End of August

When you've been, in a way, commissioned to find a child through the means we have, including weekly (or more, as the spirit leads) perusals through the entire list in my last post, you find your strength and emotional level both flow somewhat like a roller coaster. One day I wake up with amazing motivation, the desire to Get Stuff Done plows me right into the heart of the photolistings for hours on end. After a while it slows to where I'll idly load up the national listings or regional exchange sites while chatting with my husband or watching a show. And then I wake up the next morning suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that after all that work we still have nothing to show for it, and I just can not do this right now. But that's okay. I don't have to. The pressure is self-applied, so it's entirely up to me if I take a vacation.

So right now, aside from a request on two kids early last week, I'm on (the hopefully tail end of) a so far two week vacation. Vacations should probably be brief, as the kind of children we're searching for are only listed momentarily and we don't want to miss any opportunities. I've just touched base with Bert in hopes of good news; while there really wasn't any with her, I did hear that the siblings I wrote of at the beginning of the month had to postpone their meeting with the family member until the beginning of September, so they're still not making any decisions for them yet. More waiting. But the news came from my direct contact with the children's agency person, who seemed quite excited that I found it worthwhile to follow up and encouraged me to do so as often as I'd like. Building personal connections appears to be quite a lot of what it's about.

I'm getting nervous about the amount of time I've spent away from the photolistings, but also recognize that it'll do more damage in the long run if I burn out. I'm marking the upcoming long weekend as a goal date to take at least one more spin through each of those listings, preferably two; tonight and probably next Thursday as Wednesday seems to be a pretty common "update the website" day for the exchanges. My school classes begin again after Labor Day, so hopefully I can maintain some kind of homework/photolisting/everything else schedule through the next semester. I value any and all prayers for motivation and energy!