Yes, 2.5 months since our last post and we are still here plugging away and chugging along. I am so glad that we have had distractions to keep us going. My new job came at a perfect time as it takes my mind off of all the crazy - and I must say, I am just very glad that I made the change (from the classroom to a district coordinator).
We have also made not one, but TWO trips to California since the first of September! One trip was cashing in a very generous opportunity from the Husband's family for the two of us to fly to San Fransisco for a romantic get-away. Hmmmm. Lovely.
We also did a very spontaneous trip to Disneyland a few weeks ago! This is one of those things that we just kept putting off because of the adoption, but as we have asserted this philosophy many times this year, we decided to stop putting our lives on hold and to just throw a wad of cash to the wind and go for it! The element of surprise (the Kid did not know until we were actually at the airport!) made the experience extra memorable. The Kid had a blast, though think he might be a little scarred from Space Mountain.
Oh yes, and as for that elusive adoption. Well, we have moved a whopping 3 places up on "the list" in 18 months, so I guess we can all do a big whoop-dee-do for that. As of now, we are #3 for a child 2 years of age, #2 for a child 3 year of age, and #1 for a child 4 year of age.
Being #1 for a child 4 years of age has brought many interesting prospects our way including siblings, twins, and a sweet 5 year old girl. The girl was very difficult for us because she was just over our age request, so we were given a lot of detail on her. The main reason we decided she would not be a fit for our family is because she had several characteristics of an older child. Most children in ET don't have a birth certificate, so ages are an estimate. She came with very little information, so by putting the little pieces of info together, or best guesstimate was that she was really 6-7 years old. Numerous studies and a strong recommendation from our caseworker suggests that disrupting birth order can be very challenging for the siblings to establish their roles in the family. Luckily, there was a family after us that felt that she was right for them, so they snagged her up!
In many ways, these experiences have been somewhat reassuring. I know that after all of this time, we are going to go forward with our adoption only if it feels right from the heart and the mind. I can't tell you how many times I have ran the scenario in my mind of laying my eyes upon her picture, then knowing my emotions would knee jerk me with a swift and solid "Yes! She's the one!", but I was relieved to know that I looked at the situation(s) very logically. There is just a lot to consider when adopting older, and glad to know our head and heart are in synch.
So.... where does this leave us now? If we were even a few families behind on the list, I feel fairly positive that we would be done. Have I mentioned that this wait has turned into literal torture at this point? Well, it is and I am almost done with this beast of an adoption.....
But we can't give up now because apparently there are two of the most sweetest little girls there that are 3-4 years old. We have known about these girls for two months, and as always, they are caught up in that #*@% paperwork. One of my adoption friends, Zoe (www.slowmama.com), just went to pick up her darling 4 year old twin girls and she wrote to me on her return that she got to spend time with them. She said she would have taken either of those girls home in a heartbeat and that they are adorable in every way. Coming from her (one whom I would think is an excellent judge on intuitive things such as "red flags") meant the world to me. Apparently, these girls are now considered adoptable (WACAP puts family preservation as #1 priority - so will not call these children true orphans that are ready for adoption until all efforts have been made to keep them with their birth families), so really, it is just that blasted paperwork we are waiting on. Our caseworker said that many of these villages that the kids are from are an 8 hour drive from the orphanage, so with needing to make several trips out to the village to complete the paperwork explains the extreme lag in time. I guess.
So, unless this orphanage that currently works exclusively with WACAP signs on with another orphanage in the time being (that would just be our crappy luck), one of those girls are ours, so we are holding out for her. And I will continue to jump out of my pants every time my phone rings.
