It is rainy and it is Monday, so I had to write a bad day post.

You know it is going to be a bad day when:

(A Few of My Real Life Personal Bad Day Scenarios)

• I can’t find the lid to the blender, so I try using my hands.
• My husband or best friend has something really stressful coming up and is taking it out on me.
• I open the dishwasher and the “clean” dishes are covered with dried black spots from an unknown source.
• My husband or child has deleted my emails and/or phone messages before I had a chance to check them out.
• I forget to be my child’s tooth fairy AGAIN.
• Well-intentioned people are telling me what to do all day.
• Everyone is painfully aware that the laundry hasn’t been done in a while.
• My favorite jeans are feeling tight.
• I see the photos that my friend took of me at an event and I think to myself, “No way that’s me.”
• I am serving leftovers for the third night in a row.
• I am super tired and about to fall asleep when I suddenly remember some horrible chore that absolutely has to be done tonight
• My child uses our broken toilet
• I am sentenced to a life wherein I can no longer compile lists

Very Possible Adoption Bad Day Scenarios (now this is real- no jokes!)

• You just get home from traveling several hours to get documents apostilled and your agency calls and says, “Hi, we need just one more document apostilled.” You finally get that document completed and your agency says, “Oh, just one more thing.”
• You look at your adoption fund and you see the balance is close to zero, with thousands of dollars still due.
• You lose your first referral
• Long lost grandma or relative decides to drop by and visit (delay), your child right before your court date
• Your luggage that was supposed to meet you in Russia is headed for Japan
• A flight delay causes you to miss your court date which is then rescheduled a couple of months away
• Your driver doesn’t show up at the airport
• Even though you made hotel reservations, they say they are all booked up and you can’t find a hotel room available anywhere except at Cockroach Motel.
• You get mugged, you use a compromised ATM or your credit card gets illegally skimmed
• Your electrical adapter doesn’t work
• You accidentally drink the water you are not used to and get really sick
• You have been in- country so long you are starting to get addicted to foreign language soap operas
• You must travel several hours in grueling heat or freezing temperatures in your “car” to get to your orphanage
• Your excitement over your newly adopted child is dimmed when you notice he or she is sick, so not only do you feel horrible that your child is feeling miserable and crying uncontrollably, you also get clean-up duty on both ends (throw-up and diarrhea)
• You try to treat an infection or sickness in your child, are unsuccessful and catch it yourself
• Your child throws screaming temper tantrums in the airplane on the way home and acts like you are aliens from another planet
• You lose your passport
• You are still in-country and notice your visa expired yesterday
• You call your adoption agency in an emergency and they say, “Who is this?”
• But the worst yet is- you lose your mind waiting and waiting and waiting for any news or hope of going to get your child!

I am so sorry for any of you that have experienced any of these adoption bad days. I feel that as long as I am prepared for these type of worst-case scenarios I can only be pleasantly surprised…. And if I’m not pleasantly surprised, than this is where all of those lectures my parents gave me about having a good attitude will pay off.

And whatever we have to go through to bring our new daughter home will be worth it!

Labels: Russian Adoption, waiting for referral