Hurdle #1: The Homestudy

Do you know who this is? It's Lolo Jones. Lolo was the favorite for the hurdles at her distance in the Beijing Olympics. She had won everything before that event...for years. At the final hurdle, she faltered, clipped the hurdle, and lost all hopes of any medal.

If you missed that, look here for a recap:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XySvRYIh9Tg

Yet...her statements after the race speak to her dogged determination to not let that split second in history define her. She is already a legend. She is a hero to many young girls, and she is human. She cried about it and then picked herself up. She said this month about what happened, "I can't be sour about what has happened,'' she said. "I can only look at the positive sides of it.''

Looking to the positive...of the very large job of the homestudy application:

1. I love to fill in forms, so this is a dream come true for anyone who likes paperwork;

2. The questions that are not demographic and objective in nature really make you think about yourself and put your hopes, dreams, fears, strengths, weaknesses, and everything else about yourself, into concise paragraphs. The process I believe, will grow me in ways I had not thought about before;

3. The 150 pages of questions and responses, documentation, and the like, will be awesome to have on hand for years to come. I can see myself in ten years looking back at what I wrote, and seeing the changes in myself and my family;

4. The almost $3000.00 to complete the homestudy is my first financial hurdle to bringing "hope" home. (BTW: Hope now has a REAL name and is a REAL little boy!) Once I clear it, it will be a true testament to how far I have come in the battle to defeat debt and give most of what I earn to the goodness that God directs me to do;

5. Journaling this process might help others as they answer the calling to adopt.

I remember watching the summer games in China. I remember seeing Lolo Jones fall and then weep alone on her knees on the track. My heart actually hurt for her. She is bi-racial, like "hope" and I, and think I felt a connection with her just because of that. I look at her now, with her dogged determination and inner fire, she is ready for the London games and ya know, anything can happen. More than that however, her just stepping onto the track will be a giant message to all who watch that adversity is what you make of it. Power through, rock on, and be the change.


That is my attitude going into the homestudy - just be me, fill those forms in with a vengeance, and keep on running - towards bringing hope home.

Meet HOPE...

HOPE has a real name and a real face. But I cannot show it here until I complete some important paperwork.

Please pray that we get to bring hope home.

Insert picture here - When I have permission to do so. Hopefully by the end of next week.

UPDATE: July 8th, 8:00 am - Oh joy of blessed joys! I have been accepted by "Hopes" placement agency and the adoption committee in a yet to be publicly named country! Let the process (paperwork:) begin!

Do You?

My mother always tells people that one of her greatest "regrets" about being a single parent and raising me alone, just the two of us most of the time, was that when I was a small child and learning to reason, to talk, to put together actual conversations, no one else was around to hear the funny things that I would say.

Being around my own three year old as a single parent some 36 years later, I understand what she means. I am so blessed however that we do have a number of folks who are around to get to relish in the blessing that is a young child gaining intellectual and verbal independence! I am also apparently blessed in that my son will be sharing the awesome sense of humor that my family has.

.....background.....Ari has been ITT'in it (intensive toilet training) at his intensive day treatment center for Autism for about 5 weeks now. He actually graduated from potty training (which they fail to explain is really pee training only) after the first week and has had very limited pee accidents since then. He was really an impressive trainer, or so I am told. I was dreading the whole thing, wet sheets and clothes, #2 accidents in the car or public places, etc...

so.....while Ari pretty much has the pee thing down, #2 is whole other thing, and we have not had success with #2 in the potty, it's been the pants or the pull-ups overnight. We have done some scientific poop tracking with timers, data sheets and other such experimental record keeping and our conclusion is that he is holding it until night time for some reason.

anyway....we've been hyping up "poopy on the potty party" for 2 weeks now trying to give him some incentive to give it a go on the potty. This weekend, while I was trying to manage a massive yard sale as I confronted my apparent shopping and hoarding problems head on, he sauntered through the garage holding onto his behind. I screamed for papa to grab him and sit him on the potty, hoping for the best.

After a few min. papa told me it was a no go. Papa is particularly adverse to cleaning up poopy pants and the inevitable "other" places it winds up during the cleaning up and sensitization process, so he firmly told me that Ari would spend lunch on the potty. He moved a DVD player in the bathroom, put on Scooby Doo, and hand fed Ari cheese puffs for 20 min.

I came in to hear Ari moaning that he wanted to get off the potty so I went in the bathroom to get him down. I peered into the bowl and PRAISE THE LORD THERE IT WAS!!!!!!!I quickly moved to confirm that the evidence was actually Ari's and not Papa forgetting to flush. It was Ari's alright! and need I say we danced and sang and made calls all over the country to celebrate! It was AWESOME! Ari was screaming and clapping and dancing too. Ahhhh, the smell of success (ewe, but in a good way?)

.....by bedtime......I was determined to make this a totally accident free day. I was diligent on asking him if had to use the potty. Funny thing is, when I say, "do you need to poop?" he says, "poopie." So, it's like a cat a mouse game, I can't really get a yes out of him, lots of no's and echolalia that make figuring out if he really has to go like a logic game on the LSAT.

.....anyway.....right before bedtime papa and I were asking him if he had to poopie. I asked, then papa asked, then I asked again, we were crazy with it and must have asked the poor child about 30 times in the space of 10 min. Finally we thought to just try sitting him on the potty again for a little while. As time wore on, and in my infinite wisdom of course, I asked him one more time....."Ari, do you have to go poopie?"

....and HE responded to me from the bathroom (I was in his room not far away), "NO.....DO YOU?"

needless to say, our belly's are still sore from laughing hysterically for what seemed liked hours over that gem that you can only get from a child.