Monday, September 25, 2006

Flattery and Fear

I feel like I spent all weekend working on adoption paperwork. Well that and chasing after my kids, attending 2 birthday parties, doing laundry, and cleaning the house… but those things are par for the course around here. I pulled out tax returns, birth certificates, insurance folders, and budget worksheets and spent hours surrounded by Paper Mountains.

I feel like I have a handle on it all so far. I have a cute little file box that I can tote around with me if needed. Everything is color coded and properly filed. My Capricorn anal retentiveness is finally coming in handy. Z-Man fills out whatever I tell him to, gets what ever form I ask him to, signs on the dotted line, and otherwise just tries to stay the hell out of my way! He is not exactly detail oriented. The only thing left to finish is our autiobiography. I can only work on mine for a couple of hours at a time before I'm burt out on it.

We have had a few referral letters from friends and family trickle in to us this week. It’s actually really embarrassing for me to read these. I wish they would just send them on to the agency with out us having to proof read them first. (Although it’s nice to know that we aren’t getting any horrible referrals) Today Princess’s teacher gave us her amazingly flattering letter to look over. It made me cry to hear the kind way she expressed her admiration of our family and her sincere belief that we would make an excellent family for an adopted child. She said that if there was any family prepared to meet the challenges of raising a child of another race, it was us. *sniff sniff*

On Friday, we mailed of our adoption agency contracts all signed and notarized with our first really big payment. It’s starting to feel more official now, but still doesn’t seem like we are going to have a child at the end of all this. I wonder when it all really starts to sink in. We are going to be parents again. We are officially in the mist of the adoption equivalent of trying to conceive. Soon we will be a family of five. Although I know all of these things, it just doesn’t seem real yet.




4 comments:

Maggie said...

Nothing makes it feel more real than that first big check!

I have a color-coded expanding file with all my Russian adoption paperwork meticulously sorted and filed. Sounds like we're two anal-retentive peas in a pod!

Melissa said...

congrats on getting your paperwork mostly done. Yeah, when the bank account dwindles, you know you are in deep!

Deb said...

Congratz on getting the paperwork sent off.

Anonymous said...

Wow -- congrats on your progress!!

I think it started to feel real when we got our referral, then a little more real when we saw her eyes, and then big-whammo real when Steve went to Ethiopia to meet her.

Now we're just drowning in reality -- time to bring her home!!