This weekend has been really wonderful despite a major shake up in plans. Originally, I’d planned on taking Honeybee and Superbug down to my family home in North Carolina for the weekend. Superbug hadn’t seen his paternal grandmother in a while and none of my family has seen Honeybee since early Spring. This would have been the perfect time for them to see her since the adoption was finalized. But then this happened….
Photo credit: Foxcarolina.com
In addition to the nastily forecast storm, our area was already quite inundated with high levels of rain. States were declaring states of emergency. Some businesses were shutting down. Outdoor events were being cancelled. I watched the weather patterns all week and, after listening to the flood warnings in NC, decided it was better to be safe than sorry. So, I cancelled the trip.
Fortunately, the NC family understood as they were also reluctant for us to travel with the threat of bad weather. We’ll try it again next weekend.
When I woke Saturday morning, the weather was a steady drizzle and teeth chattering cold. After some conversation with FatherWinter, we decided it was safe enough for the family to make the decision to venture out to pick up Honeybee’s new birth certificate. Insert all sorts of butterflies here.
We arrived to the office of vital stats in order to get the new birth certificate. We had the final order of adoption with the certified seal making the adoption official. We had our IDs to secure the birth certificate. The only problem was the office had not yet been informed of her adoption. (Say what, now?) Yep, the stories that can only occur with out Honeybee occurred again. It seems that despite the judge signing the order two weeks ago and the circuit clerk certifying it a week later, a formal notification had not yet been sent to the office responsible for the issuing of new certificates. And, by law, the courts don’t have to send it for another 2-4 weeks!! Our Honeybee needs to be added to our insurance by a certain number of days or she is without medical coverage, not to mention her records need to be updated everywhere. But here was the first step in that process notifying us that they’d not yet been informed of the adoption. Sigh. I was frustrated. The lady assisting us suggested that we give her our only official copy of the final order of adoption and they would put it in her file and seal it. The only thing is we need the official copy to amend her Social Security. Sigh…
Stuff like this seems to support the stats placing our state ranks in the lower end of adoption friendly/expedient states. After an in house discussion, FatherWinter and I ended up giving them our only official copy of the adoption order to be sealed away with the knowledge that we will have to order another official certified copy on Monday for our records. Sigh…oh, and we can’t complete the SS application without it. Sigh ..Okay. At least we know have a birth certificate with all of Honeybee’s info sitting side by side with ours. There was something so great about seeing FatherWinter’s name and mine above our Honeybee’s. It just made it more real.
After making a singular stop to allow Honeybee a new accessory, we stopped off for some lunch and family time.
Celebrating her birth certificate and ear piercings with water and cheese sticks
Watching family videos.
We sat down for a while enjoying each other’s company and then returned to the house where everyone collapsed in exhaustion. Several hours later, everyone awoke and decided to reheat leftovers while I called the family in NC to see how everyone was faring in the weather. There was definitely some dangerous flood waters going on in the local area, but thankfully the family was okay.
Today was a continuation of the same. We rose early for church, had a hearty breakfast, and then heard a wonderful sermon at service. Once church was over, we were able to spend a bit of time with some of the in laws before returning home and enjoying each other’s company.
FatherWinter and I stayed in the bedroom discussing what we’d been learning in our Bible Institute classes. Can I tell you there is something so wonderful about being able to have conversation about biblical meanings and scriptures with someone who doesn’t look at you as weird. Several hours later, the kids are nestled in their beds. FatherWinter is resting in our bed and I am enjoying a few moments of alone time before I join him.
I am hoping your weekend was just as calm and enjoyable as ours. Please keep the city of Charleston and the state of SC in your prayers as they deal with massive flooding. I saw pictures today that made me so sad. I was just in Charleston. I can only imagine what they are experiencing.
