Waiting for the Next Steps...

Today, the wait is killing me.

Tomorrow, National Novel Writing Month begins, and I will be volunteering as a Municipal Liaison (think local coordinator) for the sixth time in a row.  The kick-off is tonight, and I'm making decorations and putting the finishing touches on my Halloween costume (and the hubby's costume, and the pup's costume).

And yet -- the wait is killing me.

I don't know why it's hitting me right now, today, when I have so much to do, when I know that I will be busy for the next month and then come up for air only to find that Christmas is just a few short weeks away.

Maybe it's because it's Halloween, which is such a kid-centered holiday.  Maybe it's because I know that the air will be filled with kids and candy and scary making tonight.

Or maybe it's because we turned in a boatload of paperwork and now I find myself feeling like there is very little -- if anything -- that I can do that's productive on the adoption front.  I know that our home study is being completed in a "slow on purpose" fashion because we are waiting for the government in Kazakhstan to give the US the final go ahead.  I get that, at least in my mind.  But part of me is in  "do everything possible, right now" mode.  I understand that our agency does not want our home study and its components to age if Kazakhstan delays in opening -- but I still want to "get-er-dun!"

But things are moving ahead.  So far we have completed:

-Our 6 page autobiographies.
-The submission of vital documents like birth and marriage certificates.
-Some state and county paperwork.
-CPR class and the proof thereof.
-Fingerprinting and FBI clearance, along with other background check stuff
-Personal profile forms
-Other forms such as the application, family photo, etc.
-Two of the three required Hague classes.
-Guardianship paperwork (ie who gets the kids if something happens to us)
-The 3 required books -- two more need to be chosen from a list and book reports need to be written

And, best of all, Papa Beast has his interview and test for US Citizenship on Tuesday.  If you're the praying type, please say a few for Papa Beast?  It would mean a lot.  We THINK everything should go smoothly, and he is doing very well when I quiz him on the civics questions.  But this is the government, and Murphy's Law might be in effect.

So we carry on with life, and I try not to imagine/hope/expect our kids to be home next Halloween, as wonderful as it would be to be picking out or making little costumes and heading out door to door.