Roller coaster, indeed

People always say that the journey of adoption is like an emotional roller coaster. Oh boy, were they right!! I'm not sure if I made things easier or harder by going about it backwards. Most people do their home study, complete their Dossier, file I-800A and then wait for a healthy infant to be matched to them or watch photolistings until they find their child in that large haystack. Well, not me! I had to go and find our child first! This has already created a paperwork nightmare! I had to scrounge to get our paperwork very quickly because we couldn't do anything without it. Then we worked on getting our home study (which I will get to in a minute) and training completed. Before we could even have our first home study visit, we had to have a VERY thorough medical examination with more blood work than I could fathom. Well, that's now expired. We needed it when we got it, so we couldn't have waited to get it. Yet, we'll have to do it all over again in the next few months as soon as we cross our next major hurdle. It never was like me to do things the "easy" way! (Not that the standard adoption procedure is easy!)

Here's where we're at now. We had our last 2 home study visits (of 4) on January 28th & 29th. They went well! Our main agency wanted us to have it by the end of January but we could barely get our visits done in time. I explained to S how we really need to get our home study completed and in our hands ASAP! She assured me that she would have it written up by Feb. 1st, but that it would have to go through 3 more steps within their agency to ensure it met all of the guidelines and was up to a certain standard of quality. I'm all for quality, but I did not anticipate the amount of time each of the 3 steps would take. As it is, we're still waiting on the 2nd of the 3 steps and I wanted to have it in my hands by now!

When we finally do receive it, I will have to scan it and email it to our main agency for them to look it over. I pray everything is ok so we don't have any more delays! As soon as they review it and give the ok, I can mail 1 copy along with our I-800A application and the fingerprints we will be getting this Friday morning. The I-800A is the step that we always saw being our biggest challenge. Right now the turnaround time for approval is 10 weeks and there's no way to expedite that one. Even if I could have our home study to mail this Friday, we wouldn't get our answer until the first or second week of May, assuming no delays! We only have until June 15th to get that approval, send all of our remaining paperwork to our agency, have everything translated, AND get that Dossier mailed to Crescent Moon! We really don't have the time for any delays.

Right now, I'm fighting a lot of frustration in other people. I'm struggling to remain patient and calm when it feels like there's only 1 obstacle preventing us from moving forward. I have our little girl's picture up on our computer at all times to help me focus on what's really important - that she can have a family and be loved. But, sometimes I think that makes the waiting that much more unbearable. The longer I have to wait for something, the longer she has to be without a family. :-( God's got a plan and He's in control, I know. I just wish I knew why His timeline seems so slow.