On Waiting, and Home Study Updates, and Questions

I'm just going to go ahead and apologize ahead of time for the tone of this blog post. It's just kind of yucky, but it's honest, and I need to say it so yeah . . . sorry.

When we started this whole adoption process our adoption agency said that the wait for a referral was somewhere around 18-30 months. Well, 18 months has long since passed, and in just over half a year we'll hit that 30 month mark. And now the wait time being given to prospective adoptive parents is 30-48 months. Ugh . . . that's all I have to say about that (well I could say more, but will stick with ugh). And we're not sure exactly where that leaves us in this whole crazy process. So that's swell.

I don't blame anyone. I don't feel like our adoption agency was or is trying to mislead us. I don't think Bulgaria is trying to hold back children. I really think everyone involved is doing everything they can to get these kids into homes, but a lot has happened since we started. There have been glitches in the system and political delays that cannot be helped. It's pretty par for the course in international adoption. But the waiting and the constant merry go round of home study updates and fingerprints and letters and appointments gets old fast. And after 24 months, I know that we have no choice but to turn to God to give us the strength and stamina to "keep on keepin' on".

It does look like we have finally finished this year's home study update. Between the FBI fingerprint fiasco and the move, this home study update has been a royal pain. But we're finally through. Now we have to wait for the official copy so that we can apply for our biometrics (fancy word for fingerprinting) update with USCIS. For the love of all that's good and holy I don't know why these government agencies can't communicate with one another! If only I was in charge . . .

And if one more person asks, "Did you realize it was going to be this long???" . . . Seriously, don't ask that. Reword it, ask something else. Ask how it's going. Ask if we've heard anything. But geeze, don't ask if we knew it was going to be this long.

I told you this would be all sunshine and rainbows. You were warned. I know that there will come a time when this will all be behind us, and we will look back and think, "oh it wasn't so bad." But in the midst of it all, I have my moments. And well, my moments sometimes spill over onto my blog. There's a reason I apologized in advance.