Life is but a journey

Life is but a journey. From one day to the next, we may never know what to expect. Our journey has taken us from being a loving, happy couple to happily awaiting the creation of our family through adoption. We feel blessed to know that in a few short months that Vo Phuc Nhan will change our lives forever by joining our family as Colin Nhan.

We are making the transition from our former blog to blogspot, so that we are able to upload more pictures of this amazing little boy on the site as we travel to his homeland of Vietnam. We'll also be moving our previous journal entries here, so that we don't lose the history of our adoption process.

As our family moves toward becoming complete, we hope to share our journey of faith, hope, love, and patience with you, our family and extended family.

Thank you for being a part of our lives.

Random Thoughts...

It's amazing and wonderful to realize how supportive you, our family and friends, are as we move through this journey. We appreciate your thoughts and prayers as we move through these final months before we travel to meet our little boy. I remain cautiously optimistic that we will travel sometime between December and January.

I've received some wonderful pictures from Rosie when she traveled to pick up her beautiful daughter (and Colin's best buddy) Miri.

You know, I realize I am VERY biased in my opinion...but our little boy is one handsome guy!

In the picture where our little boy is napping, my friend Wendy says he has the lips of a trumpet player. I can again see his Grandpa exclaiming enthusiastically about another generation of Heberligs will blow that horn!

Thirty days have now passed since the DMOJ received the dossier from Colin's care center. So, I hopeful that we'll have no more than another 30 days to wait before we can take the next step forward. We'll keep you posted with any updates we receive.

Until then, here's wishing to the best Christmas present ever!

Happy Birthday Colin Nhan...

Yesterday (in VN) and today (here in the U.S.), our son had his second birthday. Although he is not physically here with us, we are celebrating another year of his life. I'm so excited to know that he will be home to celebrate his 3rd birthday. How appropriate the balloons are!

Yesterday evening, we received an email update from our adoption coordinator. We received our 1st DIA (Department of International Adoption) notice on July 11th. Additionally, the DMOJ received his dossier from the orphanage on July 24th. So, we're making progress! Our adoption coordinator also told us that Colin Nhan really missed his best buddy, Miri, when she left.

Please keep our family in your thoughts and prayers as we continue to wait for time to pass, so that we can travel to VN and bring our son home!

Reaching Another Milestone in our Journey to Bring Colin Nhan Home...

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!!!

Presents for Colin Nhan...

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!

Room Renovations...Phase One

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...).

Colin's Best Buddy is Coming Home!

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!

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...

Thanks to Heather...

I received an email from Heather (from the CHSFS-DTV Yahoo group). She adopted her 2nd DS from the VL care center in November 2006 and shared this pictures of Colin Nhan (on the right in the Red shirt) with me. What a wonderful gift we have received!

Our Little Boy Has a New Name...

Call it post jog/run-endorphins, an ephiphany, or just a great idea but Eric and I have decided to change our son's (I just LOVE saying that) name from Vo Phuc Nhan (last, middle, first name) to Colin Nhan Heberlig.

After my jog/run with Melissa and Laurel (two of my friends from Charlotte Mommies), I came home and spoke to Eric about my thoughts regarding this little guy's name. It was my hope to retain his Vietnamese heritage and culture, while at the same time giving him a name reflecting the merging of our lives.

So, to honor Eric's Irish heritage (his maternal grandfather was born in Ireland...and I do love the "Fay" clan - they are like family to me), our son's first name will be Colin. Now, I've seen several different meanings for Colin but the one I like best is dove (representative for peace). In honor of his Vietnamese heritage, we wanted to maintain the first name he was given at birth, Nhan. Nhan means "patient" or "patience," which is very appropriate for our journey. His (and our) last name, Heberlig, is German/Swiss in origin.

A Call From Dr. Douglass

Before I begin this entry, I wanted to share the infant photos we received of Colin Nhan. Even at 3 weeks of age, he has a wonderfully intense gaze, as if he's studying the world and what it has to share with him.

At 1645 (4:45 pm for you non-military or non-healthcare people), we received our phone consultation from Dr. Douglass. Over the course of the next half hour, we discuss the Dr. Douglass' review of his medical records and pictures.

Dr. Douglass was pleased with the amount of data available for physical measurements. At his medical checkup on May 20, 2007, his length was 86 cm (33.9 inches) and weight was 13.5 kg (29.7 lbs). On Western growth data charts, he has consistently been at the 50th percentile. This is great, considering that this little boy has been living at the orphanage since he was 3 days old.

His photos checked out as well. Dr. Douglass placed him in his lowest risk category, "average."
This certainly helped solidify our decision to accept the referral. After completing the call and discussing Dr. Douglass' comments, we called Yen at CHSFS and gave her a verbal agreement for accepting the referral (which leads to another piece of paperwork for us to fill out...the neverending process - but ALL so worth it!)

He turns two on August 18th, so he'll probably be 2 1/2 by the time he comes home. I can hear Eric now..."terrible twos...I'll be exausted."

Let's hope Colin is a much better baby than his Daddy =D (hehehe).

We Have a Referral!

Today has been nothing short of a blurred, whirlwind of a day. Our lives have taken a pleasantly unexpected turn today when we received a call this afternoon from Yen (our Adoption Coordinator for the Vietnam (VN) program at CHSFS). Yen, through a conference call notified Eric and I that we were being presented with the referral of a 22-month-old little boy living in an orphanage in the Vinh Long (hence and forever abbreviated VL) named Vo Phuc Nhan.

All I can say is that I fell in love with that sweet face. He is the most adorable boy I have ever seen! We have also received basic biographical information (fortunately, we have serial growth measurements from his 3 wk checkup to his most recent checkup in May).

From what I remember in the deep, deep subconscious brain-firing neurons from my pediatrics course (in nursing school about 10 years ago) regarding growth and development charts for toddlers, our little boy is developing at a normal rate physically.

Our next step is to have his picture and medical records reviewed by a physician with specialization in international adoption. Fortunately, we have a physician in our area, Dr. David Douglass at Cabarrus Pediatric Clinic in Concord (For the Children International Adoption Medical Services) who provides pre-adoption personal phone consultations. We're off to his website to take the next step in our journey!!!