Well, we're waiting!

The title of this post is for all you Caddyshack fans out there, lol.   And in case you didn't guess, we have submitted our dossier and are now officially waiting!!  Yay!  What a HUGE relief to send Package-zilla off to the agency.  Although we went over the documents we had and what we needed many times (once me, then my husband, then us both...you get the picture), we finally were able to get 'er crated up and in the mail. Woohoo!

      

Here she is!

I realize that the folders don't look that impressive, but the bulk of materials is inside and I took this from overhead to fit everything in.   One thing we were super happy with was our pictures.   After getting advice from many people who have walked this path before, we decided to pick about 16-18 pics of our house and us as a family.  A bit more than usual, but what the heck right?  We had alot to show and it turned out great.  I must give props to one particularly brilliant idea that came from a friend who included a baby picture of her husband, so the Polish authorities could use that as reference.  We loved it, so we decided to tweak that a little and instead included a pic of Case around the age we are requesting for adoption.  We figured he's the best living proof of how Brian and I look combined, so hopefully it'll be a good guide.  So now the dossier continues on its magical, mystery tour to Poland to be translated and then we'll hopefully soon matched with our new son.  Still, its the potentially lengthy wait that seems the most daunting.  

Funny story: when I was in marching band on college, we always seemed to be in long lines waiting for something- whether it was for food, buses, waiting in the tunnel before a game, waiting in the kitchen area of a hotel before performing an alumni concert on a bowl trip (that was a crazy one), or waiting for rides in Disneyland, or on the sideline at Rose Bowls.  You name it, we waited and waited, but happily and peacefully.  "Hurry up and wait" was our mantra then, and it taught me such patience that I often have no issue with waiting in lines.  Who would have thought it would turn out to be a life-changing lesson?

And thus it has been with a good deal of this process so far.  I have still played the "hurry up and wait" game often and have done fine so far.  Yet, I know that this wait is so different and could be a hard one because of the uncertainty.  When I was pregnant with Case, I was cognizant of him growing everyday and he was ever present for me.  There was no doubt that the waiting period was finite.  And even when he was a week late and I was felt like a beached whale, I knew the end was near and I would be able to hold him.  Very unlike this process.  In international adoption, you know your child is in another place and waiting for you, but you don't know exactly where or when you will meet.  Nothing is harder for a mother than to be separated from her child(ren) and the yearning to hold them is immensely powerful.  That makes this waiting so much more challenging and although the pull is different, it is equally strong for me.

So we wait.  And to keep my humor, I think about the look on Judge Smail's/Ted Knight's face when he says those infamous lines "Well, we're waiting!"  

 

Until then, we will continue our Polish lessons, enjoy Case and our family, prepare for our new son, and mostly, pray for all my other adoptive mommy friends to receive referrals very soon!