Radio Silence

Since it has been a while since the last update, I thought I should report -- that we have nothing to report. Sigh. This is not unexpected; however, it is still depressing. We are only on day 42 of the dreaded LOA wait. To put that into perspective, we endured an appalling near-110 day wait with Ethan. So, yes, I know it's a little early in the process to start agonizing, but to be honest, that ship sailed on, oh, about day 10. We have been looking at Carter's sweet little face for nearly seven months now. We have been provisionally approved to adopt him for nearly six months. As I have said before and will likely say again, the wait is bad enough, but the not knowing is excruciating. If there was a definitive wait time, I could make my peace with that. Well, maybe. At any rate, I guess we'll never know. The LOA wait is a crap-shoot. (Charming turn of phrase, huh?) We could be within days of hearing those beautiful letters applied to our process. I mean, it used to be 4-6 weeks after a dossier was out of translation that people would receive their letter, and we are 4 1/2 weeks out of translation, so.... However, the average time right now is in the mid-70-day range. Blah. Then, to make it even more stressful, that is an average. The average for Ethan was certainly NOT 100+ days!

On the bright side, though, we did get to ask for an update, and that will be sent out at the end of this week. Hopefully before the end of the month, we'll have new pictures and information. All this said, we know that God's timing is perfect, and we will travel when the time is right for us to travel. Last adoption, had we not had that interminable wait, we would not have traveled with a certain other couple who have become a part of our family now. (Not exactly in-laws, so we've adopted the term out-laws!) Anyway, the operative word is patience. Easier said than done when you have THIS waiting for you on the other side of the world: