AHHHH

Well, I wouldn't have had an entry today but I just got a crazy email. When we started to put together our dossier we had major issues because my husband was from California and I from NYC. We worked so hard to get the right birth certificates and get them into the dossier. This probably set us back two weeks because of the state seals. Well low and behold as of today they are no longer needed. After all the craziness it was all for nothing. I am not mad at anyone it just gets me upset because I would probably would have had my dossier in Vietnam last week. Well, I just needed to vent.

What a great day

Today has been a great day. Actually, the past two days have been awesome. Yesterday I made a large purchase with Lennah in mind. We bought a new chrysler town and country minivan. I am sure she will love it especially since we like to make a lot of trips to Florida. I think this will be a great family car. Although it does seem weird right now driving around without my baby in such a mom car. But soon she will be here to fill it up. I also received 5 new pictures of my baby girl. She is getting prettier every time we see her. Although this may sound strange I don't want her to get too beautiful and have to ward off all the boys in the neighborhood later on. LOL. We are still waiting on our dossier to come back from Washington DC that should only be a few more days. I am hoping we are one of the lucky ones that get it back sooner than the estimated 2 weeks. The sooner it gets to Vietnam the quicker my little girl comes home.

Are we lucky

Sometimes you get completely surprised. Today I was at work and of all things I checked my email at 2:00 when my kids go to their connections classes and I received 4 new pictures today. This was such a surprise because the last batch came 8 days ago. I guess I might as well share some of my leg work this week. This week I have contacted lawyers regarding readoption here in georgia in case my husband does not travel. My husband is out of vacation time this year because he was going to school at Devry and had to complete an internship. This internship ate up all his vacation time and we cannot afford for him to go to Vietnam and go unpaid for 3 weeks. I on the other hand am off for the summer since I am a school teacher and if worse came to worse I have sick time built up in case her giving and receiving dates runs later than I plan. Anyway, we weighed our options and it is only about $1200 for the readoption with the lawyer and court fees. This is way less than my husband missing 3 weeks of work. So unfortunately, I will go without him but his Aunt will be accompanying me on our travels. At least some of you may get an idea of what it may cost if only one spouse travels and your spouse has to readopt. I really wish my husband and I could both go but several thousand dollars is too much to lose.

Good Stuff

Well things seem to be going well. The stork received our dossier on Thursday so we are assuming that it was taken to the embassy on Friday because they said they deliver it the next day. We are also assuming that no news is good news because if there were mistakes we probably would have heard from them. This weekend has certainly been eventful. Friday, my mom and I purchased baby shower invitations and personalized them. Saturday I met with some new friends for lunch. This is a funny story. Two days after we accepted Lennah my mom, two friends, and myself had went on a cruise out of New Orleans. I was discussing getting my homestudy updated and a man passes by and asks about where I am adopting from. Low and behold, they live 15 mintues from me and teach in the same school district. They are adopting a beautiful little boy from China. He is so cute, he may even be Lennah's future husband. Nothing wrong with planning for my little girl's future. That was a great lunch. I am excited about meeting other adoptive families and Lennah making friends. Today, was a fun day. I had received some gift cards at my work shower and I have wanted Lennah to have one of these and I have been searching for the right one; a cabbage patch doll. It may be corny but I had them as a child and I really wanted her to have one. We also went out and bought a camcorder. I want to document all the special moments in Lennah's life so I thought this was a necessity. It was a good deal and I wanted it before the baby shower so we can record the party. That is all for today. Now we just wait for the dossier to come back.

New pics and more

Today was a great day. To my surprise we received 8 new pictures of Lennah. She is growing like a little weed. We also sent our dossier to the courier. Hopefully, we will not have any snags with our paper work. We do have some issues with a POA because we are unsure if my husband will travel with me but that is a minor issue that should be easily correctable. I just hope that we have smooth sailing from here on out. God has definately answered prayers about new photos and getting our paperwork complete.

