Viet Nam Adoptive Family Interviews : An Introduction

Can you describe what it was like when you received your referral?

The Engelbrecht Family - I was very excited! We even waited up so that we could get the pics printed at WalMart and then take them to our families. It kind of seemed surreal.

Christina - Our referral sort of came in two parts … first there was the phone call from our agency, describing our child to us, his name, age, current living situation etc. Once we said he sounded like a good fit, they FedEx’d all of his information and pictures to us. I remember pacing around the house all day waiting for the FedEx truck which finally came around 2:00. And then pulling out the paperwork, with our son’s picture on top. And feeling oddly detached, not that instantly-in-love feeling I had with our daughter’s referral. But as I looked at his pictures and read through the paperwork, I knew he would be a very good fit with our family. And the more I looked at his pictures and then called all my friends and family to share the news, I grew more excited and eager to meet our son. In the long run, I think the slightly-detached feeling was probably a blessing for me because we waited almost a year to meet our son. (And by then I positively ached to see him face to face!)

The Mynes Family - RoseMarie called us on a Sat. night & we were NOT home. (can you believe that !!!) We were out visiting with some of Chris’s family that lives over an hour away. So we did not get home till very late and I saw on our caller id that she had called. I just had this feeling that she had our referral for us. So I tossed and turned all night (of course I couldn’t sleep). I waited till about 11:00 the next day, crossed my fingers and called her back. She did indeed have our referral. I started jumping up and down and Chris was just laughing at me. Since I was calling her at home she had to go over to the office and get all the paperwork and said she would call me back in few minutes. The feeling is overwhelming but great. This was the moment we had been waiting for, for someone to tell us that we have become parents. Our heads were spinning as she read all of our baby’s info. It was March 19th 2006, a day I will never for forget!

The Micheline Family - It was very late in the evening. Tom and I were eating a really late dinner (Mac and Cheese), and I decided for some reason to get up and check email. In our email were photos of this beautiful little baby from our agency. Since it was so soon after we signed with the new agency, I was sure that the photos were not meant for us and it was a mistake. So I emailed the agency back and told them that we got the email by mistake. I was incredibly jealous, but also REALLY happy because the baby girl in the photos looked beautiful, healthy, and loved. She was laying on her tummy and holding her chest and head up with her arms, and in the four crystal clear, high quality photos we got (I was used to all the referral photos from China we had been looking at for years, so seeing a baby in a natural position in the middle of an actual room with people in it was just mindblowing!), the backgrounds were full of smiling women and happy children, all who looked healthy and active and taken care of. I knew that our daughter was in a good place, and wondered if she might in the background of one of those photos.

The phone rang a few seconds later, and it was our agency telling us that yes, the photos were for us. Were they okay? What did we think? We went nuts. Oh my gosh. I still cry thinking about it.

Next..."Getting Ready"

Related Reading:
Referral Day
Adoption ABC's : RAD and Referral
Our Viet Nam Adoption Timeline


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