Bargain Referrals

In case you are not living this nightmare dream called adoption, here's the latest. Referrals are on there way and apparently they only include 12 days of LIDs (logged-in-dates). Now as happy as I am for the people who are about to see their child's precious face, I am also sad for everyone who didn't make the cut off date. We all go through months of paperwork, months of waiting, more months of waiting, and then more months of waiting to finally get to this point. I'm almost afraid that actually meeting our child will be a let-down after the build up to referral day! (Not!)

So anyway, lately the time between LID and referral continues to get longer and longer. When we started the process, most families were waiting 6 months. Currently the wait for us is almost 8 months and counting. Rumors say the average wait is approaching 10 months. I guess we'll see.

So what do you do when referral rumors are beginning to fly and the outlook is not exactly, well, what you had hoped for? SHOP, of course! Today I aquired these cute little numbers...



How do you get past the "nagging little voice" that says you shouldn't be spending money on clothes for this child - you don't even know what age/size/sex they will be! Well I just show my husband this:


That's right, $1.10. Thrift stores are a wonderful thing! The average outfit costs about $1.98. Sometimes I splurge though and go for the $3.98 special that comes with a name brand label and matching bottoms! (More about my thrift store "obsession" in another post.)


What do you do when it's already been a long wait and it's only getting longer? The same therapy seems to continue to work for me! The closet is filling up and I still haven't hit the $50 mark. That's cheaper than seeing a therapist, and my husband says it's worth every penny to get me in a better mood. If none of it fits, donate it back to the thrift store or another adopting family, and just consider it money well spent for a worthy cause. I highly recommend it to everyone. (Except people who live near me, because I don't want to have to fight you for the good stuff!)

So go! Out into the world of bargains and let loose! Buy those cute little pink dresses, scour the racks for matching bloomers, try to figure out why this 12 month size looks smaller than that 9 month size, consider that cute little boy outfit just in case, fill up your cart and write that $10 check! You deserve it! You're child could be one of the best dressed kids on the block and you, my friend, can make it through the wait!