Destination Motherhood

China or Bust!

2011-10-21T14:17:00.000-07:00

We leave on Tuesday for China!

I'm excited to meet our little girl in China. Adopting a two year old is so different than an infant. I'm worried about how her first day, weeks and month's will go as she transitions to our family. Wish me luck!

I haven't decided if I will blog in China or not. I don't think anyone is reading this blog anymore, so maybe not ;)

We will be traveling with my mother, 5 year old daughter and husband.

Changes

2010-09-27T21:04:00.000-07:00

Birthday Sadness

2010-08-06T14:44:00.000-07:00

This weekend is my daughter's birthday. She is very excited and we have a full weekend fun things to do as a family. But I continue to sit here in sadness.

You see it is 7am in Vietnam. Shortly I would expect her birth mother will be getting up and starting her day. Not many around her will be aware that this is the day she gave birth and prepared to say goodbye to her newly born daughter. I cannot help to wonder how those few days where in the hospital. I wonder if she knew she would be adopted by an American.

I wish that I could tell her all about our daughter and how wonderful she is. I wish I could show her how beautiful she is, how funny she is and how incredibly determined she is. If I could only share those things with her then I would have some hope that she can come to some sort of peace with her decision. But I find complete sadness that I cannot share these things with her.

My daughter is too young to understand these things, but at some point I would expect my daughter will also experience this sadness around her birthday.

waiting it out

2010-04-20T11:54:00.000-07:00

Well, we are close to 3 years waiting it out again.. Hopefully we will know more on the future of Vietnam adoptions in the next few months. I the mean time we will hold tight.

Early Stages of Talking About Adoption

2009-11-09T11:08:00.000-08:00

Before I become and adoptive parent I read books and blog posts about talking with your kids about adoption and challenges that lay ahead. Making sure my daughter has high self esteem always has been a big focus for me and how I wanted to approach parenting. I think if you have a good foundation as a person you can handle life's challenges better.

But I never thought about early years in my daughter life and how she would come to understand adoption, birth, etc.

At this point, my daughter is three. I don't think she fully grasps that she is different or even what birth means. I have to wonder when this light bulb will go off and she will know she isn't my biological child. She is very clingy to me and want to be very close to me, which is great. We have had a huge break through with bonding in the past year. But it is heart breaking to me for her to be sadden by this.

I guess I always thought of conversation we would have at seven or teenage years. But I never thought of these early years and how she came to our family. Just basic understanding of being adopted.

We have the adoption books and we celebrate family day and talk about her birth mom. But I don't think she gets it at this point.

Last night I was hit by a ton of bricks. We where reading a adoption book we made for her with pictures of our family and her adoption day. When she said to me:

"I don't want you to leave me" I said what do you mean, she proceeded

"I don't want to go live with those nannies in Vietnam" "I don't want you to leave me there"

At that moment I realize she doesn't understand that we had never been apart from each other. And she thought we left her at the orphanage. We talked long about her birth mom and how we went through the process of adopting her and would never leave her.

This was heartbreaking, and I'm still trying to figure it all out in my head. Obviously we need to work on this and take some new approaches to the subject. Being a parent is so hard, and being an adoptive parents brings additional challenges to the table. I knew we would face challenges, and hope I can find the right path to answer these questions for her.

Fall

2009-10-16T12:25:00.000-07:00

Fall is here and we are getting plenty of rain here in the bay area. It's a nice reason to get out some of those warmer clothes that have been hiding in the closet.

Dinker do is riding a two wheel bike now, with training wheels of course. She is loving having kids in the neighborhood to play with. She has her pumpkin costume all picked out and is ready for pumpkin day.

We are still waiting it out for #2, really don't want to wait until 2011 or later for Vietnam to reopen but at this point feel it might be the best thing for our family. It really is sad that there are children waiting for families right now as we speak. Shame on the people who abused the system.

Princess

2009-05-18T13:55:00.000-07:00

My daughter somehow knows who the Disney princess are. I don't really know how that happened since we don't really watch T.V. I guess she is picking this up from daycare. So now it's all about princesses.

I decided she could pick out a toy for herself at target. After looking at the toys I realize that target has only a few types of toys, baby toy, baby dolls, barbie and 'boy toys'. She went straight to the princesses. I keep having this internal guilt for buying her a Cinderella doll, even though that's the one she wanted. I kept asking if she wanted the snow white doll. After all snow white has brown hair not blond. But no, she wanted the Cinderella doll.

I don't feel quite right about this, it's pretty complex. I don't want to only push the ethnic dolls on her but buying a skinny white doll for my beautiful dark VN toddler seems wrong. I mean really, who is Cinderella. I surely have never met anyone like her! And don't get me starting on Barbie. Now they have different kinds of Barbie. But really they are the after thought not really Barbie. I think it's great but again, seems like an after thought.

So, how do I balance miss skinny and ethnic dolls? Not sure I have figured this out and in the end she might only want the miss skinny anyway, which makes me sad.

Potty Visits

2009-02-03T11:31:00.000-08:00

We now have a new favorite pass time, visiting the potty. Our daughter isn't doing anything on the potty, but likes to spend time going to and from the potty. I have spent about five times as much time in the bathroom as I normally do. I think we are getting closer since she asks to go and isn't scared of the potty anymore. Any parents out there have some experience with them actually going on the potty?

parenting

2009-01-28T09:00:00.000-08:00

I want to try to get in the habit of posting again, life is so busy but I have found in the past writing is away to slow down and make sense of it all!

So, here it goes.

dinker do is 2 1/5 now, and changing so much. She is a little person. She is so funny and full of laughter and smiles.

I had no idea that being a parent was so hard, I know silly. I thought we would just need to provide loads of love that would some how solve everything. Boy was I wrong. Somehow being a parent seems so straight forward when you aren't one.

We have been having some power struggle, tantrums, and potty issues with are dear sweet daughter. I came to the conclusion that we are still treating her like a baby even thou so is not. This came about after a long conversation with my husband on why things are going badly. I have been trying to think of more and more things for her to do on her own. I think it helps her feel in more empowered. I'm going to stop doing so much for her. Again back to the baby thing, we are doing everything for her.

Yesterday was a horrible day, at pickup she proceeded to have a huge fit, screaming, crying, on the floor you name it, she did it. I picked her up walked to the car and listen to her scream the whole way home. She is persistent. I have to be honest, it's embarrassing. I know I shouldn't be embarrassed. But I feel like I'm being judged as a mom every time she has a super huge meltdown. It's frustrating.

amazon

2008-08-11T08:42:00.000-07:00

We do all our shopping on Amazon, and recently got Amazon Prime. WE love it! Everything we order comes to the door in two days no matter the price of the item. I get great deals on stride rite shoes, groceries, etc. This weekend I got 3 pairs of stride rite shoes for 14.99 each!

