Waiting: Okay so we all know that waiting is the hardest part of adoption. There's so much of it! Being a military spouse I've learned a lot of patience, but nothing can really help make this "wait" easy. I'm counting the days until its logical for me to start stalking the mailman. I'm going to try not to start "expecting" our first letter from Ukraine for at least 3 weeks since that is the earliest it could possibly be, though it's very unlikely to come that early.

This morning a family in our subdivision was having a yard sale and I saw the coolest race car bed. I didn't stop to look at the price but debated on my drive to work if we should buy it or not. Since we don't know if we'll have a boy or a girl its hard to buy things in advance to have a room ready for our little one. I doubt a daughter would be so thrilled to have a red race car in her room to go along with the baby dolls and Disney Princess sheets she'd surely acquire later. It kind of puts a kink in planning a baby shower :-) We'll have to get creative with that idea.
One thing I'm so thankful for is adoption support boards. How did adoptive parents survive before the internet? It's very comforting to be able to read other families stories as they work through this maze and finally to be able to see their happy endings. So for all adoptive parents who will be reading this message, I wanted to post this joke on here to lighten your day a little as you "wait." I'm sure everyone else will enjoy it too but you can only really appreciate this if you're going through the process.

Note: I-171-H = Immigration approval
I-600A = Immigration application.

The Accidental Adoption
Have you ever noticed that you hear all the time about "accidental"pregnancies, but never about couples who experience "accidental" adoptions?
Can you imagine: Honey, sit down. I have some news for you.
What is it? Well, I don't know how to say this, so I'll just come out with it. I went out to the mailbox today and ... well, we got an I-171H.

A what?!?

An I-171H? As in, we're going to have a baby?!?

It looks that way.

But how? We've been so careful! I put away all the blank I-600 A forms. Didn't you hide our homestudy update?

Of course I did. But don't forget, there was that one night...

What night? (pauses) Ohhh, that night. But it was only once. We were just messing around. I didn't print clearly. I didn't even use ink! (pauses again) But it was kind of fun. (giggles)

It was, wasn't it? I'll never forget how cute you looked getting your fingerprints.

So now we've got our I-171H, eh? But that doesn't always mean you'll adopt, does it? I mean, shouldn't you see the agency or something, make sure everything's okay?

I already did.
And? I'm five documents along.

Five documents! And they're all notarized, certified and authenticated okay?
Just great. There was one small scare when the agency couldn't see the Notary's middle initial, but it showed up just fine under the magnifying glass.
Thank God.
And you, honey? Are you feeling okay? I'm feeling fine. As long as I know you're happy about this. Happy? I'm thrilled! It's always a shock at first when something like this happens, but of course I'm happy.