Thankful

So much going through my head this week. Cooking, baking, cleaning, decorating. Plus, Thanksgiving day is also my mom's birthday, so I've been thinking about her a lot this week. Many of you already know that my mom died two years ago. It is going to be so bittersweet that our first Thanksgiving together is also going to fall on Mom's birthday.

Anyway, it's just too bad. We'll definitely have one of the best days of our lives on Thursday anyway since we have SOOOOO much to be thankful for. Thursday isn't all about turkey to us. It's about thanking God for what He has given us, and wow do we have a lot to be thankful for this year.

Tonight we had a Thanksgiving service at church and we got to share what we were thankful for. It is always a fun service to attend because we get to hear how many neat things people have been blessed with, but it was so fun this year to be able to thank God for giving us our children. I still sit and wonder how on earth we actually pulled off our adoption at all. There was so much red tape. We had to get so much of our dossier re-done, we had to wait to be approved, wait to be rejected, wait to resubmit our dossier, wait to get an appointment, wait to travel, raise all the money, etc., etc. I can't believe John actually climbed on a plane to Ukraine in the first place! He hates to travel!

I can't remember if I've really shared about switching our approval from two children to three. When I mentioned to John that I had been thinking about the possibility of getting three kids instead of two, I expected an immediate, "ARE YOU CRAZY?" I thought there might have been a heated discussion, but he just said, "yeah, that would be a good idea" (or something as casual as that.) I about fell over; probably because I was still in doubt as to whether it was a good idea or not.

Then when we asked our social worker to approve us for three kids instead of two, we were still unsure if that was what we actually wanted, but wanted to keep the door open. Shockingly, she hardly blinked and approved us right away. !!.

Then when we sent in our $195 ammendment to our INS approval for the approval for one extra child, the letter came back - I had forgotten a stamp. I joked with John saying maybe this was a sign; "Go back! Go back!" He rolled his eyes, reminded me that we don't believe in "signs" and said I was silly. We sent it in again. It came back again. Then I REALLY joked about the "sign." The letter from INS said something that we thought meant that our check was the wrong amount. I frankly thought it was too freaky that we were getting this sent back to us for a second time, and really began to question whether we were making the right decision. Again John said I was being silly, and so we resent it. They sent it back again saying that we didn't have to pay them at all, gave us our check back, and then promptly approved us for free! When I think now I might have just closed the door to our kids altogether all because of a lack of a stamp, I just cringe. (Good job, Honey, not letting me see "signs" in everything...)

Yup, lots to be thankful for this year.