Swept Away....

These are the words to a song about adoption - one that has touched me deeply because the words are SO very true to how I feel right now - complete with goosebumps and the occasional tear!

Swept Away ~ Geoff Moore

We would say your name a hundred times a day
like speaking words in faith
with a mixture of - hope and fear and trust
we prayed for strength to wait
and dream of how we'd feel the day
you'd be in our arms
and

swept away
caught up in our love
home to stay
you'll never be alone
you'll be amazed
at how much you are loved
life will never be the same
when you're swept away

what once was just a dream
is reaching out for me
I hold her in my arms
Lord, thank you for the way
you held her all those days
that we had to be apart
and now I see
the impossible dream
is holding me
and I'm...

swept away
caught up in your love
home to stay
I'll never be alone
and I'm amazed
at how much I am loved
life will never be the same
I've been swept away

swept away
caught up in our ove
home to stay
I'll never be alone
and I'm amazed
at how much I am loved
our lives will never be the same

Good News!

This just in....
The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before June 28, 2005.

Finally! Some movement that suggests they are working hard to get back to bigger referral batches. This batch of referrals is 13 days worth of Log-in-dates. The previous months have seen 5, 7, and then 9 days worth. A move in the right direction!

This also means that by the next batch, they will be in July! MY month! Yeah!!!!!

My LID is 7/20/05. IF they were to match 13 days at a time from now on, I would receive my referral August! AUGUST! That's only two months away. TWO MONTHS! It's starting to feel real again!

There is absolutely NO way to know for sure what CCAA is going to do - but this forward movement is a very good thing.

Welcome to Suckeyville

So - today was the day that I have been silently dreading for about a month now. The notification from my adoption agency that I will indeed need to start the process for renewing some of my adoption paperwork. About 60% of the stuff that I've already done once. The list includes but is not limited to: medical forms, employment forms, police clearance forms, fingerprinting (again - because, you know, fingerprints expire!), homestudy update, and a significant chunk of change to make all of the above happen.

Sigh....as if the first time around was not fun enough!

The reason? Many. One of the approval forms that is needed is called an I-171H. This is our approval from the US Govn't to adopt a foreign orphan. They put an 18 month expiration date on this. Mine will expire on 10/14/06. My agency cannot guarantee (nobody can, really) that I will be home with Maya before that date. Since it can take 3-4 months to get the NEW I-171H, they want to make sure that there are no delays in travel once referrals DO come in.

There's a bit of a domino effect. In order to get a new I-171H, I have to have state approval, which requires another form (I-600A). In order to get THAT form, I have prove that I am still a suitable adoptive parent - hence the updated homestudy. In order to get the I-600A, I have to be fingerprinted - again - because apparently they do not keep those nifty little electronic fingerprint files beyond the FBI background check. I guess. Nobody seems to be able to explain that one. Which makes me wonder if my fingerprints would miraculously re-appear should I commit some horrible crime?

There you have it - the latest drama in my mostly drama-free life!