The Wait

So I was accepted by the agency in late May 2009.  Did nothing in June, studied for a certification for work. July was the paperwork push and social worker visite for the home study.  Got ALL my paperwork submitted by mid-August (usually takes people 3-4 months to get it all togther...I was excited).  But I had to wait on my Illinois birth certificate copies...they took 7 weeks to get!  So all paperwork was in to the agency by mid-Sept., they translated it into Russia, sent if off and my official "posting date" was Oct. 15th.

From the posting date, the wait to be assigned to a region was supposed to be 7-8 months.  Well two months later, Dec. 2009, I was assigned to the Kaliningrad region!  Very excited because now it seemed REAL!  Now the wait was supposed to be 12 months but low and behold I get a call on March 11th that they have a referral for me!!!!  I was literally shaking and did not know what to say. Yes I know that's a shock, me not knowing what to say :)

I get all the details that Thurs. and was told I had 2 weeks to decide if I wanted to travel to see this referral.  It was a little 22 month old girl, which was also a shock because in Russian adoptions there are more boys, 70% more, so I was expecting a boy.  I show the girl's medical information to a local St. Louis doctor who specializes in international adoptions and she said all looked good from what information they gave me.  Between the time I met the doctor, I didn't sleep much and was panicking a little.  I thought I had at least a year wait and had only read one recommended book on adoption and was just starting the CDs to learn some basic Russian.

So I called my agency that Tues. March 16th to tell them I was accepting to travel and my coordinator said, "great, because they want you to travel next weekend."  Speechless again and the panic came back. So I make alot of calls to family and friends telling them the good news and started making lists and lists and lists of what I needed for the trip.  I was going to Russia to meet my little girl!!!!!!!