Shots and Meeting

We had our first shots this morning... It's official - Steve's a BIG baby! He told the doc his arm was paralyzed. Good thing she knows him through three pgcies and deliveries. We have another shot in a month and one in six months. Course we have our flu shots next Friday so Steve will have more practice.

Our meeting with our agency contact was by phone this afternoon. We clarified our comforts and concerns with regard to the special needs presented in the children she is given to match with families. We discussed age with respect to Paxten and Anna, and she noted that they prefer not to disrupt the birth order of families, so we will be listed for a child aged up to 22 months at time of referral so that she is younger than Paxten.

We have signed a new retainer with CB, paid them translation and administration fees to process our dossier update which was accepted by the gov't of NS and sent to CB yesterday. It will be processed over the next few weeks to complete our file in the Green Stream Programme. Meanwhile we wait.

The earliest we may receive a referral is December, but our agency contact was very sure to express that that is very very unlikely to happen as there are several families in the programme ahead of us. The agency has 3 months to either match the children or send the files back. Once she has matched those files, she can receive a new batch (so I think if she takes less than 3 months a new batch may arrive sooner). She was confident we'd be matched in that batch, and estimated they'd arrive in March or April. Add on the 5-6 months to travel and we should be home by this time next year.

The most notable fact about all this - to me, at least - is that these numbers mean that Anna is ALIVE somewhere RIGHT NOW. She was probably born between November 2006 and February 2007, though it could have been as early as June 2006. She's younger than PJ, but close in age. I have very mixed feelings about this fact. I'm excited as her existance makes it much more real, but as her Mom, I'm worried about where she is, how she's cared for and if she's eating...

I'm trying sooo hard not to get my hopes too high... who knows what can happen between now and then? I've said it before, but I need reminding - I have faith in the process that will match our daughter to her forever family.

N