First Shower

Today was my first baby shower. Since I am a teacher and our school year ends they were getting all the fluff stuff out of the way early before testing begins. I was given my first baby shower with five other people. I received so many awesome gifts. Lennah received an embrodiered blanket, sleepers, bibs, books, toys, and a whole lot of other stuff. It was so exciting. I am also hoping that tomorrow our dossier can get sent to the embassy in DC. Our last piece of paperwork should arrive tomorrow from NY (my long awaited state certified birth certificate). Hopefully, that will put our dossier back in two weeks and then sent to Vietnam. It has been frustrating but I will feel so much better when I know the paperwork is in country and then all I have to do is wait for a giving and receiving date. This weekend was alos eventful we finished Lennah's room. I think it is a great modern looking baby room with all the black furniture. We have also stockpiled her room with a quite a bit of stuff between gifts, our own purchases, and now a shower. I honestly think that this little girl will never have to want for anything.

Prayers do get answered

Well I came home to a surprise. A note on my door saying that UPS tried to deliver a package from New York Vital statistics. Although I was not home for it, I was happy that I know my package is arriving sooner. My dad is coming by tomorrow to get my birth certificate since my husband and I cannot miss work, he is then shipping it to my friend in Jersey who is taking it to NYC to get my certification done. I am happy to know that my paperwork will be complete on all state's ends by Monday after and I could have my dossier to the embassy hopefully next wednesday. I am keeping that faith that God is getting this paperwork taken care of sooner so that Lennah can be in our arms sooner. It all seemed so nerve racking last week and today makes my feel like there is a light at the end of our paperwork tunnel. Maybe we'll get lucky and get some new pictures of Lennah this week. I also found out that my work is throwing me a baby shower next week. It's a little soon but school lets out here in two months and the hospitality committee at our school is trying to get every important event in the staffs lives acknowledged before everyone is going crazy with state testing.

More Craziness

Well, I thought yesterday was pretty bad but today was worse when it came to trying to get our paperwork straight. Here is my warning to everyone born in New York City, it could take weeks to get your papers in order if you have moved out of the state. I called New York because I discovered I needed to get my birth certificate authenticated; well they tell me that there is an extra step and I have the wrong kind of birth certificate. That meant having two more steps and wasting a lot more time. I needed to order a long form birth certificate with a letter of exemplification and I certainly did not understand what that meant but whatever. They would have to send that to me then I would send it back to NY to the County Clerks office wait for them to send it back and then back to the Secretary of State. This would have taken at least six weeks. I was ready to have a break down. Luckily, my best friend who lives in Jersey is going to take care of the last two steps for me so I can have my wait time cut down to maybe a week and a half with overnight mail. Thank the lord for Lennah's Aunt Jaime and Uncle Adam who will be saving her from spending extra nights away from her family. Please all of you be warned New York will cost you extra weeks in your paperwork so be prepared.

Frustration and joy

I just discovered this journal so I am starting a little late in our adoption journey. Anyway, we accepted the referral of a waiting child on Februaru 15th of a beautiful girl born on December 1,2006. Her Vietnamese name is Nguyen Thanh Thuy but we are going to name her Lennah Abigail. Since her acceptance it has been a frustrating ride because all I want to do is get all the paperwork correct so she can come home to her mommy and daddy. Ahh! Of course today I discovered there was another problem with our paperwork. My husband and I are from California and New York and now we have to send our birth certificates to be authenticated. I assumed because these were state documents that they did not need this step. Plus I mis read the instructions for the dossier checklist. It just seems like everytime I have the paperwork right I messed something up again. It is frustrating, I just want to break down and cry because we know our little girl is thousands of miles away and we cannot get to her. I am a teacher and I am hoping that I can travel in the summer so I do not have to miss that much work.
Well, to catch up everyone up I should go to the beginning of our story. My husband and I were trying to have a baby and could not get pregnant. I was convinced that there was something wrong with me but it turned out that my hubby had the mumps (rare these days) and this caused him to have a low sperm count. We were upset but I have always wanted to adopt a baby from China and knew that we would still have a family through adoption. The only problem we faced was our age. We were both under 30 and figured we needed to wait. Well, we contacted CHI and they turned our interests to Vietnam because we met all their requirements and would not have to wait 2 more years to begin our journey. This was last March. Well we got our paperwork in and began our journey here. It really went fairly smooth for the first few months , the only snags we had was that the government was too lazy to figure out our monthly incomes. How hard was it to divide our combined salaries by 12. But, everything happens for a reason and now we have a wonderful little girl that is waiting for us in Ho Chi Minh City.
That is all for Today!! Hopefully tomorrow will be less frustrating.