he had to do to sit and hold me while I cried on his chest. He said he feels really vulnerable and helpless when I cry, but he is glad that he is still able to hold me while I do. That�s all I really want anyway. He holds me, wipes away my tears, prays for me, and whispers loving words to me. Sometimes he even sings to me. He is the best husband in the whole world and not only am I proud of him, I am proud to be married to him. Going to school has been really hard for Sweet Baboo. He is not so much a scholar. But he has been reading and plugging away at his typing and is doing so well! He gets better with every paper. He isn�t liking the schoolwork better, but he is doing better. It is great preparation for his future ministry. 12:41 a.m. - Friday, Dec. 03, 2004 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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