Last Monday, August 20, I went back to work. For those of you that don't know, I work 32 hours a week as an engineer: Monday and Friday mornings from home, the rest of the week in the office. I've been on this schedule since I went back to work after DD2 was born 10 years ago. It's worked for me and my family, and my bosses have been great about allowing me the flexibility to do so.
Unfortunately, at my company, there is no paid leave for an adoptive parent. That doesn't seem fair to me, but I can't really complain about the flexibility of my company. They have been very good to me. I am able to take 12 weeks of unpaid family leave (FMLA). Of course one of the problems with that is that, it's upaid. We really need my income in our household.
So, to go to China, I used my vacation. The first week back I took a week of FMLA. On Monday, I had to go get back to work. DH was also working, so I tried to work my morning from home with Grace there. Well, as you can imagine, that was,..um, shall we say "challenging!" I got in 4 hours of work, but it was not all during the morning. That was just not possible. I finished my work at about 10 o'clock that night!
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, DH was home with Grace, so I headed into the office. It was good to be back, and I enjoyed being around my coworkers, but at the same time I missed being home. Every working mom out there probably understands this feeling. It just one of those mom things, I guess.
The week at work was really getting acclimated again and figuring out what had transpired while I was gone. Not too stressful.
This week, though, the pressure is on to produce. I've got a full plate. In addition, I found out that the adoption and orphan care ministry that I've been working to get started at our church for the past 2 years was approved as a bonfied ministry. Exciting? Yes. Bad timing? Yes.
How do I work 32 hours a week, take care of a baby, head up a ministry at church? Right now, I don't know. I'll let you know when I figure it out!
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