Seeing the Light at the end of the Tunnel

What a week!
Pat took the day off on Thursday so that we could go get fingerprinted in Boston. We had been prepared to have to spend a good chunk of the day there as we had heard that this is how it goes. Well we found it and were happy to see street parking and wouldn't you know a car pulled out of a spot as we were driving up....leaving a nice spot for us. We walked in, filled out a form, and got our fingerprints taken. We were in and out within 25 minutes!

It was really cool too! They press your finger to a glass and the computer reads it. No ink. No paper.


We then picked up our documents that were certified by the state. We sent everything off to our agency and to the Consulate of Vietnam in San Francisco to be authenticated. Hopefully the consulate with complete all of those and send them on to our agency by Wednesday. We can maybe expect a referral as soon as next week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our agency has a Yahoo listserve group. It is really nice to be in touch with the other families that are using our same agency to also adopt from Vietnam. Some have already travelled and give us tips, some are getting ready to travel any day now, some are actually travelling and some are paperchaisng like us, or have just received their referrals.
Their have been ALOT of referrals lately because many other families were also trying to meet the deadline. It is fun to see all the referrals and especially the baby pictures.

I contacted our agency to let them know that we have mailed off our documents. The woman was very happy for us! She said a few weeks ago she didn't think we could have made it. She also said that she is excited to be able to personally give us a referral as we are one of her special families.
Of course, Pat burst my bubble saying she says that to all the families....he's a forever pessimist! She has emailed me several times telling me how "special" we are. ;)

Last night I was chatting with the woman who lives in VN and helps the families out while they are in country after they receive their babies, Cherie Clark (Google her, she is amazing). She asked me to help her upload photos to the group. They were pics of oodles of babies. SHe mention that her and the woman at the agency had a special baby in mind for us! OMG! I felt light headed! I just figured that when a family was ready they went to baby file pile and took the one off the top....and that they did not put much thought into what family gets matched with what baby. Their policy is to refer older babies first. Of course Cherie could not tell me anymore. But she emailed me all the pic she wanted me to upload....they all had a description of the name of the orphanage. Then she emailed me one that was title 'Beautiful Baby'. I couldn't help but think...Is that OUR BABY?! I looked closely at the picture and could make out that the baby was born in October. (there is always a little note in the pics with the baby name and DOB) . All the recent referrals have been babies born in August and September....meaning that they would be referring October babies next!! Could it have been HER?! Even my forever pessimist, Pat, had a goofey grin on his face when I showed him the picture. :) I am trying NOT to think about it. I don't want to get attached a picture of someone elses baby! It is so hard not to keep peeking at that little face though.