I saw they are offering a free trial for amazon prime for a few days, check it out!

little shoes

2008-07-28T12:13:00.000-07:00

Last night after my daughter went to bed I was downstairs picking up and I saw my shoes on the floor and then to the right of them two little white shoes. I found myself smiling, it's these little reminders that make me slow down and realize how lucky I am to have such a perfect little being in my life.

I have never been an especially lucky person, but I truly do believe I'm blessed to have her in my life. I'm not a religious person at all, but I don't know another word that encompasses the feeling I have for her.

Closer #2

2008-07-09T14:02:00.000-07:00

Last time we waiting over three years for Vietnam to reopen and get our referral, but at the end of that long tunnel was a bright shinning star, our daughter. The wait wasn't easy and didn't go away when we saw our daughter for the first time. But each and every day with her is that much sweeter and cannot believe how lucky I have become.

Today we would like a sibling for our daughter, but again Vietnam is closing it's doors to us, the question is for how long this time. Since we have been through this before I know that it can be a long road.

So here I stand in front of another long tunnel, should we stay the course, only time will tell.

A Child's Right Campaign

2008-05-29T15:26:00.001-07:00

Please do not forget to email your letter of support for the JCICS "A Child's Right Campaign" to Advocate@JCICS.org. You must send your email by tomorrow, May 30, 2008 to be included in the petition to Congress. Visit JCICS's web site for full information at http://www.jcics.org/Vietnam.htm.

Snow Bunny

2008-01-29T14:32:00.000-08:00

We had some snow yesterday so we got all dressed in our snow pants and jackets went outside in hope of playing in the snow and making snow angels. Well our little toddler had other plans and wasn't a fan of the snow. But she looks so cute all marshmallow like in her gear. :)

This weekend we watched 'Heaven & Earth' a move about the Vietnam war. The movie wasn't bad, but we have watched a lot of depressing movies about Vietnam and wish there where some more uplifting movies about Vietnam. If you know of any *Please!* leave a comment. I worry that as our daughter gets older she will feel that same. I anticipate that will be a challenging subject. But hope we can expose her to a lot of positives too.

I really hope adoptions from Vietnam can move forward in a positive light and the two governments will progress in there efforts. We would really like to adopt from Vietnam again but are keeping our eyes open at our options. I'm a little leary of what our adoption agency is saying because when we got caught in the closer last time they said it would only be close a few months, and we all know what happened then. I hope things will be different this time.

January 8th, 2008

2008-01-08T14:35:00.000-08:00

Christmas was amazing! We waited so long for our first Christmas, it was very special. She got a big girl play kitchen, which she loves, she has been "cooking" up things ever since. Yesterday I looked over just as she tried to give her dolly a drink :)

We are going to be flying for the first time since we have been home, we are going to Dallas to visit family. We aren't too excited about trying to keep a 17 month old entertained for the whole 4 hour flight. We make a mistake and didn't get her a seat, but I'm crossing my fingers that they can find us a extra seat for her. That should be fun (not!)

2 month review!

2007-12-11T15:19:00.000-08:00

I know I haven't posted in awhile. I have been actually contemplating what to do with this blog and where or not to make it private. I have decided (i think) to leave it public. There has been a lot of negativity in blogland in the last few months but I think it's important to remember why we want to adopt and why we wait.

Adoption is very special to us and if I can in any way help to give someone a glimpse into the happiness it has brought our family then I'll be happy. There is a lot of information on the internet about adopting ethically from Vietnam, so I won't give advice on that. But what I can tell you about is our special little girl.

So, the past two months. Wow, how things change in that little bit of time. Babycakes is 16mns now, just tipping the scale at 20lbs and talking up a storm. She is doing excellent at daycare and really enjoys her time there. She knows a few friends names, and tries to say her own name. She is also becoming more demanding, actually 'more' is one of her favorite words and lately 'no', oh boy. You cannot eat bread in front of her or she freaks out and wants all of it. My husband says just like mommy. Not sure what that means... :)

Other news, we did get 'on the list' for #2! Yes, we are very excited but our agency has a 2+ year wait, which we planned for.

Six Month Post Placement

2007-10-05T13:45:00.000-07:00

We had our six month post placement visit this week. It feels like our little girl has been home for a lot longer than six months! One more post placement visit at 12months and we can move onto writing the reports ourselves, that will be nice.

We went to our agencies picnic, the weather was pretty bad so not many people showed up. Next year I hope they have it a little earlier in the year so all the families can enjoy the weather more.

Here's some things she has been up to:
-walking!
-trying to run (we aren't thrilled about that)
-recognizing more and more words
-says ditty (for kitty)
-snuggling
-switched daycares and started the toddler room at new daycare

Cannot think of anything else, but I'm sure I missed something. I guess summer is officially over, bummer!!!

Parenting Babycakes

2007-09-20T15:12:00.000-07:00

Babycakes is doing so good, she amazes everyone around her with how well she is adjusting to new situations and milestones. She celebrated her 1 year birthday last month, cake and all. She loved it! She is also now walking! She loves to walk laps around the couch, too funny! She runs the household and is the center of attention, as she deserves.

I have now been a parent for 6 months. I have learned a lot! and learn something new everyday. Mostly I have learned to relax, trust myself and realize anything we are going through will change and focus on giving love and encouragement to our little girl.

It Happened

2007-07-20T12:34:00.000-07:00

well folks, I'm happy to inform you my daughter is sleeping through the night! WHEW, it was like a light switch one night, she wasn't and the next she was. It has been about a week now. We are enjoying the extra sleep.

S. is doing ok at daycare, she still has down days but for the most part has adjusted.

She now only wants finger food, none of that baby food stuff. But she will eat it at daycare, odd. She has been basically eat what we have. She loves meat, children, fish sticks, turkey, ham you name it she will eat it. She has also started the lovely, throwing food overboard onto the floor, don't you love that one.

S. doesn't like wearing shoe's we are trying to get her use to them for when she starts walking. She whines and fusses when you place her on the floor wearing shoes. oh the hardships of a 11 month old.

July

2007-07-09T12:02:00.000-07:00

Daycare continues to go ok, not great but not horrible. I'm really sad to leave her in the morning, but think it's good for her to be around other kids and good for mommy to continue her career. The end of the day has such a ray of sunshine when I get to get in my car and go get her!

