Maternity leave

I put in my letter of maternity leave request today (we are supposed to submit it at least 3 months prior to taking leave and preferably at the beginning of a school year) and I was surprised at how overwhelmed I was with emotion. It's hard to believe that we've been already waiting for 14 months and when asked by my superintendent today when we expect to receive a referral, my answer to him was that we are hoping that it's sometime this school year. This adoption has already much longer than what we originally expected and it has seemed almost not real. Today something about handing in that letter made it seem as though it might actually someday really happen. I pray that this time next year we are already home with our newest little miracle...hey a girl can dream can't she!?!