New Number

Only time will tell if this matters or not... but as of last week we've moved up to slot #209 on the waiting list!

Nursery Ideas

I had a dream about Winnie the Pooh last night (I also dreamed that I intentionally melted nachos onto my leather couch, but that doesn't really have anything to do with this post). I woke up and told hubby we should paint our nursery-to-be to look like the Hundred Acre Woods.

He's on board. He suggested painting a tree that reaches up on the ceiling, and then hanging this lamp from a "branch" with bees around it to make it look like a hive.

Let me clarify - we are currently painting our master bedroom blue. Solid blue, one color, four walls. It's taken about a week thus far and left our entire house in disarray. So, we aren't master painters of any sort.

However, I found this website today. Check it out and see if it doesn't inspire you. Pretty soon you'll want to paint a forest - and stripes - and farm animals - and a castle.

(Li'l Sis? I know you have some mad crazy pumpkin-painting skills...)

I Met a Porcupine at Applebee's

Driving home from lunch today, I spied a tent and cages in the field in front of Applebee's.

"Puppies!" I cooed.

"Um, I think that's a porcupine... "

Hubby was right. Little River Zoo brought out several small animals and created a petting area. They suckered us right in.

I was a perplexed by this whole pet-the-porcupine concept, but Porky was down with it.

This goat and turtle were roomies.

Hubby fed a wallaby.

If ever an occasion to entertain a wallaby arises, and you don't know what vittles to offer, they apparently have an affinity for vegetable-flavored Ritz crackers.

Windblown

Our Shih Tzu enjoyed the beautiful weather on the way home from the groomer yesterday.

(No, Dad, of course I didn't take this picture while I was driving. I would never consider doing anything so unsafe.)

The Quick Summary

Hi all -

Yes, I fell off the face of the blogging universe. Adoptive families know why many of the Vietnam blogs have gone silent; for the few friends/family members who we've shared this blog with, here's the deal.

Y'know the Bog of Eternal Stench (quick, name the 80's movie reference!)? Basically, that's the current state of VN adoptions. USCIS posted this horribly disturbing message, closely followed by this one. Result: as of now, adoptions will not be processed for anyone who does not have a referral by September 1.

Remember when you were a kid and everyone would get in trouble because of the one bratty boy who just wouldn't settle down? That's basically what's going on here. The vast majority of Vietnam adoptions are ethical, but a very small minority of agencies/adoption personnel are causing problems for everyone; instead of making the troublemakers get out of the sandbox, all adoptions are being stopped.

Making sure adoptions are ethical should, of course, be priority numero uno - that goes without saying. However, there are ways to ensure ethical adoptions without shutting down the entire adoption system between the two countries.

As you can imagine, this hasn't been easy news to swallow. There was one particular Saturday that certainly wasn't pretty around our house (I recommend splurging for the Kleenex with lotion. The integrity of your nasal passages is worth the extra forty cents.).

I've exhibited unusual behavior since the news. I've cried over nonsensical things (though I did really love those shoes before the heel broke). When I carried a huge purse to work the other day, a coworker said she loved my "baby stealing bag" (she said it was big enough to hide a kid). I spent several moments seriously contemplating how she knew I was adopting, and further, how she knew I had contemplated nabbing one of the random children always wandering the toy section at Ross unattended*.

So, at any rate - we're sad. And mad. We're getting better, though. Hubby and I are now back on the pray/research/talk/pray/eat ice cream/pray some more wagon. It is kind of bizarre, exciting, and intimidating to think that, as of this moment, we have no idea where in the world our little children will come from - we are now charged (once again) with choosing the path that will lead us to our little ones.

So thanks to everyone who's told us they are praying for us - that's exactly what we need right now. I'm hoping one path or another becomes the evident choice for us soon. Please also pray for the other adoptive families, the orphaned children, and the government officials who have the ability to work out a new agreement.



*Disclaimer: I would never really steal a child. If a really cute kiddo turns up missing in, say, the south OKC area, I had nothing to do with it.

Brand New Family

Check out Tori, the newest cutie pie to be adopted by a CHI family! Her ecstatic and soon-to-be sleep-deprived new parents are blogging from Vietnam.

Movin' On Up

We're now #225. CHI received two referrals this week - a 13 month old girl and an 8 year old boy. Yay for the kiddos and their new families!

We went to see the movie 21 tonight. It was rather - eh. Kind of boring. It takes skill to make a movie about Vegas that dull. Ah, well, we had fun anyway. Our next movie venture will be to the snazzy new Warren Theatre that just opened a few miles from us. Balcony with wait service? I'm in!

OK, you blogaholics - I suppose I'm behind the times as I just discovered how to set up Google Reader to keep up with all the adoption blogs. Why has no one clued me in to this beautiful, beautiful invention until now? The lightbulb is on and my Blackjack is now tethered to my hand.

The List

So I finally asked for our number. :) I'm going to try to ask no more often than every couple months, though I know that will probably change to monthly.

I was enjoying the anticipation of not knowing exactly how many spots we'd moved up the list, and trying to guess from the news on other PAPs' blogs. Turns out we were right on target. After last week's referrals, Hubby and I are now #227 on the list. We've moved up 21 spots since we joined the list around Valentine's Day. That's certainly more than the average; we've moved up several spots due to PAPs leaving the program due to the impending suspension and whatnot.

Referrals!

Yippee for two CHI families! Two referrals for baby boys were received this week. I hope their new families blog so we can see the cuties.

Vietnam to Require DNA Testing?

The adoption groups are abuzz tonight. A memo describing new DNA testing requirements was posted on Bring Our Children Home. This site is legit, but they haven't shared their source yet, so I'm incredibly curious to see what comes of this.

If accurate (and legitimate - it is April Fools' Day, after all), the memo mandates that orphans and their birth families will have to undergo DNA testing - possibly twice - to confirm actual familial relations before an adoption can proceed. The memo itself is odd; it needs a lot of clarification and another proofread. For instance, it states that this testing will be required for abandoned children. I'm assuming they mean relinquished children, since abandoned children were, by definition, um... you know, abandoned. As in, left without contact information for their birth families. Makes giving them a blood test a bit tricky. The memo also refers to PAPs represented by attorneys instead of agencies, which is not currently an option for adopting from VN.

I don't know what all the potential ramifications are for PAPs (assuming VN adoption is allowed to continue). Obviously it would be yet another hurdle. I can't wait to hear my agency's take on this one.

I suppose it's possible that CIS is modeling this requirement after the DNA testing system in Guatemala adoption. I don't know a lot about those details, but I do know that the DNA testing causes major time delays in a lot of Guatemala adoptions. The Vietnam memo projects a one-month turnaround; I don't know that I fall for that, especially given the recent I-600 debacles.

Anyway. I'm off to watch The Biggest Loser. This is the first season we've watched it, and we're hooked. We were going to work out tonight, but Hubby's too sore from a kickboxing DVD we did last night (and he never trusted me that those were great workouts...). We're going to eat taco soup instead... and yes, I'm aware how contradictory those activities are. :)

Roller Coaster

Here's the quick summary of this post: blech!

That's not actually the first word that would come to mind, but my semi-rational side tells me that a string of expletives wouldn't be appropriate for an adoption blog. We received an update from our agency after I posted earlier. Looks like the MOU will, indeed, expire on September 1. I had been fairly confident that the countries would sign a new one - it just makes so much sense that they would - but neither government has actually stated that they are working on a new agreement.

Why, oh why, are the governments making this so difficult? Seriously. Perhaps I should mail my copy of "Getting to Yes Without Giving In" to the DIA, Vietnam government, or whoever else could negotiate us out of this mess. :( It's heartbreaking to think of the gazillion kiddos living in orphanages, while there are so many parents here who would give about anything for the chance to welcome one into their homes.

When we first started researching adoption, everything I read said it was a roller coaster. That's the most accurate metaphor I've ever heard. Let's all cross our fingers - and pray, pray, pray! - for some positive movement in Vietnam.

MOU update

Happy Monday everyone. I know my fellow Okies had a rough start to the week; our tornado sirens went off at 1:45 this morning. That's enough to get your heart racing. The tornado threat was on the other side of town. I stayed awake and watched the coverage for quite a while, but Hubby managed to doze off again even before the siren quit wailing. I only wish I could fall asleep like that boy!

