Patience is a virtue, right?

We found out last week that Guatemalan referrals through our agency have been pretty slow recently. In fact, they had 2 in November, 0 in December, and 1 in January. There are approximately 15 couples ahead of us on their waiting list. Our social worker did say that a slow down around the holidays is typical, but she couldn't guarantee that the referral rate will increase. Needless to say, we were quite disappointed, because in October the same people told us that our wait for referral would be about 4-8 months after completion of our homestudy. Our homestudy was done in November, so we felt the remainder of our wait would be short. I have investigated the possibility of changing agencies, but at this point, we would forfeit the agency fees we have already paid and have a new set of agency fees. We would probably also need to redo some of our paperwork. Either way we woud also still have the Guatemalan fees. Considering these are in the thousands of dollars, it is not an easy decision to make to switch agencies. I have heard of several people with other agencies, though, that have received their referral inside of 6 weeks after USCIS approval (which we should have any day now). So, it's a tough decision.

As far as our dossier goes, we recieved our passports yesterday. Now we are free to become world travelers! We still have one form to be returned to us, and then we will have all our forms complete and can send them off for certification from the Secretary of State. Unfortunately, my doctor's office has not returned my calls and emails asking for a status update. This form simply needs a signature and a doctor's license number, so it should not require much of the doctor's time. We sent the form nearly 4 weeks ago, so in my mind there is really no excuse for it not being here yet. If the doctor's office were not 3 hours away, I would camp out in their office until it was signed.

In the last several weeks, I have been distracting myself with a cross-stitch of Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh. I finally finished the other night, so I felt quite proud of myself. I'm not typically much of a craftmaker, so it's exciting to start AND finish a project. As you saw at the beginning of my message, I have posted it. Now, I need to determine what exactly I'm going to do with it. I'll probably just frame it, since I don't really know how to add it to a pillow or anything. If any of you reading this have any ideas for me, just let me know!