"In case you think we're all a bit crazy ...

I get the question often,"how much longer until you know who Levi is"?  On Leno's top 10 questions of the year, it should be this question ... and not just for me ... but for MANY of my friends in this thing we call "the adoption community".  If I knew this answer, life would be, well, predictable and then that would just be too easy for international adoption!  So, on our yahoo group we keep an "unofficial" DTE list of all our families by date.  Why unofficial?  Well, because our agency doesn't actually just give us this list because that too would make things more predictable ... and who needs that?  There may be families out there whom have never joined our "group" - gasp!  But if they have, then they have also, like me, added their DTE (Day to Ethiopia - as in the day your paperwork went off), their preference on age/gender etc to this "list".  And because well, we're all a bit crazy over the unknowns ... we try to give ourselves some sort of idea by knowing who is before us so by some random chance we can predict the unpredictable.  As referrals come to those families we take them off this list below and add them to a list we call a "NAG" (needs at a glance) where we pray them through their court date, embassy clearance and scheduled arrival home.  Yep, we're big brother to one another ... we know where we all are. HAHA

So, if you look at this list, you'll find my family down there under "DTE 12/9/10".  And yes, on the list there are many families whose paperwork went off before ours did ... BUT ... then you can also see the age/gender request for each family and see that most families request an infant.  We are what AWAA calls "The no trend history" fam.  I thought I'd throw one more way to be unpredictable in to my life.   Not many folks request this group of kids and yes, we have a #2 by our name ... which recently was moved from a #1 by our name (to which we had been for a loong time).  But , LOOK AGAIN ... the family in #1 is seeking a girl of our age group so that would "officially" on the "unofficial" list make us #1 - STILL.

But in the end, in case you think we're all a bit crazy for all this tracking and work we do to find one bit of shred of a guess or idea on our timeframe, we are.  But, the good news is as you can see from just the beginning of this list ... because there are many families after me and before me... that I am not alone! 

And so, when you ask "How long until you know who Levi is?".  The only thing I can do is check "this list" and try to predict the unpredictable ... because truly the only one who knows officially, is the Lord who created him, called us, and will finish this!