Why the Wait is so so painful...

Nobody likes waiting, I guess. Unless you are a Buddhist monk and enjoy flexing your patience muscles, the rest of us find waiting quite difficult. Especially why this waiting involves one of the biggest changes you are ever likely to experience in your life: becoming a parent! 

And so we have been waiting, for over five months now and I, probably because I am slightly crazy, have been looking at different research into waiting. One of the pieces of research I came across has made things clearer for me. In a paper entitled 'The Psychology of Waiting Lines' David Maister talks about the different effects that different types of waiting have. 

For example, and relevant to our situation, indefinite waiting times seem longer than definite ones (which is probably why at Greek tax offices they give you an average wait time, which is usually widely inaccurate, but - it seems - psychologically soothing). We have been indefinitely waiting since day 1, and we are only now inching closer to a more definite waiting time, as we get a court number and the wait times become around 4-6 weeks. 

Also relevant to us is the difference between the pre-process wait, which seems longer and the in-process wait. I am not sure which of these two you would place us in - somedays I think we have been in-process since the match, on the other hand, until our case is filed in court, it does all feel like a pre-process wait...

Of course what all this has done is bring into very sharp focus just how much of our life we have spent waiting to become parents. And although I know we should be "relaxing and enjoying the process" as a lot of people have suggested, as well as "enjoying our pre-child time with each other" it is becoming increasingly difficult to be in this limbo. 

Here's hoping for some good news this week... or next...