Today is the last day the MOU could potentially be resigned. It's after 9 pm in VN now, so unless they're burning some midnight oil it looks like there will be a pause in adoptions after September 1 (we don't have official word from our agency yet, but I think it's a gimme). We aren't surprised - we've been expecting this - but hopefully it will be a very temporary suspension while everyone gets their ducks in a row. It appears that VN will continue processing adoptions for those families whose dossiers are in country by the cut-off date. We won't be far enough along to submit our dossier by then, but this is good news for many families. The good news for us is that we will continue to move up the list while those families receive their referrals, even if the country is technically closed during that time; therefore WHEN (positive thinking - note I said "when," not "if") Vietnam reopens we'll be further along.

Please pray for all of the children waiting in orphanages, and for their forever families who are so eager to bring them home.

Happy Easter!

I have been conspicuosly absent from blogging. I'll blame it on the Easter Bunny. He arrived early and captured my unsuspecting sisters and me while we were helping my niece and nephew hunt eggs. Here we are moments before the kidnapping:

You can see the menacing look in the his eyes as his seemingly innocent paws creep around us. Note the looks of blissful ignorance on our faces. Little did we know that moments later we'd be whisked away and submitted to various forms of fluffy torture to keep us from our keyboards. We managed to slip away while he was distractedly filling Easter baskets with marshmallow Peeps.

Hubby and I took advantage of beautiful weather and visited the OKC Zoo today. It was quite busy - not only was it spring break, but there are four new lion cubs on exhibit. We had to park across the street at the racetrack and casino. On the walk over, I heard a man excitedly explaining the intricacies of gambling to his eight-year old son, only he forgot to explain the part where you don't always win when you bet on the ponies.

At any rate, I still have warm fuzzies from watching the lion cubs. I'm having problems with my flickr slideshow so I'll post some pictures individually. Bear with me for some "awww!" moments.

Tearing up an old fire hose.

Faux Turner Falls and some bears in the snazzy new Oklahoma Trails exhibit.

Squishing a gator.

Making a new friend.

Spring is here!

On the way home we stopped at our favorite Asian restaurant. We've always avoided the Vietnamese buffet in the corner, primarily due to its confusing labels and ambiguous meats, but we were up for the challenge today. Or at least, I was up for the challenge until I wandered off to my familiar Mongolian BBQ and sweet and sour chicken. Hubby, on the other hand, gave this concoction a try:

His face says it all - we couldn't quite figure out what that congealed green substance was. He said it tasted like potato chunks in pina colada pudding - I didn't think that could be accurate, but after tasting it, I'd say he hit the nail on the head. Any ideas what we may have consumed?

Lastly, check out our fortunes. A sign of good things to come.

Beware the Easter Bunny... but have a very Happy Easter!

Bloglift

Kathryn, another CHI PAP, gave her blog a facelift (bloglift?). My blog was a wee bit envious, so I followed in her footsteps and jaunted on over to Cutest Blog on the Block. Kudos to Ashley, who runs that site - she has some very creative (free!) designs and easy instructions.

Clearance Bargains

I know, I know... I wasn't going to buy anything for the nursery yet. But how could I pass up this oh-so-fun chandelier from Target? I've had my eye on it since they put out their Global Bazaar collection a couple months ago, and I couldn't pass it by when it went on clearance. I think it would work for a boy or girl room. I also snagged a couple more books from the Dollar Spot. I love all things Disney - especially the old-fashioned cartoons.


Now, I'm not going to buy another thing for that room until we have a referral.

Did I just hear a collective, "Yeah, right!"?

Fur Baby

Our dog just came home from the groomer. I woke her up to take her picture; she wasn't particularly compliant.

Posting this reminded me that I put the below picture on Puppy War a couple years ago. Looks like she's won 49% of her matches. I won't explain to her what that means for the other 51%. I personally think it means she's perfect. :) It may also mean that I've turned into a crazy dog lady.

Vote for Abigail on PuppyWar!

Flu-Induced Ramblings

How sad - I've only blogged for a couple months and I'm already guilty of blog neglect.

CHI didn't have any referrals this week, but hopefully there will be several in March. Several families will be traveling this month. I still haven't come up with a cute waiting list countdown calendar idea yet. Maybe I'll hit Hobby Lobby this week.

No news related to the pending resigning of the MOU.

I've been home with the flu and a sinus infection since Tuesday. Today's the first day I feel normal-ish, other than a cough that feels like it originates in my toes.

I added a new skill to my repertoire while I was home. I spent a couple hours mastering the cup trick shown in the Happy Slip video below. That's an advanced stage of cabin fever, I believe.


I showed off my mad crazy rhythym skills when Hubby came home from work. I think he was more confused than impressed.

