What has been going on????

Seems like everyone has been asking us and it's been a little while since we've had an update... so let's see...

Chúc Mừng Nãm Mới!!!!! February 7 was Tet, or the Vietnamese New Year. This year, 2008, is the Year of the Rat or Mouse. This year is special because it begins the 12 month cyclical zodiac of animals. Officially, the national holiday of Tet lasts for three days. However, in practice it is closer to a week or ten days, as many celebrations occur before this date in the south of Vietnam and after this date in the north of Vietnam. All work in the country slows dramatically for several weeks during this time period. Almost everyone is on holiday or is in a holiday frame of mind (HA! Kind of like in the US around Christmas and New Years!). This is also the peak time of travel, as many Vietnamese people return to be with families and friends. This year our family celebrated Tet by making a Vietnamese dinner consisting of a coconut/lemongrass chicken dish with rice-noodle salad and coconut sticky rice for dessert! MMMMMM.... yummy! We even colored the rice red for Tet! LOL! It was truely an adventure roaming the Asian Grocery without my tourguide, AKA- my hubby! LOL! I should note that it was a very positive experience and everyone was extremely helpful. It was incredibly refreshing to see other Adoptive Families in the store also gathering supplies for their own "New Year" celebrations!

Last weekend Anthony and I attended our final "Parent in Process" Classes with our agency, Holt International. We got up a little early (for us anyway) on Saturday and made the hour drive to Trenton, NJ to visit with the Holt NJ Staff and 8 other couples who are hoping to adopt. To our wonderful surprise, we were able to meet "face-to-face" with a couple from our adoptive family online community. We were so happy to meet Van and Ben who are from our area and are also hoping to adopt a little one from Vietnam! We also learned that they are planning to travel to Vietnam to visit family and might be there around the same time we are ready for travel (if all goes well- that is!)... even better, their family lives very near where we will be spending the first portion of our trip! We might have some travel guides! HA! LOL! Thanks Van and Ben! Meeting you guys was truely a blessing! It was so nice to finally put a "real-life" face to the name after "talking" online for so many months!

Our class was great, we had a lot of discussion regarding the implications of transracial adoption, how it could possibly affect our children, and how we can support them in finding their own identity. We also spoke at great legnth about the "gains and losses" of adoption...what are they and how to deal with them. All in all, the classes were incredibly helpful! It really made us think about how we can prepare ourselves to help our son, when he is ready, figure out who he is, how he came to be, and where he wants to go from here... I know parenthood is no "exact science" but it I think it's good to start thinking about how to deal with important issues a head of time. We know that our son will have questions about his birth and how he came to be part of our family. I believe our job is to support our children in finding those answers, in as much as they are available, in language that is age appropriate which they understand, while helping them to maintain their sense of stability and belonging. Doing this helps to cement the parent/child relationship because they are walking together on such a potentially difficult journey, thus bringing the family closer.

Anywhoo... that is kind of it for now... unitl next time... we continue our wait for Provincial approval, so we do not have any updates yet on how close we are to travelling. :-( As soon as we have an update, we will post, call, write a message in the sky, shout it from a mountain top... you know I never have trouble getting the word out! LOL! Until next time... have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Rebecca ;-)