Can I just say that the adoption process is so hard? My heart is so ready to complete our family by means of adoption, but our wait is still so long. I read an email update from our agency today on the way home from the lake and it said that the wait time for a toddler (male or female) age 0-4 is now 36-42 months. The math is getting harder to do... I'm math stupid, but if 12 months= 1 year, and 24 months= 2 years, and 36 months= 3 years, that means that 42 months= 3.5 years... and they added that they expect this trend of slowing down to continue. We have been "paper pregnant" for 16 months. So, this means that as of today and the current wait times, we have about 24-30 MORE months to go. I can't imagine what that number will be in 2 more years...
We are required to update our home study and other paper work every year. That process was so hard to be motivated to do this year because I know that doing so does not speed up our adoption. It's money and time spent for nothing, in my mind. Can you tell I'm feeling defeated/frustrated? We hear from time to time "how is the adoption going?' and that question is so tough to answer- I wish there were more to tell, but all I can say is that we are still waiting and will be for quite awhile.
One might ask, why don't you just switch agencies or countries? It's not that easy. Making either of those switches would cost quite a bit of money, not to mention that things could be just as slow or slower with a different country or agency. As of now, our feelings are still strong for Ethiopia. We know this is the journey we have been called to. They said it wouldn't be easy. I know what that means now. Adoption is not for the weak, and we don't even have our child yet.
In closing, I got a message today that our fundraiser site is shutting down. You have until
October 1st to order a t-shirt to support our fundraiser. The link is: http://www.adoptionbug.com/thegronberg6/
Thank you for your continued support and encouragement. The road is long, but before long we'll bring our child home. I'll keep my chin up and focus my thoughts on the reason we're going through this in the first place! God's got this, and we need to trust in His plan for our family!