I also came across the blog of a single mom who has adopted... drumroll please... 39 children. Wha....? Yes, 39 children. Fascinating.

I'm sitting on the back porch typing this, and a storm's getting ready to roll in. The wind just picked up substantially. I wish it would blow my neighbor's windchimes straight to Oz. Yesterday it was mid-70s and beautiful. Now, a line of severe weather including hail and a tornado watch is headed this way. Tomorrow it's supposed to snow. Crazy Oklahoma weather!

Have I mentioned how ready I am for winter to pass and take all of its cooties with it?

Happy Birthday

Today is a very special day.

Happy

Birthday,

Mom!

XOXOXO

Yoda and Friends

My cell phone has been dying a slow death since the fall. I finally gave in and bought a snazzy little phone, a Blackjack II. It took me months to justify the increased monthly payment. I'm an internet consultant, though, so I need to be able to access my site from anywhere, right...? Well, that and check movie times.

At any rate, I just learned how to transfer pictures from my camera. Here's one of hubby enjoying his Valentine's treats.

Yes, he's sharing his cookie with a little Yoda. Ahem, Yoda himself said, "Judge me by my size, do you? And well you should not, for my ally is the Force." Quite a powerful li'l guy.

In adoption news, we just received an update from CHI. The sweetest little three-year-old girl, who is HIV positive, has been on their waiting children list for over a year. Her forever family has now found her! Congrats to the family. She is quite the cutie.

Traveling family

The Abrams (another family from Children's Hope International) are currently in Vietnam completing the adoption of their little girl. I thought I'd share the link to their blog. I love all the pictures they're posting.

They're currently in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) for the second half of their trip. Isn't Norah sweet?

Lucky Number

Our new lucky number -
#248

Red for Valentine's Day. The countdown begins!

Mr. Postman...

USPS confirmed delivery of our package to CHI this morning. Yay! The list is updated weekly, so we won't know our official number until the end of this week or the beginning of next.

It's in the Mail!

Friday CIS called to say our approval was ready to be picked up.

This led to a bit of jumping around in my cubicle, followed by an afternoon of mad-crazy errand running. I left work to have one last form signed by our home study agency in Edmond. From there, it was off to west OKC to pick up Hubby at his office so we could have that final form notarized at a nearby bank. Then it was another trip to the Department of Homeland Security/CIS to pick up that wonderful approval form. Unfortunately my checkbook was at home, so southwest OKC was my next stop. After swinging my my in-law's office to make copies of everything, I finally mailed the paperwork and The Big Fat Check (dossier fee) to CHI. That amount of money deserves a formal name, hence the capitalization.

So, with any luck.... we'll be on the list Monday! Say it with me.... woo hoo!

A Bit Closer

Our social worker faxed our child abuse clearances to CIS this morning. Via email, CIS confirmed receipt. I asked them if I could come pick up our I-171H when it is ready to avoid the mail delay... surprisingly, they said yes! Wonders never cease. They'll call me as soon as it is ready, which should be sometime next week. I'm trying to leave my afternoons flexible so I can pick it up and bring it to the post office the second it's ready.

Memorandum of Understanding

Chocolate Cherry Diet Dr. Pepper is my new obsession. I'm a bit panicked by the fact that it's a limited edition flavor. Perhaps I should stock up while my friendly neighborhood Wal-Mart has it in stock.

At any rate, I drank entirely too many today; it's late, I'm sick, and yet I'm wide awake. Bouncing off the walls, to tell you the truth.

I'll use a bit of my energy to post about the one topic I've been avoiding: the MOU, or Memorandum of Understanding. PAPs (prospective adoptive parents) visiting my blog know what issue I'm addressing, but I thought I'd bring my friends and family up to speed with a Cliff Notes version. It's a bit confusing; I'll see if I can be brief or not.

Vietnam requires a Memorandum of Understanding to be in place with any country that completes adoptions of its orphans. That once-innocuous little phrase has come to induce cringing in adoptive parents nationwide. The MOU is good for three years, and the current agreement expires in September 2008. The intent of the MOU is to ensure that ethical adoptions take place. As PAPs that is, of course, our biggest concern as well.

Over the last couple of months, the fact that the MOU may not be resigned in its current state has become a distinct possibility. Vietnam has not adhered to some of the conditions agreed to, such as publishing standard fees. Vietnam and the US are scheduled to announce their intention to resign the MOU in March 2008. So what could happen from here?

