The eleventh hour... er, week...

Yes, you read that correctly - this is now week eleven of the wait for the first trip. It feels like forever has gone by and I still have not heard anything about when I will possibly be traveling. My agency has put me in contact with another single mom in the area (area being Illinois - I have no idea where in Illinois she actually lives!) who adopted from St. Petersburg through EAC and she waited FOUR MONTHS for her first trip. The way I understand her timeline, it looked as such:

Last week of February, 2009: Accepted referral
Week of July 4, 2009: Traveled for trip 1 (18 weeks - yikes!)
First week of September, 2009: Traveled for trip 2 (which is court)
Third week of September, 2009: Traveled for trip 3 and brought her little girl home!

Using that as a baseline, my timeline would look as such:
August 17, 2009: Accepted referral!
Week of December 22, 2009: Travel for trip 1 (yes, the week of Christmas)
Week of February 22, 2010: Travel for trip 2/court
Week of March 8, 2010: Travel for trip 3 - come home with RP

Now, I certainly hope that this entire timeline is shorter, and I'm hoping that this would be a "worst case scenario" timeline. I started this process by signing with my agency last February, so bringing her home in February/March would only be 12-13 months for the entire process, which is remarkable considering I am adopting a little girl and the process for girls is estimated around 18 months. My original goal was to be home with my child by Christmas, but that clearly is not going to happen. Now the goal is ultimately to be home by Easter, or her second birthday at the very latest - I cannot imagine celebrating any more holidays or birthdays without my little RP.

I'll keep you posted - please continue to keep RP in your prayers as we wait for time lines and dates to bring her home... :) Until then, the clock keeps ticking, and each minute that goes by is a minute closer to meeting her and bringing her home to her family, where she belongs....

And now, for the response

So, I received a very prompt reply to my e-mail to the Referral Department, which read as follows:

Hi Teri!
I haven't herd anything. I will check with the coordinator and let you know if I hear anything back. I know it is very slow in St. Pete for a first trip. Hang in there and we will talk to you soon!
Take care,
xxxxx

Not what I was hoping for, but hopefully she checks with the coordinator in St. Pete and comes back with good news. I'm trying NOT to focus on the blatant misspelling of "heard" (alright, so it isn't misspelled per se, she just used the wrong spelling of the word for the context in which it was used...)

I'll keep you posted!

I caved...

... and e-mailed the Referral department to see if they either had travel dates for me, or knew about when I could expect them. It has been over nine and a half weeks and this wait is literally causing me to go a bit nutty (okay, okay - a bit nuttier than usual!)! I don't expect to hear anything other than, "we're still waiting and will let you know when we hear something" but at least I feel like I did something to move the process along. Y'all know me and the fact that I am NOT a patient person, so it is pretty remarkable that I've let it coast along for this long without checking.

Keep your fingers crossed for news - and hopefully good news at that!

Nine weeks... and counting

So here we are, working on week ten of the dreaded wait! Nine weeks have come and gone with still no travel dates in sight. I talked to my coordinator last night and she told me, again, that this is typical for St. Petersburg but if I don't hear anything in the next week or two she'll start to stalk the people in the referral department for me to see if we can get a better idea of when I'll travel. Twelve weeks is officially up on November 9 and it would be super-nifty-great to travel before Thanksgiving although I have this gnawing gut feeling that I'll be spending Thanksgiving in Russia with my mom.

On the home front, I heard from the FoF today about the possible domestic adoption situation which I blogged about a long time ago, and there was a truly sad end to that. The girl who was pregnant had her baby a few weeks ago, three full months early, and the baby only survived for two days. I broke down when I read that because the mother was a victim of domestic violence which is why the baby arrived so early. These types of stories make me so MAD because there are a ton of great families out there who would do anything to provide these babies with a loving, nurturing family environment and she didn't deserve to have this happen. I am so thankful that RP's birth mother cared enough about her to place her with the orphanage to try to find a loving home, and this makes me more anxious than ever to bring her home and shower her with the love and affection that she so desperately needs and deserves.

Sorry for such a downer post today - hopefully there will be good news to write about sometime soon. Until then, please keep RP in your prayers and hopefully, before we know it, she'll be home and getting to know each and every one of you!

Working on week nine

Yes, that's right - EIGHT WEEKS have now gone by and still I have no travel dates for trip one. Being sick has made this a good thing, but now that two whole months have gone by and we are two days into week nine's wait, I'm ready for some good news and more importantly, some travel dates. RP is growing older by the day and I am sad to think of everything I am missing of hers - first steps, first words, cutting teeth, learning new things. Most of all, she needs her family - to know that she is wanted and loved, and to feel secure in her future. I am quite certain that she is receiving good care in the orphanage - as good of care as one can receive in an institutional setting anyway. I try to look at every day that goes by as one day closer to bringing her home instead of one day longer I've had to wait, but I'm ready. Now. In my heart of hearts, I'm pretty sure she is too...

Under the weather...

So it is probably a good thing that I am not yet traveling to meet little RP as I have been deathly ill since last Saturday. Two trips to the doctor later I am the proud owner of two antibiotics, cough syrup with codeine, and steroids and STILL I feel crappy. He diagnosed me with a sinus infection, respiratory infection, AND bronchitis (while not ruling out walking pneumonia - go figure!) which is odd because when I went in I really thought I had either the flu, food poisoning, or appendicitis (yep - that pesky side pain is back and the good news about having the surgery last December is that I know for sure it is NOT ovarian cysts!). I am pretty convinced that the doctor that treated me in the Quik Care graduated last in his class in medical school - nice enough, but a bit of a quack.

The bonus to this random, yet lingering, illness is that it occured now, stateside, and not while I am in a foreign country where I don't speak the language (and am not entirely confident that I am covered by Blue Cross/Blue Shield!). NOTHING is going to get in the way of my enjoying my visit to meet my baby girl and with all the drugs I am currently on I should have a clean bill of health when I get ready to go.

Thank god for unanswered prayers, right?

Seven weeks... and counting

Yes, that's right - seven weeks have gone by since I accepted the referral of my beautiful RP and still, no travel dates for Trip 1. At this point waiting is almost becoming second nature, and one would think that a procrastinator such as myself wouldn't mind it, but every day I look at those four precious photos of my beautiful little girl and grow more and more anxious for the day I can hold her, squeeze her, and finally . . . bring her home. It seems as if that day will never come.

My agency coordinator called this evening and at this point I don't even get my hopes up when I see the familiar (440) phone number pop up on my phone. She is awesome and now always sounds apologetic when she calls, saying, "I don't have any news for you - just want to check in and see how you're doing." We made small talk for a couple of minutes and she tells me to just hang on, that this region is slow but steady, and reassures me that my day WILL come. I trust her implicitly, which is odd considering I have never met her, but she has yet to steer me wrong, so I keep holding on to that hope. She let me know not to expect travel dates until probably late November, which just sounds SOOO far away. Hopefully those dates will come sooner than later, and in the interim, I'll just keep waiting!!!