So close you can taste it...

Having a 3 year old daughter who lives half a world away from me SUCKS. I try to be patient but today I’m not having much success. Not for any particular reason (if only it were that easy) just a general malaise that builds little by little each day my daughter is apart from me. It often hits me shortly after I celebrate reaching a milestone (like last week’s NVC letter) and then realize that still she is not here. The patience and endurance required is literally numbing. Sometimes I can’t believe that we have been in this mode for more than three and a half years. But that is nothing compared to the wait since we’ve known who our daughter is. That has been by far the most excruciatingly difficult part of all.


If you haven’t been through an adoption think of it like this, you haven’t eaten all day; you’re starving so you go to a restaurant. It’s a good restaurant and as always there is a line of people waiting to be seated, so you go to the end of the line. After a time you make your way to the front (hooray you’re at the front) only to have the Hostess give you a pager and tell you the actual wait is an hour (boo you have to wait some more). An hour goes by but your pager doesn’t buzz. You watch as another party is seated (you are certain they arrived after you). You check in with the Hostess and she promises it will be just a few minutes longer. She tells you you’re the next to be seated (you think about going to another restaurant but the wait is long everywhere and since you would have to go to the back of that line and since the food here is REALLY great you decide to stay). A half hour later your buzzer goes off and you rush to the Hostess, who finally brings you to your table. Now since you spent the last 90 minutes studying the menu you know just what you want to order and you are more than ready to eat. Just then, the waitress hurries by apologetically, "I’ll be right with you" she promises as she disappears without explanation.

BUT TO REALLY GET A SENSE OF THE PATIENCE REQUIRED TO ADOPT ….

Now imagine the waitress after her inexplicable absence comes back and says “I’m really sorry but I need to take a break right now. I’m not sure how long I will need so just be patient and enjoy looking at the menu until I get back. I know you are hungry but I promise the food is soooooo good it will be worth the wait.”

Well it's something like that.