This one will warm the cockles of your heart

Yes you have cockles. Everyone does. And my friend Lisa's story, which as of yesterday (!!!) is finally a happy one, will make yours all warm and tingly. Here's the scoop: Lisa and her husband Derek are adopting from Russia (and here you thought I only talked to people who were adopting from China. Pffft.) With Russian adoption, parents travel to Russia twice -- first to meet their child, then again a few weeks later to bring their child home. This process was humming along until early 2005, when adoptions from Russia were abruptly ceased. At that time all agencies had to reapply for the right to conduct adoptions, and prospective adoptive parents were put on ice and told to just calmly wait it out until their agencies were reaccredited. But, and this is a huge but, there were a few people who had already gone on the first trip to meet their children when the adoption door slammed shut! These people, Lisa and Derek among them, have been trapped ever since with one corner of their hearts in the U.S. and one corner in Russia. Can you imagine the pain? Lisa describes it so eloquently in her post called Imagine My World. If you're wondering why I'm talking about this, it's for two reasons. The first is to share some incredibly good news, which is something we can all use: yesterday Lisa and Derek found out that their agency has been reaccredited! (Feel free to leave some love and jubilation in their comments section.) The second reason I'm telling this story is more for me. It's to remind myself that the three or four extra months I'm having to wait for a referral just really aren't that horrendously, horribly bad in the grand scheme of things and that other people endure far more with incredible grace.* *Please note that this realization does not in any way indicate that I have surrendered my prerogative to moan, bitch, or whine about the wait or anything else related to the adoption at any time in the future.