In previous conversations, I've compared our adoption journey to a roller coaster. On closer inspection, it's more like an entire amusement park which I've fondly dubbed Adoption Adventure Land. We've been living at this amusement park for 2 years now and we're currently on the most breathtaking ride yet. We hopped on this particular ride on September 10, 2012, when we received word that 2 more little girls, Chelley and Naika, would be joining our family. Prior to that, we'd been on the Paperwork Tilt-a-Whirl and had gone several laps on the Fundraising Go-Kart track and those had their own unique moments of joy and anxiety. This Referral Roller Coaster was definitely our favorite and was cruising along nicely, until it suddenly broke. We were left hanging upside down on one of those corkscrew turns for 7 months. No one could really tell us when the ride would be fixed, or even if anyone was even attempting to fix it.
On April 24th, 2013 I was ready to release my safety buckle and hope for the best. I just wanted off. this. ride. All of a sudden, on April 25th, the roller coaster started moving again and we were instantly transported to one of the highest points we'd experienced thus far. We could see for miles and were just so happy to be moving again that we didn't really mind the craziness of the ride. Of course, everyone knows that what goes up must come down and so we came cruising down the hill and coasted while waiting for our travel dates. Almost 2 weeks later, we received travel dates that were less than 2 weeks away! Could we go to Haiti to meet our girls May 21st through the 24th? Um, YES, sign us up!! And so we swept up to the top again, our stomachs in our throats but big smiles on our faces!!
Now, we're cruising around another hairpin turn, holding on for dear life and waiting to be told that the U.S. Embassy in Haiti can see us next week and that we will indeed be able to get off this ride and go meet our girls in 8 days! We've had plane tickets on hold since Wednesday, May 8th but haven't been able to purchase them without US Embassy confirmation of our appointment. I'm getting a little lightheaded from holding my breath around this curve and really hope that we just have one last high tomorrow before coasting in to a stop in Haiti next week. Staying on this ride of ups and downs and twists and turns for another few weeks seems like an eternity, even though I know we will survive it if we have to.
There are certainly more rides for us to experience in this adventure before we'll be able to leave the park together with our whole family. We don't know yet what those rides will look like or what fears and joys they will spark in our hearts along the way. All I know is that when this is all said and done, I'm going to look for a nice, boring merry-go-round somewhere!
1 comment:
My heart aches for you friend - what a ride! It must be tough to keep your heart fully in such a process when there is so much potential for it to be tossed around, but I know that it will all be worth it in the end. I do hope you can be on that plane next week! We'll be in Minnesota again this summer and this time we need to see each other! :)
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