Eric and I received an email from Yen at CHSFS this afternoon. The DIA (Department of International Adoption) in VN has issued the approval of our pre-referral.
Of course, this means more paperwork to sign and have notarized (Thanks Oneida!!!). But, it's paperwork we are HAPPY to complete.
YAY!!!
Okay. So, Rosie is heading to VL next week and Colin Nhan's birthday is coming up on the 18th. What is a gal to do?
GO SHOPPING!!!
Rosie (very thankfully) is willing to take some gifts to Colin Nhan. So, this Mommie went shopping and, boy, did I find some bargains. The Children's Place at Concord Mills had a "mack daddy" sale. I found two really cute button up shirts for $1.99, as well as a nice pair of overalls that were reduced (those of you who know me, know that I avoid paying full price for any clothing as much as possible).
After striking out on finding toddler-sized baseball caps at Concord Mills, I drove to Northlake Mall and found (not one, but two) ballcaps. For Eric, I bought Colin a Yankees' ballcap (of course, Eric has already said Colin can pick out his own favorite baseball team...I can hear Grandpa' saying 'Go Phillies'). For me, I picked out (you guessed it...) a Tarheels ballcap (of course, our son is free to like any ACC team of his choosing...).
In the package, I'm also including a book called "Smiles" that has pictures of many babies smiling (very cute - and I love the many ethnicities represented in the book), as well as a picture of us (so Colin can have his own picture of his Mom and Dad). On the back of the page, I wrote (well, I hope it translates correctly), "to our son" from "Dad and Mom".
I packed the box and traveled to FedEx, so that I could mail the package to Rosie. We can't wait until we hear more about our son when the V. family arrives in VL!
Belated Happy 4th of July to everyone. Yesterday was a fun-filled day in the Heberlig household: Phase One of Colin's room renovation. Fortunately, we've already painted the room (a very cool Carolina Blue -- go Heels! color called "Stratosphere").
Last weekend, we had purchased a crib (which changes into a toddler, then youth bed) and dresser/changing table from our neighbor (she's moving, so bought it for a really good price...). One slight problem, our extra mattress is still in the bedroom as well.
Solution? Get the mattress into the extra bedroom (aka "the pink room"). But, in order to do that, we had to move Eric's twin bed out of the pink room (ever notice how solutions sometime create new problems?). So, we move Eric's bed frame into the attic (thank goodness it wasn't blasted hot yesterday) and the mattresses into the garage.
Next step: clutter reduction. You know, it's amazing how much junk two people can accumulate in a short amount of time. We went through our things and disposed (or donated to Goodwill as appropriate) of items we no longer needed (including MANY copies of journal articles Eric used in graduate school...after all, it has been 10 years since he graduated from The Ohio State University).
It took a good bit of the early afternoon but the clutter is gone (in the pink room at least). I'm looking forward to picking up the new bed we purchased from my CM friend Caroline (another True Blue Tarheel fan) on Monday.
Once the bed is in place, we can move the mattress into it's new home. Then we shall palaver forward to Phase Two of Room Renovations (whenever that might occur...).
I just found out today that Rosie (one of the Mommies from the CHSFS-DTV Yahoo group) has received a confirmed travel date to travel to VN to pick up her DD (darling daughter) Phuong (Miriam - aka "Miri") from Colin's orphanage. She has to be in Ho Chi Min (formerly Saigon) on or before July 15th.
I'm so excited that Rosie will be able to bring her little girl home.
Here is a picture of Phuong. She is the cute little girl sitting in front of Colin (in the picture where he just woke up from his nap and is wearing all white).
Safe travels Rosie and the V. family!
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...
