Well we are at the end of yet another month gone by. We are getting ready to swing in March and I have heard it is expected to come in like a lion with a winter storm tomorrow. I'll have to stay tuned to the news on that.
Well I got an email response from our CM about her opinion on our directors posting on the forum. She wasn't as optimistic as i had hoped. Although she isn't one to let her guard down either. She is really strength for me.
I do however feel after reading the posting like my water has broke and labor has started. I am hoping its a short labor and fast smooth delivery!!!! :)
As of March 17th we will officially be 4 month waiting, and our estimated wait for referral was 4-6 months. Sounds like the agency is going to hit their target.

For every posting of bad news comes one of good news!!! Here is an excerpt from a posting that our irector made on the forum for us today:
I do have something everyone is looking forward to knowing anxiously... we are expecting to receive referral information as soon as next week. Exciting isn't it? As I mentioned previously on this post, we are not to discuss any referral information openly. So for those few families in an advance position on the waiting list, please expect to receive an update from your case manager directly in the coming weeks. For those who are not in early positions on the list, I still want you to know that things are moving and progressing smoothly. Your turn will be soon! Similarly, for those families who want to adopt two kids, you may be waiting a bit longer than those families who are just adopting one child, but that is not a major barrier at all. We are working diligently in linking up with more orphanages and your wish will be fulfilled within a reasonable time frame. Anyway, I wish all of you have a happy adoption journey and bring home your precious little one soon. I want to assure you that your case managers, myself, and everyone at C*********** shares the same vision and mission - to bring as many orphans as possible to their forever nurturing homes here and be taken care of and loved by parents just like you. Take care everyone! Ray
I do believe that we are considered an early position family since we are #5 on the list. I hope to hear from my case manager tomorrow that she may have spoken with the agency director today and got some insight into this.
This is WONDERFUL news!!! PRAY WITH US THAT GOD PROVIDES JADEN FOR US THIS NEXT WEEK!!!!!

I really don't have anything good to post today but i thought I'd fill you in. We got word last night from our director that there are 6 babies in the orphanage: 2girls, 2 boys, and 2 that he isn't sure yet of their gender. If the last 2 are boys then we probably won't get a referral out of this first set unless the family ahead of us that would take either gender chooses a boy. God will take care of us!!! Our CM continues to stress to me how great and important it is that our dossier is in Vietnam and that it is the first one to get worked on. This will make our approval and travel and G&R date closer to our referral. The longer it takes to get the referral the closer we are to having our dossier approved. So I guess I should try to look at this optimistically for a change. When we hear more I'll post it here!!!!

Today I got an email from our CM that our dossier will be the first one to be translated and sent off to the DIA and she says that is a plus for us and a good thing. She also said that she heard from our director tody and he said he should have referral updates next week. So we are crossing every part of our body that will cross on this one being for us. Our CM still says don't get our hopes up but she tends to be cautious. Keep praying with us!!!!

Time ticks on....
As the month of March is rapidly approaching, we are starting to slide closer to the edge of our seats. Our director will be back from vacation tomorrow and hopefully will have some news for us about the referrals. I am hoping that he can at least give usa little more of a concrete time to expect one. The 60 days will soon be passed by and the babies should be ready for adoption any day now.
We are expecting a winter storm here today so Iwill be cooped in the house and that makes the wait even harder. I get so anxious that I think Iam going to crawl out of my skin somedays. Today at least the Nascar race will be on so that will pass a few hours. GO MATT!!!! #17!!!! Woohoo, Matt won the Busch race last night and it was awesome!!!!
Well hopefully we will have some good news to post here this week. We'll let you know.

We received an email from our CM this morning that our dossier got to Vietnam yesterday. It is now ready to begin the translation process. The discouraging news we got from her is that even thought there are 6 or 7 babies in the orphanage right now it now depends on how the families ahead of us choose their child or children, Jaden may go to one of them and we may still be in the waiting game. This is such a crazy roller coaster ride. We'll keep you updated as we get news.

Today we received our passport copies back from the Consulate and I have packaged them up to go to the agency director tomorrow by Fed Ex. He will be back in the office on Friday and hopefully we will have some news from him concerning Jaden's referral. In hopes that all goes as planned and smoothly we should have our referral in about 13-20 days. Getting closer!!!!

