Hope

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

-- Emily Dickinson

Here's to hope.... we're off to DC Sunday for the inauguration and celebrating our finally being on the referral wait list, as of 1/12/09.

Bonafied

After a little mix-up last week where it seemed the Department of Homeland Security had "lost" my fingerprints (they actually filed them under "Buding" rather than "Budig," no idea how that one came about...), we had good news today. The Boston DHS branch faxed our adoption agency the news that we had passed our fingerprint clearance and that our I600A (advanced petition to adopt an orphan) had been approved! Yea! So we are officially a "waiting family" and on the wait list for a referral. I think our "log-in" date is today, or 01/12/09.

As of last week, the "next family" on the wait list who is waiting for a child referral in our age bracket had a log in date of 3/13/08. So we are hopeful that we will be referred a child before the end of this year. Keep your fingers crossed!

In other news, we have taken in a stray kitten who had come to live under our front porch. She's a beautiful black kitten with yellow eyes. We've named her Zhana and are entranced with her. She's still vacillating between being a snuggler and an under-the-bed-hider.