13 Months Waiting

13 Months ago we applied to adopt. It was baseball & spring soccer season. So what has changed? Besides being a year older. Don't remind me! Not much - it's still baseball & soccer season. Instead of this looooong wait, we are hoping for a referral any day. We're hoping to travel in Sept. Actually, I've officially given up on the referral this week so I'm hoping the March 11th board meeting brings us Little M. I guess those calls would be next week sometime. Who knows really... But I can't complain - The wait is going about as fast as they initially told us and faster than they expected last summer when we completed our Dossier.

Waiting, Waiting, Waiting on the World to Change - can't get that song out of my mind! The song has nothing to do with adoption but that's the only line I sing so it applies.

A lot of people compare this wait to being pregnant. Overeating, gaining weight, nesting, some people even take up knitting (LOL Jen - I still can't picture it but your finished products are adorable). Well at least with a pregnancy, you know how long it could possibly take. Sure the baby could come early MATT and when you least expect it and aren't quite ready, logistically speaking, so your parents have to go dig through your messy house to find the essentials because "THE bag" wasn't packed and in the trunk yet. But doctors won't let moms go 4 months late for instance much less tell you that your baby will arrive in 6-12 months. The adoption wait is different in that respect. But obviously, we're here on this wild journey of giving someone else control of our lives and it will be SO worth it when the phone FINALLY rings and they say whatever it is they say. I've definitely thought about THE phone call and what they will say. I think it will be kind of like my water breaking with Matt - I won't be able to believe it's actually happening, I'll do some math and then start laughing in excitement that we're going to have a baby again! And I guess my pants won't be wet this time around!!! LOL

What a Circus!

This weekend was quite the circus!

First off - we have no news on the adoption. Basically, we know Holt should be getting referrals this month so we wait and try to keep busy so I do not obsess about wondering if March is our month... I thought maybe they got referrals last week because several children have updated photos and such but so far no news. Maybe this week. Who knows!

Saturday was a beautiful day here - 70s and sunny. I walked Mario, played basketball with Chris (yeah we're weird), walked through the houses for sale in our neighborhood, just chilled mostly. We ate at our favorite Chinese restaurant across town.

Chris and I went to Cirque Dreams which was an incredible show. These people have such strength and flexibility that left a lot of people saying how do they do that. I highly recommend it if it comes to your city. We had the strangest thing happen. As we're sitting there, a couple comes up to us and says Chris is in their seat. We have season tickets so we knew we were in the right spot. It turned out they sold his seat twice. Anyway - long story short - the floor manager said she had better seats for us since we held the season tickets if we wanted them. Why wouldn't we want better seats. So we hop up, go to the box office to find out they weren't better. Since the show was starting, they asked us to take the tickets and call the manager to get a refund on the show. Boy were we pissed. So we "stewed" through the first act. At intermission we were discussing how ticked we were. Low and behold this little girl (4 year old Clark) started chatting it up with us. I saw her walk from the bartender area to our row, sat by herself in an empty seat and watched the first act. Didn't take a genius to figure out the bartender was her mom and she didn't have a sitter. Clark was a trip, a bundle of energy, talked our ears off, made us forget how mad we were, etc. She had the greatest smile and laugh and the coolest braids I've ever seen. So she watched the 2nd act with us. She stood up at one point and started walking around - right as I was about to tell her she had to sit down, she plopped herself in my lap... OM every intelligent bone in me said get this stranger's kid out of her lap but she was so cute, I couldn't be mean. Obviously, she just wanted to see better or wanted someone to lean on. Anyway - I couldn't move her. At one point she yelled zebras when the giraffes came out. Chris and I laughed so hard. We had a great laugh after too - like what was that night about???

It's funny - I stress so much about attachment and all that and here's a kid who just walked up to us in this huge auditorium and we connected immediately. I hope we're that lucky with M.

Sunday we discovered a great new pizza place. J Train in Southern Indiana is great! NY Style Pizza - we sat outside with Mario and the boys. It felt like we were on vacation. The only difference was we got to come home and sleep in our own beds!!!

Goodbye February!!! Helloooo March!!!

It's not unusual for me to be excited to see February pass. I despise winter!!! In fact, Chris and I always talk about moving to Florida during Jan-Feb when we retire. Of course, with this economy eating up my retirement funds, I'll never get to retire! The older I get, the more the winter just bothers me and puts me in a funk! My hairdresser actually said it's a disorder - SAD - seriously, I googled it Seasonal Affective Disorder. His doctor actually recommended he go to the tanning bed once or twice a month in the winter. I've never heard a doc recommend tanning! How funny is that! He said it works! I haven't tried it yet but I do know that I'm very happy when it's sunny. Right now it's so gloomy it's just depressing.

This year I am way more excited to flip the calendar. Why? Haven't you been paying attention?

March is REFERRAL MONTH!!!

The next 2 weeks will be the longest of my life because we are #6 on the list. The "adoption board" in Thailand met Wednesday 2/25 and I'm praying they sent enough baby files to Holt that we get a referral. It's a very good thing my big deadline at work is Monday because I will probably just stare at my phone all day everyday. I think the way the referral process works is Holt in Thailand sends the referrals to Holt in Oregon. Oregon Holt will review the referrals and match them to the parents starting with #1 on the list. They make phone calls to the families, send emails with some information and picture(s) and then I think they overnight a package to the parents with detailed medical information for our pediatrician to review. I really hope the package does not go snail mail. Parents then accept or reject the referral. Since we are #6, we either need 6 babies with one matching us or we need someone to turn down a referral that we could be matched with. So it could be a couple weeks before all referrals are matched and we get matched or the update which says it will be June. That said, we could also get a call tomorrow. Don't think I won't excuse myself from my board meeting to take that call!!! Seemed like I just talked in circles. Holt families - Chime in and let me know if I'm wrong.