Do I get diamonds on my one-year anniversary?

This morning I read on Rhonda's russian adoption blog (appropriately titled Still Waiting) that she started her homestudy in February. It struck a chord with me, so I left this comment: "Hey February is when we started our process too. Funny! (Sort of. Ok, well not really. Ugh, now I'm kind of depressed...) Hm, must go have a PopTart for breakfast and cheer up! :-)" You can see that halfway through it hit me and I tried to joke about my funk with that little PopTart quip, but to be honest once I started typing that comment about the looming one-year anniversary it really got to me. Has an entire year really passed since we started this process? It doesn't seem possible, but when I count back on my fingers (yes on my fingers, what of it?) the evidence is there. It was in the beginning of February 2005 that we naively bravely started down this new path called international adoption. We didn't really know much about it. We had talked to a whole bunch of people at work who had adopted from China, Russia, and Korea, and we just made the decision and started. We didn't know much about the country we had chosen. We didn't know how much paperwork we would need to fill out. We didn't know how many insanely personal questions we would have to answer. We didn't know how many faceless officials we would need to count on. We didn't know how long it would take (we thought we knew, but we were flat-out wrong). We didn't know our families would be so excited and involved. We didn't know there would be so many ups and downs. We didn't know how many incredible people we would meet along the way. We didn't know anything. But we learned. And so, instead of crying on my PopTart about how frustrated I am and how maddening it is to get to the one-year mark without a referral like we expected, I am going to suck it up and make use of one more thing we've learned in adoptionland: celebrate every milestone. Accordingly, I now declare that Feb 3, the anniversary of the day we started this crazy process, will be celebrated in our house. With chips and salsa, (many) margaritas, and chocolate, of course. So bring it on! Bring on that huge symbolic one-year anniversary - we're ready! PS: Make sure you click on the PopTart image to see what I hid behind it. I was interrupted during the "photoshoot" when someone snuck in and took a little drink. Look closely, you can even see him licking his lips!