We wait with patience.

Happy New Year!
It has been almost a year since we updated our blog...the progression in our adoption process has been crawling along. It is still moving, slowly, snail paced, tree sloth slow... but forward movement is forward movement! This is the focus of our thoughts. We never in a million years thought we'd be measuring the process of our adoption at this time. We thought we would be up to our ears in parenthood and transition, measuring the development of our child, measuring heights and weights and words...we humbly bow to the diety of patience!
We don't know the why's of the slow down in China. We get some rumors here and there, nothing really concrete to explain why our wait is now at the two year mark, when we expected 6-8 months. Yet, we enter 2008 with hope! At the pace that things are moving now, we don't expect a referral until August, September or October. This means that maybe, just maybe, we will be traveling to China next holiday season.
It's hard to keep up an emotional high for this long about our new daughter. When we started the process, sent our paperwork to China, we'd be in constant excitement and wonder...where is she now, is she born, when will she come into our family and all of the million of details we thought and worried about. We thought we'd hardly have time to get ready. Then the feeling changed to a type of despair or sadness...this is never going to happen, how can we get through this. Now it feels more like a mixture of resignation and a quiet smoldering of love and hope. It is never far from out hearts and minds, yet we are focusing on the here and now, more. Feels like a good balance for us. There is also a little anxiety mixed in that by relaxing our grip on the preparations(because most of them that can be done, have been done forever)we will be caught off guard and be scrambling like crazy when the time actually comes to go to China. What I am thinking about that is....what a great preparation for parenthood- being caught off guard most of the time!
We sincerely wish you a new year filled with patience, hope, smoldering love, and the ability to be caught off guard and going with the flow!