I Think We Can

It's hard to believe that summer vacation ends a week from today, when Zachary goes back to school. Zac and I had a wonderful summer at Camp Ramah in Nyack, and Morrie enjoyed some vacation time taking care of things on the home front and working on High Holiday services and sermons. We celebrated our niece Sarah's Bat Mitzvah in San Diego and spent serious quality time with my side of the family, and it was a fantastic trip in all aspects, even the nine hours we spent tearing up LegoLand. Sarah was amazing and perfect and made us all so proud - the first Edelman Bat Mitzvah since mine 25 years ago (the anniversary was just three days after Sarah's big day)! And so, Summer 2010 flew by in a blink.

Yet amidst all of the fun and relaxation, I found myself gritting my teeth every week when reading the weekly update from CHI. Week after week passed with no referrals, or just a few referrals trickling in for people who had been waiting for less time than we have. So we sat at #7 allllll summer long. We didn't know what was going on until last week, when in the weekly update we learned that there was an extreme shortage of DNA AIDS tests in the orphanages in Ethiopia. This test is administered to all children ages 18 months (or maybe 2 years) and younger. They weren't sure when the test kits would arrive. In my mind, given the amount of time that had passed since referrals were given, it sounded like this would be the last medical test given to a lot of the children and that once the test kits came in, there would be a surge of referrals. So I kept that in mind to try to ease the anxiety. Truly, had it not been for camp and the Bat Mitzvah, this summer would have dragged, with no good news on the baby front.

Until today.

Today was one of those great days that prospective adoptive parents like us dream of. The head of CHI's Ethiopia program sent out great news via the CHI Yahoo group - today saw EIGHT referrals! Eight! Most were for babies, many girls, and most were for people waiting longer than us (thus moving us up the list)! By my calculations, we are in the top three waiting families now! I e-mailed Nicky, our adoption counselor, to find out our official number, though at this point, it completely doesn't matter. That phone is going to ring ANY DAY!

This summer has been like "The Little Engine That Could." He thinks he can get to the top, but never makes it until the end. He triumphantly chugs up the mountain, and all is well. Just when we thought that mountain peak was still so far - here we are! Wait just a little longer? I think we can!