March 14, 2008

Red Light Green Light

Today was kind of like this: Red light, stop and take care of a random out of the blue inconvenience. Green light, stop and enjoy a random out of the blue happy surprise. We're pretty sure the green lights outweigh the red lights, but just to be certain we're ending the day with a slamming dinner of garlic rib eye steaks with a touch of cayanne complimented with a fantastic new cotes du rhone we discovered on our way home (one of today's green lights).

Green light
  • My meeting to discuss a new client implementation was scheduled to begin at 1:30 so I didn't need to leave home until after 10:30 to begin the 160 mile drive which means I got to have a relaxing morning enjoying coffee with the hubby. Day off to a good start!
Red light
  • About 90 miles into the trip I start to hear the exact same noise I heard oh, say 3 weeks ago, when car #1 died on the side of interstate 87. After a quick (and out loud, even though I was solo in the car) shout of ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I let car #2 slowly decelerate and pull to the side of interstate 87 and die. Only this time I was prepared (having recent experience with this situation) and took note of the mile markers so that I could appropriately inform the state troopers of the location to send a tow truck. Yeah.
Green light
  • My client completely understood needing to reschedule our meeting (although the 5 Assistant Superintendents and one Superintendent weren't exactly thrilled...) and I think the relationship is OK. And, the tow truck came within 20 minutes and I was able to pull far enough off of the busy interstate traffic to not fear for my life as semi's whizzed past. Ok, this might not sound like much of a green light but given the circumstances I was very happy to be in a safe location with help on the way. The 2 hour ride in the tow truck home was OK as well, Walter is a good man.
Red light
  • When we arrived at our mechanic (where broken car #1 has been living for the past few weeks awaiting a complete engine overhaul) we received confirmation that car #2 is officially dead. Off to the rental car shop...
Green light
  • The weekly update we received from CHI today had some very good news! They confirmed partnership with another orphanage in Ethiopia with contracts in the works to begin working with others. CHI does an amazing amount of humanitarian and developmental work with the orphanages they partner with so this is excellent news for that reason as well as the fact that this will likely result in more referrals. They also announced that birth family visits are back on the OK list! They're going to be extremely well regulated and monitored, but we're happy to follow whatever regulations are put in place for the chance to meet our child's birth family.
We think that the last green light might just be enough to overshadow those other red lights that happened today. I'm happy to play red light green light as long as the green lights are adoption related!

2 comments:

Courtney Rose said...

Your description of dinner was awesome... I hope it made all the red light pain disappear.

As I read about your car troubles, my face continued to change shape. Some of the shapes were "oh," some were "oi," some were "argh" and some were "funny" (mostly when I got to the part about Walt).

I have to ask what your job is. I've read your blogs about teaching, but meeting with clients and superintendents sounds a lot fancier than classroom work. So- do you mind sharing what your job is?

As for the CHI news- wasn't that thrilling! My heart leaped quite a bit as I read the update. GREAT news indeed. Certainly worth a celebration.

Amanda said...

I'm sorry about your car. That really stinks. But, the begining of the day sounds fabu.

As for the last "green light". Indeed-this is enough to walk on clouds for a few days, at least.
I was very worried about the no birth parent meetings. To receive info that that's back on, on top of the fact that they are in partnership with another orphanage-it felt like Christmas morning.

:)