17 Months

17 Months ago we applied to adopt a little girl from Thailand 0-3 years old. That's all we knew for 16 months. How did we get through that? Stayed busy and had a lot of fun with the people around us!!! And at times, stared at the phone, the email, and in general dwelled on it. Hey - nothing but the truth here.

For 16 months we had no idea who this little girl was. Last month we received Mia's information and - Now instead of counting up 16, 17, 18 months, we are finally counting down 6, 5, 4, months until we meet our little girl. I just realized I'm still saying 6 months but actually, the December board meetings are 5 months away and we hope to be there! For those of you wondering - We should get our travel dates 3-8 weeks before we travel to Thailand.

Is the wait harder after referral? A lot of people say yes but for me it has been easier so far. Not knowing was harder - not knowing when we'd get a referral, not knowing her age was not fun. I couldn't plan anything. I couldn't shop for anything.

Now - I know who she is and how old she is and can look for furniture, clothes, baby gadgets, work on middle name (have a few ideas there), think about her when I see 6 month olds, 1 year olds and know that's what she's doing now, that's what she'll be like in Dec. etc. For me - that makes it easier. I've also made a huge conscious decision to not think about missing a year of her life. I was never supposed to parent Mia in her first year. Just repeat it over and over!

It's been a long time since we had a one year old - I recently saw a little girl who had just turned 1 and one year olds are smaller than I remember! LOL

I wonder what else I've forgotten...