April 4th

One year ago today, Nick and I put our initial application in the mail to our agency. We didn't tell most people for many months to come, but it was a pretty significant day in this journey...it was the first.

Last year at this time we thought that there was a good chance we'd be traveling right about now. But, life happens; both to us and to the world of Vietnam adoptions. And so instead we are still waiting for our referral.

The whole Vietnam-adoption world has changed quite a bit from one year ago. Our agency was already not allowing families to choose gender and within a few months they stopped accepting new applications for their Vietnam program altogether. Since then, there have been several significant policy changes and the MOU expiration creeps closer and closer making tensions high.

This is a roller coaster ride that is hard to understand if you're not on it yourself. And I hardly write about it here, so if this is how you've kept up with our experience, I apologize for the lack of full information. I feel like we've done a pretty good job with the waiting. Waiting that has become a lot more than just waiting for a referral. However, this is hard. Some days are harder than others...but we're holding together fairly well. We're learning to be cozy with the unknowns...and if I may add, getting pretty good at it.