It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

So I pulled the box out of the basement with our old dossier for China, the one that never went to China.

The day that we were to submit it, dh knew there were to be big layoffs at his job. So he went to work with a) boxes to pack up his office; and b) a dossier and a big check for our agency in case he didn't get laid off. Sadly, he needed the boxes. And we, jobless and without the resources to fork over that much money without a new job lined up, had to let our Chinese waiting child go to a family who was ready for her. One of the worst days of our lives.

She was snapped up immediately and went, we hear, to a home where they adore her and publish a blog about her. Haven't been able to go to that blog. Still hurts a bit too much, even though dh and I have spent the last eight months healing.

So, as you can imagine, it was bittersweet pulling out the old dossier.

But pulled it apart I did, putting on my game face and salvaging what we can use for Taiwan. It was sort of restorative, afterwards, to poke through the stationary aisle of the local WalMart, picking out a new binder and dividers and all that organizational stuff that is so helpful to impose some degree of order on the chaos that is international adoption paperwork.

Nothing like a lot of busywork to keep your mind focused on the job at hand.