OUR PLANS MULTIPLIED: My LEAST Favorite

OUR PLANS MULTIPLIED

In the beginning, JD adamantly only wanted two children. I thought that four would be perfect. Once we caught God's vision of putting orphans into families, our plan was multiplied by God. We are currently blessed with 12 children; five biological, six adopted and one more waiting in Ethiopia. Our first adoption was from the U.S., the next three were from Liberia, West Africa, and our last two were from Ethiopia. We are supporting our 12th child in Ethiopia after her adoption could not pass court.

Friday, December 16, 2011

My LEAST Favorite

My very least favorite part of an adoption is all the medical requirements. I'm sure it wouldn't be that big of a deal if we weren't talking 11 people. Just for the home-study, we each get a physical that includes blood work, urinalysis, vision and hearing. They also evaluate immunization records, which is a bit of an issue for me since I decided that I'm picking and choosing what shots I consider worth compromising my children's immune system for. Then JD and I require several additional medical paperwork piles to be filled out by a doctor for the adoption agency. After reading them over, I'm thinking no doctor is going to want to fill them out and quite frankly, they don't see us often enough to actually know the answers to the questions. Yesterday, I called and scheduled 14 doctor appointments between now and the end of January. While I was at it, I called the dentist and booked 11 appointments there as well. I was thrilled because they are allowing me to bring my five youngest all in one morning in spite of their "three family members a day" normal rule. On a humorous note, I told the receptionist at the dentist that we've known for years about our current adoption. She asked, "how many are you bringing home this time?" I said, "it will probably be just one." She answered, "well, you are really cutting back this time!"

Since I still have my normal on-going doctor appointments, I should see at least 30 doctor or dentist bills in the next six weeks - something to look forward to (to be read with sarcasm.)

Today is the Tori and Julia appointments - they are looking forward to it just because I take them for Slurpees afterward. Elijah is very, very excited because Alei is taking him to the new Chipmunk movie - he has been waiting for a few months. I wish I was there to see his excitement at the whole experience.

Since it's almost Christmas and picture less posts are boring, here's a shot of the kids decorating gingerbread cookies. I am trying to still maintain the Christmas traditions while I work on my paperwork!