Let's try this again

I wrote a post last night, but thought I misstated something, so I quickly took it down when it was brought to my attention. It turns out I was okay, but the post is lost so I will try to re-create it.

First, congratulations for your new referrals Kansas Family and Roth-Vinsons! Also, congratulations to Kelly at Snips and Snails! She and her husband are new foster parents to two boys!

The other thing I wanted to let my "blog buddies" know is that I am leaving. The blog world, that is. I spoke with my agency last week and I'm not expected to get a referral until around 18 months wait. (A long shot from the 6-9 month estimate when I signed with them. And I even have serious reservations about the 18 month estimate. I think it could easily be 24 months, but they'll just change their estimate once I reach 18 months.) Given that I'm six months into my wait, and therefore have around/at least a year left, I'm ending my blog. How many ways can I write "Still waiting..."? I created this blog to keep a journal of my child's adoption process, and then a way to share the goings-on of a new family. Since both of these will be a while, I need to put this on hold for a long while. Plus, it's too frustrating to say "Still waiting..." over and over again. I promise I'll be back. Probably with a new URL (thinking about starting my own website), but will update here when the time comes. I'll also keep reading and commenting! Hopefully, many of you will get referrals and/or travel soon! I truly appreciate your support over the last few months!

So, as my original post was titled...Now it's time to say goodbye.

What a weekend!

When we last left our heroine she was in the midst of a bunch of bad news and not looking forward to working overnight on Saturday, thus canceling her weekend trip. Well, readers, good news came on Friday! Crisis averted at work and I left SA at 1 pm for Austin! I had a fabulous weekend and feel quite refreshed. We had good food, good drinks, dinner with friends, family cooking time, shopping, and an enjoyable church sermon. Good times were had by all!

One of the several conversations I had with my sister was how bad I felt about my adoption process. I'm normally a pretty optimistic person, but this wait and lack of progress has been quite frustrating. After a positive update from my agency (referrals are coming in the next 1-2 months!) and a change in perspective, I feel much better about things. Yay! With a 12-18 month wait I have 6-12 months left. I'm going to start looking at the "this is the last time" or "next year I'll have a child". It feels much better than "no referrals yet". Now, I realize that 12-18 months is a guesstimate and things happen in IA, but a positive attitude feels much better than moping.

I hope everyone's weekend was as enjoyable as mine! Happy Independence Day!

Long weeks

On a non-adoption note, I'm tired. I've been working 60-plus hours for the past three weeks. The first week was a breeze. The second week was harder, but I knew I only had one more week. The last week it was easy knowing I was done. I had plans to go to Austin this weekend, but now there is an emergency at work and I'm going to have to work through the weekend. Ugh. Not what I needed to hear. I'm tired and grouchy. The good thing is that I can't think about the adoption right now as it's too depressing. I could really use some good news. See you next weekend when I'll feel better!

Not much going on

So if you are tired of thinking about a non-progressing adoption, what's the best thing to do? Shopping! Over this weekend, I've been to two malls, two bookstores, and the outlet mall in San Marcos. Now don't worry, I didn't go crazy. I bought some work clothes for myself, an outfit and a t-shirt for the baby. All the walking around and window shopping were good for me though. I didn't sit around and think. I have a couple of crazy weeks at work with a project wrapping up so it's nice to have a nice relaxing, calm weekend.

On another note, Happy Father's Day, Dad! I hope to see you soon!

Summer days

Summer is upon us here in Texas, and it is hot. I know it will be getting hotter, but this weekend was the first time this year where I broke a sweat just walking outside. I've been on a major cleaning binge today and I've changed clothes twice! And it's air conditioned inside! Oh I hope June, July, and August fly by! I'm not big on the heat because I sweat easily. Ick! (I'm sure you all needed to know that!) At least the heat only lasts 3 to 4 months!

Weekends are hard as there is lots of time to think. I stayed busy this weekend running errands, shopping, and cleaning. I picked up a cute pair of overalls from Gymboree for $7! I'm also having a hard time fighting the urge to put the nursery together. Right now it's an office turned storage room with lots of stuff that I bought and hand-me-downs from my sister. It's a mess! I've emptied out the bookcases and organized the clothes. Now the room just needs a crib and rug. Oh! And a toy box or someway to organize the other stuff I've collected.

Thank you all for your kind words with my last post! I really appreciate the support!

Dropping in

It's probably a good thing I'm not posting now. Between all the questionable things being discussed in the different Yahoo groups, and the five or six months without a referral, I'm not feeling very optimistic about completing an adoption in Vietnam. I'm going to try to update monthly until things pick up or there is a major update.

As I said earlier, I'm not feeling very optimistic about things right now. I'm coming up on finishing month four of the wait and I've only moved up because of families leaving our agency. There have not been any referrals since January, I think. Sigh. With the decreased optimism, comes the decrease of any preparations. I've stopped shopping, thinking about putting a nursery together, and I really don't talk about it much anymore. I recently went to a party where a lot of my sister's friends were there. My sister has told pretty much all of her friends, so of course they wanted to ask me about it. I was so touched by their questions, interest, and support! I am truly blessed by the people people that surround me! On the other hand it was very difficult to say over and over that the six to nine month wait to referral I was quoted has been changed to 12 to 18 months. I was pretty emotionally exhausted when I left the party.

One thing I'm still doing is reading a lot of adoption blogs. I've saved all the blogs I read in a folder in FireFox and every day when I get home from work I open all the pages in the folder. It's pretty easy to go through and close blogs that haven't updated in the past few days (such as my own!) I'm very excited about the new run of referrals that have come through. Congratulations new mommies and daddies! Until next month...

Taking a break

I'm close to starting my fourth month of waiting. Not that long, I know, but there hasn't been a referral in a few months and it seems there won't be one for a few more. I did speak with my agency this week. I never asked where I was on 'the list' so I thought it was time to see. The good news is that I'm not as high as I thought I was, and I have even moved up a few spots (from people in front of me changing agencies, I believe). This news gave me new energy for the wait. Despite this news, there isn't much going on in my life besides work and waiting. I've really enjoyed blogging and having the opportunity to communicate with new e-friends, but I'm going to take a little break from writing. I think a few weeks from thinking about how I am feeling about the wait and the ethics of IA will do my brain good.

I promise I'm not gone for good, and if anything exciting happens I will be back!