Huge Month for FTIA Vietnam!

Two more referrals were made last week, which means SEVEN families have received referrals in the month of January! I can't hardly believe it, after how slow (and non-existent for awhile) referrals were last year. February will likely be slower due to Tet celebrations (Feb. 6-11), but the coordinators expect referrals to continue to be steady in the coming months.

Additional news from FTIA is that the age of infants coming home from Vietnam will be older than in the past. Vietnam has put more procedures in place to allow family members or other Vietnamese families to adopt the children before they become eligible for international adoption. In addition, USCIS has changed the Procedure for filing the I-600, the determination of a child's orphan status. You used to file it at the U.S. embassy in Hanoi while you were there completing your adoption. Now, they require you to file this before you travel, which has cut in-country time by about a week, but increased the wait to travel after referral to 3-5 months. These are important safeguards -- and I support anything that makes international adoption more transparent and ethical -- it just means that the youngest children coming from Vietnam will be 9-12 months old.

I've been "nesting" lately. Maybe it's because we finally have a room that will be hers. I've bought some cute clothes (size 2T so it doesn't matter when her birthday is -- I don't have to worry about buying long sleeves that will end up fitting her in summer, she'll have a year to wear 2T), downloaded a bunch of patterns for cute boutique-style little girl clothes (now I just have to find that inner bobbin for my sewing machine...), and bought the wall coverings to decorate her room. I bought a product called Tatouage, a dry rub transfer, that you just rub onto the wall. I got a ton of stuff to make a garden scene on 2 walls, including a picket fence and gate, lots of flowers, a shade tree that will go from floor to ceiling, birds, butterflies, and lots of fairies to play among the flowers. I can't wait to do it, but I need to prime and paint first. I'm hoping to talk John into painting fluffy clouds in a blue sky like he did for J's nursery.

We sent in our application to a new home study agency and received word today that they will be working with us. I talked to the director there last week and really liked her. The agency is based in Keene, NH, but they have a couple social workers who live in our area, so we won't need to travel over an hour to work with them. I'm certain our experience with this agency will be a million times better than our last experience! It would be hard to get worse (though I'm sure there are worse stories out there!).

As I mentioned, Tet is coming up. This is the Vietnamese New Year. I thought I'd share some information I learned today while reading my Chao Ban newsletter (an excellent newsletter for families of children adopted from Vietnam that is put out 4 times per year by a couple who've adopted). This year is the year of the Rat, which is the beginning of the twelve year cycle of the Asian Zodiac calendar. The Rat symbolizes acquisition, industry, and prosperity -- just think of the hard work these animals do to hoard their food. So this is a year for hard work and abundance, but also one to practice being humble about one's achievements.

One difference between the Vietnamese and Chinese calendars is that the Chinese includes an Ox and a Rabbit, and in place of these the Vietnamese calendar has a Water Buffalo and a Cat.

More on Tet later!