Nothing New

Another week with no adoption news! It is becoming the story of my life!!! The good news is that this is the first week I have not felt down about it - that is progress.

One good bit of information - I received and e-mail from a person who found our name on the FCVN website. This person is using my agency and is waiting just like we are. I got some encouraging updates through the e-mail and it is helping me to look at things in a different light. It is so nice to know someone who is using the same agency and who is in the same stage we are. Who knows ~ maybe we will travel to get our children together! This e-mail is an answer to a prayer that I have praying for a long time. I have felt so alone in this and have not been able to get any type of answers from the Lord during my quiet times. The night before I got the e-mail I was asking my friend to pray for me because I felt like God wasn't listening anymore (as crazy as that sounds). The next morning I received the e-mail. God's timing is perfect!

We have no big plans for the weekend! The baby's room is pretty much put together - we are still waiting for the double dresser. I told my husband that I would like to go to the beach and spend some time together. Even though we live at the beach, it still feels like we are on vacation when we spend the day there !

To those of us still waiting referral or travel - maybe August will be "the month" for us. Personally, I am praying the referral will come before my 33rd birthday - August 14th.

Have a great weekend!!!!

Update

I finally heard from our agency today regarding the e-mail I sent them on Tuesday. I asked them if they had talked to the VN facilitator about our referral (or lack there of). They told me that they speak the with facilitator on a regular basis and she is certain that our referral will be here SOON. There is that word again - soon. I have heard that since the beginning of July. I wish they would say what they mean by using the word soon. I am a teacher - so I think about how I use that word to passify my students when they get impatient. It makes me wonder if that is what they are doing to me! I guess the good news is I know for sure they are talking with the facilitator in VN about our adoption. It does make me feel better when I hear from the agency. I have started e-mailing them once a week for an update. I am sure they are trying to get my referral as fast as they can so that I will leave them alone!!

So - I continue to wait and wonder how long "soon" can take! I pray that we hear something. We are at the end of another week - so I am not expecting the phone to ring "soon".

Great Visit!

Well, I just dropped my parents off at the airport (boo hoo). We had a great visit! We spent most of our days lounging at the beach. The weather was beautiful!!! It was the type of days that you could spend all day at the beach and not get hot!!

While my parents were here we put up the crib and the bookshelf. The baby's room is starting to look great!! Our double dresser is supposed to be here today. My baby shower was this past Saturday and it went great! I got lots of nice gifts. I will post pictures soon! My mom and I had so much fun coming home and putting away all the gifts! I still need so much more though!! I guess it is a good thing I am having another shower with my friends from Atlanta.

Unfortunately, I still have not heard anything about our referral!! I e-mailed our agency yesterday for an update - but I haven't heard anything yet. I hope they have something new to tell me - though I am not counting on it. I guess we still have a couple of more days before the weekend - there is always hope that it will come!

Well, I am going to start cleaning my house - it is a disaster after having company! Until next time...

it's official - 3 months today

My agency has had our dossier 3 months today. My wait time was supposed to be 2 - 3 months ~ but 2 months was the projected time frame! I mean really - what is the hold up??? We have been next in line for a referral for almost 2 months now!!! I e-mailed our agency yesterday and asked them if they still were under the impression that we would get the referral before my baby shower (Sat.). I am getting the same answer that Christina from Mrs. Broccoli Guy is getting - soon!! This is so frustrating! Before they were saying that they felt confident that we would get the referral before the shower - now it has changed to "soon, hopefully". What in the world is that supposed to mean! The good news (if you can call it that) is that now I am not expecting the phone to ring with referral news anytime soon.

My parents are coming today for a visit. They will be here for the rest of the week. We have big plans of hanging out at the beach and doing nothing - sounds great doesn't it!! Hopefully they will help take my mind off the waiting. How cool would it be if we got the referral while they were here! That would be awesome (though my hopes are not up)! We also will be putting the crib and bookshelf together for the baby's room. My husband and I painted the room this weekend. I was hoping it would be a nice, soft shade of yellow. However, it dried darker that in went on - so it is a little brighter than I hoped. Hopefully when we get the furniture in the room it will help calm it down.

Well, with my parents here, I won't have time to write for a while. So I hope everyone has a great rest of the week. I will post if we do happen to get the referral!!

No, Nothing, Notta

Well, here we are at the end of the week that I was supposed to get my referral according to my agency...Guess what? No referral!!!!!!! I just can't imagine what is taking so long!! It is not that I am sad anymore - I have moved passed that to being mad!! I am ready to call up to the agency and cause a fuss. However, I also know that your get more with honey than lemons. So - I will keep my mouth shut for a little longer.

