They said 'YES'!

We proposed with a lovely, organized mound of paperwork that included all of our personal and public history. They new we didn't have herpes and how much we still owed on our mortage, probably some questions a few people wouldn't have minded knowing prior to taking the plunge. We laid it all out there. China said, let me think about it, I need to be sure I'm ready and.......after a long, long, long, did I mention long, 3 months after Naomi's referral, they said 'yes'! We finally received our Letter of Acceptance from China last Tuesday. Never has a summer lasted so long, we pretty much went from Memorial Day to past Labor Day waiting for this piece of paper to change our lives. The bad thing was it was taking longer than expected and there were many, many people waiting, some a month longer than us, which was scary. Our Letter of Acceptance is China's official acceptance of us as Naomi's future parents and of her specifically as our daughter. The adoption is not completed until we sign the papers in China. We received it in the mail on Thursday at which time all paperwork was promptly FedEx overnighted to it's next stop. I've never been so happy to start engaging my FedEx account again. They should give adoptive families some sort of special FedEx card that affords you exclusivity. Exclusivity to what, I'm not sure, maybe a specially designed envelope or....just something to fill my need to feel special. I'll spare you the boring details but bascially the US government is working on our paperwork for the next month and a half probably and then everything back to China's government who will approve us to travel and then we set our travel dates. Our agency optimistically told us very late November to December to expect to leave! I'm thinking we leave closer to Christmas but we will see.

For the first time in 3 years we feel us becoming a family of three is going to happen, and happen soon. We've allowed ourselves to think of Naomi as our daughter but truthfully
it was too difficult at times during these three months to look at her picture or believe that was true. It was way too much to lose. To think in three months I will be holding my daughter not having to wonder what her little fingers will feel like, or how big she really is, or if we are right about her personality, is beyond words.

The last 3-4 weeks of the wait was nothing short of terrible, but we made it. And we are again stronger for it. We did have some ways we coped, some for better and some for worse, and since I haven't had a top ten list since November, I thought I would take another crack at one. Families adopting in the waiting process take notice, you may want to try some of these, then again you may just think there is something wrong with us.

Top 10 Things to Do or Learn While Waiting for Life Altering News
1. Download more Fleetwood Mac, it's suprisingly calming music.
2. Let go of your inner beer snob and go back to drinking cheap beer. Did you know you can get an 18 pack of Miller Lite bottles for less than $14? It's true.
3. Stop buying lottery tickets just because managing the money will "give you something to do" while waiting for the news. If you win a dollar on one it's not a victory if you just spent $5. We are high rollers.
4. Start watching Hoarders and Intervention on Monday nights on A&E, it does make you feel better about yourself.
5. The precise ratio of songs on your workout mix should be 70% angry, rage releasing music (think Eminem and Kanye West) and 30% hopeful (think Buble and U2). I've never been a Buble fan but this adoption has brought his infectiousness into my world. Don't judge me, I think it will fade. Bonus, I've lost 12 pounds in the past 6 months, bad news I have 10 more to go before China (3 months).
6. You can redo your kitchen and then just look at it, you don't need to cook in it.
7.  Dogs can get sympathetic depression. Baxter went past dysthymia and into full blown depression some nights with us.
8. Curse words feel good.
9. Giada at Home can make you cry if she is planning a meal for a family outing, but you will watch the whole episode because some day your families might be friends.
10. You are a whole lot stronger than you think you are.

Okay so some of those are said for humorous purposes, but all based in true events. In all truth, we made it, we weren't sure we would, but we did. And they said YES!