Dear Will Power & Strength, Please stay strong!

Going into this process, I thought the hardest part (until we travel & have to leave him there, that is) was going to be going through the process of getting all of our documentation together. That feeling of being picked over with a fine tooth comb. I was wrong. Having things to do & documentation to gather helps you feel like part of the process is in your control. It makes you feel like you are working toward a goal. I mean, I know you are working towards getting everything put together but with this, unlike most tasks, when you are finished gathering all of the necessary components you are just at the beginning of the wait. We have everything and we are just waiting for government agencies to finish saying "yes, you are approved" and then we enter into another time of waiting.We can't use this time to prepare the house or nursery because we have no idea how old or how big he will be when we bring him home. We are cutting corners & saving every penny we can so that we may be able to avoid taking out a loan but that is hard to do when all we want to do is stay busy so we can keep our minds off of how long we still have to wait! When I heard 4-6 months, my thoughts were "Oh! That's not that bad at all! That's even less than a pregnancy!" They failed to mention the 7 or 8 months you have to add to that for the application, home study, gathering of documents, and government approval of the homestudy. Don't get me wrong, we are still incredibly excited at bringing Little E home;  however, it is hard to keep excitement as your main feeling with frustration, impatience, costs, and feeling "stuck" creeping in and trying to take over. Fortunately, we have been having our moments of weakness or frustration at opposite times and so we have been able to support each other. I pray that it continues that way so that we can help each other focus on the long term goal.