REALLY??? LIKE, SERIOUSLY??? WE REALLY ARE??? SO EXCITING!!!!!

I feel like maybe I should preface this post by explaining why I starting blogging about our adoption in the first place, because so far, most of my "followers"(that's hilarious) are people that have already adopted or are just friends/family of mine. So, my reason for blogging was twofold; part of my reason for starting this blog was because I found encouragement and inspiration from reading other adoption blogs, before we ever began the process, so I hoped that maybe I could be the same for someone else one day. My other reason for starting it was just to keep a record throughout the process for my own terrible memory and to share with our loved ones, so they could feel like they were sort of traveling with us on this  journey. So, I'm sorry if some of you get bored with reading about the "ins and outs" of adoption (if you do, you could probably just scan the bold, large print, and catch the jist of my posts) :-), but I hope that one day, maybe some other couple that's considering adoption or just entered into the process will stumble onto this blog and find some encouragement and inspiration in reading about our experience. If anyone out there in the great unknown is reading this and you're one of those "stumblers", I'd love it if you'd leave me a comment and let me know!


So, now for the exciting news.....



WE ARE NOW ON THE WAITING LIST FOR A MATCH!!!!! It feels a little surreal, to be honest. It felt so surreal, in fact, that I emailed our contact at Holt, just to make sure she really meant it when she said, "you're now on the list...", not that she would joke about that, but I just didn't think it would be so fast! Anywho, she said it was the truth, so we're psyched! She also told us that if things continue to move as quickly as they have been, we could receive a match as early as September!!! It's only an estimate, but it's a super exciting estimate, nonetheless! During the early stages of this process, it felt like it would be forever to get to this point, so to be here now, it's kinda crazy, but a good crazy.


When we began this process (a little over 6 months ago), it was incredibly overwhelming to me. The ladies that work for our agency, Holt International Children's Services, are wonderful, but they're also on the complete opposite side of the country. I tried once to convince one of them to come stay with us for just a few days, but she never agreed to it ;-). So, although they were very helpful from afar, I still felt a tremendous amount of pressure. I was afraid I would do something wrong or I wouldn't do something quickly enough, I was just very stressed at times about the whole process. However, looking back over the last few months, although parts of it were a little stressful, it wasn't nearly as difficult as I feared it would be. Don't get me wrong, it's a lot of work, and by the time you're finished, you are only one step away from being cleared to work for the Secret Service (haha, joke...but really), but overall, if you take it one step at a time, and ask for help anytime you feel unsure, before you know it, you'll be at the "waiting stage". And, let me tell ya, it feels good here :-).


With that being said, I'm sure the waiting will get old, and I'll get stressed about waiting and not being able to do anything about it, because that's me, I tend to be a stresser. However, we are trusting in God's perfect timing and His plan for our family. We know that he's in control and we know that whatever He works out will be nothing less than AWESOME, because that's how he rolls, right? ;-)