The end is in sight...

I got confirmation from our agency this evening that we will wait no longer than 4 months maximum for our referral!!! WOW!!!! Since babies have to be 5 months old before they become eligible for international adoption, it means that our little girl has already been born!!! WOW!!!! In just a few short months, Jeff and I will become parents of two children under two! WOW!!! It's a good thing I had plans to order her bedroom furniture tomorrow morning because she's going to be here before we know it! Until then though, I hope that she's being tenderly cared for and loved by her foster family.

The Fortune Cookie

For a minute, let me go back in time over a year ago....When the wait for Graham's referral was becoming excruciatingly difficult and I felt as if I could explode with anticipation at any moment, my Mom's friend passed along a small slip of paper to me. This tiny slip of paper, which happened to come from a fortune cookie said the following 'Your greatest wish will soon come true.' She had been holding onto this piece of paper because soon after she got this message, her wish did come true with the arrival of her own miracle baby. Just days after this special paper was passed along to me, my greatest wish came true when we received Graham's referral.

Now, fast forward to October 18, 2008 and I myself was enjoying Chinese food with my family. As we were cleaning up, I began to hand out cookies and I quickly tore into my own. The message in front of me caught me completely off guard-'You will soon be crossing great ocean waters for an incredibly rewarding experience.' I immediately grabbed all the cookies and ripped into them to see what the other messages said. Each and every one, other than my own, had some laughable message that would quickly be forgotten and thrown into the trash. I'm not a superstitious person, but I will say that when waiting in adoption, I cling to any piece of hope I can possibly grasp. So, this fortune, in combination with the dreams I've been having, followed up with the recent news from our agency has me feeling like something pretty special is in the works right now.

Good-bye waiting list...

The past few days have been weird for me adoption wise. I know that weird isn't a very descriptive word, but it just describes how I've been feeling, and that is weird. Two nights in a row I woke up in the middle of the night after having extremely vivid and real dreams that we received our referral. Don't get me wrong, the wait this time around is a million times easier. It's not that we're not as anxious to get Princess Olson home as we were with Graham, but thanks to my miracle of a little guy, my personal time is down to virtually nothing. This leaves very little time for my mind to wander.

My emotions came to a head this morning and I ended up having a tearful conversation on the phone with my mom. As I paced the kitchen pouring my heart out, I was oblivious to the blinking light on my answering machine. Only after I hung up the phone, did I notice the message and hit 'play'. I heard "Hi Melissa, it's Jill..." In case you don't know, Jill is the keeper of the waiting list, the patient and kind woman who answers all my waiting list questions in a very timely manner. As you can imagine, my stomach literally dropped when I heard her name. She went on to give me a few details of why she was trying to reach me then asked that I get in touch with her. With my very shaky hands, I dialed her number to get what would turn out to be amazing news! Here's what we know....Eastern, the agency in Korea has requested that any families with Korean heritage (us!) have their files sent to them ASAP for matching! They've also requested that those families be removed from the CHS waiting list. According to Jill, this was a very good sign and when I asked her if she thought if we'd still be waiting until spring she laughed and said she didn't think so! The only down side, is that I no longer have a way to check our 'progress' on the list. My one and only way to keep tabs on this process has been taken away and being the type A person that I am, that's a bit difficult to swallow. I can only hope that this process speeds up fast enough that I don't have too long to wonder where we should be on the list. It looks as though a trade has been made- I give up the waiting list in exchange for a pass to ride on the fast track...I think I'll take it! :)

One last thing, in case you're into the details, our file is heading to Korea on Tuesday...I wish for a smooth and happy trip for our paperwork!!!!

Making Progress!

I feel silly asking our program director for list updates too often, so I often find myself trying to come up with an excuse to be in touch with her so I can just slip in my 'real' question. I'm sure she sees right through my ploy, but she kindly plays along. :) This month, I luckily didn't have to try too hard to come up with an excuse to contact her. My parents so kindly offered to make a yearly donation to the Korean adoption agency in Graham's honor. So, I had the perfect opportunity to find out what is currently needed and at the same time find out what sort of progress we've made on the road to our little princess. I had an email response almost immediately, and to be honest, my stomach always drops a mile before I open it up. I always feel like I need to brace myself in case the news is less than favorable, but also don't want to start celebrating prematurely. Well, today, I want to celebrate because we're #27!!! Not too bad, considering that just a bit over two months ago, on July 24, we were the family occupying the 48th spot on the waiting list. I don't want to jinx the speed this time around, but do I dare say that things are moving along quite nicely and that we might be united with our little girl sooner than originally planned??? Only time will tell....

Good News x 2!!!

