A glimmer of hope arrived yesterday from our adoption agency. Apparently the baby girl who had entered the orphanage a few weeks ago is doing OK after having some medical issues, which we don’t fully know about yet. If follow-up medical checks are positive, it looks like this may be the baby that gets referred to us. If so, we may be able to travel sometime in the summer (July or August) to get baby Alyssa.

Our fingers are crossed that this will work out. The roller coaster ride with its ups and downs continues.

Obviously since several weeks have passed since my last post, the greatly anticipated referral did not come through. Details are not clear, but the infant girl that entered the orphanage had some problems so a referral is not in the works at this time. Maybe later, but no one knows for sure if/when it might happen. So the waiting game continues!

Meanwhile to pass the time, we (Nancy, Jessie and I) are thinking of ways to welcome Alyssa into our family when she does arrive. Jessie, in particular, has been using her newly honed writing and drawing skills to write notes to Alyssa along with wonderful illustrations. When I get a few extra minutes over the next couple of days, I’ll post some of her work for all to see.

We heard from the adoption agency yesterday that they hope, and I stress hope, to be able to make an official referral to us this week or next.  The referreal would be an infant girl who was recently placed in the orphange that our adoption agency sponsors.

So, with fingers crossed and knocking on wood, we hope that we will be able to take the next big step soon.  If that were to occur, of course, the next big question is when we could go to Vietnam to get Alyssa.   We’re still being told it will take four months, which seems like a long time and will seem like an eternity once we get the referral.

Stay tuned for more info as we get it.

We got a couple of emails from our adoption agency in the past two days with some potentially good news and some not so good news.  First, the good news is that a baby girl has just arrived in the orphanage that our agency works with.  Since we’re first in line with our agency for a girl, this new arrival could potentially be Alyssa, if everything works out.  Obviously, a series of checks need to be done before we will know anything for sure, the most important being medical tests.  The provincial authorities in Vietnam will also have to “match” our dossier to this baby in order for a referral to be made.  From what our adoption agency tells us, that means the authorities will check to see if the baby meets the criteria specified in our home study, which is a healthy baby girl as young as possible.  Our agency was in Vietnam last week, met with the provincial authorities, talked to them about the waiting families and their desires.  So, we are in a good position, assuming this little girl meets the criteria.

The not so good news is that the timing of when we may be able to get Alyssa is still very uncertain.  We had hoped that after their Vietnam visit our adoption agency could provide more specific info on when we might be able to travel to Vietnam and get Alyssa.  About all they could say, however, is that the process will take around four months, once a baby is identified.  Everytime we think about waiting another four months, we get pretty down, but that is the way international adoptions are - one great big roller coaster ride full of ups and downs.  Hopefully, the next update will be the one that says Alyssa has been found!!

We received an email from Cathy and Linda from the Adoption Center of Washington last Friday. They said that they will be going to Vietnam today (March 13) to handcarry our dossier documents and to meet with other agencies and officials from the Vietnamese International Adoption Center. It’s a little hard to tell whether this is good news or bad news regarding the timing of Alyssa’s arrival. We’ll obviously know more once Cathy and Linda return from their trip.

I guess this kind of thing is to be expected when a country restarts a stopped international adoption program. We’re waiting as patiently as we can until we can bring Alyssa to her new home and into our family.

Jessie came home from school with the note that is shown below. Obviously, we’re all getting anxious to have Alyssa join our family. We are all waiting with great anticipation, but have no further would on when she’ll be making her way to Ankara.

Jessie came home from school with the note that is shown below. Obviously, we’re all getting anxious to have Alyssa join our family. We are all waiting with great anticipation, but have no further would on when she’ll be making her way to Ankara.

Not sure how to categorize this, but guess it’s best put in the “Getting Ready” group. A national newspaper in Turkey recently ran an article comparing Nancy (and Tim) to Angelina Jolie because both had adopted internationally. The article mentions that we have one adopted daughter from Vietnam and that we’re going to get a second. The headlines are “A Diplomat in Ankara Is Angelina” and “Our Jolie Is Nancy.” Article complete with pictures is below.

Not sure how to categorize this, but guess it’s best put in the “Getting Ready” group. A national newspaper in Turkey recently ran an article comparing Nancy (and Tim) to Angelina Jolie because both had adopted internationally. The article mentions that we have one adopted daughter from Vietnam and that we’re going to get a second. The headlines are “A Diplomat in Ankara Is Angelina” and “Our Jolie Is Nancy.” Article complete with pictures is below.

Just a real quick note to say that we got confirmation via Fedex that our dossier was delivered in Vietnam.  So now the wait really is on.  Because all the procedures in Vietnam are new, we don’t know if we’ll hear anything else before we get our referral.