S. is now 11 month's old! I cannot hardly believe that. She is such a sweetie pie, I'm truly in love with this girl.

I need your help, please! S. is 11 months and not sleeping through the night. She gets up for a bottle around 3:45am each and every night. Is this something to be concerned about? Any tricks to get her to sleep through the night? tired tired mommy

Regular Old 9-5

2007-06-27T13:50:00.000-07:00

I'm back at work now, thinking about going back was harder than actually going. Funny how you build things up in your mind. S. starts daycare on Friday and has a bear of a cold right now, poor thing. I'm nervous for her to start and hope she is OK with going there. She loves other kids so I can only hope with time it will be a place she likes.

I have been out of the loop since we got back from Vietnam, sorry to all my blogger buddies who I've been neglecting. Now that I'm back at work, I hope to get caught up :)

S. her first tooth, following very shortly by her second, it's so cute.

Picture

2007-05-24T13:20:00.001-07:00

Enjoying the weather at the park!

Also, to answer Rita's question on the frequent flier miles with Continental on Eva, yes we used two one pass numbers. I don't know if you can use one for both, but doesn't hurt to try. I didn't see a way to transfer miles easily between accounts on Continental.

Now Rita, a question for you. You made your blog invite only, I was really enjoying your posts, I would love to be invited so I can continue to read about your trip. My email address has been added to my profile.

2007-05-18T10:21:00.000-07:00

Things are great here at home, S. is such a joy. Every day she is learning new things and making very good progress.

A big thing is she started to crawl last week! She is now all over the place and is now trying to pull herself up onto furniture. She tends to fall and cry which is very sad.

I go back to work at the end of June and am really sad to have to leave her a daycare. We are going to try to slowly transition her, but it's still hard. On one hand I think it's good for her to be around other kids, but on the other I hope it isn't too hard for her.

She is still eat very well, she's eating all stage 2 foods and now is trying different finger foods. It's really funny to watch her try to feed herself different cereals. More than half end up on the floor.

Re-Adoption Process

2007-05-05T21:40:00.000-07:00

I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction, because I'm really lost on this. Does anyone know how I find information on re-adoption in Washington state? Or what court office to call? Sometimes google isn't my friend :)

A Month in Review

2007-04-30T19:46:00.000-07:00

It's amazing how one month can completely change your life and also go by so quickly.

Today marks one month since we have become parents. Our little girl, S. is upstairs sleeping, we couldn't be happier. She surprises us everyday with how much she is learning and changing.

We had a lot of obstacles while we waited for her referral and it wasn't easy, but I couldn't think of a better time for us to be her parents. As we are more prepared today then 2 years ago, or even a year ago.

Here are some fun things about our girl:

She loves her bath, as soon as we get into the bathroom and she sees the water she lights up and smiles big. She splashes and splashes.

She is about 90% on her way to crawling. She tries really hard and rocks back and forth and then get frustrated and sucks on her fingers, very sad. :)

She can eat! She has tried almost all the stage 1 food and is now onto the next group. We wanted to make sure she didn't have any allergies so we started off slow. So far she likes everything. Just yesterday she has started to groan while eating, I think she is saying ummm good!

When we blow her kisses she smacks her lips back at us. She doesn't do it all the time but is so cute when she does.

She has a LeapFrog Learning Table when it plays a song she smiles really big, every time. She loves that thing!

She can get really angry, and says nay nay nay, watch out that means your in trouble.

She pulls her shirt up to her face and uses it as a blankie. It's easy, convenient, most of the time you have one on, so why not!

Adoption Travel Tips

2007-04-24T13:22:00.000-07:00

Here are some of my travel tips, hopefully they are helpful to someone out there. For a more general list search the web or visit families with children from Vietnam.

We flew Eva Airlines Evergreen Deluxe class and loved it! We where very comfortable and was worth the extra money. You can get Continental Airlines miles for your trip, even if you book it through a travel agent. I signed up for there frequent flier program online and got a number immediately. Now have enough miles from combining our miles to get one free trip anywhere in the U.S.

The hotels we stayed at didn't have dressers, so you might want to pack some hangers to help organize your stuff. The last thing you want to do is be searching your suitcase for a clean shirt and not have any!

At the Rex hotel the water was so hot you could burn yourself really easy. This makes cleaning the bottles really nice but not so great for your hands. Brings some tongs or buy some at the tax market across the street.

Some of the more tourist stores took U.S. dollar, this could save you on the exchange rate, we took 1500.00, and came home with 400.00. Buy things when you see them, we didn't have time to go back or do a lot of shopping, so I wish I had bought more when I saw it.

For us eat became extremely difficult as we where trying to deal with a new baby. I would suggest bring some power bars for when you cannot eat.

The baby wipes are not the greatest in Vietnam, I brought two 80 count wipes and ran out.

Bring lots of easy clothes, cotton pants, onesies, leave the cute stuff for home. Also don't worry about things being too big, it's easy to dress a baby in clothes that are a little big than try to get them into a outfit that fits just right.

Take lots of pictures, this is the one time when you want that camera with you at all times and take tons of pictures!

Coming HOME!

2007-04-17T04:31:00.000-07:00

After a really hard time getting flights and multiple trips to the ticket agent, we got tickets and are in Taipei! We have a really long layover but we should be home in about 15 hours.

Our time went by so fast, we both with we had more time in HCMC. I'm so excited to bring home our little girl and be in our own house!

I promise I will post more about our trip and tips for those going soon! And yes, more pictures! :)

Hanoi

2007-04-14T23:03:00.000-07:00

We finalized all our appointments and fly to Hanoi on Thursday. The flight wasn't bad, hopefully we can survive the flight home, wish us luck! S. has a huge set of lungs on her and can make some noise.

There was a problem with the hotel and us and another family had to stay at a near by hotel. The hotel was horrible, we almost didn't stay the first night and wouldn't have if we had any other options. But now we are at the hotel we are suppose to be and all is good.

We are ready to come home, we are on stand by for Tuesday so again wish us luck!

We are enjoy our time with the other families, we don't care for Hanoi as much as HCMC. Today we went to the water puppet show, it was excellent.

Our time in Vietnam

2007-04-10T08:12:00.000-07:00

The internet connection is so slow, and each time I try to come down to post all the computers are full.

We love it here! There is so much to see. Although with a new baby we aren't going at as much as we want too. We will just have to come back.

Monday had her medical appt. We where warned it would be hot. When the coordinator tells you that, you have to worry. It was really hot! I think we where there for about two hours for all the families to get in. The room was so muggy as we waited S. got really fussy. I was a little concerned about her since the family before us said the guys wasn’t too nice.

It was our turn we went into the room with the doctor and two nurses. She has a way of turning on the charm. She was all smiles, looks at everyone in the eye and is just a charmer. By the time we left, he was smiling the nurse was smiling, we where proud parents!

