Ah, the toilet

Yet again, our day of joy to hear that phone call has been thwarted by the entity that is government. Chelle and I talked about being angry, specifically is the anger we have a righteous anger or selfish anger. Perhaps, a combination of both. Since our hopes for the day were flushed down the toilet, I remembered an e-mail about cleaning the toilet. Seemed appropriate, actually funny. Hope it brightens your day.

Note: I am by no means a cat hater, cats and I just have a mutual tolerance for each other's existence.

How To Clean Your Toilet - The Fun Way

Instructions on how to clean your toilet


1. Put both lids of the toilet up and add 1/8 cup of pet shampoo to the water in the bowl.

2. Pick up the cat and soothe him while you carry him towards the bathroom.

3. In one smooth movement, put the cat in the toilet and close both lids. You may need to stand on the lid.




4. The cat will self agitate and make ample suds. Never mind the noises that come from the toilet, the cat is actually enjoying this.

5. Flush the toilet three or four times. This provides a "power-wash" and rinse".

6. Have someone open the front door of your home. Be sure that there are no people between the bathroom and the front door.

7. Stand behind the toilet as far as you can, and quickly lift both lids.

8. The cat will rocket out of the toilet, streak through the bathroom, and run outside where he will dry himself off.

9. Both the commode and the cat will be sparkling clean.

Sincerely,

The Dog

Waiting on a Sunday

No news came this past week even though all rumors seemed to point that way. There's the problem with faith in rumors, they easily can let you down. Anything based on presumptions, lies, etc. does that. Thankful to the Lord for His promises that are always true. Faith in Him is actually easy. His word always happens. We will post the picture to this blog, and all other information, when we get it this week. We are fairly sure we will hear something this week.

In other news, the Razorbacks are 7-1, about to break the top ten. Tough two weeks ahead of us, South Carolina and Tennessee. If we do well for the rest of the season, we could be in China when the Hogs are in a bowl. I wonder if Chinese TV picks up ESPN. Don't let my wife know.

Adoption Process

We started in December 2004. Michelle was adopted when she was 1 day old. Adoption has always been something that was on her heart, Lord had to work on mine. After a Steven Curtis Chapman concert, we looked into America World Adoption Association. Good group of folks. The info packet came in January 2005.

I should say here, if anyone wants to adopt, you need to be 100% gung-ho from day one in my opinion. The process will drag you down and consume you if you don't keep the prize in sight, a little child to call your own. The process can be frustrating, long, expensive, irritating, joyous, exciting - you can see the roller coaster that is adoption.

So, we started our home study - the information about your family and life that all agencies use to find out about you. We were fortunate to have a couple in town who could do this home study, Ed and Sharon Appler of Grace Adoptions. (Should have looked in town for an agency, didn't think to do it). They ask everything about you, EVERYTHING.

Police Checks, financial reports, letters of references, and then the government paperwork. Ah, the government, my new favorite entity on earth. This little form called the I-600A created more problems for us than anything else. This $600.00 piece of paper (complete with FBI fingerprints) must be sent in with a copy of home study. They process and send you an immigration form, the all powerful I-171H. This one piece of paper is the yea or nay of adoption. You must have to adopt. Takes six weeks to get it. After six weeks, we called to find out where it was at. Calling is also an adventure. They informed us that they did not have our home study to process the paperwork. They never told us they didn't have it (we had hand delivered and FedExed a copy to them). They lost both. We get the form, pay our fees, looking at getting our referral around Thanksgiving 2005. Then, the train came to a screeching crawl. Like a fully loaded coal train going up a mountain pass. Like a broken wagon on a muddy road.

You realize at this point that a government, all governments, are the same, just a different name. Bureaucracy in China, slowed down the process. Went from a 6-8 month referral wait to a 14 month referral wait. Now, we here that the referral wait has increased up to 24 months for those behind us. The referral wait is after you turn in all of your paperwork. This is why you had better be serious about the process. For those of you considering adoption, international in particular, and speed is your concern, then I don't recommend China right now. Total time could be upwards around 3 years.

While mad that the government slowed us Greers up, we see that the Lord has blessed us with a small group of families in Group 226 of America World Adoption. These six other families are already becoming our friends, our partners, our family. This is where the adoption is special. People we would probably never meet, but now we can spend a season in their path. Now, we wait anxiously with each other for that phone call saying, "We have a picture of your little girl." At this moment, we wonder if the call will come today.