Referrals!

Hi all,

Just a quick update. Another referral was made this week... a baby boy. According to our agency's weekly email, 7 families have received referrals and 10 more are waiting for the official referral notice from Vietnam. Things are finally moving! Due to some changes in the way paperwork is being processed by USCIS, the wait from referral to travel is longer now, but it should shorten the in-country stay by at least a week. So instead of being there for 3 weeks, it should now only be 10-14 days.

Of course, this could always change again before we get our referral. :)

Our New Home

Wow! I can't believe it's been over 2 months since I posted. It's been such a whirlwind. We've been living in a Residence Inn hotel for the past 7 weeks. Not exactly ideal when you have two wee ones. A case in point: E overflowed the two toilets 5 times in a 12 hour period that began around 11:30 p.m. early in our stay. John finally used rope left over from their Halloween cowboy costumes to tie the door handle of their bathroom to a towel bar across the room so they couldn't open the door anymore (no locks on the bathroom doors, sigh).

BUT, tomorrow we finally move into our new home! It really hasn't sunk in yet... Probably won't until I see my bed all set up in my new bedroom. I can't tell you how very much I miss my own bed!

On the adoption front: FTIA referred a baby boy a few weeks ago, and today they referred a beautiful baby girl! The soon-to-be parents of the boy aren't on the message board, but the girl's family is, and they posted their referral pictures. She's 6 months old, and looks happy and healthy and well-taken-care-of. They turned their dossier in to FTIA exactly 18 months ago (to the day), so their wait falls in line with what we've been told. And there should be more referrals coming soon. It is so exciting to hear of these and see the pictures the families share. The FTIA message board has been a real blessing. It is a very supportive, friendly, and fun community to be a part of.

Anyway, it's getting late and I have to get up early to meet the movers at our storage unit in the morning (yippee!!!!). Just wanted to pass on the good news of two more referrals and our move-in (finally!). :)