Today we had our last appointment in HCMC with the US government. This was a very different appointment than yesterday, nice high rise building with very good air conditioning.

After our appointment we walked around the city for a few hours.

Tomorrow we are going on a tour of the Mekong Delta with some of the other families. We are well taken care of on this trip by our coordinators.

S’ paperwork might be ready for us to fly to Hanoi on Thursday. We are sad that our time is coming to an end in HCMC already and haven’t seen all we had planned too. We will defiantly come back someday.

Giving and Receiving Ceremony

2007-04-06T21:57:00.000-07:00

We had our Giving and Receiving Ceremony yesterday. As of yesterday we are her parents in the eyes of the Vietnamese Government. We are thrilled!

Now we have a bunch of appointments to fulling to US Government part of the process.
We have the weekend free to explore around Vietnam. There are 6 other families here with us.

The Vietnamese love there children, S. gets lots of looks and attention when we go out. Last night we went to dinner and when they served us our food, they took S. while we eat. She loved all the attention from the women, we could see them carring her around and talking to her, very sweet. I'm sure we won't get that kind of service in the US at restaurants :)

Getting settled

2007-04-04T20:35:00.000-07:00

We are getting settled more and more each day. We haven't gone exploring to much, since it's hot out and we are still getting use to what S. likes and doesn't like. She slept much better last night, still up quite a bit, but she only need two bottles. I'm hoping we can drop that down to only one :)

She is a very happy baby in the mornings and loves to take a bath. And she is a huge talker! Even when she is crying she is making babbling noises. We think she is teething so not a happy baby at moments.

Tomorrow is are G&R, wish us luck. Not much else to report, but here is a picture, sorry the connection is sloooww so I'm give you the best one!

We have her!

2007-04-03T19:17:00.000-07:00

We are pleased to report, we have her! She is asleep with her daddy right now.

We arrived at the orphange and was taken to an offical room to wait. Then we saw her caretaker bringing her to us! She did so good, didn’t cry once. We visited with the directors at the orphange and saw her room, and meet the caretakers. It is amazing the amount of love they have for the children. During the ride back she slept the whole time, couldn't ask for anything better.

She was up about every 2 hours last night, so a little fussy and tired but hopefully today we can get settled a little more.

We made it!

2007-04-03T00:55:00.000-07:00

We made it without any problems or worries. We are a little tired but are going to get our daughter in 1 hour! Let's hope the first night together goes off without too many problems.

It's so helpful to have read other families blogs, and get helpful tips. Like the tax market across the street, where you can find anything you need or forgot. We also proud to say we made it sucessfully across the busy street and didn't die! That was a little scary though :)

and we are off!

2007-04-01T07:57:00.000-07:00

We leave tonight! Arriving Tuesday morning. We are so excited to finally be able to go meet our daughter and bring her home. What a awesome experience. We cannot wait. I'm hoping to post while I'm gone to journal our trip for years to come.

Today will be filled with last minute things! Gotta run! :)

We leave in 7 days

2007-03-26T14:14:00.000-07:00

First, thank you all for your comments, it's wonderful to see all the support of other who have been there or will be soon.

After we got our referral I think I went around from a week saying 'can you believe it', 'can you believe it', 'can you believe it'. Now, I find myself doing the same thing, ' can you believe we will be in Vietnam in a week meeting our daughter!' What a wonderful feeling. We leave in 7 days. There's a lot to do in those 7 days, but we are ready! My husband and I are both taking off Friday to go do something special together before we become a family of three. If it doesn't rain hopefully we will get to go out to one of the islands outside of Seattle.

TRAVEL!!!!

2007-03-22T13:13:00.000-07:00

We got our travel call this morning! We are so thrilled to be going! We will leave the first week of April to get our little girl!

2007-03-21T09:49:00.000-07:00

Ok, usually I'm not such a downer or negative person, generally I'm upbeat and positive at least I like to think so :)

Now, to get to the negative. I'm really having a hard time. This month has been awful. First we are told we are going in March, we get really excited. Tell everyone, plan and wait. Well now. We are told we aren't going in March and they don't know when we are going. Also other families from our agency are getting there G&R dates who got referrals after us. I'm excited for those families and very happy for them, but it hurts that we cannot go with them. I know life isn't fair but I guess I'm learning that lesson again.

If anyone has some advice to help keep me sane, let me know

pictures of our sweetheart!

2007-03-19T11:20:00.000-07:00

Still waiting on our G&R date, but wanted to share a new picture we got. You can see why we are dying to travel!

2007-03-15T08:35:00.000-07:00

*warning I may whine a little here*

So, we where told we would travel this month, well... It's March 15th and considering they have to give us some notice I'm starting to doubt we will go this month.

Also to make matters worse, I have been feeling physically horrible. I'm been having intense awful muscle spasms consistently through out the day. I even went to the doctor. They couldn't find anything, they never seem too. They gave me vicodin, a solution it seems that is always given when they cannot find anything. I hate taking drugs like that, so I have only taken a few. I'm starting to think it's stress. I'm trying not to get all worked up but it's so hard waiting like this. I swear this is taking years of my life. Ok, enough babbling.

Mr. march you are a very long month

2007-03-08T11:55:00.000-08:00

Knowing we will go sometime in March makes me super excited, but march is really long. Say we get our approval today, then i would guess we would go on March 19th. Probably too optimistic. So if we get it next week I would guess we would get to go on the 26th. I really wish we knew our date but it looks more like we will be closer to 5 months waiting to travel when we go.

4 months and updates!

2007-03-02T08:24:00.000-08:00

Today marks 4 months that we have been waiting to travel. Honestly, I didn't think we would be waiting this long. Since most of the families waiting for HCMC from our agency traveled between 2-3 months. I think Tet slowed us down quiet a bit.

But, the coolest thing is we got an update!! We are told they expect us to travel by the end of the month! YEA!!!! We would rather have ta, but knowing that we will go in March is so exciting. March is the month I get to meet my daughter :)

Stress?

2007-02-28T13:51:00.000-08:00

So, last night I mentioned to my husband that I've been breaking out pretty bad lately and it might be from stress. He said, "Why are you stressed?" I said well....(dugh) because of the (hello?) the adoption and waiting to hear if we get to travel. He said, "oh, well you shouldn't let that stress you out." I don't get it most of the time we are on the same page, but man sometimes my husband can throw something like that at me and make me think we aren't even in the same room.

q-tip cleaning

2007-02-28T08:20:00.000-08:00

Does anyone else get necrotic when they travel? I don't know what it is but every time I go on a trip I have to have the house clean, and everything put away. Those books that have been sitting out for a month now are top priority on getting put away and we cannot leave until they are back on the shelves. With our adoption trip it's even worse. I have been painting trim, labeling our cd case, and getting the q-tips out for cleaning. Q-tips work really well for cleaning small spaces, like in between the buttons on the refrigerator. My husband rolls his eyes every time he sees me bust them out with a bottle of simple green.

