Waiting Has Become My New Hobby

It seems my life has revolved around waiting the past few years.  So, rather than letting it drive me crazy I have decided it is my new hobby.  And who doesn't want to take up a hobby they are really good at?

Wait, wait, wait...we waited month after month to see if we would be having a bio child.  Then when we decided to adopt, we waited for info from agencies and waited to attend their workshops and webinars.  On to the wait to be approved for the China program.  Next came waiting for our homestudy to begin and end, waiting for it to be approved and then waiting for USCIS (Immigration) to approve us to be adoptive parents.  Oh, and how can I forget the waiting for documents from government agencies to arrive and then the waiting while stuff went back and forth for certifications and authentications?  And of course the big wait for our dossier to be reviewed by our agency, sent to China and logged in.  But the biggest wait of all was the most intense, the wait to be matched with a child.  Waiting for the new shared lists to come out.  Waiting for our WC group to send files for us to review when we asked for them.  Waiting for responses to all of our questions.  Waiting for that phone call!

Some would think that after you've been matched all the worry and waiting becomes relatively easy.  We are now waiting for our PA (pre-approval) which our agency says takes 2-4 weeks.  Then we will wait for our LOA/LSC (formal approval) which they have told us to expect in 75-100 days.  So, potentially we could be waiting over 4 months before we are officially recognized as the parents of "our" child!  And all during that 4 months there are so many things to worry about.  What if they don't think we are the right parents for the child...what if someone else submitted their LOI first and we lose the referral..what if they question something in our dossier...what if our paperwork gets lost and there are delays.  And on and on and on.

The crazy thing is there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the timing of the process.  I've seen families who've waited a month for PA.  Some who got PA in a few days but waited 4 months for LOA.  There are families who got PA in a week, LOA in 11 days.  There is not point in trying to estimate how long we will wait, so I've decided to make a hobby of it.  Rather than checking my e-mail every five seconds, I approach it as a hobby -- something I spend just a small portion of my day on and then move on to other things.  Speaking of which, there is a kitchen floor waiting to be cleaned with my name all over it!