To start off I would like to let you know a little (or a lot) about me. I always like to “know” the author of blogs I read; it makes the stories seem that much more real. So, here’s my story…

I always knew that I wanted to be a mom. However, my path to becoming one was not how I imagined it would be.

The day after Christmas 2004 my husband and I were thrilled to discover that we were expecting a baby. After a healthy pregnancy, at a routine exam, we learned that our sweet baby’s heart had stopped beating. It was April of 2005 when our lives shattered and our son Cole was stillborn. Cole’s everlasting gift to us was making us parents; and we’re sure he had a lot to do with helping us find his little sister!

Through my grief, I somehow knew that adoption would be how we would have our second child. I had always thought that I would like to adopt someday, even as a child. After many conversations with my husband and as a couple with our grief counselor we came to the decision to pursue adoption.

I am quite a detail oriented person who loves to organize and make lists, so I was right at home pouring over every scrap of adoption research that I could find. I read every adoption related piece of literature I could get my hands on, cried over every episode of Discovery Health Channel’s Adoption Stories and joined all the internet list servs.

For many adoptive families, the entire wait is excruciating. Believe it or not, I actually found it to be comforting. Well, that is I was comfortable with it up until we were waiting for our travel date-that was a whole other story completely! ;) I needed the time to absorb all the new information I was taking in. The wait allowed me to digest each step and take a breather when I needed to.

We were drawn to Asia and at the time we were too young for China and not married long enough for Korea, so we started to learn more about Viet Nam. We almost instantly knew that Viet Nam was where we were meant to be. I can’t logically explain it, but we knew that our daughter (who wasn’t even born at the time) would be waiting for us in Viet Nam.

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