Another family who is with the same adoption agency as we are is traveling to the orphanage our little girl is at and offered to bring her a care package. YEAH! The pants she was wearing in several of the referral photos are ripped and torn. I'm sure she doesn't care but I want to send her some new, soft ones. I wasn't able to find any long sleeve shirts that aren't onsies (they don't use diapers in the orphanage, they only use shirts and pants). I wound up finding several on the internet. I think I bought about ten shirts and seven or eight pairs of pants. I don't know how long I will be waiting to travel so I wanted to have them in case someone else goes in a month or so. It was fun buying them and putting them in the ziploc bag with the letter Ray and I wrote her. Just knowing the woman who takes care of her will be opening the bag up is fun. We wrote her a note that said, "We have sent you some clothes. We hope you like them. We love you and can't wait to come get you. Mommy and Daddy." We asked a friend of ours who is Vietnamese to translate it for us, which was great. We'll include the note, a picture of our baby with her name and the name of the orphanage she is in, two outfits and a hat. I wanted to put in a blanket, but it wouldn't fit. The accepted thing when you ask someone to bring a care package is for it to all fit into a gallon sized ziploc bag so it won't take up too much room. If I am able to send another one I may send pictures of us, but clothes for her are more important. I hope she gets to wear them, but I'm sure they'll get shared with the other children, which is fine.
We went to Home Depot today to buy paint for the baby's room and various other things like window locks. While we were in the store my 19 month old took off while I was in the middle of something. She is really fast for her age. It took me a second to take in the fact that she was racing away and before I started running after her my three year old son shouted, "I'll get her, Mommy!" He took off running before I had moved. As I ran around the corner I was thinking two things. First, what are the odds that both of my two younger children are runners and second, how sweet that my son is being protective of his lttle sister and wants to make sure she doesn't get hurt. As I started turning the corner I saw my son tackle my daughter to the ground (which was cement, I think) and shout, "I got her, Mommy!" Hmmm...so maybe he wasn't trying to protect her, maybe this was just another sport for him. We spent the next ten minutes pretending we were going to get something accomplished while our kids either screamed if we were holding them or took off if we set them down. Finally I gave up and the kids and I waited in the car while Ray stayed and shopped. I think he might have played a round or two of pool as well, he was certainly in there long enough to have.
Once we got home I started doing laundry, cleaning up the house and doing paperwork. Ray decided to install the air conditioning unit we don't need in our garage (we finished off our garage and use it as an additional family room complete with carpeting, paint, crown molding, couches, television...)Suddenly I heard a shout from Ray. He had turned on the air conditioner after he installed it and it made an awful, chopping noise so he quickly turned it off. When he looked closer he saw that our son had shoved a few sticks into the fan part of it while Ray wasn't looking. Nice work, Brayden!
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Friday, July 6, 2007
We have our referral!!!
I had been thinking we might get our referral mid July, though I had heard rumors of babies being available earlier. I was so excited that it was finally July because I knew referrals for some families would be coming soon. I was laying on the couch trying to figure out if we should go the the park or have the kids play in the backyard when the phone rang. I knew immediately it was THE CALL. I stood up and looked at the clock and thought, "At 6:52 pm we are hearing about our baby for the first time." Jenny asked me if I was by my computer and said she wasemailing my baby's information and pictures to me. I ran to the computer and pulled up my email and saw the email from her. I opened it enough to see her first name and that there were pictures and told her we had it. My husband and I drove to his office so we could print the pictures in color on his brand new printer. I was so excited/overwhelmed/emotional that I couldn't speak in full sentences for an hour or so. WOW! Our baby! They sent us eight pictures, which was great so we could really get a sense of what she looks like. None of them are labeled so we don't know how old she is in them. She has big eyes and is smiling in a couple of them. She is so pretty and looks so sweet! Her pants are torn in the pictures so they are obviously well worn. But her eyes look bright and alert and she looks happy. Now I want to hold her! We were told ten weeks before travel, which means late August to mid September. I am going to have to make myself a long list of things to do to keep busy between now and then so I don't go crazy waiting!
I am posting a picture of her, or rather part of a picture. For those of you who are adopting, you know it is because the chid is not really mine until we get to VietNam and have our G & R. So until it's official, I'll just post this. Once we get to VietNam I will post many pictures of her!
I am posting a picture of her, or rather part of a picture. For those of you who are adopting, you know it is because the chid is not really mine until we get to VietNam and have our G & R. So until it's official, I'll just post this. Once we get to VietNam I will post many pictures of her!
Thursday, July 5, 2007
IT'S JULY!!!!!!!!!!
Many of us who are hoping for referrals from our agency have been waiting impatiently for July to finally be here. Did anyone else notice that June lasted entirely way to long this year?! So July is here and several people have received their referrals. It's exciting for all of us because it means it's really happening! We heard about seven referrals being given out over the last several days. We have been able to look at a few pictures and they are all adorable. I think one family has a referral for a baby who is only about six weeks old. Wow!