- VN and US agree to resign the MOU as it is. Adoptions continue without a hitch.
- VN and US renegotiate the MOU. The current agreement will expire in September, and the countries will work together to put a new agreement in place, hopefully quickly.
- VN and US could suspend adoptions even longer.

No one knows what will really happen.

Our agency does not feel like there will be a long suspension. They have also been told by the DIA that if the MOU is not resigned, parents whose dossiers (the final batch of paperwork) have already been sent to VN will be allowed to complete an adoption as planned. Since we will be so new to the list at that point, we may be able to stay on the list and not be affected, even if there is not a new agreement in place for as long as a year or so.

Why? We will be added to the list somewhere in the mid-200s. CHI completed 80 adoptions last year. At that rate, it will likely be a couple of years until we receive a referral. Vietnam is allowing CHI to have a total of 100 dossiers in the country. Therefore, say the MOU expires in September. CHI will already have the first 100 families on the list logged in to Vietnam, and will work through that list for the next year or so. Therefore, we would be moving up the list even if it took a year or more for a new MOU to be reached.

Everyone's on pins and needles waiting to see what will happen. For now, we are going to ENJOY finally being added to the list, evaluate our options, and make some plans for what we will do under different scenarios. I'm incredibly grateful to be working with CHI. They do such a great job of communicating the situation, answering my gazillion questions, and working on solutions.

Please pray for a quick agreement to be reached for the sake of the children and for the sanity of their parents-to-be. I have a feeling we're in for a crazy ride! :)

Closer to "The List"

A rep from the Citizenship and Immigration office called early this evening. My initial reaction was, "Oh no - we have to redo our fingerprints!"

However, it turns out she was processing our application and was about to issue approval (!!!!) when she realized we were missing one form from our home study agency. She was kind enough to call and ask us to fax it to her in the morning instead of going through the usual mail notification process. I think she could tell I was a bit excited - I acted like she was my new best friend. I would have invited her over for a sleepover, complete with a round of Girl Talk, if I thought it would move things along.

The missing form is our DHS child abuse clearance. I'll call our home study agency on my way to work tomorrow and beg/plead for them to fax it asap. Wow. I'm so pleasantly surprised our fingerprints have already cleared! I've seen several bloggers have to redo theirs. I'll never complain about the gritless-Orange Glo again.

The most recent addition I've seen to the list was about #253. However, due to a couple of referrals and some families changing to other countries (due to issues I'll blog about another time), that family has moved up about 15 places in the last month (that is certainly not usual). That family was added to the list weeks ago, and I don't know how many have been added after them.

Once we receive our I-171H, we'll overnight it to CHI with the biggest check we've ever written, other than for our cars or the down payment on our house. Money well spent. :)

Happy Tet!

There's a lot going on this week. Hope you've all had a fantabulous Super Tuesday/Fat Tuesday celebration. I'll keep my political commentary to myself, or else I'd have to start an additional blog.

Lent starts tomorrow, and I've yet to decide what I am giving up, or what charitable works I will pursue. Open to suggestions!

February 7 is the first day of Tet, the Vietnamese New Year. It is a huge celebration in Vietnam, and many offices - including those relevant to the adoption world - are closed for a couple of weeks.

According to Vietnamese tradition, tomorrow - the equivalent of New Year's Eve - should be spent cleaning and decorating homes in anticipation of the celebration. Here are some beautiful photos that show some of the preparations. There are so many traditions surrounding the holiday. For instance, it is believed that the first visitor to your home during Tet determines your fortune for the next year, so someone who has been deemed lucky or who has a happy disposition is invited to visit before other guests. Hmm, who would I invite if I was to adopt that tradition? :)

2008 is the Year of the Rat. In Googling for more information, I just encountered the most disturbing quote ever: "A party without rat meat is so boring." I hadn't realized that being a rat hunter was a viable occupation in Vietnam. Since we'll be traveling to Vietnam, I choose not to ponder this aspect of the Year of the Rat any further. Next topic...

Pier One has decided I'm worthy of receiving oh, say, a catalog a day in the mail. Not that I'm complaining. I'm currently loving the paper lanterns you can see on their home page, which were also on the back of today's mailer. I wish they came in colors, but wouldn't they be a cute nursery accessory? I also just noticed that they have a page dedicated to Chinese New Year celebrations, which coincide with Tet.