Top Ten Worry Stone Items

2007-02-27T10:10:00.000-08:00

Here are the top ten things running through my head that I worry about in being a new mom.

1. we will put the diaper on backwards. Plain and simple. We will do something really obviously incorrect and won't realize we are doing it.

2. she won't be happy. This is huge, I worry about her having problems in teenage year with regards to her adoption. I really want the world for this little girl and hope that she feels loved and happy with herself.

3. food. I worry about what types of food to feed her. What if she's allergic to something. (update: I found this great resource page 2 shows when to switch your baby to different foods)

4. we will spoil her. We are so overwhelmed with love and excitement to bring her home, I worry we will spoil her years down the road.

5. sore muscles. Yes, I worry that after we get her she will get sore muscles. I have to laugh at myself for this one. But really if she spends most of her time in her crib, after we get her she will be out all the time, crawling around, sitting up, etc.

6. finding a babysitter. How the heck do you find a baby sitter when you are new to an area? We have a daycare, but a babysitter is still on the to do list.

7. i'll worry to much. isn't that crazy. I'm worried about worrying. Oh boy, brother I need some help here people!

8. she will miss out on being close to her extended family. We don't live close to our family. This is hard in multiple ways, but having a good career and being able to support our family is equally as important. This isn't an easy one.

9. money. enough said...

10. she will grow up really fast and this moment will be over.

2007-02-20T13:45:00.000-08:00

We had a great weekend, almost done with the bathroom, organized the garage, celebrated Tet by going to Vietnamese food and watched a movie. Cannot get much better than that, well, maybe travel approval ;)

Although offices start to open back up on Wednesday in Vietnam our agencies staff is off until next week, and there are multiple families coming in on the 26th so not sure even if our paperwork was ready when we will get our TA. I'm trying to keep my mind off it for now.

The Wait Continues

2007-02-15T13:48:00.000-08:00

It's the end of the week in Vietnam, so no news for us before Tet on our travel. It's really hard to not be disappointed. I keep reminding myself we are close, we have a long list of things to do before we travel and March isn't that far away. But all of that doesn't seem to help.

This is one of the hardest and greatest thing I have ever done in my life. There is nothing that compares. I stare at her picture and am thrilled. She is perfect in every way. We are so lucky to be given this opportunity.

The wait, to be continued...

2007-02-13T13:14:00.000-08:00

Congratulation to Stephanie and Rachel on there travel approvals! I cannot wait to hear about there trips.

An update went out to our group that more travel approvals will be coming soon. I'm really hoping we are in there, but will see. My birthday is in 3 weeks so that would be such a great birthday gift.

Tomorrow is valentines day, I have nothing for my husband. I know, I'm horrible. I cannot think of anything to get him. I would like to get him something small, but I'm having present block or something.

2007-02-12T08:19:00.000-08:00

How do you prepare for something that in a matter of weeks will change your life and you will never be the same? I don't think it's possible. This has been a long road for us and the realization that we are so close is both exciting and nerve racking! I'm so excited to see our daughter and experience Vietnam for ourselves. I have read so many amazing stories of other families trips to Vietnam and cannot wait to see it for myself! I hope we get our travel dates in the coming weeks, I hope they will come by the end of Feb.

We got a lot done around the house this weekend, thanks to the beautiful weather! A true treat during winter in the Northwest.

2007-02-07T09:34:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday little one, 6 months old! Sending a big kiss all the way to Vietnam for you today.

3 months down

2007-02-02T08:20:00.000-08:00

Today is 3 months we have been waiting to travel. I cannot believe we made it this far! Mind you we didn't really have a choice but still 3 months! But I'm really to move on and get our travel dates! Cannot wait to bring that baby home :)

Tet

2007-01-31T14:13:00.000-08:00

Since Tet is upcoming, I have been wondering how we are going to celebrate it as a family. There are different festivals close to our house that we can go too also I think our agency is having something to celebrate the new year.

So, I'm wondering, do you plan on celebrating Tet? What types of things are you planning on doing?

Looks like Vietnam is already starting to get busy for tet.

2007-01-30T14:02:00.000-08:00

whew, what a busy day. I had to give a demo at work today, so I was a little nervous about that. It went fine, nothing to worry about, yea! I hate doing presentations but the more I do them the more confident I feel in doing them.

Nothing new on the adoption front. Lately my heart just aches for any news on our paperwork.

We got our updated fingerprints :) so we are good until May 2007.

wonderful weekend

2007-01-28T20:13:00.000-08:00

We had such a great weekend. The sun was out all weekend long, so we got some gardening done, worked around the house and went to a movie. I'm sure it will be the last movie in a theater we see in a long time. We saw Children of Men. If you like Science Fiction, type of movies it was great. I really liked it.

Thanks for all your thoughts on the last post, you guys are the best :)

I got an email about the pictures, I guess we are a little disappointed. We didn't get a reason why, just that we didn't get pictures, and we just got them a few weeks ago. The tone of the email didn't leave us with warm fuzzies either. I understand we just got pictures two weeks ago and don't get me wrong I really appreciate that, I know some families don't always get updates. BUT, why would they go to the exact orphanage and take pictures of one child and not the other, it just doesn't make sense, that family also got pictures two weeks ago. The girls where probably in the same room. So, we will just keep on waiting and stay focused on bringing our daughter home, and our extremely grateful for that.

mood swing

2007-01-26T16:59:00.000-08:00

ok, remember how I was just saying I have been on a constant mood swing. Well here it is.

I'm really annoyed and sad. Another family from our orphanage got updated pictures yesterday. I don't understand why we didn't get any updated pictures. There are only 3 kids there for our agency. Why would they do that? Did they forget, that's sad. How could they forget to take pictures of our daughter? This is just makes me really upset.

Sun in Seattle, what?

2007-01-26T15:28:00.000-08:00

There must be something wrong, it's friday, I have the afternoon off and the sun is out! I haven't been outside much lately so I've been doing some cleaning up and gardening today.

We got updated pictures last week, it had been a month so I was really really happy to get them. She is so cute, I cannot wait to go. This is such a emotional roller coaster. I feel like I'm in a constant mood swing. Overall I cannot wait until we go and am happy. I'm counting the days.

