Anna's Second Waiting Story ~ Waiting for Daniela

Note:  This is Anna's second waiting story.  I mentioned last week that Anna and Brandon, like many couples, endured much in their journey to parenting.  When I asked people to share waiting stories, quite a few people mentioned the stories of waiting for children, whether during the process of being pregnant or the process of adopting. This of course is fitting for the Advent season.  We are so happy for Anna and Brandon and the addition of Daniela to their family.  Thank you again, Anna, for allowing me to share your painful but real story of waiting. It seems like the hardest waiting stories are still laced with hope; if we can't find it ourselves, we wish for it in others.

And the wait goes on...

My emotions are on an extended roller coaster. Mid-August through mid-October was the hardest time period I have faced since starting the adoption process a year ago this month. Like most things in life, the adoption world faces ebs and flows and right now we are in a valley. Last year there were 12 babies from FANA (the Colombian adotion agency we are working with) who were joined with their families from Minnesota - so far this year there have been only 6. The waiting families were called in for a meeting a couple of weeks ago where we learned that our wait would likely be longer than expected. Although this was not the best news, since the meeting there has been a referral (a family learned that they were adding a son to their family) and another family became parents through domestic adoption. This type of news shortly before the holidays renews the hopes of all waiting families as we face another holiday season without children. We continue to hope and pray that we will be parents some time next year, but the reality is that it might not happen until 2011.

Although I think that it's hard to understand, we have become so close with our fellow waiting families and so invested in their lives, in their desire to become parents, that we just hope that they all become parents next year. We've all waited for so long and been on such difficult and unexpected journeys that there is just so much joy each time a family becomes a forever family. So - for now at least - I am riding the high of celebrating the families who will soon have new little ones. The formation of these families through adoption is what makes the waiting bearable.

(Footnote: Anna and Brandon welcomed Daniela into their lives in August of this year, 2011).