Q: So you have a referral... now what?

A: Wait some more!

What, did you think things would go quickly? Silly you.

We received our unofficial referral two weeks ago today. It's a mini-anniversary! We were asked to update a few papers since our children were in a different region of Russia than we had originally been assigned to. We had a few forms to complete, have notarized and apostilled. We also had some for our homestudy socialworker to complete an notarize along with a slight modification to the homestudy report. The adoption agency caseworker said it might be possible for us to make our first trip in as little as THREE WEEKS! THREE WEEKS... WOW... We were starting a sprint!

We had our paperwork finished in less than a week (it helps to live in the State Capital where you can just drive downtown and get your apostilles while you wait). The social worker also had hers done in a week... but it took the US Postal service several days to actually deliver it to us... maybe one day too many. We were DESPERATELY trying to have everything in by Thursday of last week so that it could be processed before one of the caseworkers was going on vacation. We received the last piece of paper on Wednesday and immediately FedEx'd it to the caseworker (note: I never thought we'd have our own FedEx account, but it was a good idea to get it).

The last document was delivered to our caseworker on Thursday... but I fear we missed our window for going quickly. We REALLY hoped that we would get our next packet of information emailed to us on Friday... maybe even get our travel dates. Instead, we haven't heard anything since Thursday when we received an email telling us that our paperwork had been received and our dossier was being FedEx'd. I know that it's only Monday and it's been just a few days, but it seems like an eternity when you hoped to be going forward quickly. Another gentle reminder that adoptive parents don't always think rationally... and that your adoption is a life and death matter to you, but it's really just another case that is part of someone's job for your caseworkers. It's always good to try to remember that.