Keeping busy, busy, busy!! (part 2)

During the paper chase phase of the adoption there were always things to do and to look forward to, short term goals. Sending off for all your official documents, doctor visits, home study orientation, home study, home study, and more home study, police background checks, finger printing, receiving all the paperwork, running to get everything notarized & certified. Then the big send off of all the documents to be authenticated, where you then received your first official document with Chinese writing on it! And let's not forget the daily stalking of the postman, that alone was a full time job. Then off to your agency went the precious documents where you anxiously waited to hear if everything was OK and done correctly so that you could be DTC and then you had a relatively short wait to LID, the final, the end of the paper chase. So much to do, so much to look forward to, there always seemed to be something you were grinding away at.

Then you became LID and life calmed down. You knew that you had done everything you could, it was out of your hands and you had approximately six months to wait until referral. So you planned your final vacation before baby, you worked on the nursery, started buying adorable clothes, joined numerous DTC groups and secret pal swaps, started collecting fabric for you child's 100 Good Wishes Quilt and even started a group of local adopters, all of whom were also waiting. But then somewhere along the way, referrals slowed down and life came to a grinding halt. Because your life was unpredictable and up in the air, not knowing when you'd receive your referral and travel to your baby, you put most of your plans on hold and all you did was wait and wait some more, obsess and even meltdown!

Well as I've said before, I'm sick of it!!! In my previous post I talked about all the local activities that we're looking forward to, but even more exciting, is that I now have two trips planned. I've already posted that Eammon and I have a wonderful trip planned for our Anniversary in September for eight days of all-inclusive fun in Barbados!! I've been asked, what would happen if by some miracle we receive our referral in August. Trust me, we'll happily postpone the Barbados trip as we'll be too busy getting everything ready to travel to Baby S, which is way more important! The second trip (which is actually the first as it's in August) is a girls trip. I'm flying off to Utah to first spend a few days with the incredible Kim Brown* and her family and then I'm hooking up for a number of days of fun, shopping, sight seeing, gossiping, gallivanting and trouble making with fellow bloggers Donna, Julie, Lisa & Tiffany. I'm so excited to meet all these girls, I feel as if I know them already from their blogs.

OK, to all you people out there wondering if I'm out of my mind, flying halfway across the country to meet and stay with strangers that I know nothing about or how they can allow me, a stranger into their lives and homes, think about the following. All these girls and families have been subjected to everything I spoke about above. I probably know more about them than I know about my neighbors. I know that all of these people are hepatitis and HIV negative, they all have clear police records and thanks to them all being fingerprinted, I know that they aren't wanted by the FBI for anything nefarious, overall I think that I have nothing to worry about other than having too good of a time.

*In an upcoming post I'll explain fully why I keep referring to Kim as the "incredible Kim Brown"...I promise!