Ugh, today was so hot and humid. It was ridiculous. I don't do good in high heat and humidity and neither does my hair. If things work as predicted, (although international adoption is never predictable) but if it happens this way, it looks like we may travel in the fall or winter, which is more a dry time of year, while the summer is very humid. This would be good for me, but not much we can do about it otherwise.

End of last week and last weekend, we were up in the Upper Peninsula visiting Kevin's dad and brother. It was so nice to get away and especially to a place where the pace is slow and not as hectic as Chicagoland. The weather was beautiful, very warm during the day and cool at night. Just perfect!!! Can't believe how quick this evening went before I head to bed for the night, I want to leave you with one photo. I'll post more later, but this will whet your appetite.

Clarification & Update

I e-mailed our SW at the agency last night to find out where we are on the waiting list. I guessed that we were #153 overall and #89 for those open to a boy. I was partly right, we are #89 for those requesting a boy or either a boy or girl, but overall, we are a little further along than I thought, we are #146. So it seems , we moved 13 places from being #159 when we first were put on the waiting list. After a little over a month and a half, we are making some progress. Hopefully, we'll have more referrals come in soon and we can keep moving on up the waiting list.

Agency Referrals

Our agency received 2 referrals this week. One for a healthy toddler boy and one infant girl who is a waiting child. They are waiting for more medical exams to be completed and hoping for more referrals, possibly this week. Also 8 families received their travel dates a week ago Friday and will be traveling later this week. Hopefully, this time next week, I'll have reported that more referrals were received for healthy children. We have moved up one on the list for those open to a boy and 2 on the main waiting list.

Congratulations to Stacie & Kevin!!!

I wanted to give a shout out to Stacie and Kevin, who just received a referral for a 3 month old baby boy named Yabsira who is in Ethiopia. This is the first Ethiopian referral for our agency since they have been licensed. Also check out CHI's blog.

Who left this comment?

Today, I got the following comment on my blog comment section:

Kathryn - first off I want to see if your blog posts my comments...secondly I want you to know that I check on you often, but the blog does not always allow me to comment.

So glad you are moving up the list - I realize its slow and can't imagine how hard the wait is for you.

But it was not signed, so I have no idea who it is from. I'm guessing Melissa, but I'm not sure!

While I was looking at the different adoption blogs. I found this cute photo on the blog one of the husband's were doing. I understand the feeling, although people are starting to comment more

In response to Becky, actually that is not my garden; it's part of my mom's. Ours does not look anywhere near that good. Weeds love us too and I just don't have the patience and diligence to pull weeds as often they need to be. Wait, as the summer progresses, I'll post some of the gorgeous flowers and all my mom grows. I'll have to post some of the stuff in our garden. I better do that soon before I start posting pictures from my parents; ours will look sad in comparison. Of course, they have lived in the same house for over 40 years and we have only had ours for a little over 2.

To respond to Shannon and Misty 's comments, the Pregnant with Love ... t-shirt is available at Adoption Mama. The t-shirts run on the small side and are fitted. I bought a large thinking that should give me a little room, but I probably would have been better off with an X-large if I really wanted some wriggle-room.

Last night, we went to the Sycamore Speedway and people watching is always interesting. You always see all kinds, but this was a first for the speedway, I am sure. There was an older gentleman, maybe in his 60's in a jacket and tie. He looked so out of place dressed like that. He also drove a real nice convertible and his car just did not fit in with the others in the parking lot.

Updated

We received an update from our agency yesterday and unfortunastely, no new referrals were received, so no movement has been made this month yet on the waiting list. Please keep praying for some more referrals soon. In better news, the 5 families that were just in Vietnam adopting their children are now home. By next week's update, they should have received some travel approvals and there could be 7-10 families traveling in that group. Also, there was a meeting with all the adoption agencies in Hanoi. There are currently 42 approved adoption agencies who can work in Vietnam. Since Vietnam reopened in January 2006, there has been a total of 780 children that have come home to their families in the U.S. (other countries also work with VN in placing children in forever families.) Also, in April 2007, 120 children were placed, which is probably the largest number in one month so far.

I can't believe it is almost the weekend again. I'm looking forward to the weekend; it's been a tiring work week. Hopefully, we will be receiving an update from agency tomorrow and hopefully, there will have been some referrals. On Saturday, evening, the Chicagoland Families with Children from Vietnam is getting together at Nam Viet restaurant for an informal parents get-together. I know of at least one other family that will begoing who is with the same agency we are. Actually, I know her only through the our agency's Vietnam adoption Yahoo group; hopefully there will be some other families who are waiting for their child.

I just realized I never downloaded any of the photos that I have taken in the past month or so. Here are a couple pictures from Mother's Day, here I am with my mom and here's a close-up of my "Pregnancy"t-shirt.

1 Month Down

A month ago yesterday, we were added to the waiting list, so that means we are one month closer to our son! In the month since we have been on the list, we have moved up 5 or 6 slots on the waiting list. Today, we got an update from our agency. Really, there is nothing much to update. There were no referrals for healthy children received, there were 2 waiting children placed. Waiting children either have some kind of medical, physical or developmental problem (this could be very minor and correctable in the United States or something more involved.) A waiting child could also be an older child, of whom is harder to place because of age. No travel dates were received either. So, it was not much of an update. Their are 5 families who will be returning home next week with their children. Please pray and send good wishes that our agency will receive several referrals next week, so we can continue to keep moving up the waiting list.

Finally An Update

The agency's main Vietnam coordinator is back from her 2 week vacastion; during which time, we have not had an update on the status of things. It turns out, we are moving up 3 more spots on the waiting list. That means overall on the waiting list, we are about #153 and for those who are open to a boy #90. In a little less than the one month (27 days as of the time writing this) we have moved 6 positions up the list. If things continue at this pace, more or less, we should be in good shape to receive a referral as they are predicting in 12-15 months. Please keep praying, sendng good wishes, thinking positive thoughts, etc. that our movement up the waiting list will continue as quick or even better quicker than they now are predicting. Nothing is ever for sure in this field. Look at Chinese adoptions, a year and a half to two years ago, they were taking about 9 months from being logged into the country's system to when the referral was expected and as of now it is approximately now an 18 month-wait and it is expected to increase. One never knows about these things. The adoption process though is entirely different though in terms of Vietnam versus China.

Back to the update, our agency had a record number of families who were added to the waiting list this month after having received governmental approval (as we had); a total of 23 separate families. During the month of May, our agency had 10 familes travel to Vietnam, As of today, there should be 5 families who are presently in-country, 1 of whom received their little boy the other day; while the others shall be shortly.

Overall, May seems to have been a pretty good month and lets keep hoping for the same or even better news in the future.