Adopting Grace-The middle.

Where did I leave off? Oh yeah, we went on the official wait list on Feb 17, 2005, starting out at #16. I was already prepared to wait a while. We had an awesome social worker, Pam, who had told us what to expect. What I was not ready for was Frank, along with all adoption agencies in the US, losing their accreditation. The Russian government decided to re-do the way they processed international adoptions and because of this ALL adoptions were put on hold. I think that happened in like April or May, and the worst part was that once they lost them, they had no idea when they would get them back. I was a little upset, but Pam reassured us that this would pass and everything would get back to normal.

 I knew that these things happened and that everything would be alright. 

Meanwhile, at Ed's job, there had been a lot of orders to send people down range to Iraq or Afghanistan. I was kinda nervous that he could be deployed for a year, so we talked about it and he decided to volunteer to go to Kuwait for 6 months. Ed left on August 14. We hadn't moved up on the list at all, so we figured it would be at least a year before we received a referral. While Ed was deployed, I worked and shopped:). 

I painted the room that I hoped our baby girl would like. I tried to stay busy and keep my mind off of the waits, 1)Ed coming home and 2)a referral. I was pleased one day in September when Pam called to say that Frank was the first US agency to receive there new accreditation, the downside was that it expired on May 16, 2006. As soon as this happened, we shot up the list and when Ed came home on February 14, 2006, we were number 1 on the list. I was so happy to have Ed home, and we were so excited to be the top family on the list. We had to rush and re-do several documents because they had expired. On March 21st were 'officially' waiting again. The next few days were particularly hard for me. I wanted a referral and I was so tired of waiting. To top everything off, Russia wanted more documents and more letters of referral and every time I checked my email there was a new message from Pam asking for MORE (not actually Frank, but the Russians). I am not exactly sure of the date, but on either March 28 or 29, Pam called wanting more and I just lost it. I broke down in tears told her and Ed I could not do this. I was so sick of having to prove ourselves to the Russian government that I wanted to just stop the whole thing. I have never felt so sad and hopeless in my entire life. Ed just sat with me and as I listened to Pam, I calmed down. She explained that she knew how tough the last year had been and that it would happen. She told us about a referral of a little girl in Samara, but was not sure when she would be able to be adopted. I knew deep in my heart that we would receive a referral and that I just needed to think positive thoughts. A few days later Ed left to go to DC for school. 

So, I was at home, Ed was in DC, and we continued to wait on

 the "phone call".