Mail call

Wow! I can't believe that it has been over a month since my last post. Hopefully, I will not have such a long break again. All I can say is that my family's life has been very hectic over the last month and a half for several different reasons, but we seem to be settling into more of a routine now.

Part of our daily routine, as is the case with most families, is to go the mailbox and retrieve the day's mail. I asked our daughter to go to the mailbox on Saturday to get the mail before we headed out to dinner, and as usual, she was less than enthused about the task. Julia just sees a trip to the mailbox (a much shorter trip that I had growing up) as another chore. However, I must admit that I have always thought of the trip to mailbox as much more of an adventure, and I have always been eager to see the treasure in the box that awaited me.

In my senior year of high school, the treasure in the mailbox was my acceptance letter to college and then later a sweet letter written by young woman from Virginia who would be my roommate in the freshman dorm and my first friend on campus. During the college years, the treasure would come in the form of letters from my mom and dad to my campus P.O. box. I still have almost all of those letters and since the passing of my father in my senior year of college, his letters have become some of my most prized possessions.

Today, I love receiving catalogs from my favorite store in my mailbox. It sort of reminds me of the days when my sister, Sheila, and I sat down with the Sears Wishbook and made out our Christmas list for Santa except that now I am planning the perfect date night ensemble from Eddie Bauer or Coldwater Creek. I also love getting unexpected cards and notes from friends. These have become so rare with the advent of email and Facebook.

As of late, however, the cards from well wishers regarding our adoption have been the treasure in the mailbox. One particular card recently that was sent by one of my husband's aunts and uncles had an adorable picture of a little boy and a little girl swinging in an old tree swing and a donation to help bring our son home. I have put the card on my refrigerator at home because it reminds me of Julia and her little brother. The card will also go into our little boy's lifebook someday so that he will know of these wonderful people and what they did to help bring him home.

On Saturday, Julia unknowingly retrieved another treasure from the mailbox...our USCIS approval! Our appointment with Homeland Security was last Wednesday for fingerprinting and scanning so imagine our excitement when we received our approval only three days later! Now, as we wind down the retrieval of documents for our dossier, we are waiting on another treasure to show up in our mailbox...our FBI clearance. Hopefully, the wait will not be much longer...it has been seven weeks and counting, but it just gives me another reason to go to the mailbox!