Excitement at the mailbox!

"A cheerful look brings joy to the heart, and good news gives health to the bones." Proverbs 15:30.
This verse made me smile yesterday when I came across it. I can certainly relate to it considering the week I've had with the adoption. Every time I've been discouraged this week because the business day has ended without a call from the social worker to schedule our homestudy, something has arrived in the mailbox to assure me that we're making progress. The crazy thing is that I wasn't expecting any of it for a long time. On Monday, Abby and I received our passports- they took 11 days! We went for out photos on Jan. 31st and received our passports on February 11th.
Then on Wednesday, we got our fingerprinting appointment for CIS. CIS is the agency that holds one of the biggest keys for getting on the "list." Most people are waiting for their CIS clearance long after everything else is done. I really did the happy dance over this one because I thought the order was: apply (wait), homestudy(wait), fingerprinting (wait), approval letter (waiting begins on the "list".) That's why I have been in such a hurry to get the homestudy done- because I thought that we were stuck until it was done. But, apparently in North Carolina they will do your fingerprinting before they receive your homestudy. So, Ryan and I are to appear in Norfolk, VA at 8:00am on Tuesday to do the biometrics (fingerprinting) portion of our orphan petition to CIS (citizenship and immigation.)
Yesterday, we received our no arrest stamp from the FBI, which was also remarkably fast. We had gone for our FBI fingerprinting on February 1st, mailed it all on February 4th, and received our FBI clearance on February 14th.
So, all we're waiting on is the homestudy. There is not one more thing we can do until that is done. We've got almost all of our dossier documents ready to send to the dossier service, but we're waiting until the homestudy visit is completed. Today is the 9th business day since Gladney requested our homestudy, and they told us it would be scheduled within 10 business days- but who's counting? So. I'm trying to convince myself that I will not be frustrated all weekend if I don't get news today. We'll see how well I can hold to that resolution.
So, that's the long and short of where we are with the adoption. It's certainly progressing and in the mean time, I'm making every effort to enjoy my family as it is. I keep thinking about how blessed I am to have such a rich life already and I'm trying to treasure our family as we are instead of simply longing for what will be. Some days I do better at that than others.