10 Not-so-graceful Ways...

Ten not-so-graceful ways to survive the adoption wait:
adapted from
ethiopia.adoptionblogs.com/weblogs/surviving-the-wait

1) Put your adoption agency's phone number on speed dial. Call every week without fail during the entire process, even when advised the wait will still be months. Email for reassurance on all 'difficult' waiting days, such as those containing the letter S. After all, if they hear from you often, they won't 'forget' about you.

2) Sign up on every email list that is remotely applicable to your situation. Check for new email at least once per hour all day long. Check for e-mail from your agency every few minutes. Post on each group at least 3 times a day. For the most pressing questions, use all caps. Ask often if anyone has news about the next step in your process, whether it be referrals or court dates or travel dates.

3) Collect waiting information on every family you have contact with. Use this data to spend hours each day making elaborate time lines, guesstimating:
a. best case scenario
b. most likely scenario, and
c. longest likely wait for each step of the process.
Get very bent out of shape if any stage of your process exceeds the 'best case scenario' timeline. After all, your adoption is special.

4) Google all Vietnamese holidays, mark them on your calendar and worry about how these holidays might slow your process down. Take them off work – you need a break.

5) When you finally get your referral, print out dozens of pictures of your child and give them to anyone and everyone, including that nice checker at the grocery store. Then when you see anyone, talk about nothing but every nuance of your adoption.

6) Ask every traveling family to get pictures of your child, specifying preferred poses and outfits to be worn. Mark their 'return-home' dates on your calendar so that you can email them demanding news within 5 minutes of their scheduled homecoming.

7) Google the city you will stay in. Find your Social Protection Center and hotel. Study every nuance of the satellite maps. By the time you arrive you should be able to find your way around blindfolded.

8) Leap out of the bushes at your mail carrier every day, desperately hoping he/she is bearing news from your agency. Consider installing an alarm that rings indoors when your mailbox is opened in the unlikely chance that the mail carrier arrives while you are in the restroom.

9) Go into a depression at the end of every week, because the arrival of Friday means another weekend to survive until Monday when you can once again hover near the phone/computer/mailbox waiting for news.

10) Read every word of every adoption blog you can find. Copy and paste anything that resonates with you on your own blog (Like we did with this!)