Well I am truly feeling like an expectant mother. As the days tick by in anticipation of our phone call from Our CM I feel like time is ticking by until my water breaks, the labor pains start, and the call comes with the wonderful news. When I explained all of that to Norm on Sunday he smiled and said...I'm so glad you feel that way. He is starting to show a little more expectant dad signs too. He has been the one to remain calm through this process as I whine, and rant and rave about why it is taking so long. When we shop he automatically begins looking for goodies for Jaden. He is getting full of questions about what to expect. We are so anxious.
Even though I haven't physically carried and won't physically bear the labor and delivery of this child it is as though I am going through a pregnancy. I haven't felt her kicks, hiccups, tosses and turns, nor have I watched as my belly grew full of her, or heard her heartbeating, but she has grown in my heart making it fuller and fuller. My heart beats for her and everytime my heart races I feel as though it is her heart beating within mine. So just as an expectant mother awaits the outcome of her delivery, I too am awaiting the outcome of a pregnancy of my heart. We won't get to hold her right away but we will carry and proudly produce her picture to everyone we meet. We will long to touch her beautiful skin and feel her hand wrap around ours and feel her breath on our skin as we snuggle her close to us.
Please continue to pray for her health, safety and adjustment to us as her family!!!!

It is so quiet here. I hate waiting!!!! We are so close and the wait is getting harder & harder. I want to see Jaden's picture so badly.
Today my mom & I went shopping.....again. She is spoiling Jaden so much. She has gottten her, a playpen, stroller, swing, foldable travel booster seat, many, many baby essential (bottles, bibs, hygeine supplies, thermometer, changing pad, crib sheets, clothes) actually the list is endless. She also bought her the cutest doll. It is a Lee Middleton doll and her name is "Jaden". How perfect!!!! We are having so much fun shopping for her.
Well our agency director will be back in the office on Friday and will hopefully have some updated news for us. Only about 2 weeks yet til expected referral. Keep watching here!!!!

HAPPY TET!!!!
This is the day that the Vietnamese New Year begins. There will be much celebrating there. This will put our dossier on hold for a few weeks but we should still get out referral as planned.

More news!!!!
Our completed dossier was forwarded to Vietnam on Tuesday and Duc will take it from there to have it translated. This will not occur until after Tet though. We have been told it takes about 5 days to translate and then it will be forwarded through the system in Vietnam for our approval and completion of the dossier. This can take 3-4 months. Therefore once we get Jaden's referral we will have to wait for our travel. Tentatively we are still looking at July for travel time. So once Tet is over we should see some positive action with both our referral and our dossier. We'll keep you updated!!!!

Well We have placed the update to our dossier in the Fed Ex box and it will be on its way to San Fran tomorrow for the (HOPEFULLY) final time. Here's to hoping for no more delays.
According to Ray, we are still on schedule to receive our referral no later than mid March. Think about it...we are already to mid February so only about 4 more weeks. Can't wait to see Jaden's beautiful face!!!

Well we are on our way to the Sec. of State office again today. After confirming with Diane this morning on our additional paperwork we needed we are off to get out certification done. It ended up all we were required to add to our dossier was 1 copy of each of our passports. Its just he paperchase part of it that is the pits. It won't cost quite as much as first anticipated so that's a good thing already. Ray told Diane that the in country associate (Duc) will take care of things with our dossier and make them understand that they have th originals why should we need copies. Thanks Duc, Ray and Diane!!!! So we are still on schedule for our referral by mid March as long as Jaden checks out medically and is not adopted by a Vietnamese family. Only a few more weeks and we will be able to breathe easier on this one.
We have registered at Babies R Us over the weekend. There's not much to register for though since we will be needing to buy most of the stuff before we go. We will need alot of the essentials to take along and we will want the nursery to be ready when we get home with her so she has a place to sleep. We don't want to have her thinkng she's going to sleep with us. That's a bad one to start. So other than a few things that would be extras or things that we just want for her we will be needing to shop big time before we go. It was kinda boring registering since we didn't have much to choose from. he girl lookied at our completed registry, and the page they print that shows things you should have registered for, and I think she thought...what was the point in registering. Oh well she just doesn't understand. When I told her we were there to register the first thing she did was look at my tummy. HMMMM!!!!
Well we'll keep you filled on the latest. Please keep praying for Jadens health and safety while in the orphanage. Pray that God will bring her to us soon!!

It's not over yet....another glitch in our paperwork chain. Vietnam has now proposed that they need yet another 6 documents added to our dossier. This means notarize, certify, and finalize all of these too. Now we are talking another 400 dollars to do the extras. I wish they would just settle in and accept what we have done so far. Ray is trying to get them to change their mind and not ask for so much more. We'll see how far that gets. Hopefully I will hear from Diane today with an update on this. Ray is still saying mid March at the latest for a referral so at least that hasn't changed. He said it shouldn't delay us at all since the 18th is Tet in Vietnam everything shuts down for a few weeks anyway so our dossier would just be sitting on someone's desk waiting for the end of the celebration. Let's just hope after they celebrate that they will get right to it with our paperwork so we can get our Giving & Receiving date and our travel time. I hope to have more info tday on the progress of it all.

