Time to Renew

The photo above really has nothing to do with this entry whatsoever. It's just
bright and colorful, and I need that right now! I love papaya. And I appreciate
how in Mexico you get lime with just about everything. I love limes too. OK, now
to get to topic.

Our I-800a is going to expire soon. We will need to renew it since we haven't received a referral yet. I have had this in the back of mind nagging me. And now I know why. There's more to it than just sending in the simple looking form, Supplement 3.

Apparently we need to have a home visit by our homestudy social worker, and the social worker needs to verify that everything is still the same as the original homestudy states. If anything has changed in our circumstances, it must be stated in a report. If everything is the same, the social worker still needs to write a report saying that nothing has changed.

We know our social worker will be sending for new clearances from the places we have lived in the last five years. We've only lived in one location these last five years, so that part is at least not complicated. We probably need other things too like new medical exams. We're getting clarity bit by bit.

So there is a bit of a panic here as we are try to figure out what we need to gather before the deadline, so our approval doesn't expire.

A New Year

Will 2010 be the year? This isn't the first New Year's where I have had that same thought. I know to not take it for granted. Yet we are still hopeful.

We have been on the waiting list for over seven months for siblings aged seven and younger. But recently we opened up the possibility of a single child. Now if a single child becomes available that would make a great fit with us, the DIF will be able to consider us. Right now it's anyone's guess! So, we will see how much longer we will wait.

A lot has changed since we started planning to adopt. We have gone from hoping for a baby to being open to older siblings to being open to whatever child or children the DIF will propose to us. Mexico isn't even the first plan we had for adoption. Then after deciding on Mexico, we thought we were going to submit to one certain state there, but then ended up deciding to submit to another. And things continue to change!

One thing has remained the same. Our goal. To become parents. What matters is making the most of the time we have with our child or children once we become a family. We have been reminded by others who have adopted before us, no matter when you meet your child or how old the child is when you meet him or her, more than likely they will be your sons or daughters for many more years than the years you missed with them.

So, we are taking it one day at a time, seeing what opportunities present themselves, and are trying to remain open. And we wonder what surprises 2010 will bring.