Club Membership

Today I became a member of a club I'd rather not be a part of. In adoption talk I've been admitted to the "Quicksand Club." That means today marks 200 DAYS in PGN waiting for Guatemalan officials to approve Isabelle's adoption. It was supposed to be a max of an 8 week wait. Oh well. I've spent the last 100 days as a member of the "Copa Club," but now I've been promoted, if you can say that!

I'm just praying I'm not still at it to join the 3-Neopolitan-3 club...that comes at 300 days and we don't have to worry about that because you'll find me on the funny farm long before that :) On a more serious note, as hard as the wait is for me, I am grateful to know that Isabelle is happy and healthy and being loved to pieces every day! I miss her, but at least I am not worried about her. Also, I'm not worried about IF I'll bring her home...it's just a matter of WHEN!

Unfortunately the longer I've been in the process the more people I've met or chatted with or read their blogs, and the more stories I've heard, the more heartbreak I've seen. The person who has been in PGN the longest, according to one list I follow, has been in for over 900 days - first went in November 2005. Others are struggling with difficult foster care situations where their children are not receiving the care that they should, have learned that their agency has gone bankrupt and taken their payments, have not been able to locate their birth mothers, have had birth mothers who are unwilling/unable to cooperate, have gone through years (or sometimes as much as a decade or more) of infertility and/or miscarriages ... the pain and suffering that others are going through makes me grateful that things have gone as well as they have. I thank God daily for Isabelle's foster family and for the sweet girl who will be mine and who will be home SOON!

I'm still hoping to visit...won't know if that is a possibility until after Monday when I ask my agency. I long to hold Isabelle in my arms again and to snuggle with her in the mornings in my bed (my favorite time!)