Waiting sucks



People have been asking for updates, but the problem is that this process is really slow. It's all paperwork and waiting. Boooooooooooooooooooooooring.

One of my friends called this stage "paper pregnancy." It seems fitting. (I hated waiting during my pregnancy pregnancy too.)

Lately all we've been doing is paperwork. Now don't read "doing paperwork," and get visions of me actually writing stuff on paper. It's more like chasing down government employees and making them perform miraculous changes to documents they haven't changed in 50 years. Then wanting them to notarize them in house and getting laughed at. Then requesting more documents from several places. (There are more phone calls and waiting in lines than actual paper.) Then once we know all our toy soldiers are heading towards their final destinations, we wait. And wait. And wait. And pull out our hair. And call for updates. And wait. That kind of paperwork. When I thought about doing paperwork when we started this process I saw myself being the go-getter who got it all done super fast. That's when I was under the mistaken impression that any of this waits on me. It ALL waits on other people.

Our home study needed changes so that's one more wait in the grand scheme of waiting. It just happens to be what we're waiting on right now. We didn't realize it would cost us more time and money to have those changes made, none of which we planned for. But I should get the updated, notarized home study in my hot little hand by Thursday. The only other document I need is from our doctor. Hopefully it will be done by Thursday as well. Then we can submit our United States Citizenship And Immigration Services application before the end of this week! Woohoo!

If you want to hurt your brain you can click on this link to see the whole process. After we mail out the USCIS application we'll be on step 12. And if you think we've all about waited long enough for this adoption, we've only begun to wait! Note that step 12 requires waiting two to three weeks before they allow you to do it. Then step 13 says, "After what seems like forever...," step 14 is "really quite ridiculous," step 15 is just mailing it all off and waiting for it to be translated and step 16 is just simply, "Wait." Step 16 can take months. It better not.

Step 17 is traveling. When our wait is over we'll receive word from Roland's birth country that we are welcome to travel. We'll be in our son's birth country for several weeks, maybe a month, just waiting and visiting him when allowed. We will meet before a judge (with an interpreter) and plead our case. Then, pass court or not, we have to go home WITHOUT our son. There's a mandatory wait period (I know! More waiting! Our favorite! *sarcasm*) before one of us boards another plane to go back and get him. Right now the plan is for me (Mommy) to do that second trip alone. *gulp* If all goes well he will come home this summer.

So there you have it. Lots of waiting. But seeing our way through each adoption hurdle is also rewarding--like when I get a document in my hand that's been through two revisions and is finally done and notarized. Ahhh. Nothing quite like it. It makes me want to blast the Rocky theme while running up a mountain while holding that document over my head while screaming in triumph while on fire.

Now you'll probably get the artwork above. :)