The Black Cloud... And The Sun Peaking Through...

I have been too stressed and too tired to post for several days now. This past week has been one of the most stressful weeks I have had. It felt like a black cloud was following me!! It was bad enough that the first week of January my car was broken into and the thieves got into my bank account, but the second week of January just kept getting worse! Thursday morning started off fine-- I took the girls to school and then headed to an early morning house call. It had been raining all night, so the roads were pretty wet. Traffic was also pretty bad, but I was not running late, for once. Then when I was almost to the client's house, the black cloud came back... I was behind a garbage truck. Of course, the truck made a sudden stop, so I put on the brakes. Instead of stopping, my van skidded right into the back of the truck!!! I couldn't believe it! I just got my van out of the shop a month ago (damage to the rear because someone hit me), now I had hit someone!! And the damage was pretty bad-- my van was undrivable--the radiator was pushed back into the engine. I felt like I was going to have a nervous breakdown at that moment! All I could think was how 2008 has started out as one of the worst years of my life-- and I was only 10 days into it!!!

So, of course, I called my client to tell her that I would not be able to make it to her house that day, and I waited for the police. He wrote me a ticket and asked if I needed a tow. I said no, I had called AAA to come. My insurance Co. told me to tow the van to my house, and they would pick it up later. That worked out best best because I had to unload all my equipment. To top it off, my forerunner will not start because the alternator is bad ( at least I think that is the problem), so I had to get a rental car-- a very small rental car.

While I was waiting for the rental company to come pick me up to get my rental car, I realized that I was missing my fingerprint appointment!! The CIS is impossible to call, because they only have an automated system, so I could not explain to anyone why I was not there. I had to send back the request to reschedule form by mail-- I hope that I get rescheduled quickly. Below are some pictures of my poor van!

Then, on the same day, I actually got some GREAT NEWS!!! I called my adoption agency to see if they had any suggestions about rescheduling the appointment-- they didn't. My adoption coordinator asked how my day was going? I said terrible and the proceeded to recount all of the events of the last two weeks. She just sort of chuckled and said that she had some news that may indicate that my luck has changed. She said that I had finally received an invitation to travel to Russia!! I will be leaving the US on Jan. 29th and returning on Feb 8th. Theresa will come back from Miami to watch the girls and the animals. Now I will spend the next two weeks trying to get things together to travel on my first trip to meet "D". I really still don't think that this news has fully sunk in yet! I am so excited and scared at the same time. But mostly I am happy that I am finally taking a step towards completing this adoption. Unfortunately, I will probably not get to bring "D" home until the end of April or beginning of May. But At least I get to meet him and he will finally know that he will soon have a family!!!!