Tuesday, April 29, 2008
...one more thing...
Came across LemLem today - hand woven and embroidered children's clothes and scarves, made in Ethiopia. Check it out.
twelve
Today marks twelve weeks on the waitlist. And in less than one week, we will officially be in the "referral window" - i.e. Gladney's estimated 3-5 month timeframe from waitlist to referral!!
And while I celebrate each milestone, I am also trying not to focus too much on them. Certainly we could still have a very long wait ahead - be it a slower referral time, waiting for a court date, not making it through court the first time, not making it through court before the annual closure, etc. As I have done through so many stages of the process, I must temper my excitement with small doses of reality (some might even say pessimism). It is sometimes a challenge balancing hope and excitement with a need to protect ourselves from disappointment.
Anyway...
The wait continues... and as I've expressed before, there's nothing particularly exciting (or interesting) about that. Relatively speaking, this is a "good" time in the wait - we have been waiting long enough to believe that a referral is in sight, but not so long that our expectations have proven to be too lofty. But still... it's just waiting.
So Gladney - if you are reading, we are ready for your call anytime. :)
And while I celebrate each milestone, I am also trying not to focus too much on them. Certainly we could still have a very long wait ahead - be it a slower referral time, waiting for a court date, not making it through court the first time, not making it through court before the annual closure, etc. As I have done through so many stages of the process, I must temper my excitement with small doses of reality (some might even say pessimism). It is sometimes a challenge balancing hope and excitement with a need to protect ourselves from disappointment.
Anyway...
The wait continues... and as I've expressed before, there's nothing particularly exciting (or interesting) about that. Relatively speaking, this is a "good" time in the wait - we have been waiting long enough to believe that a referral is in sight, but not so long that our expectations have proven to be too lofty. But still... it's just waiting.
So Gladney - if you are reading, we are ready for your call anytime. :)
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
blah. excited. obsessed. hopeful.
Blah...is how I've been feeling lately.
I arrived home from Germany with a bit of a cold. And a few days later it turned ugly. Really ugly. And I hate being sick. Makes me cranky and sad and difficult. Poor Ryan arrived home from Jordan this weekend (did I mention that he left for Jordan a couple of days after I got home? for two people who rarely travel for work, we've had quite a stretch lately...) to find me lying helpless on the couch, coughing and sneezing and generally looking and feeling miserable. Not exactly a warm welcome home.
Anyway, my blah-ness has caused me to be a bad blogger lately. But as I am finally starting to feel better, I thought I should check in. Not that there's much to tell. We continue to wait (yesterday marked 11 weeks waiting!) and, as many of you know, waiting is also pretty blah.
But there is some excitement - there have been a few referrals recently, including a baby boy for the Soucys, whose journey we have been following for some time now. It's hard to explain to those who are not going through this process how truly touched and affected we are by the other families who are also adopting. I genuinely get so excited each time I read that a family has received their referral or made it through the courts. It surely is the next best thing to experiencing these things ourselves.
And, of course, the more referrals that are given, the more we move up on the infamous FBI. I am absolutely *obsessed* with this document. I must check it a hundred times a day (probably more). And I analyze it and analyze it. Did you know that over the past few months there have been 4-5 referrals per month? and that the referrals generally come in the second half of the month? I know this. I also know that we are currently 4th on the list for a baby boy... 2nd if he's between 12-18mos.
And despite my affinity for stalking and analyzing the list, I know that the list is not a guarantee of anything... that referrals are not always given in order of placement on the waitlist and that with so many families waitlisted within a few days of us, that this probably increases the likelihood that referrals will not be in exact order. And that's okay, because I know our perfect match will be made at the perfect time. But I'm still choosing to be hopeful that good things are coming....
I arrived home from Germany with a bit of a cold. And a few days later it turned ugly. Really ugly. And I hate being sick. Makes me cranky and sad and difficult. Poor Ryan arrived home from Jordan this weekend (did I mention that he left for Jordan a couple of days after I got home? for two people who rarely travel for work, we've had quite a stretch lately...) to find me lying helpless on the couch, coughing and sneezing and generally looking and feeling miserable. Not exactly a warm welcome home.
Anyway, my blah-ness has caused me to be a bad blogger lately. But as I am finally starting to feel better, I thought I should check in. Not that there's much to tell. We continue to wait (yesterday marked 11 weeks waiting!) and, as many of you know, waiting is also pretty blah.
But there is some excitement - there have been a few referrals recently, including a baby boy for the Soucys, whose journey we have been following for some time now. It's hard to explain to those who are not going through this process how truly touched and affected we are by the other families who are also adopting. I genuinely get so excited each time I read that a family has received their referral or made it through the courts. It surely is the next best thing to experiencing these things ourselves.
