As of July, I assumed the presidency of our PTO. Its a very strong group and definitely has high expectations of anyone serving in the office. While that doesn't bother me- I mean, I was my sorority's president twice in college, was a rank leader in the Michigan Marching Band, and am a professional nurse, so I get multi-tasking- I have been absolutely swamped/overwhelmed with the work the last 2 months. Being the head honcho, main (wo)man, and most easily found target for people to complain about anything from the school to whether we should do Halloween treats bags (ludicrous), can really get under even the most-hardened skin after a while. Add onto that starting our new BooHoo/WooHoo Breakfast for Kindergarten parents, trying to coax/persuade/bribe (not really) parents into the role of room parents, and apply for mini-grants and charitable donations from companies all over the country to support our children and school whose budget continues to be sliced up year after year and...well, you see the stress. And the worst part? Its only September! I have to serve until June and am not fully convinced my VP will be able to handle the job. Oy!
So anyway on the adoption front- as most, if not all of you know by now, St Mary's got slapped with one of the most ridiculous suspensions in September. This is based on what appears completely bogus reasons and because the head of the COA (Council on Accreditation) is...well... apparently a tool. As a result of one family's selfish claims, everything got put on hold. Cue the pouty voice: "We didn't get anyone good, and that other couple did- no fair! And why didn't SMIA help us to decipher medical information more (even thought that isn't their job and we should have checked ourselves independently) and even though we had turned down 5 referrals and Poland was the one that removed the kids from consideration, its ALL THEIR FAULT" WAHHHHH! This complete lack of rational thinking on this couple's part and vindictive behavior caused tremors that were felt by adoptive families working with St. Mary's all over. Just as important, it threatened Lina's livelihood and sterling reputation. Over 10 years with no complaints and one triggers a landslide? Ridiculous. Smells like the head of the COA trying to make his job seem important and therefore, save it? Maybe rabbit, maybe.....
Soooo, when all was said and done and after a lawsuit was filed in federal court by SMIA, the COA agreed to let them resume adoptions, fully accredited. And most important of all, Poland NEVER had a problem with Lina or St Mary's. Just some piddly, little pseudo-government agency here. *Shocking*. Gee, can you tell I'm still fairly annoyed about all this? Anyway, it seems from others posting that the wheels are in motion again over there. Once they complete their trips, we are hopeful we too will be receiving a quality referral and can start planning our trip as well. We hoped to be there with many of those families we've gotten to know well via the blogs and (old) Facebook- don't even get me started on the changes- but that was on our timeline and not God's. His is perfect and ours is, well, probably a total wreck (lol) so we'll go with God's.
Case continues to do great in school and stated club soccer again this season. I guess its been a little bit of a weird relief to not have to worry about taking him out to travel yet and letting him get as much of 4th grade under his belt as possible. Ideally, we would love to travel 1st trip by Christmas. We actually made plans for Disney again this year because it was so far in the future we thought no biggie. Now, we'll have to make sure we can arrange our second trip to accommodate that and Case's state assessment testing. Hopefully it won't be an issue and Poland will work with us should the time get close. We're hoping its done by then and not even a concern, but we'll see how fast they get up and running after this setback to SMIA.
Well, that's it for now campers. I'm sure there is some other PTO-related fire I have to put out or that is smoldering and I just haven't smelt it yet. I'll keep posting though as things come up! Take care everyone!
-Laura
Wow, you have had a stressful month. I hope that things will slow down some for you on the school front and pick up on the adoption front. You are so right though that no matter how much we plan and decide what we want our timing isn't perfect but God's is. God will bring you to your child in His perfect timing. God is with you in every step of this process and always will be.
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