But who knows when we are actually going. Our agency keeps things really hush hush. I don't even know if we are in step 3 or not. I ask and am only told expect to travel in 4-5 months after referral. So, that's March - April. I'm ok with the beginning of March but I'm a little worried that there will be a huge backlog from Tet and we will be delayed. :(

I'm looking forward to the weekend, granted I cannot remember a time I wasn't looking forward to the weekend. But I'm really looking forward to this weekend! I think we are going to go to a movie and maybe some packing for Vietnam.

annoying waiting mommy emails

2007-01-17T13:58:00.000-08:00

Ok, I have been stalking our agency director. I have been trying not to email her too much but I broke down and just sent a email, darn it. I couldn't take it any longer. Mind you, I just emailed her yesterday, darn. urg.

Gosh could you imagine being a social worker at one of the bigger agencies you must get sooo manny email all asking the same thing. I have to say I'm probably not the most patient. So hopefully she will forgive me.

btw, I was asking when we where going to get updated pictures. I have to laugh, I actually almost wrote "if you have any news on our paperwork I would be interested in that too". But I stopped myself, and didn't ask that :)

ho hum

2007-01-17T09:41:00.000-08:00

Nothing really new to report. I've decided I need a new car, the hills in Washington mixed with snow are making it incredibly difficult for my poor little car to get home. Maybe later this year when I'm back to work after my leave I'll consider getting a new one, who knows.

I'm getting really unmotivated at work, this is a bad thing. I know my mind is else where but considering it will be a couple of more months before i go on leave I need to try to focus!

Oh, I almost forgot. We met another couple last year that was adopting from Vietnam, this weekend we met them for coffee and got to meet there little boy. He was so cute! It was nice to see someone who has made it through the whole process and has there little one at home!

winter

2007-01-10T22:31:00.000-08:00

Do you like our new winter chair :)

Insanity at INS

2007-01-10T09:34:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we went to INS to get our fingerprints updated. Yes this will be the 4th time I have been fingerprints, but who's counting. We got there to find out we had to pay 5.00 to park, slight irritation. Our appointment was for 9:00 we promptly arrived at 8:45am. We made a couple of big mistakes, so listen up for all those who need to do this. First, get coffee before you go, no they don't have coffee machines or anything that resembles coffee anywhere close by. Second take something to read, I know this sound like a no brainer but we didn’t think about it, dugh. We where there from 8:45-12:30 with an appoint. URG, I feel bad for people who have to deal with ins on a regular base. Oh, the best part. They spelt my husbands name wrong on the paperwork, so I went to the desk to ask who could fix this. The guy raised his voice and said "mama you have to make an appointment for that" I said I do have an appoint, he said I would have to make a separate appoint to get the name corrected. Mind you it was only an extra t in his name. Oh boy. We got it straightened out but boy oh boy I feel bad for all those dealing with INS. While we waited it was interesting to see all the different people, I just wanted to ask everyone where they are from and how they ended up in Seattle. But of course I didn't. I bet there are some really interesting stories there.

Later that day we went to babies-r-us and got one of the car seats we need, and bottles. This is one of the last big things we need so I'm happy to have it. We decided on the Eddie Bauer 3-In-1 Elite in pink of course

are we there yet?

2007-01-08T13:48:00.000-08:00

I found out today our daughter paperwork is currently being reviewed in HCMC at the justice department. So, this is good. Does anyone know how long that takes?

Also, after that they 'send it back to Hanoi' does this mean physically mail it back or fax something? I'm just trying to get an idea of how long this takes.

I'm excited because really it's not that long until Tet and then we get to go :)

This weekend wasn't too exciting we worked on the bathroom, still and did some other things around the house.

March

2007-01-05T13:35:00.001-08:00

I got this today, "You won't be traveling before Tet, we are pretty sure of that."

So, March. Some good things about traveling in March are, better flights, cheaper airfare, being in Vietnam for my birthday and getting to spend my time off closer to summer (better weather)

Anyone else looking at a March travel?

bathroom tiling

2007-01-04T20:56:00.000-08:00

Tonight we (or should I say my husband, hehe) finished tiling the floor in the bathroom. Actually he's still up there, humm should I feel a little guilty for being down here not helping... nah

So, here's a sneak peak of the bathroom, takin from the mirror so not the best picture, but you can see the shower tile and the new bathtub. We still have to put the grout in but almost done, yea!

and just because he's too cute, a picture of my dog with his favorite stuffed animal.

are we there yet?

2007-01-04T14:58:00.000-08:00

Still waiting, no updates. I need to get use to the idea of waiting until after Tet to travel. There is nothing I can do to make this change. So there it is, not I need to soak in it for a bit.

Last night I paid the deposit for daycare. I thought it was going to be a quick drop in and leave a check, I was there for 1 hour! It was really nice they gave me another tour, made a list of things I need to bring and answered a lot of questions. I was really happy to see there was even more diversity in the children then I had seen in our first visit. All the kiddos are so cute!

Since we are first time parents we are new to the whole parenthood club, and let me tell you I feel like an outsider. I seem to be clueless and a bunch of things and think everyone we meet knows we don't have kids yet, so automatic disassociation. I'm sure we will get past this initiation period and join the rest of you in parenthood bliss. I also hope it will be easier to meet people wants we are in the parenthood club.

new image, yea or nay?

2007-01-03T15:59:00.000-08:00

OK, I must be really bored. I haven't really like the image I have been using for my profile, so I messed around a bit and came up with this:

so, what do you think yea or nay?

2007-01-02T10:18:00.000-08:00

Did you notice? Look a little closer, to the right. 2 months down, yes we survived 2 months of waiting to travel. I don't know how we did, some days where easier than others. And now as we get a little closer it gets harder and harder. We have gotten no updates on our paperwork or travel news. I'm hoping we are closer but you can never tell. Some families from our agency got travel news with only 9 days notice to travel! That's really hard to prepare in 9 days! wow. I also think as we get closer and closer to Tet the airfare and flights will get more expensive and harder to find.

Rachel's family got provincial approval this week, yea!! So, if you haven't go congratulate them. It's really great to see families progress, what an amazing process.

Over the weekend my husband and I where very busy, we tiled the bathroom shower, almost done with the tile on the floor, picked up, put some items for sale on craigslist and my favorite picked out some clothes for our baby for when we travel. I know, I know the excitement never ends at our house, watch out! :)

post holiday wrap

2006-12-27T13:13:00.000-08:00

We had a nice quite Christmas. Made some cookies, played games and had yummy dinner. My husband and I don't live close to family so it was just the two of us. Next year we will have a 16month old around so I'm sure our house won't be quite!

Favorite gift, ice cream maker. I love ice cream so this should be lots of fun. I also got a cookbook full of neat recipes. I'm sure it will come in handing during the summer.

