Merry Christmas to all

I have to confess. It took me a while to get in the Christmas spirit this year. I got my shopping done fairly early, but I just wasn't as excited for Christmas to actually get here. Maybe this adoption wait is making me a more patient person. Not likely, but it's a thought. I did get a burst of Christmas joy just in time.

We had a wonderful and simple Christmas at our house. My family spent the night. We were up until early morning playing games. It wrapped up with a trivia show down first with my sister and I versus the husbands... then a face off with the husbands. D's parents will be here later in the week to celebrate his birthday. So, our celebration will carry on most of the week. D got me this Vietnamese Madame Alexander doll for Christmas. Isn't she sweet?

I got some good adoption news on Friday. I stopped by the agency to drop off a small gift for our coordinator. She told me that we are still on track to get our referral at 15 months, but it could happen in as short as 12 months. That puts us at April to July for our referral. There have been several referrals at our agency and more coming. It always helps to be reassured that things are still moving along. We are much closer to being matched with our baby. It has been 8 months now since we turned in our dossier. The wait has been hard. Every month that passes brings us closer to our family. I am working on a list of things to do after the first of the year. I will post it on the side bar so I can keep track of my progress. I don't want things to sneak up on me. If you have suggestions on anything I might be missing, let me know ; )

In knitting news, I was pleasantly surprised by the quick success of our Etsy site. I did not expect to get so many orders so quickly. On top of that, I was surprised with 6 email orders from friends of friends of friends. I was still able to make a few Christmas gifts, but I was very busy, I am well over 100 hats sold towards our adoption fund. I need to tally up the exact figure. My goal is still to give away at least as many hats as I have sold. I think I should still be in good shape there. It has been a blessing for the fun that I have had doing it and for how it has helped me with the wait. I highly recommend a hobby for all those anxious waiting families out there.

I think I'll stop rambling now. Merry Christmas! A.

Shopping for Christmas

My sister and I have started a little shop at Etsy. We have both always been crafty, just in different ways. She is a graphic artist/art teacher. She is very talented and is currently illustrating a book. She painted some adorable baby shoes. I just started posting them tonight. I hope to have some more added this weekend. I have also added some of my baby hats to the shop. There is a link on the side bar that will take you straight to our site. It's not real fancy just yet, but we are working on it. I think I will ask Hannah' Claire's Mom to help us out with a shop banner. She does such a great job!

I also want to say a big Congratulations to Alexia's new family! A.

December, already?

Christmas is quickly approaching. Back when we first started the adoption process, I never thought we would still be childless this Christmas. It's been hard, but we're hanging in there. The good news is that other families with our agency have referrals coming over the next few months. I'm so excited for them. I'm also eager to follow their travel journals. It is amazing how comforting that is while you are waiting.

It's probably difficult for people who have never adopted to understand how hard the wait is. For one thing, with a pregnancy, you know all along exactly where your baby is. Your doctor never tells you it could be 12 - 18 months before you see your baby. And, you don't usually have to worry about filling out some new form before Homeland Security will let your baby out. I shouldn't be silly. I am well aware that there are a whole lot worries in pregnancy and delivery too.

As far as our adoption progress... there's really not much going on. We just passed our 7 month mark since our dossier was turned in. It will likely be late spring or early summer before we hear anything significant. We are praying that things go well and that the US and Vietnam governments re-sign agreements in March. This is necessary for adoptions from Vietnam to continue past the summer. There are a lot of people working very hard to make sure this agreement is renewed. It will be a big relief when it is signed.

In other news, we were able to scratch off another thing on our "Do before the baby comes" list. D and I took in Infant/Child CPR class this week. The list is getting short. One thing still looming on there is the Nursery. I am hoping to have that to work on after the first of the year. We still have no baby furniture. Once we get that part...I can dive in. I know that working on the nursery will be a big comfort and help me feel closer to our child.

I better wrap this up. I have knitting waiting for me. The sweetest little girl turns 1 this week, and I'm working on something special for her. Stay tuned and I will post a picture. A

Ugly Vegetables

There are lots of things I think about while we are waiting to bring our baby home. We have attended lots of Waiting Families seminars at our adoption agency. These seminars are on all kinds or great topics like travel, medical concerns, and culture. Since we have been waiting a while, we have even attended some of these more than once ; )

It has been a concern of mine that the area we live in isn't particularly diverse. I know it will be important for our future children to be around other people who share their Asian heritage. I want them to be proud of where they come from as well as where they grow up. When we first applied to our agency, we also joined a REACH Asia, a support group in our area for families with Asian children. It is a great group of families and I am so grateful to know them. I think it will be important to our children to have friends who look like them and share their racially blended lives. I have bought a few racially diverse books for our children. I was questioned once if I thought I was over doing it, and if this would just draw attention that our child is different. My thoughts are that our child will be different and we need to make sure he knows he is different in a very wonderful way. All people are different in lots of ways, but they are also the same in lots of ways. If you haven't visited Grace Lin's website or read any of her books, please do. She speaks to children about differences in a warm and wonderful way. Her book Ugly Vegetables is a wonderful illustration of differences.

