It's true

I have often said that no matter how bad you have it, someone else always has it worse. It's not that this give you permission to feel superior to anyone else, but it does help to keep things in perspective. As cruddy as things get, I have my health, my loved ones are all still living and healthy, I have two children who are incredibly healthy and happy and I have a wonderful husband. Things could certainly be worse.

Take today, for instance. We just found out that what is ACTUALLY holding our case up is the fact that in the 67 days that Ethiopia has had our paperwork, they have failed to translate it. This should typically take 2-3 days. We were told at the beginning of May that the staff in Ethiopia had done all that they could to get our case submitted so that we would only have to travel once. Obviously not true. Two weeks ago, we were told that there were only a couple of very minor items missing from our file and then our case would be submitted soon. Well, if our paperwork hasn't been translated yet, it wasn't translated then either, so again...not true. This news--cruddy. But, at least 4 other families working with our agency just found out TODAY that they cannot travel to pick up the children that are already legally theirs TOMORROW as they were supposed to. Some change has occurred in Ethiopia only allowing 5 children to be processed per day instead of the usual 10. Our news was cruddy for sure, but these 4 (maybe more) families have it much worse than we do. I mean, we don't have any hope of making it to Ethiopia this summer anyway, so another delay really isn't going to hurt us, but these families were ready to go. Their kids here were prepared for their parents to be gone, some were even flying in a relative to care for their children in their absence. This is sheer insanity. I cannot imagine being one of those families. I'll take the news we got any day over that news. It helped put my news in perspective, definitely. Bummed for everyone stuck in this process. What a mess. Please pray for us, for our little girl (who is still in the hospital as far as we know) and for all the families caught in this disaster. I'm just sad for them and maybe a little for us.