I suppose I should be off to bed now. I stayed home sick today, and my regular doc couldn't see me until Thursday, so I visited the urgent care clinic tonight. Apparently all of OKC is sick right now. People were sitting on the floor and leaning on walls in the waiting room. I managed to snag a chair near the door and proceeded to huddle with a plant for the next two hours, desperately trying to avoid germs that were, no doubt, worse than mine. Sure enough, the doc directed me to hand sanitizer before I left since they'd had so many flu patients through the office. I sprinted for the door with my prescription in hand before any other cootie bugs could latch on. Hopefully I can give this one a swift kick.

I need a cootie shot.

Name That Kid

I'm an internet consultant. One of my marketing industry newsletters this week featured a fun new site, Nymbler. Give it a try! We'd be oh-so-Web 2.0 if we named our kiddo off of a baby-naming search engine.

CIS Visit

Hubby and I happily met at the Department of Homeland Security Office today for our fingerprint appointment. We were greeted by two stern guards at a security station much like you'd pass through at the airport.

Their serious demeanor didn't last long, though. Straight from work, I was wearing a dressy black knee-length skirt, sweater, and knee boots. The security guard asked me to remove my boots to pass through the metal detector. I complied... only to reveal hot pink striped knee socks that were originally part of my Strawberry Shortcake Halloween costume. Oops. Plan ahead, plan ahead....

While waiting for our fingerprints, we were instructed to scrub our hands with overscented lotion pumped from an industrial-size carton. Hubby commented that it smelled like Orange Glo cleaner, and we were told that's exactly what it was, minus the "grit." I felt like a citrus fruit for the rest of the afternoon.

We hit it off with the gentleman who took our fingerprints. He redid several of our prints multiple times to make sure they met the computer's specs. He and Lance discovered that they both became Catholic within the last few years, and they had a good chat about the Church and their classes.

A citizenship ceremony was about to commence as we left. One lady I met seemed absolutely giddy about gaining citizenship. I was excited for her.... I know it's not quick or easy to do so. There were dozens of people there, many of them with flowers and cameras. What a big day they were having!

As for us, we're so glad to have another step out of the way. Now we will watch the mail for our I-171H. Once we receive that, we'll overnight it to CHI and officially be added to their list. Based on other blogs I've read lately, we expect to be in the mid-200's. Let the waiting begin!

"They're driving an '84... sheepdog."

So this weekend I went with Lil Sis, her boyfriend, and one of my friends to "Spend an Evening with Jeff Daniels" at Sooner Theatre in Norman. Hubby was supposed to come but was home sick (sorry, Hon!).

I was a bit hesitant when the day of the show my friend mentioned it was an event highlighting his songwriting. Um, what songwriting? I knew him from movies, primarily Dumb and Dumber (hence the post title). I really should ask questions before blindly committing to things. At any rate, he put on a really good show! He was quite amusing, his songs were fun, and the venue is a gem - can't believe I've never been there.

After the show we played stalker in the back of the theater - it's a small building so we assumed he had to come out eventually. Ta-da! We were right.

How fun, he was nice enough to stop for pictures! He also autographed a program for Hubby:

I do think he'd tipped back a few by this point. He was accommodating but his patience was wearing a bit thin - I suppose that would happen after you'd put up with fans for years. I had to refrain from throwing a Dumb & Dumber quote at him myself.

Fingerprint Appointment

WOOT! We have a fingerprint appointment! I received an email this morning that they have us scheduled for 12:00 tomorrow.... a bit of a short notice but I'm thrilled it's so quick. I couldn't tell from the way the email was worded if they had mailed us a notice that we never received, or if they just squeezed us in. I've been pleasantly surprised by the CIS office's responsiveness to email.

With a quick dental appointment switch for Lance, we can both make the appointment. I promise I'm not hiding a felonious background. For some reason they won't just take my word on it.

Boy and Girl Talk

Several of you have asked what gender our baby will be. Note the first song on my blog for the probable answer. That's right.... it's Beautiful Boy by John Lennon! We aren't 100% sure yet, but chances are very strong that we'll be adding a little boy to our family. I'm grinning as I type this. It's so fun to think about having a little guy around here.

So, how do we know? We aren't requesting boy or girl - we'd love to have either (or both!). We're open to a surprise. However, the Vietnam adoption system takes away a bit of the mystery. As you know, the wait for any relatively healthy young child is pretty lengthy. The wait list for girls is longer than for boys right now, so we'll probably get to cut in line in front of a handful of parents to adopt our little guy.

