AUTHOR: M. DATE: 10:04:00 PM ----- BODY:

Afrindie Mum asked me: How much longer do you have in the paperchase do you think? Well, here's the thing... we knew when we started this process that our drop-dead, no-earlier-than date for becoming parents was early or mid-May of '06, when I. finishes her graduate program. Last summer we had many discussions over whether we would have our first child through adoption or by getting pregnant. When we finally decided that we would go the adoption route, we decided to start scoping out agencies. We were in no rush, but we went to a few meetings, got lots of information from different agencies, and then found our match-made-in-heaven-agency in probably a month. We were floored to have accomplished even that part of it so quickly, though we do have a history of jumping the gun when we get excited: way back when, Isadora was living with her mom for a while to pay off some bills, and we had planned to move in together when the bills were paid. At some point we thought it would be fun to look at some apartments, "just to see what's out there." You can guess what happened - we loved the first place we saw, decided we had to have it, and spent the next two years paying off said bills. But okay, it was for love and it was worth it. The finding-an-agency process followed the same path, of course, because we were excited. At our first official home study meeting in September, our social worker asked us if we really should be starting the home study then if we weren't ready to have our baby until spring. Being the processing-oriented team that we are, it seemed like it would be just fine to draw out what's generally a 60-90 day process over 6-7 months. I. was busy with school, I was busy with my new position, and of course this would give us plenty of time to overthink the hell out of think through all the big issues that come up in this (here's the p word again) process. Now here we are, 4 months into our home study and 3 months away from being officially done. Tomorrow I have my individual meeting, and then the social worker is coming to our house after the New Year, and then I have no idea what we've even got left, beyond some random paperwork we're supposed to hold onto until February. I think the part about this I'm starting to regret - even though I HAVE greatly appreciated the chance to do this thoughtfully, not in a rush, and connect with other people in the real world and on the Internets, it occurs to me that... We have three or so months to go until we are officially waiting. And today Isadora came home with a backpack carrier a woman she's working for gave her, and it's cute and blue and will someday hold our baby and... I think I may be a nightmare before all this is through. I already am starting to have ants in my pants. Coping strategies, anyone, for ants in the pants and worse?

-------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: Anonymous COMMENT-DATE:1:33 AM COMMENT-BODY:To the above, add cocaine, fanatical religion, psychosis, world conquest, and writing the Great American Novel. -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: avonlea COMMENT-DATE:8:45 AM COMMENT-BODY:Wine and chocolate have always worked for me in other situations, oh yeah, meditation and yoga too.

The waiting will be over before you know it. -See how optimistic I can be since I haven't started yet? --------