And then there were 3...

We heard from Tami, the India program director, this afternoon with an update on our current status. We are now at #3 on the waiting list for a referral. From #5 to #3..how quickly the process seems like it's moving.  I suppose we did most of our waiting before we got onto the list but it feels like we are in motion for the first time and I'm almost afraid if I start to expect anything it will stop moving altogether. It is finally feeling real...we are really adopting a baby..our baby.. and we know we are going to meet our 4th daughter soon (if only by picture and information) and we are getting excited to find out who she is.  It's almost the way we felt when we were pregnant and waiting for our first ultrasound, only instead of seeing black and gray outlines in motion we will be seeing "her" in full color and life.  She has been this idea in my head since I got back from India 10 years ago.  Everytime I passed an Indian baby lovingly carried by her parents on the street,  I wondered if my baby would look like her.  For Todd and I, adoption had always been a part of our future plans, but this little baby has been in my heart before I knew even Todd existed and before I realized I even wanted to have a family biologically.  To see us at this point is amazing and it is a reminder that the dream is about to become tangible. It feels like it's coming full circle for me in a lot of ways. (I plan on posting some on my experience in India when I was there in 2000, at a future and undetermined date...so stay tuned!) 

It's probably a good idea to mention that as close as we are, there are still a variety of factors at play that dictate how this will unfold in the next few months.  One of those being the ACA office is again waiting to renew their license (this is the government agency in India responsible for approving babies for international referral in the first place so they are SORT of important ;) and we need them to get their license renewed as quickly as possible so that they can continue sending out referrals to all those patiently or inpatiently waiting on the waiting list).  The ACA office had their license expire in January and were issued a temporary one (for just 2 1/2 months) in April and it just ran out so I figure it will take them another few months to get the license renewed again, but it may take longer..none of us really know. There are all kinds of licenses that will need to be renewed along this process, this is just one of them.  However, this delay actually works to our advantage at the moment.  We are technically not allowed to accept a referral unless the baby we are referred and our youngest daughter, Emory, are a year apart.  Usually a baby at referral time is about 5-7 months old and Emory is 15 months right now..so we weren't expecting a referral until Aug/Sept at the earliest.  In other words (not as if it happens this way but..), if we got a call today that said "we have a baby for you!" and that baby was 6 months old, we would not be able to accept that referral because Emory and her would be closer than a year apart. India's rules state that the adopted baby and a family's youngest child must be at least a year apart in age.  We knew this way back when we decided to try and get pregnant while going through the adoption process but we never knew if it would interfere with the process or even be an issue at all during it.  So knowing all along that our two youngest kids being too close in age might come up, we currently are just feeling a bit fortunate that we are waiting at a time we had to anyways.  Our plans are to kick back a bit this summer and enjoy the wait! For once it feels pretty good to have our hands tied and be forced to enjoy the present and not always live in a future time.  Happy Waiting to All! :)