It's so exciting to think that we'll be parents to a little boy in the not-so-distant future. There's just a big enough sliver of a doubt to prevent us from painting the nursery yet. :)

I'm off to listen to some John Lennon....

Oh, Brother(s)!

A family from our agency, CHI, just received the referral of two fantastic brothers from Vietnam. You can check out these cuties on the Leonard family blog - they are beautiful. They family will travel to bring them home in about 4-6 months. Another family with our agency received a referral for 3 1/2 month old twin girls last week. Congrats to these families.

My understanding is that young sibling groups are rarely available from Vietnam. However, we're approved for two just in case. Talk about turning your world upside down - these families are in for a fun ride!

Vietnamese Heritage Camp

I love the adoption groups and message boards online. They have provided an invaluable amount of information to us as prospective adoptive parents. I just learned from one of the groups that an organization consisting primarily of volunteers offers Heritage Camps in Colorado. The Vietnamese Heritage Camp is near Winter Park. I've already Mapquested it - eleven hours from here. :) We may have to add camp to our "wish list" of future vacations.

Hubby is home sick this weekend, and I'm desperately trying to avoid his cooties. I gave the computer a sponge bath with Lysol wipes before I typed this.

I'm such a germ phobe that I'll be crashing in the spare bedroom/nursery-to-be tonight. I remember when I was little and my sis and I got matching daybeds. I was so excited, mainly because of the oh-so-cool hearts on the rail, and the endless sleepover possibilities offered by the trundle bed. Anyway, I'll be sleeping in that very daybed tonight. It's among the comfiest places to sleep in the world, though it could use some WD-40. We plan to leave it in there, space permitting, once Little One comes home. I have a feeling we'll appreciate the cozy place to catch a bit of shut eye. Speaking of which... night, all.

Vietnam in Oklahoma

Oklahoma City has a surprisingly large Vietnamese population - approximately 20,000, according to this article from the NY Times Frugal Traveler. We'll have to start visiting some of the mentioned restaurants to acquire a taste for pho before our trip.

Money money money!

It's odd to be happy that large sums of money have been drafted out of your checking account, but we were tickled to receive the receipt for our I-600A over the weekend. The money actually came out of the account back on my 30th birthday - an odd reverse birthday gift of sorts, I suppose.

Apparently the Oklahoma CIS office is currently processing all applications for both Texas and Oklahoma adoptions. We still don't have our appointment time, but that should arrive within the next couple weeks - hopefully the appointment will be soon. CIS said they average 60 days to process our fingerprints and send us our I-171H. Here's to hoping they're in a zippity mood for 2008 so we can hop on that list ASAP!

Christmas

I think I've exhibited a great amount of self-control by not allowing myself to start shopping for Little One yet. Hubby did pick up an OU baby bottle a while back. Other than that, we have refrained from even the most tempting of clearance racks. I've been savoring the thought of all the goodies and decorating. The nursery-to-be is still styled as a spare bedroom, leftover-furniture style, and probably will be for a while.

However, with the process underway, we thought it would be okay to indulge ourselves and put one little gift under the tree this year. We ordered this adorable book from Amazon. I'm in love.

It's the sweetest little adoption tale ever. However, now I've opened a whole can of worms. I've put off buying things with the justification that I don't want to decorate until we know the gender and exact age of our child. But books! There are few things I love more in the world. I could certainly justfy buying books galore for our little one without knowing any more about him or her than I do now. Must.... block.... Amazon....

Poppa and Gram also sent over the most adorable duckie robe. We opened it on Christmas morning, along with the book we had wrapped. We took pictures of the gifts under the tree and us opening them. I was going to post a pic of the duckie robe, but seeing as the pictures involve me in pajamas, we'll skip those little jewels for now.

Fingerprint Appointment

Happy New Year everyone! Here's to a great 2008....

Due to wee bit of impatience, plus my concerns that our fingerprint notice may have been lost in the mail, I've been trying to contact someone - anyone - at CIS for several days.

I was pleasantly surprised to receive an actual email response this morning. They said our info has been forwarded to the ACS (whatever that is) for processing, and that we should receive a notice of our appointment time within the highly definitive time frame of two weeks "or so." Not exactly speedy, but at least it's moving!