I think my cold politely waited until after the Christmas cheer was over wipe me out. Last night I got it. So today I have a pretty bad cold. I'm hoping it will pass quickly.

On the adoption front, no news other than 'we hope a lot of families will travel in January' my husband said it means nothing. I'm hoping it means us! Cross your fingers :)

Merry Christmas

2006-12-21T08:00:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone has a merry Christmas. It has been an amazing year and I’m grateful for the progress we have made in our journey to add to our family. I’m also grateful for the friends and the families who share their journey online with me, it helps to know there are others out there who have or are going through the same ups and downs along the way.

Now, go eat some Christmas cookies, throw on some Christmas music and snuggle up with your favorite loved one.  Have a good one!

darkness all around

2006-12-19T10:42:00.001-08:00

Weekend progress? Nothing Notta Zero. Thursday night we lost power and it stayed off until Sunday night at 11:00 just im time to go back to work. We where lucky because we have a firerplace and our house didn’t have any damage from the storm. There are trees down everywhere. All the roads that I take to work are detoured because of fallin trees. So, one weekend down and one weekend closer to christmas, yikes! Oh, I forgot we but christmas lights while the power was out  I didn’t want to just sit there doing nothing. I think my neighboors thought we where crazy, we got some strange looks as they drove by. hehe

The waiting for TA is getting harder and harder, I feel like whining, throwing myself on the floor or anything else that might help the situation. The problem is nothing helps. We like all of you will just sit here and wait for the phone call that will allow us to get our daughter.

2006-12-13T09:29:00.000-08:00

Christmas is sneaking up fast! I still have a bunch of shopping to do. It’s frustrating because I hate giving a gift, just to give a gift but some people are really hard to buy for! We still have to buy something for my father-in-law so if anyone has some good ideas let me know.

We have been busy around the house, we finally got a tree. We went to a tree farm and they had horrible trees so we went to Lowes. I know not to festive but the tree is actually really nice. We bought lights for the front of the house, but they are still in the box. By the time we get home it’s dark so I’m afraid they will have to wait until the weekend.

We sent a request to get our fingerprints updated. They expire at the end of January. I was hoping we wouldn’t have to do this but it’s better to be safe than sitting in Hanoi with expired fingerprints 

I put up our adoption timeline, I don’t know how we have made it this far, but I’m happy we are in the final stretch

Our Adoption Timeline

2006-12-13T09:10:00.000-08:00

Our Adoption Timeline
Applied to agency	December 2002
Vietnam Closed	January 2003
Look at different programs, Taiwan, Kazakstan	--
Vietnam Reopens!	June 2005
Homestudy completed	October 2005
INS approval	November 2005
Agency received license!	January 2006
Dossier to Vietnam (DTV)	June 2006
Referral	November 2006
Refingerprinted	December 2006
Travel	April 2nd 2007
G&R	April 6th 2007
Estimated Return	April 20th 2007
It's been a long road, but we are thrilled to be where we are today and cannot wait to travel to meet our daughter.

Happy Birthday Baby!

2006-12-07T10:05:00.000-08:00

Our baby girl is 4 months old today. I'll blow her a kiss but wish we where there to see her in person.

Some neat things babies do at 4 months are:

begins to Babble and make new sounds
plays with feet and toes
average 4 month old has doubled there birth weight
begins to laugh, giggle, and smile

poa

2006-12-06T10:06:00.000-08:00

Today we got more paperwork to sign. The POA and referral acceptance each will go to the Justice Department in HCMC and DIA in Hanoi. I was all excited about this thinking it meant we where "closer" then I asked my agency what this meant. Basically nothing. She also told me we need to get refingerprinted because our prints expire on Jan 21st. URG, I guess that mean we aren't traveling before then and now another expense of getting refingerprinted. I don't mind getting refingerprinted if we need to but I keep holding onto the idea of traveling in January. I know this setting myself up for a huge disappointment but I cannot help it.

Wasn't I just saying not to but timelines on this stuff, what happen to that train of thought...

missing motivation

2006-12-05T13:05:00.000-08:00

We didn't get a Christmas tree, or as much done as we hoped for. I think we are the only family on the block with no Christmas lights up, but we hope to have them up soon. The bathroom remodel has been sucking up most of our time and taking a lot longer than expected. The new tub is going in tonight, I cannot wait to get it in a working again.

I really don't understand why with one agency things move so quickly and people get G&R dates and other it moves so slowly. Now, we have only had our referral for a little over a month but our dossier was logged in and sent to the province that we are adopting for. So what the heck takes so long? :( I'm really hoping for January but maybe that's wishful thinking.

We got a Maclaren baby carrier on ebay, it's really nice I cannot wait to use it. I also have started to sort the baby clothes, I cannot believe how many oneies she has, yeks! One things I cannot figure out is how do you know if it's pj's or outfit? We have some carter suits with feet, are those pj's? How do I know? Omg, why is that so hard, it seems like a simple thing, but I look at the clothes and get confused. I know with older kids the pj's are pj's plain and simple but baby clothes it seems like many things could possibly be pj's. I don't know if I'm making sense. But if anyone has the decoder please send it over ;)

Welcome December!

2006-12-01T10:43:00.000-08:00

During our adoption the end of each month was always a little depressing for me. Since this whole process is based upon dates, deadlines and time lines in the past a new month has meant a milestone not met.

I'm really going to try not to think our progress as far as dates. Will we get our travel approval in December, humm. That might be a set up for disappointment come Jan 1. Sooo, I'm going to think of things as far as in a few months or soon. Then I don't put to much pressure on dates that might or might not happen. After all if it's one thing I have learned during this process is we don't have control over 80% of what happens.

On a side note, we are going to get a tree this weekend. I LOVE Christmas! I got a new cookie press that I'm dying to try out. It seems a lot easier than hand rolling sugar cookies.

4 weeks down, 4 more to come

2006-11-30T09:49:00.000-08:00

wow, can you believe it's been 4 weeks, or should I say we survived 4 weeks of waiting! 4 weeks today at this very time in the morning I received a email asking me to call. It didn't fully click that this was 'the call' that would change my life forever. I listened while my agency rep described my daughter. my daughter, how wonderful those words sound.

Since then we have getting ready, preparing, making lists and wondering how you ever really prepare for this. So all those seasoned parents out there please share your secrets with me, as I'm sure I'm forgetting something. :)

now, for the next 4 weeks, urg! this is getting a little harder. We haven't gotten updated pictures in a couple of weeks and I'm a little sad to think about how much she has grown and changed.

snow and such

2006-11-29T09:30:00.000-08:00

We had a great visit to Colorado, two surprises. When we arrived Thanksgiving day my aunt came to the airport to get us. Little did we know we had a surprise visitor waiting at home for us. My sister and her son where there! It has been a little over two years since I had seen them so I was very happy.

