Everything Counts

An article was just posted within our adoption group..it speaks so true as to what we are going through.  I thought it was definitely worth sharing.



Everything Counts
When you're waiting to adopt, you count each day that passes. But how should I
count my daughter-to-be, who is already a part of me?
By Michele Gautsch
Adoptive Families Magazine

One of the little-known facets of adoption is the counting phenomenon. You may
count regardless of the route you're following: domestic, foster, or
international. Having formed a large family through birth and domestic and
international adoption, however, I would say that international counting is the
trickiest. You count everything, and, no, it's not just us compulsive,
controlling types.

You count the paper chase (and each step within it). You count the months from
dossier landing and anticipating a referral. Once you get the referral, you
count the weeks until court, the weeks until a travel date is set, the days
until takeoff. Then you count the days you are in-country. I also count eight
hours ahead each day, to account for my daughter's time zone, just to think
about what she might be doing at that moment.

Of course, if you are an unnaturally laid-back person, or detached in the
spiritual sense, perhaps you don't count. You live in the moment. Good for you.
I'm not so holy. I count.

A Numbers Game
Recently, as I was running errands one late afternoon, I noticed another kind of
counting rattling in my brain. I was counting kids. I am often asked how many
children I have. This usually happens when I show up at the supermarket
checkout, my shopping cart piled high, or when my husband, Tom, and I have all
the kids, big and small, in tow. On this day, I was shopping for stocking
stuffers, and buying in bulk, when I thought, well, how do you respond to that
question when you are in process limbo?

I could just say I have seven children. Count the bouncy balls rolling around in
my cart: seven. Because, while on this side of the world, we've been given the
OK and it's nearly a formality that Marta is our daughter, on the other side, in
Ethiopia, it is not yet a done deal. Until the adoption is official, according
to her country's legal process, I'm not sure that I can baldly say, "I have
eight children." I don't want to overstate. There have been a few times when I
did say eight, but then I always felt a need to clarify. "We are waiting for the
court approval, so we can go get her…bring her home." Eight seems…not quite
there. Seven, meanwhile, says that I am short-shrifting Marta, so far away.

Making Sense of Uncertainty
Maybe I can't claim my daughter until the court says she is ours, but Marta is
already a part of the fabric of me and us. I have claimed her in my heart and
head. I have fought for her. I have prayed for her.

Over time, I have found that the way for me to get through the long haul of the
adoption process is to celebrate, mark, and be happy for each step taken.
Checking one day off our countdown means we're one step closer to our daughter.
We need every step we can get in this marathon! So, yes, I count eight. And if
something unthinkable should happen, I will still have eight children, I will
just be torn from one.

Once the wait is over, we will bring her home and she will begin to claim us,
too. And we'll start a new count together. A different counting, forward and
infinite, to mark the beginning of a new weave in our family.

And that day in the store? I bought Marta a bouncy ball, just because. I
counted.



Michele Gautsch lives in Tennessee with her husband, Tom, and eight kids,
through birth and adoptions from the U.S. and Ethiopia. She blogs at
anotherespressoplease.blogspot.com.