Stahlke Adoption

Ships Passing in the Night

Two phases of our adoption intersected today--the end of one and the beginning of another.

This afternoon, I closed the last of our "extra" savings accounts. In 2003, two years before the first adoption, we opened two savings accounts to handle funds in addition to our regular savings. One account ("S3") handled the proceeds from refinancing our house, which we used for two things--adoption expenses and home renovations in preparation for the children. The other new account ("S4") was the receptacle for monetary gifts until we dispersed them for adoption expenses.

Before Kola's adoption, we refinanced again to take advantage of lower mortgage rates and consolidate credit card debt from the first adoption. S3 handled those funds, while S4 still collected some monetary gifts. Since most of these gifts went to Trinity for their adoption fund, we used S4 only for a few gifts; eventually we closed it. But I hadn't gotten around to closing S3 until today. Finally, the $10 service charges every quarter for a low balance spurred me to clean up our accounts.

I did this banking only moments after taking David and Kola back to school, following their doctor appointments with our pediatrician. The readoption requires letters from all of our doctors stating that we are in good health. I don't know what happens to adoptive families in poor health--since that doesn't apply to us, I didn't ask. While at the pediatrician, I asked for a referral to a testing center to diagnose the cause(s) of Kola's tantrums. We would really like some assistance with this problem. It's getting very difficult. The pediatrician agreed with me that further testing is warranted and gave me the referral.

After years of adoption preparation, how can it be that readoption work and the start of behavioral testing took place within the same hour as the closing of an adoption bank account?

posted by Stahlkes @ 5:44 PM