What Adoption Does to a Mom-to-Be

Monday was certainly an exciting day in our house. I remember how excited I was when our 171H arrived for Lili's adoption. However, the excitement was so much more this time around. Of course there are a few differences between Lili's adoption and this one. Not only are we adopting from a different country, but we're also using a different placement agency. With Lili's adoption, our dossier was submitted before receiving our 171H, this time the 171H had to be included in the dossier packet. It only took 4 months to get our home study and 171H with Lili's adoption. It took 7 1/2 months this time and that fact alone made getting that piece of paper much more exciting this time around. I was beginning to feel as if we would never get to this point, but here we are.

So, picture this scene. Lili and I go to the post office to pick up the mail. I start going through our mail while still inside the post office and I see an envelope from USCIS. Still standing in the post office, I tear open the envelope and there it is . . . . .

"OUR APPROVAL"

The first words out of my mouth were "YES!!!" and then I made up a silly song that went something like this:

We're going to the bank to get our notarization
Then we're going to Springfield to get our certification
Next to the post office to mail our dossier
Yeah, yeah, yeah!!!

I don't think anyone heard me singing or saw me skipping out of the post office, but I'm sure if they did they would have thought I was a mom who had just gone bonkers. Of course I'm sure none of them have gone through this crazy process called adoption. Anyway, Lili enjoyed my song and that's all that really matters.

We had all our paperwork in the mail by Monday afternoon and the next day I started stalking my email for a note from our agency saying they'd received the paperwork. Yes, I went from being the crazy woman skipping out of the post office to a stalker within a 24 hour period. I managed to take the day off yesterday from being the crazy stalker, but it's back on today. I'm waiting on word from our agency that our dossier has been sent to Washington DC for authentication. That is the last step before it's sent to Ethiopia where it will be registered and we'll officially begin the wait for our referral.

These are the kinds of things that happen to a mom-to-be during the adoption process.

I wonder what Naomi will think when I share this story with her one day in the future? LOL!!!