Friday, November 21, 2008

ONE YEAR!!!

Today is November 21st and we have now officially been waiting for Clarissa for one year. November 21st last year was the day our paperwork went to Korea and we were officially put on the waiting list.

We've officially been waiting one year but we actually started our adoption journey many months before that. I think that it was about May or June of last year that we finally made the decision to look into adoption and we started requesting info from agencies. I think that it was around July that we settled on Korea, paid the application fee with our agency and got the ball rolling.

The application process to adopt internationally is brutal. It's an incredible amount of paperwork and other hoops that must be jumped. Doctor exams, background checks, social worker visits, papers that have to be notarized...it seemed like that part of it went on forever.

So even though I'm celebrating our official one year wait today, the wait has technically been more like a year and a half. Frankly, it SEEMS like it's been more like 36 decades. It's been so long that I can barely remember the days when we WEREN'T waiting anymore. It seems like this has just always been an ongoing process.

But today is a good day. I remember last November 21st, wondering where we'd be this November 21st, and now here we are. And really, as I look back over the past year, not a lot has changed. Maybe this year has been the calm before the storm! The past several years of our lives have brought a lot of changes to our home and our family, but this past year was actually fairly uneventful. We took some fun little vacations and had a lot of great family time, but not much changed in our lives this year. I'm glad for that actually. The previous three years were literally just a whirlwind of change and a fair amount of stress accompanying it. It was nice to kind of sit back this year and enjoy our family and look forward to the changes ahead of us.

So now I wonder what we'll be doing next November 21st. By next November Clarissa should be getting settled into our family and hopefully the adoption stress will be mostly behind us. This time next year there will be dolls on my Christmas shopping list! This time next year we probably will have just celebrated Clarissa's first birthday and I hope that we'll be finishing up the requirements to have the adoption finalized with the courts. This time next year I'll be taking a family Christmas photo and I'll finally not be left with the feeling that someone is missing.

I have so much hope and excitement for the year ahead. This adoption has really consumed my life for such a long time now and I'm so excited about the adventure ahead. I hope that this time next year we'll be moving on to the next phase of our lives, happy and content, blessed with three beautiful children. I look forward to the day when this blog and this journey to adoption becomes just another chapter in the book of my life. One day it will be fun to look back on all of this and remember this year and all that we went through to bring Clarissa home.

So here we are, one year older, one year wiser and one year closer to Clarissa. If I can get through a year I can get through the next 4-6 months until we can finally see a picture of sweet Clarissa and then finally hold her in our arms. The wait is winding down and I have nothing but excitement for what is to come.

1 comment:

J said...

I've been following your blog for awhile now, and just wanted to say that I am so excited for you! I can't wait until you get to meet your little girl. I am definitely looking forward to that post! Have a great day!