Preparation and Wishes!

Okay...we have started accelerating our baby preparations in the hope that we will leave very soon to pick up Noah. In the last week:

1. We have celebrated and toasted Noah and our new family many times (thanks to all who have been celebrating with us...including everyone who continues to humor me by looking at Noah's picture over and over and over!)

2. I have registered for baby items (with help from Alicia --who was able to explain to me exactly what all the baby items were and whether I needed them - and Meghan - who donated her project management skills to the project by keeping track of both the normal baby registry list and the Asia travel baby registry list...Thanks Guys!!). There are some very entertaining stories from this experience, but I have promised to let Meghan blog about those, as she is a better story teller. Click here to see if she has done so yet:)

3. We have cleared out an entire kitchen cabinet for baby items (Okay, I do not have very many yet, but I anticipate that will change soon) by rearranging and cleaning out many other kitchen cabinets (Thanks for my Mom and Dad for helping with that fun project).

4. I have shopped for baby clothes myself (I know that I just mentioned registering, but I could not help myself).

5. We have finished (mostly) the nursery (Thanks again to Mom, Dad and Nate for carrying out my orders without getting mad at me...:))

6. Nate has purchased a video camera to take on our trip!

Here are some pics of the nursery in its more completed form!








Now, all we need is our travel date!! For mother's day this year (when we still did not have our referral), Nate had given me a necklace with a silver wishbone on it. Then, a couple days before getting our referral, we had smoked a chicken (an experiment with the new smoker from which we learned many lessons:)). Anyway, we wished on the wish bone, and got our referral days later...so, maybe t is time to cook another chicken and see if we cannot wish up a travel date?

We Have a Name!!

We have decided on a name!!

Noah Van Vu Olson-Daniel

(Van Vu is his Vietnamese name, and we are giving him the name Noah, which means "rest or comfort")

I cannot take my eyes off his picture (and I really mean that...we got very little sleep last night...and I kept turning the light on to look at him again! I printed out many copies and am putting them everywhere...)

Referral!!

We are so thrilled to announce that today we received (and accepted) a referral for a baby boy.

We cannot believe how quick this all happened (our documents have not even been in Vietnam 3 months...see ticker at the bottom of this screen)!!! I got a call from Gift of Love at work; Beth said..."we have good news" and I nearly jumped out of my skin, but then they could not get Nate to pick up his phone...and since we both wanted to be there, I said that I would track Nate down and we would come to the agency office. So, shaking I tried to call Nate again and got through to him....I ran through the skywalk to Nate's office and we then took the world's longest elevator ride to the car and then what seemed like the longest car drive ever. Thank goodness that Nate kept his cool, because I definitely would not have been a good driver at that point:) I was also busy calling family to tell them the good news!!

We are still letting it all sink in....took the rest of the day off work, because let's face it, we were we could not have contributed much:)

Anyway...the beautiful baby boy was born 2/26/07 (the same day our documents arrived in Vietnam). :) Now, given that this happened so much sooner than we planned, we have to get so many things ready!! Our agency estimates that it will be about 30 days or less before we travel! So, much to do so little time!! (On the other hand, I cannot wait to go!!!)

Isn't he cute!!!





In other GREAT news, my sister, Andrea, and her wonderful long-time beau, Matt, have announced their engagement today!! Congrats to them!! Big day for our family!!

Quilts, Teddy Bears and Good Causes!

For anyone who is interested in having a Good Wishes Quilt like the one that we have been working on (see: http://www.quiltofsquishes.blogspot.com/), but that does not want to make one...there are quite a few up for auction for a very good cause (along with many other beautiful items ...books, art, etc.). There is an E-bay auction right now for Love Without Boundaries. Love Without Boundaries is a non-profit that assists Chinese orphans that have medical and nutritional needs. To see the auction items, click here.

I have actually never bid in an E-bay auction (the charity auctions I have done have been live). The E-bay auction is rather addictive, I find myself getting competitive. I am not bidding on quilts, because I am excited about the one that we are going to make. But, there are some adoption and childrens' books and that I have been bidding on.

There are still 3 days left to bid:)

On another adoption charity note (albeit very last minute). Do you know those Build a Bear stores in the mall? Well they are donating bears to orphanages. I got the following info in an email this morning:

... Build-A-Bear Workshop: They need people (kids included) to come in Saturday, May 19th (today!) to build a bear for free to send to orphans! Click here for details. Cute:) So, get to the mall!

No, we have not heard anything ....

They sell adoption shirts that say "no, we have not heard anything, yet..." I used to think that they were silly, because I could not imagine wanting to dissuade someone from asking that question and getting to talk all about the adoption....
But, I have to be honest, I am starting to understand why they are made. It is not that I do not want to talk about the adoption...because I do...I often think that I talk about it way more than anyone really wants to hear:) However, it is a bit of a let down to constantly be replying to the question with ... "Nope, no news...."

So, When people ask whether we have heard anything yet...I have instead taken the opportunity to update them on the parts of the wait that I do have control over...

(1) The quilt project (which is going Great!...check out www.quiltofsquishes.blogspot.com...there is still time to contribute a squish if you feel so inclined),

(2) the nursery and other shopping...okay, so we have stalled a bit on this one...but... we are starting to consider the baby when shopping for things around the house...Nate decided to buy a quarter of a cow (in the form of meat...don't ask) and so he also decided he needed a deep freeze...and despite my resistance to yet another energy sucking appliance...I was really glad, when upon returning with his purchase, he was ready to tell me about the child safety lock:)

(3)The education...our Vietnamese travel class was postponed from next week to June...but in the meantime I am still reading all the books (see last post) :)

So, feel free to keep asking if we have heard anything...but, be warned that you might be met with a response about the challenges of using a rotary cutter when cutting quilting squares :)

P.S. Thanks to Kim and Jessica for attending Big Hair Ball with me:) For those who have never been to the Des Moines social event (a fund raiser for the Des Moines Art Center)...see what you are missing...:) (there are hair stylists set up at the event to make sure that all party goers have all the teasing, color, feathers and other big hair treatments they need...)



(This picture courtesy of DMJuice)

Educated...

Well, it has been a while since I updated this. As mentioned in the last post, I went to a long education session last week. It was a really good experience. I learned a lot, and met a very nice fellow prospective adoptive parent (there were only two of us at the training...everyone else will be watching the long DVD like Nate:)).

Anyway, we got all sorts of advise and resource recommendations:) In addition to much of the information, the following book recommendations on Vietnam/Adoption/Parenting were made (I bought all of these, but have not read them all yet):

Find Katherine: A Spiritual Guide to Vietnam and Motherhood by: Ellen Fitzenrider

If you Lived Here: A Novel by: Dana Sachs

Bringing our Angel Home by: Tracy S. Pillow

Dear Sam and Dani: An Adoption Journal by: Cindy Roberts

Beyond the Blue by: Leslie Gould

Culture Shock Vietnam and Culture Shock USA

Positive Discipline by: Jane Nelson

The Family Adoption by: Joyce Pavao

I also learned that there are LOT of things that I should/could be doing to prepare. Prepare our will...buy car seat...find pediatricians and dentists...child proof the house...finish the nursery...begin the child's life book...

So, I guess maybe we should be glad that we still have time left to get all this done, but I would not mind at all if the referral came before we had everything done:)