I have started asking the woman who has done my nails for the last couple of years for help for my traveling. She and several other women who work there have told me a lot. Just little bits and peices of information that probably will all make more sense to me once I am close to traveling. She told me two airlines that were very good. I remembered them until I was halfway home. I was so busy trying to remember which ones were good and which ones weren't that I got them confused. I guess I need to bring a notebook to write things down. She did make a good point. One of the things adoptive families do is bring small gift for the people at the orphanage and people that help along the way (like the van driver and people who set up your appointments while you are there). Several people have said that chocolate is a good gift because they like our chocolate better. Well, she said it will never make the travel with the heat. Hmmm, good point. She said it would be better if we put $10 or $20 in envelopes to give. That money is what a lot of the people really need and could help them. I'll have to ask my agency. It would certainly be easier to pack.
Ray and I went golfing today, which was fun. It's really the only time we can have a normal conversation since we are always with our little ones. Well, I don't know if our conversations are exactly normal. This is an example of one as we are driving in the cart to the next hole.
Ray, "What did you get on that hole again?" As he is writing his own score down.
Stacey, "I got a four." (Hey, this is my story, I could very well have gotten a four on that hole!)
"Hey, flip the scorecard over. I was writing different baby names down on it to see how they look."
Ray, Flips the scorecard over and then quickly flips it back without looking at it. "Yeah." Pause. "I can't believe my last drive. I pulled it! What kind of crap was that!" At this point Ray is careening our cart around a turn so fast I have to quickly hold on to stay in the cart.
Stacey, "I like both names. I guess we'll have to figure out if we like her first and middle names and like their meanings to figure out which one we'll use. I think we should wait until we see her to really make our final decision."
Ray, "Hey, come watch me while I hit this. I think you're going to be impressed." Ray gets out of the cart, takes his driver out of his bag and walks over to the tee.
Stacey, Looks up as Ray leans over to place his tee and ball in the ground, then reaches over and flips the scorecard over to look at the names again. Ray gets in the cart.
Ray, "Okay, now that's how to hit the ball." Flips the scorecard back over and looks at the distance to the green again.
Stacey, "Of course, we didn't do that with the other two. We didn't wait until we saw them to figure out their names. Maybe we should decide before we go. But then we would have to make a decision." Gets out of the cart and grabs her club. Looks back at Ray as she walks away, "What do you think?"
Ray, Looks up. "What?"
So may be we aren't really communicating WITH eachother yet, but we are passing information back and forth and it's a start. We did have fun playing again today. We usually go to nice courses that are just beautiful. Today we went to a course that was literally under construction. It was a rough course. Seriously rough. There was hiking, there was camping and there was even a little repelling during our time out. Not my kind of golfing. Still fun though.
I have started asking the woman who has done my nails for the last couple of years for help for my traveling. She and several other women who work there have told me a lot. Just little bits and peices of information that probably will all make more sense to me once I am close to traveling. She told me two airlines that were very good. I remembered them until I was halfway home. I was so busy trying to remember which ones were good and which ones weren't that I got them confused. I guess I need to bring a notebook to write things down. She did make a good point. One of the things adoptive families do is bring small gift for the people at the orphanage and people that help along the way (like the van driver and people who set up your appointments while you are there). Several people have said that chocolate is a good gift because they like our chocolate better. Well, she said it will never make the travel with the heat. Hmmm, good point. She said it would be better if we put $10 or $20 in envelopes to give. That money is what a lot of the people really need and could help them. I'll have to ask my agency. It would certainly be easier to pack.
Ray and I went golfing today, which was fun. It's really the only time we can have a normal conversation since we are always with our little ones. Well, I don't know if our conversations are exactly normal. This is an example of one as we are driving in the cart to the next hole.
Ray, "What did you get on that hole again?" As he is writing his own score down.
Stacey, "I got a four." (Hey, this is my story, I could very well have gotten a four on that hole!)
"Hey, flip the scorecard over. I was writing different baby names down on it to see how they look."
Ray, Flips the scorecard over and then quickly flips it back without looking at it. "Yeah." Pause. "I can't believe my last drive. I pulled it! What kind of crap was that!" At this point Ray is careening our cart around a turn so fast I have to quickly hold on to stay in the cart.
Stacey, "I like both names. I guess we'll have to figure out if we like her first and middle names and like their meanings to figure out which one we'll use. I think we should wait until we see her to really make our final decision."
Ray, "Hey, come watch me while I hit this. I think you're going to be impressed." Ray gets out of the cart, takes his driver out of his bag and walks over to the tee.
Stacey, Looks up as Ray leans over to place his tee and ball in the ground, then reaches over and flips the scorecard over to look at the names again. Ray gets in the cart.
Ray, "Okay, now that's how to hit the ball." Flips the scorecard back over and looks at the distance to the green again.
Stacey, "Of course, we didn't do that with the other two. We didn't wait until we saw them to figure out their names. Maybe we should decide before we go. But then we would have to make a decision." Gets out of the cart and grabs her club. Looks back at Ray as she walks away, "What do you think?"
Ray, Looks up. "What?"
So may be we aren't really communicating WITH eachother yet, but we are passing information back and forth and it's a start. We did have fun playing again today. We usually go to nice courses that are just beautiful. Today we went to a course that was literally under construction. It was a rough course. Seriously rough. There was hiking, there was camping and there was even a little repelling during our time out. Not my kind of golfing. Still fun though.
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