I am feeling the pressure also because my baby shower is next Saturday. People have been asking what the sex and age are so that they can buy the baby some clothes. I have registered for all gender neutral things - so there are plenty of items for them to get (177 to be exact). I am hoping that I will here something this coming up week. if I don't here anything by then - I will come unglued and have to cause a fuss.

On a good note - my parents are coming in town this Tuesday!! They are bringing with them a bookshelf they bought at IKEA for the baby - we don't have an IKEA here or anywhere in Florida for that matter!! By the time they come - we should have the room painted and the crib put together. I am hoping that the double dresser will be in next week. Since my parents don't live here, this will be our only opportunity to involve them in setting up the room. I know they are looking forward to it - and I am too. I wil post pictures once I get the room set up. I haven't been able to order the bedding or the pictures for the room because they are gender specific. I am doing "frogs" as a theme for boy or girl. I am using the Kelly Rightsell frogs, she has boy and girl frog prints and rugs. If you haven't checked out her website you should, it is - www.kellyrightsell.com she has adorable things!

Well I hope everyone has a great weekend! I personally hope it flies past quickly so that we can get ready for a new week of referrals - hopefully.

PS - I wanted to share a verse that the Lord revealed to me last night during my quiet time. I was consumed with thoughts about the adoption and the timeline the agency gave me - and then I read this: "Don't put your confidence in powerful people; there is no hope for you there." Psalm 146:3 "But joyful are those whose hope is in the Lord their God." Psalm 146:5
Ouch - that one hit me right between the eyes! I am still trying to digest it!

Cautiously Optomistic

I finally heard from our agency today about the e-mail I sent last week. Recap - I asked if they thought there was a reason to be concerned because it is taking longer than expected to get a referral. In the last e-mail (2 weeks ago) we were told that we were next in line for a referral and had been for a few weeks at that point. So - you can understand my concern. I also asked if they still thought I would have my referral by the date of my baby shower (July 15). Well, today I got my answer. In a nutshell, they told me that there was no reason to be concerned about the wait. They also said that they thought I would for sure have the referral by the time of my shower - in fact (and this is the best part)they are expecting it any day!!!!! I almost fell out of my chair when I read the e-mail! I ran to tell my husband who just smiled (I am the emotional one - he is more subdued). This is the first time that our agency has ever been so forthright with information. They usually choose their words carefully as not to be locked in to a specific time-frame. It makes me think that maybe they have been in touch with the facilitator in VN (just guessing here).

Of course, little thoughts started to creep into my mind; "I've heard that before", "here we go again with the anticipation", "Once bitten twice shy". So, I will say that I am cautiously optomistic! I pray that I will here about my referral this week - but more than anything - I pray that the rest of this process will go smoothly and quickly!

Good thing we finally started on the baby's room!!! Hopefully we will find out the sex of the baby soon so that the crib doesn't sit for too long without bedding on it! I just can't wait to get it all together!!!!!!!

Hooray for July

Finally July has arrived!!! I know that everyone else awaiting a referral or travel approval is just as glad as I am that June is over and July has begun! I must say that it has started with a bang around my house. My husband and I decided that we would start the baby's room in July with or without a referral (of course who would have thought we wouldn't have one yet). So that is exactly what we did!

We started off the morning by going to pick-up our crib (it had been in for a month - but we hadn't gotten it yet). The crib is now in the garage, we won't put it together until we paint the baby's room. Then we came home and re-arranged our guest room so that our computer would fit in it. Now my husband will have to share his office with our guest room. He seems to by fine with it (thank you Lord for that!). That took up most of the day because we had to move some things out of the guest room into our living room. So, mainly we took things apart and then set them back up again in another part of our house. At 10:00 last night we called it quits and decided to go to bed!

This morning we got up and went to church, went out to lunch, and now we are getting ready to start on the room again! Our goal it to clean out this weekend and paint next weekend. We decided to paint the room a pale yellow even if it is a boy. My parents are coming next Wednesday - so they will help us put up the crib and bookshelf. The double dresser should be in sometime next week - so they will be able to see that too! It helps to get everything ready - at least I feel I am being pro-active!

My shower invitations went out at the end of last week - so everyone at church today kept asking if we found out the sex of our child. It didn't bother me to keep answering "Not yet". I am feeling confident that our wait shouldn't be that much longer to get the referral. I did e-mail our agency to find out what the hold up is; but I haven't heard back from them yet. I am hoping I will here something on Monday. We have been next in line to receive a referral for a few weeks now - it seems weird that we haven't gotten one yet! Maybe I will have some answers soon!

I hope everone has a great 4th with their family and friends! I am sure we will be busy cleaning out the baby's room, but honestly, I can't think of a better way to spend my time!!!