Done!

Yesterday afternoon, Jim and I had our FINAL adoption interview. Yes, that's right, we are now officially DONE with our part of the process!!! Woo hoo!!! And contrary to last time we were "done" (with the classes) and left feeling discouraged about the length of the wait time, this time we are ECSTATIC! As our social worker reviewed our interest form, she was somewhat surprised at how "open" we were. The three that especially caught her attention were that we were willing to take children with HIV+, parental bipolar, and parental schizophrenia (see my previous post for my discussion on this). And while HIV+ is rare in San Diego County, the other two are pretty common but also commonly avoided by adoptive parents. Which means that we'll be available to more kids...which means that we could get matched much more quickly! (She once had a family like us matched within a month!) No promises, but she felt pretty confident that by Christmas we'd have our child. Actually, that was the timeframe we suggested and she assured us with something sooner than that (but Jim would rather not make it public in order to avoid the pressure of everyone's expecting questions).

We are SOOOOOOO thrilled! Last night (more like this morning), we both ended up awake at 4am thinking about it...and talking and giggling and dreaming and naming and....We could be parents very soon! All our hopes and dreams are finally coming to fruition! While we don't have the luxury of a due date, we are really, truly "expecting"!!! Woo hoo!

Yet in the midst of all this excitement, I have to be honest about some of my concerns:
*I'm going in for my exploratory surgery next Friday, with the goal of identifying and eliminating potential causes of our infertility. I immediately considered cancelling it, but Jim and our families are encouraging me to follow through, because all of it is still so uncertain. i.e. Maybe this will solve the problem, but maybe not. And maybe we'll get a child soon, but still maybe not. We might as well keep pursuing all our reasonable options, and let God pull all the pieces together as He sees fit (even if that means getting a kid while being pregnant. eek!).
*We will most likely be matched with a child with very real hereditary and/or drug-related issues. While I am okay with this in theory, it is a little scarier once those issues become tangible in a little person. (And by the way, we will be unable to share this private information with anyone once we get the child, so take this as an advanced warning.)
*We plan on actively pursuing movie #2 this summer (after book #2 is finished). Where does a kid fit into that busy process?

But as Jim keeps reminding me, any of those concerns are infinitely better than our state of empty arms currently. So bring it on!