Step by step...

We are getting there! I have reached a new peace with the whole process. As long as I do all I can every day, then I cannot worry about the things that are out of my hands. God brought us this child, and He will bring us together in his own time.

Our homestudy agency has finished the report. It has gone to the judge. The judge only works on Thurdays on adoptions. I hope and pray that ours was the only one he had to read yesterday and that he also signed it already. If not, I hope he gets to it soon. We were told it could take 2-3 weeks.

I think I will take all our Arizona documents to the state office on Monday. Then all I will have to take are the homestudy and I -171H when it arrives. I won't send everything on to the consulate until it is complete, but this small step will let me feel like I am getting SOMETHING done. :-)

I feel very much for the adoptive parents that are seeking newborns here in the states. I have ready many blogs about families that so desperatley want the joy of raising a newborn and are waiting to be picked by a birth mom. That journey would be so tough. At least with Nicholas, we know he has been abandoned. There is no worry about someone coming to reclaim him (ok - I do worry about it a little, but not like these families face). I am not being judged in comparison to other families. They looked at our family, decided we would make good parents, and we were matched with Nicholas. No birthmom contact as she struggles with her choice of parenting or adoption.

We do think about Nicholas's birth parents. I cannot imagine the struggle of making the choice to give up a child, especially in China to give up a boy over a year old. His mom must mourn for him every day. I wish there was some way I could reassure her that he will be loved, he will grow and be happy, he will get an education and have the life that she hoped for him when she placed him on that doorstep.

Nicholas, I'm coming...not too much longer!