My comfort book

Ah Monday...well guess what? No news of course lol. As if I expected any. But at least I can look forward to 4 more possible "news" days. I received an email today from another waiting mom with the same agency who has been told an optimistic travel date would be January. That sent me into a panic because their referral was not long after ours and their child is in the South. For those blog followers not from the Vietnam adoption community let me enlighten you on one of the tidbits of information that we think about all of the time. For some reason paperwork is processed faster in the South than in the North. So us "Northerners" are told from the get go that our wait until travel will in all likelihood be longer than the "Southerners". So now of course I am thinking that if a my new waiting parent comrade, who is a "Southerner", is probably not traveling until January at best, then we won't travel until February or March. This of course is all conjecture. What is most important is that I have connected with another waiting parent...someone to commiserate with, yay! Must try to not focus on the negative...must re-focus my energy....

One thing that has helped me bring myself to a happy gushy place over the past couple of years is the book "When you were born in Vietnam" A memory book for children adopted from Vietnam". This little book has so many thumb prints and dog ears from me leafing through it numerous times that by the time Van is old enough to appreciate it there may be nothing left lol. It is really a must have book for anyone adopting from Vietnam. It is filled with beautiful pictures of Vietnam and follows a few families from meeting their children to flying home. I think I've memorized every little chubby baby face, smiling parent and tearful nanny in the book. Whenever I am down and think this process will never end, I dig out my trusty book and think, this will be us one day. Other therapeutic things to do are peer into the closet at the baby clothes for the umpteenth time, rifle through the pile of colourful cloth diapers, gaze at the bookshelf filled with intelligent and thought provoking kiddy books, oh, and my favourite, harness up the dog and walk to Starbucks so as to enjoy a seasonal grande egg nog latte because hey, I deserve it!

On the subject of books, other gems we have found are:

"Children of the Dragon: Selected Tales from Vietnam" by Sherry Garland
"Ten Mice for Tet" by Pegi Deitz Shea and Cynthia Weill
"Vietnam: Journeys of Body, Mind and Spirit" Nguyen Van Huy and Laurel Kendall, editors

Another way I distract myself is by planning where we would also like to go, if we have time, when we head over. This will be my third time to Vietnam (Pat's second). I've visited most of the main areas i.e. Ho Chi Minh, Hue, Hoi An, My Son, Hanoi and Halong Bay. One place that intrigues me is Sapa...or maybe we should spend a few days in Hong Kong...Distracting oneself 101, planning....

Meg