Just two weeks ago we had our fingerprints done for our I600A application. It was at this appointment that I was told my fingerprints were worn and the technician wasn't sure that the FBI would accept them. Fast forward to today, when I opened the mailbox and saw an envelope from the USCIS (immigration). My heart actually started pounding and my mind started racing. I assumed it was the letter telling me to come in to have my fingerprints redone. The thought of an approval didn't even cross my mind. After all, it had only been two weeks and an approval that quickly is almost unheard of! I tore open the envelope and my jaw dropped when I read the letter-APPROVAL!!!!! I must have frozen in shock because the next thing I knew, Graham was tugging on my leg and calling my name repeatedly. It's nice to know that the hassles of Jeff's improper left turn (aka criminal behavior) and my worn fingerprints are behind us! :) Now that we have our I600A approval, everything is in place for us to receive our referral....which brings me to my next piece of good news.

Since we got word of our approval today, I thought it was the perfect excuse to contact our agency and find out if we've moved up the waiting list. Four weeks ago, we were #48 on the list. Yes, it's a big number, but not having any idea how quickly things were moving, I was looking forward to getting another update so I would have a reference point. I got another happy surprise when I learned that in just four short weeks, we moved up ten spots on the list, making our new waiting list number.....
Things seem to be definitely moving! This evening I've found myself wondering when our little girl will be born, in a month or two or three, or maybe she's already made her debut to the world. It's probably a mistake, but I've let my mind wander and come up with all sorts of possibilities of moving through the waiting list at lightning speed. Even if referrals slow down and we only move 5 spots each month in the months to come, we could be hearing something by February or March...I'm sure I'm getting way ahead of myself, but a girl can dream, right?

Bring on month #3...

It's hard to believe that tomorrow begins our third month of officially waiting for our little girl. It actually feels like much though longer since our application has been in the works since April, but it wasn't until the end of June we began our official wait. What may be even harder to believe is that I still feel like I'm 100% sane! :) At this point in the wait for Graham, I think I had already lost it. Granted, there was a lot more uncertainty regarding the timeline for his adoption, but still, I feel like I'm handling the wait much better this time around. When we were waiting for Graham, I desperately wanted to shop for baby things, but there was always this small piece of me that wondered "What if this never happens?". Certainly, at times it felt like it never would happen, but we all know how that turned out. This time around,I know that our daughter is at the end of this wait, so I know that it's ok to shop for her! :) It really is funny how much better I feel when I allow myself to pick up something for her. Growing up, my dolls always had quite the frilly, large wardrobes, so I'm excited that I'm now able to shop for my daughter! In case you're interested, pictured, are two of Princess Olson's newest dresses.

Fingerprints!

Today,we are able to cross one more "to do" item off of our adoption checklist...fingerprints! We're no strangers to fingerprinting, as I've actually lost count as to how many times we've had this done over the past few years. Each time is an experience and today was no exception. Depending on which level of government is wanting our prints, we either head to the county jail (good times!) or to the USCIS Office. Today, our fingerprints were being requested by the FBI so we headed off to the local USCIS office for our 11:00 appointment. Although this sounds like an important place, this tiny office leaves much to be desired. It happens to be located in a very rundown strip mall with a broken sign above the entrance that says "Application Center"....don't ask why it says that because I don't have a clue! Walking into that place is like walking into another country, and today, it felt a lot like walking into Somalia. Nobody spoke English, and I could tell the desk workers were relieved to deal with us since we were able to follow their directions without them resorting to giving instructions at a turtles speed with intense volume.

After sitting in the waiting room for nearly 45 minutes, Jeff was called back leaving me alone in the waiting room. Ten minutes later it was my turn and I was escorted back to the computerized machine. No ink pad and paper for the FBI-go taxes! The woman repeated several of my fingers then told me that many of my fingerprints have been worn down and that I shouldn't "freak out" if I get a letter from the FBI telling me that my fingerprints have been rejected. This lady obviously doesn't know me, because such a letter would definitely send me over the edge. We're talking about our daughter here, and rejected fingerprints mean a denied government approval (at least until this little fiasco is figured out). She then went on to say that she's seen "much worse prints be accepted" but that she couldn't guarantee anything. I questioned her about all the "what if's" I could think of and it sounds like if my fingerprints are rejected that I need to go back and have them redone so they can match my worn fingerprints from today with the new prints to verify my identity. Obviously a fingerprint hassle won't stop our adoption, but I'm not really looking to hassle with the FBI. Why can't anything adoption related by easy? Grrrrrrrr...........I think this calls for ice cream tonight!

PLEASE cross your fingers that the FBI accepts my fingerprints so that we can keep the ball rolling without a delay in our process.