Happy Anniversary to Me

A whopping year ago today, I finally mailed my application in to my agency to officially start my adoption. Now, I had filled out the application seven months earlier, but a year ago is when I thought all the pieces were nearly in place to move forward. Suffice it to say I thought I'd for sure have a referral by now and possibly have even traveled, but it just wasn't meant to be.

One thing that is freakishly funny is that almost every time I hit a panic-meltdown mode in this process, where I am ready to throw in the towel or at a minimum change agencies/programs, something significant seems to progress with the current program. Seriously, this has now happened at least three times. Lo and behold, on Thursday I received an update from my agency about the status of the Vietnam program. This was huge, as things have been so unstable that there really have not been agency-wide updates. I may check in from time-to-time with my SW and get the "no news" response, but to have something initiated by the agency come out is a big shift from the past few months.

Let's just say that the program may fall into place after all! There is a long way to go, and while I'm excited I'm also taking a "I'll believe it when I see it" approach, I am feeling a bit of hope again. Believe me, I know that just because you think the pieces are in place (and we're not even that far yet) that for most agencies it takes a lot more to get the referrals actually flowing. So who knows, but it is progress and I'll take it!

With that update, I am feeling confident again in my decision to stick with my agency. I will leave my paperwork out there for the domestic program as well, and I know for either program it will still be a while before something big happens, but I'm back off the meltdown train again for the moment. Yippee! I can honestly tell you that I literally felt the weight of the stress I'd been carrying this week lift off my shoulders as I absorbed the email.

So, I can breathe a bit more easily again for at least 11 days (my previously mentioned tolerance level before I start getting antsy for an update - which doesn't carry me very far at this point of the process!).

Now, I keep meaning to mention this here, and I've been such a basketcase I keep forgetting. One of my favorite bloggers, E., is trying to get people to throw in their two cents on a survey about gender selection in adoption. Please take just a couple of minutes to jump over to her blog and send her your answers! You can find everything here: Survey. It doesn't matter what stage you're at, or even what country you've adopted from (right, E.?) - she's just trying to get honest insight from people about whether or not you chose gender in your adoption and why. No judgements, no debate - just an opportunity for us all to get some insight into why the imbalance exists. I actually found it interesting to go through the questions after all this time and remind myself why I made the decision I did. For me it was great timing, because for the domestic program I did stick with requesting a boy, though that will likely extend my wait time a bit. But in going through the questions (there are only five, it only takes a few minutes) I felt confident yet again in my decision.

So, please, bounce over there and participate! It won't hurt, I promise!