We have a referral!

This morning, I received a call from our case worker, Jenny, and she had great news for us! We have been matched with a beautiful baby girl in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC=formerly Saigon). She was born 6/22/07 and is residing in an orphanage in HCMC. I'm not allowed to post pictures of her on the internet yet--she is not officially "ours" until the Giving & Receiving Ceremony in Vietnam--but she's a chubby little cutie with a enormous shock of black hair!

I will be meeting with our pediatrician tomorrow so he can look at her pictures and review her medical records. Once we get his opinion that there doesn't appear to be anything amiss with her health or development (as much as he can tell from a few pictures and some lab tests anyway), then we will officially accept the referral and begin the wait until we can travel to get her. Unfortunately, that may not be until mid-February, according to Jenny. I can only hope and pray that it will be sooner, but I don't know how likely that is. I just want to hop on a plane right now and go scoop her up! It's going to be awfully hard to look at her pictures every day and wonder how she's doing and if she's getting enough love and attention. (She's obviously getting plenty of food, no worries there!)

At least that will give us enough time to agree on a name for the poor child. She has a Vietnamese name--I assume the orphanage director named her, but I don't really know-- but we will be giving her a new name when we adopt her. Let's just say her current first name starts with a "ph" and rhymes with "duck". And to think--I was worried about Richard getting the nickname "Dick" later on!