Just Us

So, how’s your adoption going? This is the question I get almost daily, and really, I don’t mind. I enjoy explaining the process of adoption to others. If you’re not personally involved in it or connected in some way, it can be hard to understand sometimes, especially since many times it is such a long process. So, how is our personal journey going? Once again we are in a waiting period “hurry up and wait”. We have done everything on our end that we need to do at this point. Our dossier (lots of paperwork) is in Ghana, and we are currently waiting for a referral of a child from Ghana. When will we receive that information? Well, according to our adoption agency, it will be “any day now”. Which literally means it could be tomorrow, or it could be in the next month or two. Right now it is out of our hands and out of the hands of our agency and is in the hands of the government of Ghana. There are some other families that are in front of us, and once those families have been proce...

This seems to be the mantra of many adoptive families, and the more I'm in this process, the more I understand it. In fact, this has become my go-to description when talking to friends and family that ask how the adoption process is going - "hurry up and wait" is my response. You fill out forms as fast as you can... and then you wait. You complete training in record time.. and then you wait. You collect official copies of every single certificate ever associated with your life before they're even asked for... and then you wait. Your application is accepted, you rush to fill out the next set of forms... and then you wait again. Those of you that have never gone through this process may think I'm exaggerating a bit, but really I'm not. There are so many processes during an adoption that are not in your control, so much of waiting on other people and governments. Even so, my personal desire and drive is to do everything that is in our control as thoroughly and ...