A Year and Counting....

A couple of weeks ago we hit one year that we have been officially waiting for our referral. April 9, 2008 we got word from our agency that our all of our paper work was approved and we were officially put on the waiting list. At that time we thought our wait would be between 6-9 months. How things have changed. Our year "waitiversary" has passed, and it still seems like we have a ways to go. We are number 10 on the unofficial list, however, I say 7 as there are three families ahead of us waiting for siblings. Our social worker told us we are so close to our referral, it's just a matter of time before some infants come into care and are cleared for referral. Here is a great blog post called "The Weight of the Wait" written by another "waiting" mother. Please take the time to read it as she captures the essence of the "wait" so beautifully. http://www.mindful-mama.com/blogs/thrive/archive/2009/04/17/adoption-the-weight-of-the-wait.aspx

Some things NOT to Say.....

...to adoptive parents. I have been wanting to post this for a while, not for the intentions of offending anyone, but just to make people aware of what they are saying.

Why do you have to pay so much for a baby?
Babies don't cost money, adoption costs money.
Your child is so lucky.
No, we are the lucky ones. How lucky is a child that is born into a situation where he/she cannot stay with his or her birth family?
There are so many kids needing homes here in the states, why another country?
Children all over the world need loving homes.
Now that you've adopted, you'll get pregnant.
Everyone has a story about how their co-worker's cousin's best friend got pregnant shortly after they adopted. The statistics show this really doesn't happen, and to me it implies that an adoptive child isn't as worthy as a biological child.