Tick, Tick, Tick

. . . Still waiting. Our homestudy is done, and our dossier is finished. We mailed everything to our adoption coordinator nearly two weeks ago, so it is undergoing the authentication process-in which it is sent to Washington DC to be authenticated (not really sure what that process entails) before it goes to Ethiopia to be translated for use in the court to process our adoption.

We could be waiting weeks or months. It's anyone's best guess at this point in time. Either way, we hope to be ready by having the baby's room painted and complete with crib. When we get our referral, we will then review it and probably consult with a doctor. With limited information on the child's medical history, we'll make a decision accordingly and then prepare to travel. From what I recall, we will travel within 3-4 weeks of accepting a referral. So it will all happen very quickly!

Is This Really Ever Going to Happen?
Most of the time the reality of actually bringing our child home seems far off and surreal. So you can imagine that having a baby shower without the physicality of pregnancy or the certainty of a date ahead in which our child will come home might have felt a little strange. While in St.Louis for Thanksgiving, I attended a little baby shower hosted by my mother-in-law in which she collected money to purchase the mountain buggy stroller that we wanted. So that arrived last week. Now--you know that the stroller must be good when your husband is excited about it! We're hoping this will be a means to maintaining our summer ritual of walks around Centennial Lake, a daily/evening ritual during the warm months. Only next summer, we expect to be pushing the mountain buggy with our new addition sitting snuggly inside. :)

It's easy to forget, without the phsyical reminders a pregnancy brings with it, that our whole life will be uprooted with joy and probably exhaustion in the coming months. I told a friend recently that we just got a new mattress, so I'm sleeping quite soundly, unlike a lot of pregnant women I know who are losing sleep for months before delivery. I imagine the suddenness of the change ahead will carry its fare share of short nights but hopefully lots of naps!

While we wait, we are spending our time contemplating many things....from how this will impact our personal lives, time with friends, time for ourselves (the selfish stuff!) etc. to much more complex and thought-provoking issues--such as beginning a transracial family, communicating with our child about her life before us in Ethiopia and learning what it will mean to belong to each other in the sense of family, knowing that love will be enough only in as much as it is honest--and that means facing a number of challenges that will be unique to our transracial family.

So there's a little peak inside our world as we wait. We'll keep you posted and look forward to sharing good news--in the hopefully not-too-distant future.