We waited in a very small waiting area at Baylor for close to 3 hours....that was before we got in the room. There was more waiting involved once we were moved to a room. We were the 1st appointment after lunch (we found out the others in the room had been waiting since BEFORE lunch). Once getting all the paperwork out and filling out mountains more, I was then politely chewed out for missing my last 2 appointments. Before I could utter a word, I was told that if I missed another one I would be OUT. After the speech ended I informed her that this baby had only been with me for 3 days and that I HAD NOT missed any appointments. She looked over the placement papers and then back at me and said nothing more than, "Oh". I walked to my seat a little miffed, but determined to be nice no matter what was said to me. Some days are easier than others.
Once we were called in, we waited again while my husband cheerfully paced the halls outside the office with all 4 of the other children. Once the doctor arrived he said little and just examined her and had an "assistant" take pictures of the inside of her month at the cleft palate. I asked a few questions and he grunted at the answers. He then said he would see me next month once she had gained weight and disappeared. She came to us little more than bones. I understood that, but expected more information than this. Since he disappeared I was left with nothing, but unanswered questions. Again, willing myself to be nice, an shoving aside mother's intuition to change doctors, I made the next appointment giving them all the benefit of the doubt.
Next appointment: I was ready! I got less than the first time and left calling CPS to get approval for getting another doctor knowing they might not relent. They did and we once again went to Dallas to meet with Dr. Alex Kane at Children's Hospital. As you may have read in a past post, this was a DIFFERENT WORLD! I was overjoyed by the way we were treated and the way Miss France was the center of all attention, with me close behind. Questions were answered and we were truly taken care of.
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We headed out planning on meeting our CPS caseworker on the road so she could see her this month since Children's was approving for her to fax papers instead of come in due to the weather. We get to Ronald Mc Donald house and it is AMAZING!! Becky joins us and we have a nice dinner followed by a trip to the mall (this is a BIG deal for small town folks) and get to meet a great friend, Dedra to walk and talk while getting ice cream and shakes before heading back the "the house". The news informs us that sleet will arrive between 4 and 5. We are less than half a mile from the hospital and that is the time I will go so we are okay.
At 4 am Miss France wakes up (this NEVER happens) so I go and ahead and get up 15 minutes early. 20 minutes later I realize that neither alarm has gone off. Isn't God good? The sleet is coming down HARD so I hurry to leave as early as possible. We drive through slick slush and secure a great parking spot by the sky walk. The next few hours are full of evaluation of the ENTIRE surgical team as to whether to proceed with surgery due to her being sick....decision was NO. I was comfortable with this, but frustrated since there was NO NEW information on the table that I didn't give them yesterday before we made the drive. Now we were iced in with no reservation at Ronald McDonald House and ABSOLUTELY NO CHANCE of getting a hotel due to the Super Bowl. I head back to the house where they gladly opened their arms to us for as long as we couldn't travel.
Now, you would think we would be content with our beautiful surroundings, but we were restless, grateful, but restless. We were surrounded by the likes of a 5 star hotel minus the maid service, rooms to roam in, libraries to read from, WIFI and 3 meals a day. Gamerooms and toys and plenty to do....with the exception that many of the rooms were locked up due to their low staff being able to unlock or "man" them. We had a hard time getting to a "family room" to watch a movie because they were often taken....all 5 of them. We continued to watch the weather, we even did our laundry, played games and read....we did get to watch movies eventually. After one more night I was brave enough to head out and we made it home around dinner time on Feb.2nd. The roads were not fun, but it was mainly the double trailer Fed Ex trucks that put me on edge. We slid and they slip and I tightened my grip while Miss France coughed and choked and coughed some more. By the time we reached the other side of the Big D I was worn out and could barely notice the beautiful clouds and sunshine that evaded us in Dallas. We will head there again in a few weeks to try again!
Okay, I admit it....I always briefly re-read what I wrote before posting it. I usually intend to go back and correct spelling of grammar errors although I am NO expert, but this one is getting posted without any double checking. Please forgive any errors.
I have been meaning to post pictures, but Locke has taken over the BIG MAC as we call it, to study and he doesn't leave it often. All of our pictures are on there so they are being held hostage until he breaks from studying. These 2 classes are short classes and therefore, very intense. Fortunately one is more intense than the other and very interesting to him. It is Multicultural Counseling! Well, that is a big one in our house as well since we are a multicultural family. He LOVES it....he always loves school. As a side note he did learn what we felt was true anyway that bi-racial children in a one race family tend to have more identity issues that a black child in a white home. Most of them have nothing to do with the color of her family, but of her diversity.....is she white? Is she black? This is something we will handle with God's guidance as we go. We asked God to place the children in our home that he intended to be adopted by us and we will go the extra mile with them in any way we must. We are grateful that she will have a sister that shares half her race and yet is different from us. They will both NOT look like us or our towheaded children, but will share similarities with each other. God is good in all he does and we are overjoyed with our precious additions.
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