In the Window...

Our referral should be coming in the next two months! In the meantime I am keeping myself busy enjoying our last few days of summer before Chloe starts kindergarten.

I've Hit the Wall

Both Matt and I came crashing into the waiting wall this weekend. We both looked at each other and wondered aloud, "When will we get Oliver's referral?". The answer: who knows?

We've been waiting nearly 34 months for a referral from China. We are aware how long the wait can go. With China, we are resigned to the fact that we can tick off progress, no matter how slow, each month with the arrival of referrals. But with Ethiopia? We know nothing. We have nothing to go on except for the timeframe our agency gave us. Its better than nothing.

For us, the waiting game always seems the same. At first, you are excited, eager with anticipation, looking forward to referral day. Then, as time goes by, you become discouraged and time seems to move slowly. The next phase is the worst, feeling like it is never going to happen, something is wrong with your dossier, they don't like you, etc. It's the rollercoaster of emotion and wondering. It then seems the next step is the numbness. You step back, reassess and guard your heart. Then you repeat the process until the referral comes.

Right now, I am in the pity party stage. I'm comparing our wait to others, searching for blogs of those who adopted recently, adding up how long they waited. It's not comforting, some waits are a few weeks and some are months and months. They are all over the place.

In the meantime, in order to avoid the full-blown pity party, I am keeping myself as busy as possible. Chloe starts kindergarten in three weeks and we are enjoying our last few weeks of summer. The new puppy, Flash, is also keeping us busy. He's a handful. My father is coming up for a week to spend some time with us since he couldn't come when my mother and sister visited because of the growing season.

I'm hoping this new stage of waiting will end soon with a referral.

Court Closure

Word on the street has it that the Ethiopian courts will close from August 21st to October 6th. Considering that our timeframe for referral, 4-6 months from DTE, falls right during the closure, it seems likely that our referral will come during the closure. Right now, I am predicting that our court date will be in November and our travel will be late November or December.