nesting?

Yesterday, I flipped our mattress. We have been married for five years, and I have never before flipped a mattress. I also scrubbed our baseboards, dusted our ceiling fan, scrubbed the kitchen walls, and did an hour and a half worth of ironing. Why? Well, I do have one theory.

Nesting.

I guess the happy rumblings in the Rwanda adoption community this past week have gotten to me. I have heard of anywhere between two and six families receiving their non-objection letters from the Rwandan government this week which is absolutely huge! There has been no perceivable movement on the Rwanda adoption front pretty much this entire year, so to see things pick up this quickly has allowed all of us in process to let out a huge sigh of relief. We’re hoping that these families will get their referrals quickly and bring their babies home sooner than expected.

Our caseworker told me yesterday that the ministry is trying to approve one dossier a day, though I have heard others say that they’re striving for two a day. Either way, I’ll take it! I’m thinking we’re between 130 and 140 in line- hopefully our power of attorney will find out our number soon, though it doesn’t make too much difference to me. I know we’re pretty much at the end of the line, but we will choose to wait joyfully and with expectation of great things to come.

So, a quick review of how all of this goes down… after sending the non-objection letter, the ministry then will forward our dossier to the nuns at the orphanage who will then identify our child. At that point, he will get a checkup and labwork done to be included in the referral information. And then one morning I will open my email to a message from Rwanda. The greatest email that I can ever imagine receiving. The picture of our little boy!! Then, we accept, we (hopefully) pass court, we travel to Rwanda to pick Wyatt up and then head to Ethiopia for another week to get his visa… and then we bring the boy H.O.M.E. Oh Lord, hasten the day!!

As a planner, I couldn’t help but to do a little simple math…
If one dossier is processed each workday and we are 130 in line, then we should receive our non-objection letter in exactly six months. Then figure in another month or two until referral and then at least another month or so until we travel, and that would mean Wyatt could be in our arms eightish months (June 2011)?! Keep in mind that this is a completely arbitrary date because everyone knows that our plans are not God’s plan and Africa’s time frame is not our time frame.

In the meantime, I think there’s another bathroom to be bleached.