Frustrated

The adoption process can be very cruel.  You gather every piece of information about yourself, write a biography, have medical exams, etc., and have a social worker examine your lives to make sure that you are good enough.  (Can you imagine if people had to do this just to have children?  I think that there would be a lot less children!)  The social worker then writes a report on you/your family and all that paperwork then as to be notarized, only to then have a super-notary (apostille) from the state before going to Russia.  Oh and in the meantime, you have to get your fingerprints taken like a million times.  Apparently once is not gonna cut it.  You have to do it for the state for their background check, and then for the federal government for their background check.  But of course the feds need more than one copy and they need fancy copies.  So Ted and I had to go out to a not-so-nice area of town this morning and have biometric fingerprints taken (they are done on a computer so no nasty ink this time) for Immigration (i.e. the Department of Homeland Security).  But at least that is done and now we just have to wait (more on that in a bit) for Immigration to pre-clear us and our little girl. 
But on to the waiting. I know that in my last update I was all upbeat about getting some good news.  Well, the news wasn't as good as I thought.  Yes, we are through the last step with Immigration which is great, but it looks like it won't be until the end of this month (as opposed to the beginning) until we are officially registered in the Russian adoption system and find out what region in Russia our little girl will be coming from (and where we will be travelling to meet her and bring her home).  The translation process is taking longer than usual, for some unknown reason.  Ted wonders why they don't just use Google Translater, but in all seriousness, it seems like it could be a little faster.  I guess that is just a common theme with adoption.  Once you are registered, the usual wait time is 6-9 months until you are matched with a child.  And then we have the two trips over there (generally around 2 months apart) before we can bring her home.  So if we are lucky, we may be matched by March, let's say.  Then we have the first trip in April and the second in June.  Then we will probably come home in July.  But it could be later.  And that is a very hard reality that is starting to sink in - especially when I had been thinking that it was going to be in the April time-frame of bringing her home. 

So, the short of it is that it will just be LONGER and more WAITING until we get our daughter.  I am trying to hold on to the thought and knowledge that it is all in God's hands and He has the perfect little girl for our family and the waiting is necessary.  Patience is a virtue, I know, and one that I really need to work on.  But it is so frustrating when I look at all the time nad effort we have put into it.  I am trying to look at the bright side of our reality, but when I had my mind on something sooner, it is hard to change without feeling disappointed and frustrated.