We had a great dinner, my mom made way to much food as to be expected with her.

Then Friday we went to my aunts and they had put together a surprise baby shower! It was great, we didn't expect to be having a baby shower. We got some adorable baby clothes and cannot wait to take our daughter back to visit.

It was really strange to be coming back from Colorado to a snow storm in Seattle! It's very beautiful!

I'm officially tired of waiting, I know it's only been a month but I'm really wanting to go to Vietnam soon. I asked the adoption agency for an update, of course nothing new. Urg, one of the hardest part of this is blindly waiting with no updates! oh well...

Turkey Week

2006-11-20T13:21:00.000-08:00

We are in the middle of remodeling our guest bathroom. And when I say 'we' I mean my husband and I, no contractors. My mother keeps making oh so subtle comments about the timing of this. But hey this is a good distraction from waiting to travel. So, we took out the title in the shower, the bathtub and the floor this weekend. I cleaned up last night and went to shut the door to keep the cats out of there. And had a sick feeling to my stomach, PANIC! So I slept horrible last night partly because of worry about having everything ready and partly do to the chocolate pie I eat at 8:45pm giving way too much sugar for my own good.

We have gotten no updates on travel; I think we are still in Step 2 waiting for provincial approval. Does anyone know approx. how long this takes in HCMC?

We are going to Colorado for thanksgiving. I'm looking forward to seeing my family and taking a break. We land at 3:30 and dinner is at 5:00pm so let's hope for no snow, at least until we get to my mom's!

Jenn's blog post reminds the true mean of the holidays, so it's my turn at the table.

I'm thankful for my husband who I cannot imagine any day without seeing his smiling face. I’m thankful to the people of Vietnam for allowing me the opportunity to care for one of there precious babies. I’m thankful for the adoption community who has welcomed my family with open arms.

eats and sleeps easily

2006-11-15T08:52:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we got an update on our daughter. What a parents dream, they said she "eats and sleeps easily". Now let's hope she is still doing that when we get her. My husband and I read that and looked at each other and said, that’s our daughter they are talking about! What a great feeling.

We are very lucky because we have gotten updated pictures already, so in all we have about 16 pictures of our sweetie! Usually we will get updated pictures every month or so. We are looking forward to the updates but think it might a little hard to see how much she's changes.

We also heard that families will not be traveling the 2 weeks during Tet. We where thinking it would be really neat to be in Vietnam during Tet but now know this won’t happen, a little disappointing. I sure hope we can travel before tet, if not that would delay things to end of feb or march. Who really knows, it’s so much of a guessing game at this point.

This past week I have been having pretty bad stomach problems, which have slowed me down in general. Last weekend I didn’t really do much at all. I hate that. Oh well…

Our week since the referral

2006-11-09T11:18:00.000-08:00

It's amazing how one phone call can change your life so drastically. It has been a week since we where introduced to our daughter to be. Since then it's been a whirlwind of running around, make list and trying to think about how differently our life will be in three-four months. Pretty amazing.

I'm trying not to think about our wait to travel and keep focused on our great referral and trying to make the transition for our daughter less painful.

Who knows maybe we will be going to Vietnam for Tet in Feb. That would an experience!

Happy 3mn Birthday

2006-11-07T10:10:00.000-08:00

Today is my daughters 3 month birthday! I wish I was there to give her a kiss. Since our referral last week I have been floating! We are so thrilled and don’t understand how we got so lucky. Waiting is so hard; it’s amazing how one day can change everything.

I’m also really worried about running out of time before we travel. I’m a big planner, I think I might drive my husband crazy because she our referral I have been on go mode. I know it can border line neurotic but hey what can you do. Since our paperwork is already in HCMC I’m thinking the travel will be within 3mns. With the holidays that is really right around the corner, wow! I’m really excited.

Some things we found out about her are, when she got her medical done, she weighed the exact same weight 8.71lbs that I did when I was born. Another thing, her name Lien is the Vietnamese name we love, we where actually considering naming our second child that. So it will be a perfect middle name for her.

OUR DAUGHTER!!!

2006-11-02T15:40:00.000-08:00

WE are trilled! You can see her announcement, click here

WE GOT IT!!!

2006-11-02T10:20:00.000-08:00

I cannot type because I'm shaking, but we got our referral. I'll provide more details later!! WOW

- I cannot find my husband!, where the heck is he. We promised not to look at her pictures until we where together so I have a message sitting in my inbox with attached pictures and I cannot click on them. So, I'm trying to distract myself.

She was born on August 7th :)) I'm was expecting her to be older, so this was a huge surpise. I'm so excited

The Waiting Game

2006-10-26T14:08:00.000-07:00

ok, I seriously think I might be going crazy.

Work has slowed down, so my work day goes like this:

check email
check for missed phone calls
check email
check various vietnam blogs
check for missed phone calls
check yahoo groups
check phone one more time, cause maybe I missed a call. Even though the phone doesn't leave my side. When that thing finally rings I think I will pee myself (sorry bad visual)

It seems like everyone either has a referral or is traveling really soon. Is there anyone out there still waiting??

About Me

2006-10-26T08:52:00.000-07:00

Since this is a new blog, I thought I would take a second and tell you a little about me.

We are adopting an infant girl from Vietnam, this is our first child. We are using a larger agency which has ups and downs. We are lucky in that we got on the waiting list early, now there are soo many people on the list, it would be really discouraging. We are told our referral will be coming within the next month. Our referral will be coming from an orphanage in HCMC.

Up to this point I have primarily been a lurker, and have really enjoyed reading other families blogs. I figured I should be proactive and not lurker around anymore :)

My husband and I live in < Washington, we have only lived here for about 2 years. It’s so beautiful here and we are lucky to live in a diverse area. When we moved here I decided I wanted to learn to knit, since then I have been obsessed with knitting and have made various things for our daughter. My husband and I love animals and often that makes going to pet stores dangerous, we have two cats, a dog, and two lizards. We both love doing projects around the house, next I think we are going to tackle the bathroom.

Anyway, that’s a little about me. We cannot wait to go to Vietnam and are nervous about being new parents.

2006-10-25T16:25:00.000-07:00

It's been so quite, I really enjoy reading about other people adoption but lately it seems to have slowed down. Or maybe going stir crazy! That's possible...

2006-10-25T15:41:00.000-07:00

First Post!!!!

Here's my first post of many on my way to Destination Motherhood! It will be a bumpy ride, so hold on.