Our last Waiting Families seminar was on culture. To start out each person was given a cup of pony beads in different colors and a piece of string. Each color was assigned a race. We were asked to add one bead that represented us... our babies grandparents... we added beads that represented the different cultures of art in out home... our friends... the babies future playmates... and on and on. Although, our sting was heavily weighted to our race, I was pleasantly surprised to see it was more colorful than many in the group. This was a good lesson about the environment our child will grow up in. I want to especially thank the little peanuts in the REACH Asia group for adding lots of beauty to our string.

While I don't plan on turning my home into a shrine to all things Asian, I am going to continue to make sure our child's culture is represented and respected in our lives. D and I bought 3 beautiful prints by Cedric Hustace last year. I have yet to get them framed. I'm going to work on that. If anyone is looking for Christmas ideas for me, a framing gift certificate would be wonderful: ) A

Fishy

This is another one of my favorite hats. For some reason this one makes me smile every time. I have made several intended for our baby, but someone else always wants it. I think the next one I make will go in our baby's closet and wait for him to come home. And talk about closets... Oh, my! This boy has quite a wardrobe. I will try to post pictures later. The strongest comfort to combat "Adoption Anxiety" seems to be Baby shopping. I guess that is wonderful for the stockholders of Gymboree.

Now for the adoption update. There isn't a whole lot of news. We did move up a spot on the waiting list last month. Our agency had a referral of a beautiful baby boy.. Congratulations to E and her family. There are several other families who are very close to getting their exciting news. We are waiting on the edge of our chairs right along with them.

As is pretty much the standard in International Adoption, there have been more process changes. The USCIS department has made a change to the I-600 approval process. The I-600 document is a request to classify an orphan as an immediate relative. Early in the adoption, parents request a pre-approval ( I-600A ). It is at that time that the family is "checked out". (fingerprints, home study...) After their child is identified, families file the actual I-600 request. In this process the child is "checked out". The child's paperwork is reviewed to insure that he/she is truly an orphan and eligible for adoption according to US law.

Previously, the I-600 was filed while the family was in Vietnam after the was adopted. This posed numerous issues when there was a question about a child's status as an orphan. In these cases, the family would have already adopted the child under Vietnam Law, but the US would not recognize the adoption or allow the baby into the country. Now, as horrible as this sounds, it is not something that occurs frequently. The US has now chosen to take steps in favor of insuring ethical adoptions. The I-600 will now be filed right after the referral. This way, the family will not even travel until the US has had time to investigate the paperwork and verify the child is eligible for adoption.

This should not affect us greatly except to shorten our trip a few days. But, it should help to weed out agencies who are not acting in the best interests of children. Unfortunately, the combination of families desparate for a child and families living in poverty combine to make conditions ripe for corruption. Luckily, our agency goes to great lengths to work in a transparent and ethical manner.

So, that's pretty much all the news on that. At last estimate our coordinator thought that we might expect a referral 12 - 15 months from when we turned in our Dossier. That would put us in a April - July time frame. There's always the possibility things could move a little faster... but that isn't something we are expecting.
A.

Home Sweet Home... and Ladybug Beret

It's so good to be back home! I like to travel, but not for too long. It's so wonderful to my own house. The plane ride was pretty uneventful. I didn't want to say to much until we were home... so I wouldn't jinx us. All our flights were on time, we didn't loose any luggage, and we were as comfortable as we could have expected. There was a little turbulence, but not too bad. Now, I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to handle the length of our flight to Vietnam. I'm sure it will be much rougher, but it will be a "labor" truly worth it all.

As for Shakespeare, he is doing much better. He's a little groggy from the medication, but the seizures have stopped. The tests all came back normal. We will follow up with the Vet this week It was very hard being away from him while he was sick. But, his Grandma took good care of him, "Thanks Mom!".

And last but not least, Ladybug Beret! I made this one right before I left town, so I didn't have time to post a picture. I love the "Curly Feelers". I will try to post more baby hat pictures soon.

A.

Hello from Texas

As you can imagine, D. is in heaven! He used to live in Houston, so he is thrilled to be back in Texas. The weather is nice. It's pretty warm here. The River Walk is beautiful. I survived the plan ride. It really wasn't bad at all. It's definately better than going by car ; )

Thank you to everyone for the "Well wishes" for Shakespeare. He had 3 seizures Tuesday and 2 yesterday. I'm calling my Mom to get an update. I hope there hasn't been anymore. Thanks for your kind thoughts! A.