...and counting (give or take).
It's true. Today is our first day on the Gladney waitlist!!
So now we kick back our heels... and wait... and wait... and wait....
We expect it will be about nine months before we will receive a referral - about twice as long as the wait was when we adopted Simon - so it's sort of a strange-good feeling. Happy to have survived the paperwork portion. Relieved to be free of daily visits to fedex and notaries. But also kind of bewildering. I find it a bit hard to really contemplate the fact that, after the moments of intensity (and sometimes insanity) of pulling our application and dossier together, that there is basically nothing left to do for this adoption for probably close to a year.
(Well, nothing besides trying to keep up with a (almost) two and a half year old and a crazy dog, be a good wife, work full time, and somehow find time for the gym and maybe some sleep).
But anyway...
For the moment, we are simply enjoying this milestone and allowing the excitement and thoughts about expanding our family to take over. There will be time enough to try to let the wait go from our minds... and then, some months later, come back and take over as we live by the phone, endure the anxiety, stalk the FBI, and start freaking out about what we have ahead of us... Plenty of time.
About 275 days.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Saturday, June 19, 2010
you should read this
Another adoptive parent pointed me to an amazing post that really moved me... so now I would like to share that link with you. I am always searching for words to describe the things I think and feel about adoption, and this writer has captured so many of those thoughts and feelings in a way I haven't been able to. Trust me when I say you should read this.
Monday, June 14, 2010
all systems go!
We have our bank letter! Bank #2 (which will hereafter be my bank #1) came through with a perfect letter!
Waitlist here we come!!!
Waitlist here we come!!!
Saturday, June 12, 2010
one step forward, two steps back
Well, that's not quite right. We continue to move forward with adoption round 2... so maybe we're more like two steps forward, one step back, as it seems that every time we think we've wrapped something up, we find out that there's been a bit of snag and we need to do something else to fix it.
Fortunately, these little snags have generally been minor - the latest being the need for me to sign (and have notarized) a name declaration statement. Seems on one of our reference letters, a friend referred to me as Meredith [Ryan's last name], which I don't mind, but, unfortunately, as I never actually changed my last name when we got married, creates a bit of a discrepancy that needs to be addressed when our paperwork goes to court in Ethiopia.
And then, of course, there is still the matter of our bank letter.
I have been (half) joking about it here for a while. We had such a miserable time getting one of our banks to write a suitable letter when we were adopting Simon, that I had been putting off trying to get one for this round. But I didn't really imagine that it would become the last piece of paper we were waiting on. It is.
As of Friday morning, I had put requests in at two different banks. I came home on Friday afternoon to find the letter one bank sent. And all I can say is WOW (and not in a good way). I don't think I could have been more clear in my verbal and written requests to them. I even included copies of the template Gladney provided AND the letter we got for Simon's adoption as examples of what we needed (we no longer use the bank that provided that letter, although I am seriously thinking of opening an account there again just to get another letter). And what did I get back?? A copy (i.e. not the letter with the original signature) of a letter that doesn't say what was asked and WAS NEVER NOTARIZED!
Ugh!
So now I anxiously wait to see what bank #2 will do. I will also make a repeat visit to a local branch (or two) to put in request #3 (and maybe #4).
Can it really be that all that stands between us and the waitlist is a bank letter? Is it weird that with both adoptions CIS moved super quick, FBI prints cleared within 6 weeks, even our health insurance verification proved fairly easy to obtain... but about 7-8 requests were made from three different banks (among 6 different offices) and so far only one suitable letter has ever been obtained???
Well, at least I know how I will be spending my time this week.
As for the non-adoption stuff... seems like Summer has barely started (okay, I realize officially it hasn't started), but already I feel like it is going so quickly. (Why does that always seem to happen?)
