Officially on the List!!

Last Thursday, March 4th, we received the email from Children's Hope International stating that our dossier made through the U.S. Secretary of State and the Ethiopian Embassy and now has returned to St. Louis (C.H.I.) and we are officially on the list. Yay! This was very exciting news. We really didn't expect the call until the next week, possibly another full week. What a blessing! So what does it mean to be 'officially on the list"? It means that instead of running around gathering documents, you get to wait..officially. Hmm. Not a very patient person by nature, but this is a process I'm trying to embrace. My friend Angie has already pronounced me prego and has encouraged me to 1. no heavy lifting 2. eat like a maniac and 3. indulge, indulge, indulge! Definitely sounds appealing! But I'm hoping with this 'pregnancy' I don't lose my mind and my waist as I did with the last 2!
Back to 'the list'. My first response after reading the email was to pick up the phone and call the agency for more details. She informed me that we were #60. What??!! (elated!) I thought we would be around #100, that is what we have heard is pretty typical. But #60!! We're 40 spots ahead of the game!! Another blessing..absolutely! And then on Friday three more families rec'd referrals that week, so now we're #57! On each Friday our agency sends out this wonderful email updating everyone on new referrals and all sorts of great information relating to the process. We love these emails! Now, because I know my #, I can use that information and move myself on down the list. Fridays just got a little better. There is a trick though, and it's complicated..the easiest way to explain it is that if 10 referrals are handed out, it doesn't mean those who hold spots #1-#10 get the referrals. The children get matched up to the families based on their needs and that which the family has been approved to provide for. So for now we'll use the Friday emails to keep check of our progress and when we get down to what we believe to be #30 we'll call our agency, get our accurate # on the list and from then on we'll probably call every 10 referrals or so. Our agency said they would give us our number any time we wanted..just needed to email or call. That was NOT a door they need to open for me...I'm going to show considerable restraint to NOT call weekly!
Right now the average wait for a baby boy (we are requesting 18 mos or younger, we hope for under 12 months old)is approx 11 months. After the referral is given, then we wait 3 months for travel. But WE are #60..oops #57!! Praying for less than a year for the entire process. Here's something to consider..in Feb 2010 they had a large number of families matched..16 familes (19 children total) were matched. Do the math..if we can average 15 families a month (a pure guess based on one month I know, but go with me here) then we could potentially get a referral sometime this summer. I KNOW, I know. Keep my head right? Stick with the average, 11 mos referral. But I can't help it. I'm pregnant remember..I'm indulging!