Every day you make progress...

I have been meaning to write, and meaning to write, and meaning to write...and the result is that I have gone six weeks since writing anything here; which is a shame, because as so much has happened, the thought of writing this post has been a bit overwhelming.  Which means this post is actually shorter than it could be, and is only one post, as opposed to several.

Anyway, as I have written about several times, Jackie and I are in the midst of the adoption process.  I've wrote about the decision to explore the adoption, taking the first steps, about being "approved" and beginning the waiting process, and I've written about how we've been busy trying to prepare ourselves for the financial costs associated with adoption (shameless plug here - our fundraising page).  When Jackie and I started the process, I think we genuinely felt that it would probably be next year before we would hear anything - there's always more adoptive families than birth-mothers wishing to place their child for adoption, which typically means that you wait awhile.  While the agency told us (and everyone else that was signing up the same time we were), that they had an unusually high number of birth-mothers they were working with, we still felt it would be awhile.   Part of this is self-preservation I suppose - its not something you can control, in any respect, and so you do your best to prepare yourself to wait.  And this was okay...we were simply happy to be moving forward and looking forward to something positive after the trials of infertility, it was okay if that hopeful place lasted awhile.  It was also okay because it gave us more time to continue to save money for the process, and have all those little changes we made start to add up to some real savings.

But, just about six weeks ago I think, we got a call from our adoption agency that there was a birth-mother that reviewed our profile and was interested in talking to us and meeting us.  Jackie called me at my office (which she never does - talk about a moment of freak out), filled me in on what she had learned, and we were calling the birth-mother that night - nerve wracking on so many levels.  But it was a good conversation; she was easy to talk with, and we learned much about her and her situation, and why she was considering adoption.  A week or so later, we met her and the coordinator from the agency for lunch.  This was also good, and continued to move things forward.  We were excited, and she was excited for us (which is a good feeling to have).  Things continued to move forward.

(Small digression - all of our meetings and conversations with her and others as we continue along this specific adoption path has continued to reinforce the idea how fortunate Jackie and I are simply by the accident of our birth.  We were each so very fortunate to be born to parents who loved each other, had a stable life, and were able to provide opportunities for us, and in an area where there were a plethora of resources and opportunities.  There are many, many individuals that do not have that, simply because of when or where or to whom they were born, not because of any choice they made. It's good to be mindful of such facts, I think).

And they continue to move forward today.  The baby's due date is probably around the end of December to early January (the "exact" date is a little up in the air based on current information, but the birth will probably occur sometime in that December-early January range).  We've received ultrasound pictures for the baby, not that we really know what we are looking at, though I think we finally figured it out.  We have also learned that the baby will be a girl.

This is all very exciting, but in honesty, the difficult part is balancing that excitement.  Nothing is for certain in this process, and there's a bit of self-preservation (again) in making sure one doesn't get too over the top excited about what is, obviously, a great thing.  After almost six years of when we first started thinking about having children, Jackie and I could be only 8 weeks away from having a little girl in the house. (8 weeks!).  

So, we continue to move forward...being excited, very excited at times; trying to remain cautious and balanced with our emotions; but most of all, just looking forward to the prospect of a daughter and the starting a "new normal" of which we've long hoped, and continuing our journey towards parenthood, and the adventures beyond.


"Every day you make progress.  Every step may be fruitful.  Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path.  You know will will never get to the end of the journey.  But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb." - Winston Churchill