Four.

Today marks four months for us on the waiting list for baby #2. If I remember correctly, it was about this time in waiting for Sophie's referral that I lost all sense of rationality and became rather obsessed with the process. I'm feeling a bit of that this time around...granted, it isn't quite as extreme, but I do have my moments! ;-)

We are finding peace in the fact that we most likely won't get our baby's referral until the beginning of next year. There's always that hopefulness that the floodgates of referrals will open up and SURPRISE, we'll get the referral before Christmas! But realistically, we're looking to at least January before #2 will be revealed to us AND that's fine.

The rough days come when there isn't much movement at all in the process for the other families along with us on their journey. I always take great comfort in seeing referrals trickle in and seeing the babies come home to their forever families. Unfortunately, that kind of news has been sparce lately on our adoption discussion boards and really, just any kind of news of the program moving forward, would be such a blessing for all kinds of reasons.

We are also having an "issue" with getting our pre-approval from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). While it isn't imperative that we have our I-171H (the document that the government issues as pre-approving us to adopt a child from another country and bring into our home here in the US) right this second, it really would help to know that there aren't any hiccups with our paperwork and fingerprints. FYI, we got our pre-approval for Sophie within a month of submitting our fingerprints last time around. This time, we submitted our fingerprints back on June 30th and still haven't heard a word. Sigh. Our agency is looking into the matter, but we are fearful that our KC office has slowed down dramatically and that these types of delays will happen when we seek our actual approval after our referral. That could delay our travel to hold our baby. I know, that's all in the future and things could change...no use in dwelling on the "what ifs" right now. BUT, that's all I have to do right now.

International adoption is such a leap of faith and you really do just have to put everything in God's hands and rely on God's timing to get you through! Some days, that's easier to do than others. On those other days, I often turn to my friends, Ben and Jerry! Please pray for peace in the remaining waiting months.

Sophie, in the meantime is becoming such a fun little gal! Her newest and latest joy is in making songs up for just about anything. Last night, we caught her singing something about her macaroni that she was eating at dinner. She's also quite the little chatterbox - there's hardly a silent moment in our house as she wants to discuss even the everyday, mundane tasks. Oh, and everything also has a dance attached to it - like her "time for night-night milk" dance and "put on pajamas" dance. We are so very grateful to have her in our lives - we know that we are incredibly blessed and she really does help to keep our minds off the wait for our next family member.