1st Referral Anniversary

A year ago, on Jan. 21, 2007, we had our first glimpse of our daughter.  Happy Referral Day, Tova.  We love you!

Update

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 08, 2007 12:42 PM, CST

We’re still taking suggestions for Tova’s middle name. Thanks to those of you who took the time to give your opinions! I had a great chat with our caseworker yesterday. It sounds like they had a great time in VN. We don’t have definite travel dates, things are actually more influx than they were before. There are 8 families that received referrals while they were in VN & we will be broken into 2 travel groups. One group of 4 will hopefully have their G&R the week of 3.5.07 & the remaining 4 will be a week later. Jason & I will be fine with either date. A little more time putting the house back together would be kinda nice. We might know something about travel next week, but then VN is off for Tet & apparently the whole country goes on vacation for at least a week. So it might be right at the end of Feb. before we know anything. Talk about PANIC! We’re making good progress on the basement. We textured the ceilings & tonight we should be able to paint them. Jason wants to get one of the closets put back together tonight too. We hope to have both rooms painted over the weekend. Painting party anyone? Bring a brush & head on over, we won’t turn anyone away! My sisters & my mom bought Tova a pretty crib sheet, dust ruffle & rug so it is time for the boys to move out so we can set up the crib & decorate. Kristen

Q&A

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 06, 2007 09:36 AM, CST

Tova is 2 months old today. Our PA is back in the US & I hope to have our regular check-in with our caseworker tomorrow. A couple of commonly asked questions, this time with answers! 1. When will we travel? The short answer is, we don’t know. We’ve been told our Giving & Receiving Ceremony MIGHT be the week of 3.5.07. Our paperwork has to be cleared by VN’s Dept. of Int’l Adoptions & then our date can be scheduled. We hope to know more about our travel dates after we talk to our caseworker this week. 2. How long will we be gone? We’re preparing to be gone for 3 weeks. We obviously hope the trip won’t take that long, but we need to prepare ourselves for the possibility. Previously, the Consulate in Hanoi was only doing I-600 (Immigration) interviews on Mon-Wed.’s. That meant we could have spent a lot of time waiting for an appointment. Now they are doing the I-600 interviews 5 days a week. Our hope is the change will mean a shorter time in VN, however we expect to be gone at least 2 weeks. 3. Are we taking the boys? No. We’d love for them to come with us but 18 hours in a plane + the cost of taking them means they will be spending time in MN. Ethan will go to school with my dad in Rochester & Gavin will hang out with my mom at SACC. They’ll spend weekends with Jason’s family. We hope they won’t miss us nearly as much as we’ll miss them. 4. Do we have a middle name yet? No, & any suggestions would be great! Her name will be Tova *insert English middle name here* *insert Vietnamese name here* B~. I prefer a J name, since we all have a J initial. Jason’s not as hung up on that. Two of the names on my short list are Jane & Clare. Middle names are so hard! We’d love for you to leave your suggestions in the guestbook. Kristen

Here She Is!

SUNDAY, JANUARY 21, 2007 04:17 PM, CST

What a day! We weren’t sure when to expect Tova’s picture & info. We had hoped for last night but at midnight we gave up the email vigil & went to bed. This morning I had to get up early to set up communion at church. The very first thing I did was start up the computer. My heart was pounding! I was so nervous, I really didn’t believe the picture would be waiting in our inbox, but there it was! I woke Jason & we opened the email together. She’s beautiful! She has dimples! We love her so much! The boys were probably woken up by the jumping & laughing Jason & I were doing in the kitchen. They liked that Tova was wearing orange. Ethan & I left for church hoping to print off the picture before hand, but it’s hard to find a place that will print pictures at 8am on a Sunday morning. We picked up our copies after church & we all have a copy of her picture. Ethan is going to take his to school tomorrow & then he wants to hang it on the wall by his bed. Gavin hasn’t said much. He may be in denial that he is being dethroned.

Here’s Tova’s stats for those of you that missed them. She was born on 12.6.06 & is in Phu Tho province (this is an educated guess). We hope to travel around March 1. We will hopefully have her medical info. later this week. I’m interested in knowing how big she is (0-3month size or 3-6 month). When we have that info I will be doing some shopping!

Going UP!

SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 2007 09:20 AM, CST
We finally heard back from our caseworker. She didn’t forget us, she was just in a place without email. Anyway the big news is WE ARE GETTING AN IMMEDIATE REFERRAL!!!!!! Now I don’t know what she meant by immediate. We hope that means yet today, but it could mean the next time she has access to email (please let it be today!). We don’t even want to think about it being the later. Stay tuned. We will send out an announcement as soon as we can.

Have a great weekend!

Kristen

Waiting For the Phone to Ring

FRIDAY, JANUARY 19, 2007 06:25 PM, CST
We’re still waiting for the all important email. I finally broke down & called our PA’s office & talked to someone there. They haven’t heard from anyone except their crazed clients. The anticipation is driving us crazy! We had really hoped to see something last night before we went to bed, but there was nothing. All day today we’ve been slaves to our computers. Maybe we’ll hear something tonight. How many days can we say that? I think if we go with the new programs we’ll have our referral early next week. We’re very excited by that. Of course, March is the worst month for Jason to travel but we’ll deal with that if we have to. We’re trying, somewhat unsuccessfully, to keep in mind that waiting in the older program is still an option. After all, if everyone switches to the new program we’ll be first in line for the next available girl. All we need is that little piece of info. WHERE’S THAT EMAIL!!!!!!??????!!!!

On another note, Jason & I are officially Dad & Mom. Ethan had been using Daddy & Mommy but lately it’s been the short form. I suppose that’s a milestone of some sort. It’s kind of sad to see the long form go though. It doesn’t seem to last as long with the younger siblings.

I really hope that the next time you check our journal you will see some sort of info. Otherwise we may be on our way to the loony bin.

Kristen

AHHH!

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2007 08:47 PM, CST
We’re waiting & waiting for the decision making email from our caseworker. Can you tell we’re putting a lot of stock into what she’ll have to say? Our caseworker, program director & agency director are visiting the orphanages in Nam Dinh & Ha Nam today (Thursday in VN). They should find out why they haven’t had a referral since Nov. Hopefully the info will help us to make our decision about whether to try for an immediate referral or wait it out. If we’re able to get an immediate referral we would be traveling possibly as soon as March 1!!!! Now of course all of this is subject to change but we’re holding out hope that we’ll hear something concrete tomorrow morning.

Kristen

Is This the Week?

MONDAY, JANUARY 15, 2007 08:11 PM, CST
As you can see by the new picture we did some work on the new bedrooms today. The boys were very willing to help. They were able to swing the hammers a little before they lost interest. Gavin dressed himself today too. What you can’t see in the picture is his shorts over his jeans. The rooms are taking shape. We’re hoping to be done with hanging drywall possibly tomorrow.

The adoption stuff has been exciting lately. With our PA staff in VN things are constantly changing. They were able to set up programs with new orphanages in new provinces meaning there are immediate referrals. The only problem is that the new provinces have a fee of $10,000 while the other provinces our PA has been using charge $7000. The extra $3000 is a bit of a stumbling block. Especially when our paperwork has been in VN for 2 months already, we should be pretty close to being matched, if we aren’t already. All I can say is stay tuned, maybe this will be the week!

Kristen