December Referrals are Here!

Hi Everyone!

Congratulations to all the families who will be receiving their referrals in the next few days! Hooray for Mike and Jen who were LID 12/12/05 and will be seeing their daughter Mei's face for the first time...what a great Christmas present!

What does this mean for us? More waiting. This batch was for 6 days' worth of LID's. Currently we have 2 months and 5 days, basically 9 weeks, of LID's ahead of us. Will the CCAA continue at this snail's pace? In all probability, yes. If they do, we can expect to receive our referral in September, 2008.

This is not good for a couple of reasons: 1. Our 171-H expires in December, 2008. This paperwork has to be in place and current for Kaelie's visa to the US to be approved. 2. Additionally, our FBI fingerprints expire in September, 2008. These also have to be current for the visa. 3. We will definitely have to update our homestudy again, it expires in March, 2008. 4. My passport expires in January, 2009. This will most likely have to be renewed as well. More paperwork, more money, and still no Kaelie.

OK, I'm sorry to gripe, but the waiting is so hard! I have a co-worker at work who is due any day now. I'm thrilled for her, but sad for me. It's hard to talk about how much you love a child that you've never met, maybe a child who hasn't even been born yet. Sometimes people outside of the adoption community just don't get it or don't know how to discuss adoption.

A good example of this was when we learned of the attacks on 9/11. David and I were to make our travel arrangements to Russia on this day for our September 24 court date to adopt Jeremy. A day after the attacks, a co-worker told me that there was absolutely no way that she would get on a plane and go overseas. She just didn't understand that MY BABY was over there and that nothing was going to stop me from bringing him home.

Jumping off my soapbox now....