I Have a Confession to Make

Sometimes (quite regularly, actually) I read other people's adoption blogs just to look at pictures of their beautiful children and imagine who our kids might be someday. I recently discovered that our agency has a SnapFish account where people post pictures of their trips to Ethiopia so other adoptive parents can scan the hundreds of photos and look for pictures of their soon-to-come-home children. I also peruse this site religiously and imagine that the kids in the pictures might someday be living here, with us, as part of our family. (It is also a great way to better understand where our kids will be coming from when they finally do come home).

I honestly believe this part of the adoption journey - the long part where you don't know who your kids are yet - is going to be the toughest for me (at least prior to the kids coming home - I am sure there will be different challenges after that). Sometimes I feel guilty because nothing is really happening on the home study end of things (just waiting for our last reference letters to arrive in San Diego) and there is nothing else I need to "do" to help the process along and I loose my excitement and anticipation for the whole thing. I almost forget that we are even in the process of adopting. Fortunately, as soon as our home study is complete, which should be very soon, we will have to start working on our dossier. That will get my head back in the game so to speak. Until the real waiting begins...

I have read quite a few adoption blogs from the very beginning, like some of you have been reading ours, and some of them get really whiny leading up to the point in time when people get their referral or afterward if things don't progress through court quickly. I have vowed not to let this blog become a repository for any whines I may be feeling. I think this post is more in the musing/confessional sort of a vein, but if I head toward whiny at any point, please feel free to let me know. Nobody likes to listen to, or read, a whiner.

Here is a photo from our agency's website to give you a taste of what is available on the private Snapfish account. Full credit for this photo needs goes to Adoption Advocates International; I "borrowed" it.