Xmas at the Lewis/Green household

This was our last xmas as a childless couple and I can't say I'm disappointed. Although I do love our little xmas morning routines, it will be so nice to have a child in the mix. Children make xmas that much more enjoyable (or so I'm guessing lol). We had two xmas gifts wrapped for Van. The first pic is of both the gifts under the tree then the one we bought and wrapped and the other is the gift from Max and Vanh. Thanks again!! Those sleepers will really come in handy and they're super cute too :)







This has actually been our first xmas without any family and or friends around. It's a bit odd really. We usually have at least one stray person over for dinner. It seems everybody had somewhere to go this year. So it will be a small xmas dinner for just the two of us. No turkey, just a small organic chicken and some potatoes etc. We will make up for it with a boxing day gathering with some friends. The world junior hockey championships officially start tomorrow and I can't wait until the puck drops. The WJ's are my favourite xmas tradition and here's hoping our boys can make it 6 in a row! We already have 2 team Canada jerseys waiting for Van :)

Here are a few of pics of the furkids to tide us over :)

Happy Holidays!

I hope everyone has a great holiday season and that those waiting either for referrals or travel dates will get good news in the new year. For those who have their children at home, I hope santa will be good to them ;)

I for one am anticipating that 2010 is going to be the best year of my life. I hope so anyway!!

To Van: I hope your nanny gives you some extra special hugs tomorrow!! Not a moment goes by that we don't think of you. We hope to see you sooner rather than later! We will open your presents for you tomorrow and look forward to you opening your own this time next year :)

Five months old!

Well, Van is five months old today. We had hoped we would be over there with him now to celebrate his 5 months with him. Now we're hoping we get him before he turns 8 months. We're thinking of you little guy!

Wait for updated pictures

Not sure if anybody's checking out the blog these days but it has been a week I know. It's just that there has really been nothing to blog about....other than the climate change conference, but I'm not going to blog about that...no one needs to hear me ranting so close to the holidays lol.

I heard from the pap who is adopting a little girl from the same orphanage as us. She is finally going over on January 15 (more than 7 months from referral!). The good news, other than her finally getting to be united with her little one, is that she is going to take pictures and possibly video of Van!! So we are anxiously waiting for the middle of January now. Not because we are any closer to going over, but because we will receive pictures of our little guy! Who knows what he looks like now! Our last pics are of when he was 2 1/2 months old. Anyway, something to focus on.

On the job front, I am supposed to meet with the firm I did a contract with last year to talk about a possible job. It will be as a law clerk as opposed to a lawyer, but the firm is great and the money is really good as well. I can't really say no at this point. Especially as we have no idea when we will be going to Vietnam. It could be March or April. I need to work. So I am keeping my fingers crossed that I will get offered this job! I'm not sure how many other people they have in mind.

We finally got out tree up this week. We've wrapped a couple of presents for Van and also bought him an ornament today from 10,000 Villages (made in Vietnam). Here's a pic of the ornament and tree:





We also ordered this awesome hockey player doll from Magnolia and Friends. They make Asian inspired dolls and all the proceeds go to charity. The woman who started the company did so because she had trouble finding dolls for her adopted daughters that looked Asian. It's such a wonderful resource! Here's a picture, I hope Van loves it as much as we do!:



And finally just for fun. Our furchild Chibi posing next to her December entry for the Ottawa Citizen/Humane Society 2009 Calendar. Our little super model lol. She's so ugly she's cute right??

