Continued from here

Since I had convinced myself that it was too soon to even start thinking about adopting again, I put the notion of starting back up on the back burner. I went about my daily life and tried to forget about the opportunity that had been presented to us. I wasn’t too successful. About a month after that fateful email came, I sauntered into our living room and popped the question to my husband. I asked him “What if I just email ACS (Asian Children Services, our agency) and find out if there are any spots left for families on the list?” I tried to tell myself that we weren’t committing to anything... more

Get ready Viet Nam…we’re coming back!!! And we are so excited! We actually made our decision a few months ago, but I wanted to wait until the ball really got rolling until I shouted the news from the blog mountaintop. So here it is: We are adopting again!

Here’s how this all came to be…a few months after we returned home with Ella, we learned that our agency Asian Children Services was phasing out their adoption program to focus on their humanitarian work in Viet Nam. I was absolutely crushed. Granted, we had only just gotten home, were not anywhere... more

I am continuing to answer a reader's email questions directly in my blog so I can share with everyone. The other questions that I've answered this week were: Food and Eating in Viet Nam, Wait Times and Expectations, Air Travel and Time in Viet Nam and Our... more

I am continuing to answer a reader's email questions directly in my blog so I can share with everyone. The other questions that I've answered this week were: Food and Eating in Viet Nam, Wait Times and Expectations, Air Travel and Time in Viet Nam and Our... more

I am continuing to answer a reader's email questions directly in my blog so I can share with everyone. The other questions that I've answered this week were: Food and Eating in Viet Nam, Wait Times and Expectations, and Air Travel and Time in Viet Nam. I enjoy hearing from... more

This post is a continuation of my question and answer series found here and here.

What types of food did you eat while over there?

I was extremely nervous about eating in Viet Nam, but it turns out that I had no reason to be. I’m vegan, which means I don’t eat any animal products and my husband is vegetarian. So on top of our already fried nerves, we were... more

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, the next few posts will be answers to questions that I received from a reader via email. I really do love to hear from you guys and am always happy to answer questions to the best of my ability and share my experiences. I’ll bet that these questions have been thought by others out there in blog land, so it’s my hope that by answering them publicly, I’ll be reaching out to more people. Thanks for reading and as always, please feel free to email me at rebeccah@adoptionblogs.com or leave a comment anytime.

How long was the wait from Dossier to Referral…I couldn’t really tell. And was that expected... more

I love to get emails from all parents and prospective adoptive parents (paps,) and often get asked similar questions. In light of my effort to share with the class, I thought I would answer a reader’s recent questions right here in the blog. I’ll be posting her questions along with my answers in separate posts. As always, please comment below or email me at rebeccah@adoptionblogs.com with any comments or questions.

How long were you in Viet Nam? Where did you fly into?

We... more

Birthdays seem to be a time to reflect and take some time to think about the year that has most recently passed. As I approach my last year in my twenties, I am so ridiculously grateful that I have happy memories of this past year to wax poetic on. This time last year I was only a few weeks away from traveling to Viet Nam and meeting my daughter for the first time. I was an anxious, excited, nervous, busy, emotional mess. Today I feel just as busy, but much happier, much more grounded and full of so much pride and love for this family that we’ve created.

I feel incredibly... more

Please keep in mind that adoptions are individual processes and can take varying amounts of time...

now that I said that...I COMPLETELY understand how as a prospective adoptive parent you are starving for any bit of information that can tell you how long your wait may possibly be ;) I know I was a little addicted to reading people's time frames, so I thought I would share mine. **************************

8/3/05 mailed preliminary application to ACS

8/15/05 mailed application to CHSA (our home study agency) w/ autobiographies + picture

8/05 received packet from CHSA

8/24/05 went to Trenton and got 3 copies each of our birth certificates and marriage... more