For big Chris, the racing season is in full swing. Chris's passion is NASCAR Modified Racing, and he has been involved in racing since the age of 16. I don't believe he's ever missed a Sat night at the races until our LOI arrived right in the middle of his racing season. When we began this journey, I thought we would have been home already and our adoption completed long before the racing season started. I was wrong. Very wrong. Not only were we right in the middle of the season, but as luck would have it Chris was having a very successful season having visited victory lane 3 times by the end of June. When we finally got the call to make travel plans Chris was leading the point standings and had we not missed 3 Sat night shows because of the time spent in Kazakhstan bonding, there was a very good possibility Chris could have won the coveted NASCAR Modified Point Championship. Can I say as his wife boarding that plane unsure if a child would even be there for us to adopt was difficult to say the least. Here was a man walking away from every racers dream to win a championship never skipping a beat, to adopt a little girl half way around the world. As far as I was concerned he was, is and always will be a Champion.
Due to the uncertainty of our International Adoption many of our friends and acquaintances were unaware of our decision to adopt until it came time for us to travel. When our Letter Of Invitation finally arrived we knew it was now time to share our news with our friends, other competitors, officials and racetrack owners. So the Sat. night before we departed for Kazakhstan we made the announcement at the racetrack. We were touched by the our pouring of support and well wishes from competitors and fans alike. After the races that night our pits were full of fans,competitors, officials and pit crews wishing us well. Racing is a family sport, and we were expanding the Young family by making a prolonged pit stop in Kazakhsan to adopt our daughter. Our local racetrack learned about Kazakhstan and International Adoption that night, and looked forward to meeting the little girl we were travelling halfway around the world to adopt. Chris even made 6th spot in Newsday's top ten sports feats list that week. (See below)
For me, a few months back I had resigned my full time position as Nurse Manager of Peri Operative Service's in preparation for our adoption. I gave my notice well in advance because I wanted the hospital to have plenty of time to interview and hire my replacement. This is the hospital I grew my career at having been employed there since 1980, so when I resigned my full time position and was immediately offered a per diem Nursing Administrative Supervisor position I felt so honored and of course accepted.
We were so thankful to be blessed with the financial ablity for me to be a stay at home Mom for our newly adopted daughter like I did when our son Christopher was born.
They say timing is everything and by God, I am a believer now in hind sight.
Orson called and instructed us to make travel plans to leave June 20th. My hands were shaking after I hung up from him. I couldnt believe the culmination of our dream was upon us. Our time had come. Our prayers finally answered. Everyone was so excited.
I called Eldo at Golden Rule Travel and made flight reservations. I then contacted the Assistant Stork to apply for our Visa's. Everyting now seemed to be moving at a record pace. Packing now was our priority until the morning of June 23th. Just 3 days after Orson's initial call, we were left deflated and disappointed yet again. Orson called and said we had to change our travel plans to July. The lame excuse this time "the head offical at the baby house is going on vacation and no adoptions will be done in her absence". And of course Orson had such a good relationship with this baby house that he wouldnt have know her vacation schedule before telling us to book flights. RRiight... And I am the queen of England.
Orson instructed us to change our flights to July 11. What the heck it only cost 150.00$ to change outbound departure and we hadnt even left the driveway. The one positive thing was we hadn't told anyone as of yet. We decided after Orson's initial call to wait on our announcement until we had tickets and VISA's in hand... Good decision.
SO the three of us disappointed yet again embrace as a family. We give thanks for the blessings we have and pray for patients and understanding. We are thankful that July 11 is just around the corner. Orson leads but God is in control. We remind ourselves of that again and again as we have had to do so often during this journey. Little do we know that the night before we finally depart the USA for Kazakhstan another disappointment awaits...
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