Exhaustion

Many of you have noticed that I have barely been on here recently. Basically, I've been too exhausted to blog, exhausted physically, mentally, and definitely emotionally.

I started a temp. full time job two weeks ago, and I haven't worked this much in years! In addition to this Monday-Friday job, I'm still working at school on Saturdays. I'm not a morning person, and Steven and I like to sleep in in the morning (I know that'll probably be changing awfully soon), so getting up so early every day is killing me. The day I realized that Thanksgiving Day would be the next time I got to sleep in was not a happy one.

My new job is alternately interesting and tedious. Interesting combination, isn't it? Well, I am scoring the MEAP exams. MEAP stands for Michigan Educational Assessment Program, and it's the standardized test that the school kids here take. I'm grading 4th grade essays, and some of them are so funny you can't help but laugh out loud. However, more of them are sad. It's amazing what some of kids have been through in their short little lives.

Our goal is to read 200 per day. That's a lot of essays, but surprisingly, I've been right around the 200 mark this week. Some days higher, other days lower (typically depending on the cooperation level of the computer). By the time I pick Steven up after work, I'm exhausted. I've hardly even been able to check my e-mail at night, let alone post anything. As it is, I'm going to bed pretty much as soon as I finish this.

Mark and I (well, mostly me) have been busy with adoption paperwork. On Monday, I got fingerprinted. On Tuesday, we went to the ultrasound with Steven's birthmother and social worker. I drove up to Mark's office to pick him up and take him, but after I turned off my car, it wouldn't start again :( We ended up taking Mark's car to the appointment, jump starting my car when we got back to his office, and replacing the battery on the way home. I'm relieved to say that it's working just fine again.

On Wednesday, I took Josie to the vet for the first time. Her previous family took her and got her up to date on all her shots before we picked her up, so she wasn't due until later this month. She did well at the vet's, and I managed to stay awake for the visit. Her biggest news is that she has lost almost 5 pounds since we got her! The vet said she could lose a little bit more, but we're just keeping her at the same amount of food as before.

Today we went to my parents' house to celebrate Mark's birthday, and we had a nice time. His birthday was on Sunday, but my parents were out of town (my sister and their dog were here at our house for 5 days), and Mark was sick in bed the entire day. What a miserable way to spend a birthday! Tonight helped make up for it, though.

I've been calling and e-mailing our adoption agency regularly this week because we still need one document from them for Steven's adoption. Mark's employer reimburses us $5,000 per adoption, and needless to say, we desperately need the money. It's been very frustrating since all we need is their signature on a form I e-mailed them, and it's been over two weeks. I found out today, though, that the first person (out of four now!) passed away unexpectedly last week. That explains some of the delay, but each person I've talked to has said that they would take care of it right away.

Please pray that this gets done quickly. We're still paying off Steven's adoption, and now we need money for this adoption. On paper, the situation looks impossible. I'm so glad that we have a God who has promised to provide for us. God has made it very clear that he wants us to adopt Steven's sister, so I know He will provide the money. We're just praying it happens soon.

I could go on and on filling you in on adoption updates, but I think this is already long enough. The two next steps are our physicals on Tuesday and an ob appointment on Friday (I think it's Friday). That will be a significant time because it will be just Steven's birthmother and me. I'm picking her up at her house and taking her to the doctor's. It will be the first time we've spent any one-on-one time together. We've only met with her twice ever, but it feels like we've know her for years!

Please pray that I'll be able to develop a closer relationship with her and in some way, be able to share our faith with her. I did this in a letter earlier this year, but my heart is just so burdened for her. Wouldn't it be wonderful for Steven to have both his families with him in heaven for eternity?! Your family is the only thing you can take with you, and we want to bring as many with us as we can :)

Thanks for praying. I'll try to do a better job of keeping you updated in the coming weeks. At least I managed to tell you all that we're having a GIRL, right??