Good news from everywhere today.
Today I received a message on the forum board from Ray and things are sounding VERY good!!! We are getting SOOOOO close. He said there are 6 babies in the orphanage right now. 4 are almost ready for adoption and the other 2 are still being investigated. Soon they will all be ready. I spoke with Diane today and she said that Ray confirmed with her that we would get our referral in 5 weeks so therefore I believe that Jaden is one of the first 4. After the next 30 days she will be ready. It is so hard to believe that we will soon be able to see a picture of our daughter. What excitement!!!!
Diane received our dossier (finally) today. She called and said she will be reviewing it tomorrow and then sending it to Ray right away. We are the first family to get our dossier done. I am a very determined person!!!! Ray is working on our travel guide for us and said it won't be long until its ready.
Mom & I went shopping today. She bought so much for Jaden. She got her the cutest outfit at Gymboree. I can't wait to wear all these neat outfits on her. She's going to get best dressed in Dornsife!!!
Continue to pray for Jadens health and for the care she is receiving. Also pray for her referral to come through without a hitch and for our wait time to travel to fly by quickly. Nothing like wishing the year away,huh?!?!?!?!?
Keep watching here and we'll keep you in the know!!!!

HEY!!!
I wanted to let you all know that I received a forum post today from Ray and he stated that our daughter is now in the orphanage!!!
I only wish he could share her picture with us. As soon as he has the okay from the Vietnamese government and all of the medical information we can have our referral of Jaden. My heart is jumping I am so excited about this.
Ray says we should have it no later that mid March!!! That's only 5 more weeks!!!!!
Be watching for her picture!

It's snowing.....again. I wish it would just dump one big snowstorm on us and then be done. I don't like snow or cold weather so I am quit glad that today.......PHIL DIDN"T SEE HIS SHADOW!!!!! Yeah, early spring!!! I'll believe that when its here too.
Well it has been a stressful 2 days of adoption. Looks like from Rays point of view that we are still on track for a referral by mid March and travel most likely in early July. I can't wait. I have spent most of today trying to track down our dossier. We unbeknownst to us should not have put a Fed Ex ground package in the drop box that we did because it is for express only. Well after not seeing any tracking info on our dossier I PANICKED!!!!! No I mean REALLY PANICKED!!!!! So I made about 5 phone calls trying to track it down through Fed Ex. After about 8 hours of no satisfaction from Fed Ex Norm decided it was time to call an old buddy of his that works for Fed Ex Ground in Montoursville and see if he could help us. It is amazing how much we have relied on so many people through this process and they have come through for us. He called Bill and told him our situation, well Bill immediately set his plan into action. A few minutes later Norm's phone rang....Bill found our package. He then proceeded to have someone reissue a label for it so that it would be shipped ground express and that Diane would have it in her possession by noon on Monday. He again called back the 3rd time with a tracking number and according to the website it is on its way to Pittsburgh. THANKS A MILLION BILL!!!!! I have to THANK Norm too for his quickness and phone calls on this one. I haven't been real easy on him through this because I feel like I have done most of the legwork, phone calls, and stress on my own but I know his heart is in it and I know he truly appreciates what I am doing. Don't worry his time will come...wait til Jadens home. Guess who changes the first couple poopie diapers and gets up at night with her....you guessed it. HA! HA! So now a few pounds of stress have left my body and they are on the Fed Ex truck going to Diane. It feels so good to have that dossier out of my hands and I'll be glad when it is in the right hands in Vietnam.
The next few steps will be time consuming but this will be it and we will be on our way to pick up our daughter.
Continue to pray for us and for Jaden as I believe she has been born and is in the orphanage at this time. I do not have a confirmed statement about that from Ray but according to his correspondence with Michelle & I , I just think it is so. She was probably just born in Dec. or Jan. Just a tiny one I bet. Just keep waiting with us and soon (about 5 weeks) we should have a picture. YEAH!!!!!

Another great day in adoption world. Today we received word from Ray that we are to "expect" our referral in March and that we should prepare to travel late June, or early July!!! This is fantastic news. Also to add to that excitement...we are probably going to be traveling with Michelle & jeff, whom I just can't wait to meet. Only about 4-5 month to wait for that. And we should be having our G & R on the same day as them. Wow!!! It's amazing how God puts the puzzle together. We will continue to keep you updated.