How Unexpectedly Wonderful Life Can Be

Receiving Colin Nhan's referral was quite unexpected. I feel as though I will suddenly wake up and find out what I had been experiencing was nothing more than a dream...

What makes this referral so incredible is the time frame in which it was received. Our dossier (official paperwork) was submitted to the Department of International Adoptions (DIA) and "logged in" (officially received) in March. CHSFS (our agency) informed us to anticipate a wait of approximately 9-12 months before we would receive a referral.

In calculating the math, we had hoped (and expected) to receive a referral sometime between December and March (believe it or not, I made a birthday wish on my 35th birthday this past April that we would receive a referral by Christmas). Our referral came within 3 1/2 months...WOW!!!

There were two main factors that I think assisted us in receiving a referral so quickly. 1) We were willing to consider a boy or a girl (well, if we want to be completely accurate, we were also open to adopting siblings). Apparently, many families involved in international adoption are wanting to adopt infant girls. This leads us to factor #2) We were open to adopting a child who wasn't an infant. In our case, our home study was approved and based on our acceptance of a single child adoption up to 24 months of age (or sibling set up to 48 months of age) at the time of referral.

Now (if all goes well), instead of receiving a referral by March, we're hoping that Colin Nhan will be home by then...