Longest month ever

This has not been my favorite summer.

There are 49 days left until my littles return to school.  I have been counting down since there were 85 or something.

Summers past have included relaxing days, do what you want, sleep in or not, days that fell into place with little or no planning, save for camping and road trips.

This summer I learned quickly that my youngest child does best with structure and routine.  He is fine without it - if I let him rot his mind in front of various TV, computer, and video game screens - which is kind of how today has turned out.  But he does do better when we have a plan and when the plans include intentionality rather than just winging what do, which may or may not include specific time with each kiddo.

So I've had to give up a little (or a lot) of my freedoms this summer to do what's best for my family as a whole.  And I've complained about it a little (or a lot), too.

We've also had constraints on our time this year that have been unusual - Joshua's trip to Peru (a success), Chris's upcoming trip to Germany, Charlie's reading program which goes nearly all summer, and wondering when this adoption thing is going to happen.  The negotiations have been in the appropriate parties' hands for 23 days now.  They are in no hurry, apparently.  They don't understand how important it is *to me* to have the adoption finalized before school starts in August.

But I was reminded today that God Himself knows - and in fact has ordained the day our kiddo will become a Wiggins.  And while it may be important to me that things are finalized this summer, if God does not see fit for it to happen in that timeline, then it must not be important to Him that it is.  He is in control.  I am not.  (When will I ever get that concept through my thick skull?)

I decided to go ahead and plan my annual road trip to Cali for the end of July.  It will be a quickie, and it will probably just be Grace, Charlie, and me.  It will be different, for sure.  But I miss my family and my friends, and I want Charlie to see the ocean and meet some of my people.  The way my luck goes, the adoption will be scheduled right smack in the middle of when we want to go!  I doubt it, though.  If the negotiations resolved next week, apparently it still takes 3 weeks after that to get a court date, and I don't see them resolving quite that quickly.  If it does, though, we'll ask for the days between when we return and when school starts, or it will be after the start of school... whatever!

In the meantime, we (the littles and me) fill our days with library programs, park dates, reading, movies, and activities.  The older two work most of the time.  Funny how I - who do (does?) love structure and routine - am so resistant to it this summer.

Prayer needs:  adoption negotiations, Christi's upcoming mission trip to Germany*

*by the way, she's got a blog going - check it out:  grassandfigs.blogspot.com.

Chapter 23: Check

Disclosure meeting complete.  On to Step 3.

Chapter 22: Step 2 nearly complete

The month of May has been a blur.

If you read to the end of my last post, you'll understand why.  There has been a crazy amount of things going on - mostly all wonderful.  That said, our close friends lost their 11-year old daughter the week before Mother's Day; another good friend has a suicidal son and an ailing mother; friends of ours have had their 6-month old nephew undergo brain surgery and look ahead to chemo (and a friend of my sister's in a similar boat with their 18-month-old); Mom lost a close friend and we found out about the passing of a longtime friend and neighbor of Pop's... the list goes on.

BUT, we did get our kid graduated, with honors, and he is off eating cuy in Peru as I write.  Got another kid one step further into adulthood as she is now of legal age to do anything she wants (scary thought).  Yet another kid completed elementary school with a few awards and is looking forward to her birthday next week.  And today marks the 7-month anniversary of our last (really:  LAST) kiddo moving into our home.

Our disclosure meeting has tentatively been scheduled for next week.  After that happens, we will move to step 3 of the 4 that I mentioned last post.  We are getting closer.  I'd like to believe that the adoption will be complete in the coming weeks, but was advised by a well-meaning outsider that step 3 *could* possibly take months.  Trying not to be discouraged.  I'm frustrated with the county and ready to be done.

And our Charlie is ready to become a Wiggins.