And, of course, the more referrals that are given, the more we move up on the infamous FBI. I am absolutely *obsessed* with this document. I must check it a hundred times a day (probably more). And I analyze it and analyze it. Did you know that over the past few months there have been 4-5 referrals per month? and that the referrals generally come in the second half of the month? I know this. I also know that we are currently 4th on the list for a baby boy... 2nd if he's between 12-18mos.
And despite my affinity for stalking and analyzing the list, I know that the list is not a guarantee of anything... that referrals are not always given in order of placement on the waitlist and that with so many families waitlisted within a few days of us, that this probably increases the likelihood that referrals will not be in exact order. And that's okay, because I know our perfect match will be made at the perfect time. But I'm still choosing to be hopeful that good things are coming....
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Thursday, April 10, 2008
sprechen sie englisch?
So, um, how do I follow the previous post?
Especially since I'm kind of in the mood to write about nothing special.
You see I'm on my final night in Germany (yay! 10 nights away from Ryan and EJ stinks!) and at the moment trying to avoid the painful task of packing. Normally I find packing to go home much easier than packing for a trip since I don't usually care about trying to keep my clothes neat and everything organized anymore. But I'm still dreading it tonight. So I have been trying to distract myself for the last hour or so.
But I can't take anymore CNN!! I even decided tonight that I would treat myself to the one pay channel in English... only to find out it doesn't actually exist.
Now I did pay for it. And the channel guide next to my bed says channel 31 is the "English Movie Channel." In fact, when you use the remote to select pay TV and accept the fees, it specifically offered me the "English Movie Channel." But once my payment was accepted....
NOTHING.
I called the front desk to ask about this and they said they would send someone up to my room to assist. Unfortunately, the girl they sent looked to be about 12 and didn't quite understand the problem. She spent 20 minutes playing with the remote and then informed me that there is no English Channel. She admitted it was strange that the hotel's channel guide describes an "English Channel" and even stranger that the menu on the TV also offers this option. But she agreed that there did not actually seem to be such a channel.
So I asked if she could please just cancel the request and remove the charge, as I wasn't interested in the extra German-speaking channel I received when I paid for the "English Channel." She said this was not possible.
I won't describe the next 15 minutes that ensued. But the net result is that my 12 year old friend could not help me and told me I could enjoy the German movie. Oh and that maybe the English Channel would come on later.
Huh???
So here I am.
Watching CNN and not packing.
Anyhow, there is not much to report on the adoption front (at least not for us - but congratulate these new parents). We hit both the 2 month and 9 week milestones while I've been here, and even though I think this is actually a good time in the wait (if there is such a thing), I must admit that I've been feeling a little obsessed with blog stalking lately. I think I am finally starting to really believe that our adoption will happen... that we are now closer to the end than the beginning of the process... but I still so want (and need) to see the next round of referrals, to feel like things are continuing to move along. It is at once such an incredibly painful and challenging and draining experience and also the most exciting and hopeful and crazy (in a good way) one.
Especially since I'm kind of in the mood to write about nothing special.
You see I'm on my final night in Germany (yay! 10 nights away from Ryan and EJ stinks!) and at the moment trying to avoid the painful task of packing. Normally I find packing to go home much easier than packing for a trip since I don't usually care about trying to keep my clothes neat and everything organized anymore. But I'm still dreading it tonight. So I have been trying to distract myself for the last hour or so.
But I can't take anymore CNN!! I even decided tonight that I would treat myself to the one pay channel in English... only to find out it doesn't actually exist.
Now I did pay for it. And the channel guide next to my bed says channel 31 is the "English Movie Channel." In fact, when you use the remote to select pay TV and accept the fees, it specifically offered me the "English Movie Channel." But once my payment was accepted....
NOTHING.
I called the front desk to ask about this and they said they would send someone up to my room to assist. Unfortunately, the girl they sent looked to be about 12 and didn't quite understand the problem. She spent 20 minutes playing with the remote and then informed me that there is no English Channel. She admitted it was strange that the hotel's channel guide describes an "English Channel" and even stranger that the menu on the TV also offers this option. But she agreed that there did not actually seem to be such a channel.
So I asked if she could please just cancel the request and remove the charge, as I wasn't interested in the extra German-speaking channel I received when I paid for the "English Channel." She said this was not possible.
I won't describe the next 15 minutes that ensued. But the net result is that my 12 year old friend could not help me and told me I could enjoy the German movie. Oh and that maybe the English Channel would come on later.
Huh???
So here I am.
Watching CNN and not packing.
Anyhow, there is not much to report on the adoption front (at least not for us - but congratulate these new parents). We hit both the 2 month and 9 week milestones while I've been here, and even though I think this is actually a good time in the wait (if there is such a thing), I must admit that I've been feeling a little obsessed with blog stalking lately. I think I am finally starting to really believe that our adoption will happen... that we are now closer to the end than the beginning of the process... but I still so want (and need) to see the next round of referrals, to feel like things are continuing to move along. It is at once such an incredibly painful and challenging and draining experience and also the most exciting and hopeful and crazy (in a good way) one.
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