Before getting Tristan's referral, life was different. Our reality was paperwork, signatures, stamps and seals. Hard to even imagine a child when you are trying to assemble a dossier.
Post-referral. Wow, life is different now. We have an actual baby picture to stare at. A face with a name. Once you are matched with a baby, you are placed on one wild emotional rollercoaster. This is part of the process that make sane people twitch, mutter and howl at the moon. The paperchasing is over. You are left with nothing to do but wait. And wait. And wait. You wait for the phone to ring. You wait for the mail. You wait for your emails. Since there are about 50,000 things that need to happen successfully to complete the adoption, there are endless opportunities for all sorts of problems, big and small. You have very little recourse if things go wrong. You have to trust your attorney will do what needs to be done to keep your paperwork moving through the system. The months consist of periods of stressful waiting alternating with brief moments of celebration. In the beginning of our process, we moved swiftly through the DNA and family court phase. We knew that momentum would not continue. We stalled while waiting for one of the many preapprovals required. We decided to plan a visit.
