My Toddlers Aren't Terroists...

Well...not the new ones anyway...

Thought I'd break the silence on the adoption news front since, well, there's finally something to tell!

We received word that our file has officially left the homeland security offices for another US government office. Mind-numbing hoopla. The best part of this stage...it only stays there for a few days before...well, I'm not sure you're prepared for this part...are you sitting down...have your inhalers ready...take whatever heart pill necessary...ok...are we good?!? Now where was I? Oh yes...it only stays there a few days before...

IT IS SENT OFF TO CHINA!!!!!!

And then guess what?!? More sitting down, more pills....

THEN CHINA SENDS US OUR TRAVEL DATES!!!!

Seriously...you may want to lie down now...

THEN ROUGHLY 3-4 WEEKS LATER........AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH.......

WE GO GET OUR BABIES!!!!!!!!!! (who are not terrorists...it's been checked out...for real.)

Is everyone ok out there???

Brief backstory: We've had much more red tape since I last told you about the status in October. Lots of back and forth, major progress met with gridlock delays, joy suffocated in a frustration sandwich...sometimes all in one phase. For example, we thought the majority of the paperwork was finished on our end once the dossier, in all of its splendor, was sent off to China, only to be handed a Great Wall-ish amount of new paperwork to complete. Just to give you an idea of the scope and depth of the saga, one question...just one...said, "List any expenses you've had to date in the adoption process, followed by any anticipated expenses." No, I'm serious. 

So...the administrative one of us got to work again. In case you're wondering, that would not be me. I'm the trophy wife. [snicker...I make up the competition and the rules...pretty much undefeated thus far]

Then we got the big news: "You've been officially matched with your 2 children!" Excuse me, what?!? Pretty sure that'd already happened. But apparently that had been the pre-approval, and then the un-official...but now...drum roll...official. Call me negative, cynical, whatev...but I sent an email off that basically said, "Are you serious?!? What gives?!? Please let me know when to rejoice and when to just keep swimming..." (best part of my night is now you're chanting..."just keep swimming..." and you can't stop! HA! I know...somebody doesn't get out much)

One bright note is that we were allowed to send our application to Homeland Security in advance while we waited for the above official document...only to get a rejection letter because said official document wasn't included...sigh. Anyway, once we received the LSC, we sent it off the next day and began another waiting period. We gave them the week of Christmas and then got in touch with them after returning home from Indiana. 

"Agent X, who's in charge of your case, is on vacation. I'm handling her cases right now...if I could just FIND your paperwork, I could send it off today...hmmm...now where could that be..." Ok...so I added the last tidbit out of a smart aleck heart, but ACK! I didn't know what to be more aggravated with...that X left on vacation without sending our approved paperwork to China, or that said paperwork was indeed MIA. "If you can scan and email all those forms again, we will send it off today!" SO...that's what we did. Suck it up. Do what you've got to do.

I'm choosing to play the glad game, however, (thanks to my friend Charlotte who plays it WAY too frequently) because it was sent off to the next agency this past Friday as I mentioned above, and it will likely be sent to China this next week. OK...happy sigh.

And so, boys and girls, that's the story of the little engine that could. Actually, it's not really about the engine at all. The conductor's the real deal...and He knows just where we're headed...hang on!