The Beginning

I wanted to make our first blog entry our adoption story. . . so far. My husband, Alex and I started our adoption process in June of 2006. We began doing our research several months before and happened upon CHI's website. We filled out a form requesting more information from their website. Within a few days, a representative called us asking if we had any questions. We decided to set up a meeting. We were sold right away. We knew that this was the path we were meant to go down. After many long conversations, Alex and I felt drawn to Vietnam. We began our paperwork. It took several months to complete our home study. On December 1, 2006, we were officially added to the Vietnam list (number 112). The wait times for referrals at that time were roughly 6-8 months for a boy and 12 months for a girl. Overnight they seemed to double. We were then told that it would be at least 18-24 months for a boy and 24+ for a girl. At this time we were still patient and hopeful. We were moving down the list quickly. In 2008 the agreement between Vietnam and the U.S. expired, leaving no hope for referrals any time soon. Alex and I were faced with a very big decision. We had been weighing our options for quite some time, knowing that Vietnam and the U.S. would probably not resign. We had several long talks with our agency. They had just started their Ethiopia program and everything they had to say about it was very promising. We felt that we were being drawn to this country. We decided to officially switch countries in July/August 2008, after over two years of being with the Vietnam program. It was a very difficult decision. We had so many fears of starting all over again. We were scared of getting our hearts broken and our hopes up. After going through another paper chase to put together another dossier (we are pros at dossiers), we were added to the waiting list for Ethiopia in October 2008.

Journey to the new Mac. . . to be continued.