It was two years ago today that we posted Gem’s referral to my blog. It seems like such a long time ago, yet I still remember my first reaction, sitting at my desk staring at her photo, trying to take in every detail. It was a much longer wait for her to come home than anticipated (8 months!) and at times was very hard and emotional. But we love our Little Miss to bits and feel so grateful that she is our daughter and we can be her parents.

Another thing I will never forget it when we left Viet Nam after completing her adoption, the feeling of sadness I felt. I’m not exactly sure how to explain it, but when you see how connected a person—your child—is to a place, a people, a culture, you realize what a major thing it is for your child to be leaving all of that. We always talked about how much we wanted to adopt a sibling for Gem (and another child for us!) who was also Asian, and particularly we were hoping to adopt from Viet Nam again. We were only home a few months when I started to feel a strong feeling inside me to look at adopting again. I remember thinking that perhaps I was just a nutzoid lady addicting to adopting. But I couldn’t shake that feeling, and although I’m pretty sure I was also trying to shake off some post-adoption depression as well, we took a few months to sort it all out, research, and give it some serious thought and prayer. And over a year ago now we sent in our application to adopt from Viet Nam again. And that day the application was sent the strong feeling pushing me to look into adopting again left, and its its place was peace. 

A few weeks after we turned in our application we were in touch with our agency and discussed that we would like to pursue a special needs adoption. All that means is that the child we were hoping to adopt would have a medical issue or concern, and these can run from major to minor stuff. But we were clear with what we thought we could handle and looked forward to working with them. The agency we have been working with for our second adoption is Pearl S. Buck International and so far its been an absolute pleasure. They’ve been such a class act and based on our experience to this point, I would recommend them. 

Well not too long ago, when I was actually at a Dinosaur Museum with Gem, my mom, my sister and her kids, I received the amazing call. As some will know, adoptions between Viet Nam and the US are closing September 1st, so to receive a referral in time was such an answer to our prayers. And so with the roar of dinosaurs in the background, and watching Gem feed some ducks with my mom, I first heard the details of our son. This handsome little man is Tuan, he is 11 months old, and is waiting for us in Ha Noi. I’m over the top excited about being a mom to a little boy! He is described as a happy and smiley little guy, although that wasn’t quite captured here. He and Gem will be a little over 2 years apart, which will work nice I think. Although size wise, she only has him by a few pounds. I’m preparing myself for “twin” comments already. 

Little Miss is so excited! She has been asking for “two babies” for some time now (she likes to consider herself a baby) and is so excited that this will finally be a possibility. We have told her Tuan will come home when it snows, or around Christmas time, so she keeps bringing that up. Little Miss loves to talk about “Baby Tuan”. She has started to enjoy saying prayers by herself, which are often said rather mumbly and fast. But in the last one I heard “Baby Tuan” at least three times. She is pretty happy. I’m not sure it will stay that way when she realizes how much sharing and compromise will be involved with having a baby brother, but we’ll let her enjoy her excitement while it lasts. ;o)

I realize that this post will take many of you by surprise. We didn’t know what the future of Viet Nam adoptions would hold for us, and since Gem’s adoption took so long, we decided that we would hold out to share a happy surprise! We actually didn’t tell our families about this adoption until our dossier was almost headed to Viet Nam. Its been a fun thing to keep close to my heart, and to witness all the miracles and answered prayers involved in the adoption so far. Our agency is telling us it will be a 4-6 month wait until travel. We’d love to have your prayers and good thoughts that the time can pass quickly, that Tuan will be healthy, and that we can all be together soon! 

I’ll be writing and sharing more soon, but I wanted to share this with you at long last. I’m going to be a mom to two kids!