Here we go!

Ok, so I'm totally new at this. No clue what I'm doing, but I want to document our adoption journey, so I guess I'll give it a try.

A brief introduction: I'm Sue. My husband is Don, and we have 5 kids: Lauren (18), twins William & Anna (10), Richard (almost 7), and Thomas (4). Shortly after Christmas, we decided to expand our family thru international adoption. We initially planned to adopt from China, but China recently changed their rules and apparently Don's too old for them now, at his advanced age of 50! Also the wait time for a referral of a healthy child in China is rumored to be up to 2 years or more. We would still be eligible to adopt a special needs child from China, and we did consider this for a while, but we learned more about the Vietnamese program, and have decided this is what will work best for our family. The wait time is much shorter (Don's not getting any younger, ya know!), and we meet the requirements for that country.

We're now in the midst of what's known as "the paperchase". Just like it sounds, lots and lots and lots of paperwork and gathering forms and documents. We're also having the required home study done; we've met with the social worker twice at her office, and she'll be coming to do our home visit in late February. We hope to have all of our paperwork finished and sent to Vietnam by May, and then we wait to be matched with a baby. We're requesting a baby girl. Our agency is saying that right now, there is a very short wait for this match, also known as the "referral". Once we receive and accept our referral, (which I think amounts to a couple pictures of the child, basic info like name and birth date, and medical exam info) , then we wait about 2 months or so until we are given the go-ahead to be able to travel to Vietnam to adopt her.

The trip requires spending about 3 weeks in Vietnam to complete all of the appointments and paperwork there. At this time, we are planning to take the whole family on the trip, but Lauren will only be able to go if we travel during summer break. Taking 4 kids & a teenager on a 3 week trip to Vietnam may sound crazy, true enough; but no one at home is crazy enough to want to keep them that long either, I'm sure!

Time to make supper for the hungry hoard.