Silver Cloud, Dark Lining

When we first got our referral, I met a woman through WC who was also adopting two babies. Her and her husband received their referral around the same time we did. So we naturally assumed we'd be traveling together when we finally got THE CALL. The thought of this was comforting and made me even that much more excited about the trip. Plus, they are bringing their whole pack...kids, grandparents...what a hoot!! We talked about what fun it will be to see the four babies together.

Well, tonight I found out that they aren't going to be in this travel group. Their case manager told them "two more weeks." I'm really quite sad. I was looking forward to exploring VN with these guys and getting to know them in the country of our children's births.

Hopefully, they will get there before we leave. From everything I've read, Dennis and I should be Hanoi experts within a week of arrival, so now I'm looking forward to passing on advice to my friends re restaurants, shopping, etc. Hey, maybe this post should have been entitled: Dark Cloud, Silver Lining. 'Cause now I'm getting all excited again!

Happy Birthday, William Edward!

Will is 5 months old today!

Whew...Dog Sitter Found!

Things are falling into place. I was probably most worried about what we were going to do with our mongrels while we were gone than anything else. We've got 3 large dogs (Madelyn, Rusty & Grim), a chihuahua (Teddy) and a cat (Clementine).

This is my brother (on the left), Dennis (on the right) and me (the short one).

Tim is going to stay at our house while we're gone (Yay!!) and you can't imagine what a load off that is. He has no idea what's in store for him though. We live in a neighborhood that really looks out for each other. We're very fortunate. I know everyone's going to be bringing him homemade enchiladas and tamales and checking in on him to see if he needs anything. Melinda, across the street, is a fabulous cook and loves to do it (unlike me) so she's always cooking too much and bringing something over. Tim's going to gain 20 lbs by the time we're home.

I feel like the luckiest person in the world right now.

We got THE CALL!

I can't believe it. It's really happening. Around 1:30 pm, the phone rang. It was Jenny. She sounded a little down. She said, "I'm calling because it looks like we've got a problem with one of your documents." My heart plummeted to the pit of my stomach. "Oh no," was all I could get out. She then says, "Just kidding!" accompanied by raucous laughter and says, "Get your visas. You're going to VietNam!" I handled it very well and started bawling to the accompaniment of more raucous laughter on the other end of the phone line.

We don't have a confirmed G&R date (the Giving & Receiving Ceremony is when Will & Ava officially become ours) but we were told to expedite our visas for entry dates of September 6. That's less than two weeks! 9 days to be exact!

VietNam, here we come!!

Blogging & Traveling...Traveling & Blogging...Blogging & Traveling...

I've decided to make it easy on everyone and have a public blog dealing only with our trip to Vietnam. Yes, that means no signing in. But Nope, no travel date yet. I'll start posting to this blog once we get the call.