Say WHAT?????

When our social worker came today for our home visit some of the first words out of her mouth were, "We received 5 unexpected referrals this week and that puts you at number 7 on the list so we need to talk."

All I can say is WOW! When we signed with our agency in January we were told to expect an 18-24 month wait for a referral...and then an additional 3-5 months until we brought the child home. This new and sudden surge in referrals means we could receive a referral as soon as November IF WE WERE READY.

Problem is, we can't be ready in November. We will be paper ready, emotionally ready, and financially ready, but we just can't do it because a November referral would mean baby would be ready to travel sometime between January and April...same time as my internship, which will be highly intensive and also involve a major research project.

So, the plan is to defer receiving a referral until at least January. By doing this, we may not actually receive a referral in January, but this would be the earliest. Because we hope to adopt a girl it is also very possible that an additional month or two could pass with only boy referrals (this is quite common for Korea). I will try to accumulate extra internship hours early in the semester, and if baby arrives before the end of the semester then Carl will take leave until I am done.

All day I've been thinking how ironic it is that we are actually having to slow the process down. When we adopted Alex we experienced multiple delays, uncertanties, and all around major drama. When you want something to happen fast, it doesn't...for this adoption we planned for delays that haven't panned out so far. Am not complaining though, this is great news!

This week I need to finish up some more paperwork, including correcting a problem with the I-600 A application which was returned to us by Immigration today. It seems that they only accept personal checks if you file the form in person (in Chicago)...so I need to go get a money order asap and resubmit to avoid the fee increase which goes into effect July 31st.

More updates later...