The Waiting Room

WaitingRoom

We announced to our family and friends on May 5th of this year that we are deciding to grow our family through adoption.  On June 3rd, we published our online adoption profile and told the world about our search for a little girl.  By June 11th, we had over 2,000 page views on our profile, a total which is now well over 4,000.  There have been many wonderful – even miraculous – milestones in our journey to adoption thus far.  So, where are we now?

We are in the waiting room.

“So how are things going with your adoption?” is a question that I hear daily.  I’d love to say that our home study is complete, that we’ve found our birth parents, and that we’ve registered for crib bedding and pink onesies.  Unfortunately, my reply is much less thrilling: “we’re busy waiting.”  There are many who wait years to have a forever family.  Many couples struggle for years with infertility.  I am totally aware that the adoption process is a long one.  Still, here I sit … less than thrilled with the wait (my teensy little four month wait).  There is a little angel out there for whom I would wait indefinitely, but I am so anxious to meet this little miracle!  The wait is simply hard to bear.

Let’s talk frankly about waiting.  Nobody loves waiting.  You don’t love waiting in line at the pharmacy for medication that will make you feel better.  You don’t love waiting in line at the post office when you know you have a package waiting to be picked up.  My five-year-old can’t seem to handle the wait time between when a beverage is poured and when the cup finally makes it into his little hands.  When you need chocolate, when you really need chocolate, the wait for Oreos or Ben & Jerry’s (or both) seems unacceptable.

I consider myself a fairly patient person.  I have waited in lines out the door and down the block for a cheese slipper (a heavenly creation topped with heirloom tomatoes from the Fervere bakery on the west side of KCMO).  The better part of a date night has been spent in search of a great snow cone (which, ironically, can be found around the corner from Fervere at Little Freshie).  I have waited in long lines for concert tickets, waited for lights to turn green, and waited for waiters to refill my water.  Many of our readers can likely relate to the eternal wait found in waiting rooms at your pediatrician’s office: the wait that starts with a room full of kids coughing on you and ends with a quick peek in the ear with an otoscope and a “yep.  Your son has an ear infection.”  (Love that wait!)  I have waited to board an airplane to visit my best friend.  I have waited for the right man to marry.  I have even had the pleasure to endure the wait of a nine-month gestation with a beautiful baby at the end.

No matter how glorious, tasty, needed, or desired the treasure is at the end, the wait is just plain tough.  In the words of Inigo Montoya atop the Cliffs of Insanity, “I hate waiting.”

If you know someone who is thinking about placing their child for adoption, you could help end the wait.  Please visit or share our adoption profile:  http://3dadopting.blogspot.com/

Emily
Emily is the happy wife of a fantastic dentist and the mother of three amazing boys ages 11, 8, and 5. Their family moved to Kansas City in 2006 and they have fallen in love with this jewel of the Midwest. Emily has her degree in Graphic Design from the University of Missouri – St. Louis and is passionate about family, art, children’s literature, party planning, gardening, food (namely dark chocolate), and service in her community. She is part of the largest women’s organization in the world, Relief Society, and is very active in her church. Their family has just begun the journey to and through adoption, and she is excited to share this experience with our readers. Her situation is unique in that their family is pursuing an independent adoption, without the use of an agency. They are hoping to add a little girl to their forever family. You can find their adoption profile at 3D Adopting.