Checking in at the nurse's counter for your doctor's appointment.
Filing out paperwork for an adoption.
What do all of these have in common?
Ever heard of the phrase "hurry up and wait?"
Arrive at the airport at least 2 hours before your plane leaves, check in your bags, make it through security, and grab an overpriced cup of coffee.
Then, wait in the not-so-comfortable chairs in your designated terminal, only to hear the announcement that your flight has been delayed due to inclement weather conditions.
Sign in on the clipboard right on time, maybe even a few minutes early, with all the paperwork needed to become a new patient, and fill out the countless forms that seem to ask the same questions over and over again.
Then, sit in the not-so-comfortable chairs in the waiting room for what seems like hours while you try to keep your children entertained and fed so they don't destroy the place or starve in the 47 minutes you are there waiting for your appointment that was supposed to start almost an hour ago.
Print off all the documents and schedule all the appointments necessary to complete the paperwork, fill out all the papers in black (or blue) ink, get them notarized, have them verified, send them off to a courier service who will have them verified 2 more times, and try not to panic about all the fees that are adding up.
Then, wait.
And wait some more.
And then fill out some more paperwork.
Send in another check.
Wait yet again.
Receive news that your application was accepted.
Wait for the next step.
Rejoice that your dossier was processed.
Ask what the next step is.
Sigh.
Resign yourself to doing the only thing you can do - WAIT.
And pray.
Always wait and pray.
The 2 go hand in hand.
That's where we are right now in the whole adoption process.
Waiting and praying.
Praying and waiting.
Our dossier was registered in December, and the average wait time for being matched is 18 months to 3 years. Yes, YEARS.
We are on month 3.
And I am already impatient.
The process seems to be taking FOR-EV-ER.
Try to say it like the kid in the movie Sandlot.
Only slower.
MUCH slower.
Yet, it's already been a year since we had our visit for our homestudy and almost a whole year since our homestudy was completed. Which means come June we will have to update our homestudy, and do more paperwork. Then, wait for that to be processed, and accepted.
Adoption is a cycle of waiting, filling out paperwork, paying fees, and praying.
You repeat this over and over and over again.
We just recently filled out more paperwork - new Power of Attorney documents - because our agency WACAP merged with Holt International. I think this merge is a good thing, but just those 2 new documents cost us around $200!!!
We are waiting to receive them back from the Department of State and Haitian Embassy in DC. Then, we can send them to Holt, who will send them to Haiti to add to our dossier.
And guess what we do then?
Yep, wait.
Wait for IBESR (a part of the Haitian government) to match us with our boys.
That is the hardest part of all this.
Not knowing who our sons are.
We already love our boys.
But, we certainly look forward to learning who they are and seeing pictures of them.
Then, we can love their eyes, their noses, their smiles, and everything about them.
Until then, we wait.
And pray.
Would you join us?
*Pray for our documents to return from DC this coming week.
*Pray for those documents to arrive in Haiti quickly and to be added to our dossier.
*Pray for our agency to be able to make a trip to Haiti so they can advocate for waiting families and help children be matched.
*Pray for us to raise the funds we will need once we are matched. We have a little over $10,000 in our adoption account and will need about $20,000 MORE as soon as we are matched!
No comments:
Post a Comment