We had a busy but fun trip to Germany a couple of weeks ago, tomorrow Ryan is off to Jordan, and then I go back to Germany a few weeks after he returns. We'll take a family trip to Oregon in August... potentially a weekend in Maine after that... and then, if we're still standing, we'll try to enjoy a little time at home!
Simon will be pretty busy as well. He's been in gym and music classes for most of the last two years and this summer he will add swimming lessons and a cooking class. I am so excited for him - especially the cooking class, since he was too young for most of the classes I had seen previously, and he seriously has been obsessed with cooking since we brought him home. And I really mean obsessed. He knows more about cooking and our kitchen than I do (Ryan will vouch for that). He makes [guaca]mole using [avo]cados and pap[r]ika and [ta]basco... He knows where all our pots and pans go. Can find any spice... grab anything you need from the fridge... even sets the table. Kid is becoming quite the food snob too. He used to eat frozen waffles, but now he will only eat waffles if they're made from scratch!
So all in all, things are good. Crazy (always). Fun. Silly. Busy. And happy.
Just the way we like it.
Fortunately, these little snags have generally been minor - the latest being the need for me to sign (and have notarized) a name declaration statement. Seems on one of our reference letters, a friend referred to me as Meredith [Ryan's last name], which I don't mind, but, unfortunately, as I never actually changed my last name when we got married, creates a bit of a discrepancy that needs to be addressed when our paperwork goes to court in Ethiopia.
And then, of course, there is still the matter of our bank letter.
I have been (half) joking about it here for a while. We had such a miserable time getting one of our banks to write a suitable letter when we were adopting Simon, that I had been putting off trying to get one for this round. But I didn't really imagine that it would become the last piece of paper we were waiting on. It is.
As of Friday morning, I had put requests in at two different banks. I came home on Friday afternoon to find the letter one bank sent. And all I can say is WOW (and not in a good way). I don't think I could have been more clear in my verbal and written requests to them. I even included copies of the template Gladney provided AND the letter we got for Simon's adoption as examples of what we needed (we no longer use the bank that provided that letter, although I am seriously thinking of opening an account there again just to get another letter). And what did I get back?? A copy (i.e. not the letter with the original signature) of a letter that doesn't say what was asked and WAS NEVER NOTARIZED!
Ugh!
So now I anxiously wait to see what bank #2 will do. I will also make a repeat visit to a local branch (or two) to put in request #3 (and maybe #4).
Can it really be that all that stands between us and the waitlist is a bank letter? Is it weird that with both adoptions CIS moved super quick, FBI prints cleared within 6 weeks, even our health insurance verification proved fairly easy to obtain... but about 7-8 requests were made from three different banks (among 6 different offices) and so far only one suitable letter has ever been obtained???
Well, at least I know how I will be spending my time this week.
As for the non-adoption stuff... seems like Summer has barely started (okay, I realize officially it hasn't started), but already I feel like it is going so quickly. (Why does that always seem to happen?)
We had a busy but fun trip to Germany a couple of weeks ago, tomorrow Ryan is off to Jordan, and then I go back to Germany a few weeks after he returns. We'll take a family trip to Oregon in August... potentially a weekend in Maine after that... and then, if we're still standing, we'll try to enjoy a little time at home!
Simon will be pretty busy as well. He's been in gym and music classes for most of the last two years and this summer he will add swimming lessons and a cooking class. I am so excited for him - especially the cooking class, since he was too young for most of the classes I had seen previously, and he seriously has been obsessed with cooking since we brought him home. And I really mean obsessed. He knows more about cooking and our kitchen than I do (Ryan will vouch for that). He makes [guaca]mole using [avo]cados and pap[r]ika and [ta]basco... He knows where all our pots and pans go. Can find any spice... grab anything you need from the fridge... even sets the table. Kid is becoming quite the food snob too. He used to eat frozen waffles, but now he will only eat waffles if they're made from scratch!
So all in all, things are good. Crazy (always). Fun. Silly. Busy. And happy.
Just the way we like it.
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