June 17, 2008

• And now we just wait

  “Just think, next week at this time!” Sam had said last week. 
  I completed his sentence, “We might not be looking at an empty crib anymore.”

  We got CPR and First Aid certified on Saturday.  Things have changed since the last time I got certified.  It’s now 30 compressions to 2 rescue breaths.  I learned that, in 4 minutes, a person goes from clinical death to biological death.  If you can resuscitate a person in those first 4 minutes, then you have 98% chance of their recovery without brain damage.  But after that, the chances drop to less than 50%; at 8 minutes, it’s 10% and at 10 minutes, it’s 1% chance of recovery without brain damage.  On average, ambulance response time is 6 minutes.  So if we waited for the “professionals” to come and rescue our loved one or friend, it’s possible that they’ve already experienced significant brain damage.  Scary, isn’t it?  All the more reason to get CPR certified!

  Our instructor also gave us this scenario:  if we were walking down the street and a homeless man fell over unconscious, what would we do?  If his wife walked up to us and said, “Please, do you know CPR?  Can you help him?  He’s the only friend I have in the world!”  Would you give him CPR or grab your cell phone and call 911 because he stank so much and was so dirty?   That was such a challenging question, because it’s easy to think of doing CPR on a loved one, but on a complete stranger — who is grimy and could have any kind of disease???  That’s the question.

  Yesterday, we had our ‘home interview’.  Our agency social worker did a walk-through to inspect our house.  Are our chemicals locked away?  Are our meds?  Do we have a fire extinguisher?  Do we have a first aid kit with a thermometer?  Is our water too hot? 

  Then we had the interview:  first, a one-on-one interview with me, then both Sam and me together, and then just Sam.  The questions were very probing.  She basically wanted to know our life histories, relationships with significant members of our family, any traumatic things that have happened in our past.  She also wanted to know what our marriage was like, roles we have, values we have, etc.  All-in-all, it was a pretty intense interview.

  Afterwards, she told us that we are just waiting for one more background check clearance to come back to them, and then we’ll be set.  Which means…maybe in a week??  But then…Sam got the mail later in the evening and a copy of the background clearance was in the mail!  With the paper in our hands, it suddenly dawned on us that everything was done.  We have completed the long foster parenting licensing process!  Now we just wait to be told that we are officially licensed…and then we wait some more for the phone call which will mean that we will go down to the P. Center to pick up the baby!  Crazy, huh?

  I feel excited.  And scared.  And excited.  And scared. This is probably one of the most out-of-the-comfort-zone things God has led me to.  I
  mean, missions was out-of-the-comfort-zone, but I envision that this will require more
  laying-of-my-life-down than that ever did.  (I think especially since I have only experienced short-term missions so far and not long term nor in the jungles.)  The “scared” feelings hint at the fact that I’m probably going to be
  pretty stretched from this experience — to learn a lot about myself, God and Sam…and whoever else
  wants to get involved…

  • 2:11 pm
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