Shower for Noah! Visas for Us!

My lovely friends (Amy, Shannon, Alicia, Vanessa and Meghan) threw a fabulous shower for Noah this weekend! It was great fun, and we received many many wonderful baby gifts for Noah! Thank you so much to the hostesses and the attendees; I had a great time!! (And special thanks to Mom for driving down to come!). We now realize that babies need lots of stuff..., and we may need a bigger house....:) (Amy did have the forethought to have a camera ready...so there are pics that I have not seen yet...maybe I will post some highlights later.)

In further preparation, we are asking for yet another governmental approval:) I have to admit, I am getting pretty exhausted with applications for approvals (Nate realized my frustration and took care of this latest round of applications...thanks, Nate!). This time it was for Vietnamese travel visas. A few people have asked why we need visas if we have passports. As I understand it, the passport is permission from the US to travel, and the visa is permission from Vietnam to come in. Some countries allow Americans to enter without visas (just passports), but they do not have to..., and Vietnam requires visas. So, today, application was made for Vietnamese visas. We requested the visas for proposed travel between the 19th of June and the 19th of July. We are using a visa service, and we are paying extra for quick turn time...so, we should get those visas very soon.

Now, we just need Vietnam to give us a date that we can come for our Giving and Receiving Ceremony (the official Vietnamese adoption ceremony). As I understand it, there are many Vietnamese officials that must attend the ceremony, and it is scheduled in advance to accommodate the attendees. In any event, until we get that date, we will just be waiting (hopefully, with visas in hand...and hopefully not too long).

The last couple of weeks have been weird...there is so much fun stuff to do to get ready, and I have so much energy (despite limited amounts of sleep),...but at the same time, my patience is really being tested. Now that we know about Noah, I REALLY do not want to wait any more!