A Week of Ups and Downs

I hesitate even saying it, but it has been one week and there have been no new requests for paperwork. I am hoping that this means we are on the tail end. Bryan and I have been depressed the past week because we keep thinking about how long it has been since we have seen the boys. There is no way of telling you how difficult it is to see your children and then not be able to be a family for months on end.
Bryan's mother got to witness first-hand our crazy roller coaster adoption process last Monday. She came to volunteer at my school (like she does every year for the week before school starts) and decided to ride with Bryan to pick up some papers that needed to be apostilled. After 3 trips back and forth within a 2 hour time period, she was almost in tears and Bryan was ready to pull his hair out. The paper we recieved was not the correct paper - then the new paper was not notarized correctly - then the next paper was a notary of the notary - I am so thankful that Bryan was handling it because I would have pulled over on the side of the road and just cried not knowing what to do next. But, as God would have it - he was talking to Bryan the entire time and was giving him the right questions to ask and the right people to call to ensure that it would all be done correctly.
This was the start of a wonderful week of school - it was actually the best start I have had in at least 10 years. I was busy - not getting home until late at night for the past 2 weeks, but it was worth it on the first day to see everyone happy and the kids excited about coming back to school. This busy time kept my mind off of the adoption, but now that the newness is dying down, I find myself back in a slump.
It has been a good week, but a hard week as well. One of my students that we have had since he was a baby began his first day of school all smiles. Later that morning, we found that his father had been in an accident - and it is extremely serious. It was so hard to get him out of class on the first day of school and not begin crying. All I could do was turn him over to his brave Godmother and tell him that his mother needed her to take him to her. I can not imagine his shock when he received the news of his father's accident. We are all praying for his recovery, but it does not look hopeful right now. This was coupled with news that a good friend of mine has found that her cancer has returned. She taught for me for a few years, even through her first treatment, and taught me a lot of what bravery is all about. She is one of the strongest people I know. My heart goes out to her and her daughter now as she battles this disease again. We are also praying for her that she once again gets the treatment she needs in order to feel better and that she knows that she has a whole extended family of support.
So, it has been a week of ups and downs. It is easy to take the tragedies of this week and tie them with the depression of the long wait for the boys' court date. I try not to do it, but I find myself in that dark hole sometimes. It is funny how this works, but Bryan has actually found a way to bring some sunshine into it all. He has been looking at many blogs and found the blog of a family that was in Khabarovsk at the same time that we were. I remember seeing the family and the little girl that they were adopting. Their daughter was at the same orphanage as Sawyer. While we were visiting, they were on their 10 day waiting period after the court date. Their blog is encouraging. Their adopted daughter has been home with them for 3 months now and she knows several words. It seems that she is adjusting - and this gives us so much hope that our boys will soon be in the same situation. I have to believe that God has placed Bryan and I together because when I am down, he is able to find something to bring me back up - and the same goes - when he is down, I can find something to bring him back up. As we go through some of the blogs that Bryan has found, we noticed that our wait and story sounds like so many stories out there. According to these stories, we are right on schedule. I hope that we get a court date soon, but in the meantime, we continue to pray for our boys and their good health. Please send a prayer up for my student's father and my friend battling cancer. Both families believe deeply in the power of prayer and both could use a lot of prayer right now. God Bless You All!