Fun day

Today we went to an afternoon potluck at the home of an adoptive family. They have the cutest twin boys Vanh and Max! I think they will be great friends of Van in the near future :) It was nice to hang out with a group from the adoption community. Other than us there was another post-referral waiting mom (who is already becoming a fast friend) and a single mom who is waiting for a referral. There were a few others there as well but the paps gathered in the living room to coo at the twins (and another adorable little girl) and discuss the trials and tribulations of the endless wait. I look forward to the day that we can all gather as parents and talk about the trials and tribulations of parenthood, which seems much more fulfilling somehow. It has been very reassuring to meet such great people in the adoption community. It is such a supportive network. I am very grateful that all these wonderful people will be a part of Van's life! An extra special thanks goes to Samantha and Woody for hosting the event and to Vanh and Max for the xmas present for Van that will be put under the tree :)

Sometimes no news is bad news

Well, I caved and decided to email the agency director to see if there was a chance we could travel in January and the answer sadly is no :( The indication is that our time line is the same as other families who might (might mind you) be traveling January 13th and will have been waiting over 7 months. 7 months for us will mean a travel date in March or April or later (depending on when the processing actually started). Not good :( I'm feeling very frustrated and pretty down about this tonight. I feel like this adoption process will never end. This changes things quite a bit. I now will have to take whatever job comes along (here's hoping one finally comes along!!) as the time limit is going to run out on opening a parental leave claim. Unfortunately this means I may not be able to travel to Vietnam to pick our son up. I'm really hoping that a new employer will feel generous and allow me to go but I can't count on it.

Anyway, enough of the self-pity garbage! We've been though too much for this adoption not to work out eventually right?? Hopefully we'll get him before he enters high school lol...

To remove or not to remove

A difficult decision awaits us...when is the right time to remove the spare bed from the soon to be nursery so that we can finish decorating said nursery. The dilemma is that we often have guests staying over so the bed is used relatively frequently. But if we don't end up traveling until the spring and take the bed out then our guests will have to sleep on the pull out couch. Alternatively if we wait then get travel dates in January then we may not have time to finish the decorating. One of the many often last minute decisions adoptive parents must make lol.

On the subject of the nursery, we are thinking of finding someone to do a mural for us. I have a number of friends who are artists but unfortunately they all live elsewhere. So I am on the look out for someone who would be willing to do this for us for a reasonable price. If anybody has any ideas please let me know. Any mural ideas would also be appreciated. So far we are thinking either a water buffalo in a rice paddy or an interpretation of a Vietnamese fairytale (yet to be narrowed down).

On the "news" front we received a small tidbit of information that the trip our agency director is taking with high school children to Vietnam from the end of December to the middle of January will not effect possible travel dates. Initially we thought the trip would effect waiting parents because the 2 in country reps would be busy with the high school group and not be able to help families. But it seems they will try and figure things out if there is a possibility of an early January G&R date. Here's hoping!

Meg

Retail Therapy

Well....obviously no news lol. So to cheer ourselves up, this past weekend we hit usedOttawa.com and Boomarang (an awesome second hand children store with a few locations in O-Town). We bought safety gates from a lady in Vanier; and a bumbo tray, soft stacking rings and a Leafs sleeper (no comments from the Sens fans) from Boomarang. The sleeper was for 6 months which is a little hopeful (ok, very). We think he's a bit smaller than average so if we get him older than 6 months maybe he'll still fit into it. You can't go wrong for $4 bucks right?

It's funny how I go through stages where I don't even want to think about the adoption because I feel like it will never happen, then I want to buy things and am all nesty. Ah the endless roller coaster of emotion.

This weekend we're going out to buy a xmas tree. It may just be the two of us but we'll make the best of it. I think we'll even wrap a few gifts for Van...

No end in sight

Well I am feeling a bit frustrated today. We got the word that we would definitely not travel in 2009. This was really not a surprise as we had suspected that it would not be December. However, the mood seems to be that January is a hope but not even close to a certainty. If not January then Tet will probably delay travel for a month or more, bringing us to March. It is so frustrating that things have slowed down so much in Vietnam. It is hard enough to have an endless wait for a referral, but an endless wait after referral is a whole new level of frustration. There are days when you don't want to think about it and you close the door to the "nursery" as you can't bear to look at the long set up crib with the inch of dust. Sometimes it becomes very difficult to picture a baby in there even though the "baby" has a name and you hope against hopes one day in the not so distant future he will actually be in the crib.

At this point it is very hard to imagine ever getting those elusive travel dates. I think I'd be happy to have a couple updated pictures to prove to me he does actually exist. Sigh...

Meg