Contiuning saga

And suddenly it is winter and they are cutting the vines before they even have a chance to blush with our good news...If indeed there is ever any.

.....So next, I phone Agence Française de l'Adoption and they say 'No you are NOT on the list. Not under Phillips, Poskie, Merrow-Manon. Not no nothing no-name nobody.

So then I phone the lawyer in Mali again and he says. No you ARE on the list. Just wait. The AFA will contact you in a few days. This turns, at the end of a few days, into 'next week'.....

Haven't I had these phonecalls before?

Well, apparently what was 'next week' has now come and gone, it being Friday as far as I can see. Without word. So I call our lawyer in Mali and demand that he explain exactly what is going on. This is what he says.

Our lawyer gave the Direction des Enfants et de la Famille a list with the name Ruth Phillips on it. The Direction couldn't find a Ruth Phillips (of course, because our dossier is under Merrow-Smith) so the Direction ignored that poor crazy woman on the other side of the world waiting for her little Malian poppet, and sent the list off to Paris without her. And of course her dear patient philosophical husband. When our lawyer got my email asking what had happened and why we weren't we on the list, he went to the Direction and sorted out the mistake. They said that's all well and dandy because several people who were selected have refused their place (found a kid somewhere else, died, agreement no longer valid, decided they couldn't be bothered, whatever) and we are now sending out a second list (the B list we all dread being on) to which we will add your client. So I (and of course dear patient philosophical Julian) should have been on the A list but this is my life and I always somehow end up being on the B list, don't I? Even when I'm on the bloody A list.

That B list left Bamako yesterday. It has to go to the consulate first in Paris and then to the AFA. Then apparently, some time next week? the AFA will contact us.

So as Julian says, a painting is not sold till the money is in the bank, and we are not on that list till we are holding the official letter from the AFA in our hands.

So I'm afraid we have to stay zen and you have to keep everything crossed still. Sorry about the cramps, but you should try adopting a child!

Meanwhile, because I do not stay in depression long, I finished the third draft of my book, and my Indesign course and we have started designing Julian's book in his new skylit office, and here's another big question: What painting do YOU want to see on the cover?