MATTHEW IS BORN!!!

On (or around) May 30, 2006, Matthew is born in Vietnam.

One of the hardest things about adoption for us has been missing out on the early days, weeks, and months, and even nearly a year. We loved being around Caleb for his first cry, first smile, first bite of food, first crawl... We will miss all those firsts with Matthew, but one of the hardest things is not being there for his birth day. To not be able to tell him one day of the cute things he did when he saw the world for the first time. To not have photos of his tiny little fingers and toes. To not nurse him his first meal. To not hold his delicate newborn body close. To have it pass like any ordinary day, when only to find out later, that it was the day of a most extraordinary event.

We've always hoped that Mike's Vietnamese heritage will serve as a special bond with Matthew. Time will tell.. Mike lost his mother at an early age, and Matthew will also probably grow up, like Mike, with many unanswered questions about his Vietnamese mother. We hope that like his daddy, Matthew will be proud of his Vietnamese background, but feel comfortable in his American life. And like Mike, we may never know Matthew's real birthday. It was only estimated based on how old he seemed when taken in at Tam Binh two months later.

We look forward to celebrating May 30 from now on as a very important day on the family calendar. And our birthday wish for Matthew in 2007 is to finally be with him to celebrate together a very special day.

Anh Sinai and Anh Nghi and me.

Mom and I are back in Winston-Salem. She gets all the work. I get all the play. Here I am back with my bud, Jacob.

Adoption classes...

On May 18, we went to a class hosted by WACAP about how to deal with open and closed adoptions. Interesting to discover all the different ranges of adoption...from birth mothers that are almost a part of the adopted family to situations where there is no information available whatsoever about the birth family. Makes us wonder how much we will ever know about our baby's birth family. But probably more importantly, how will we help him deal with the loss of the relationship with them? How can we help him deal with this in a healthy and positive way, even if we don't have all the answers to give him?

We've been attending quite a few classes like these...it has been good to open our eyes to the many aspects to life our adopted child will face. Above all, we just hope that we will be good enough parents to have the wisdom and love to guide him.

It's Mother's Day, and we're finally living at our new house. Dad and I enjoy playing out in the sunshine.

Homestudy documents done...

On May 10, we submitted our "Homestudy package". FINALLY!!! Such a relief to have this done. Many people say this is the most intensive part of the adoption process, and I sure hope so! After going to our doctor's office at least 5 times, once with both Caleb and Colton in tow...bad idea! All of our references have been turned in. And our autobiographies are done! Whew!!!

Now we just have to wait for Michelle, our social worker, to read it all and let us know when she's ready for the interview process.

But the process doesn't seem nearly so bad since it is to bring a baby home. And it finally seems like justice to have Mike have to get his blood drawn...not just me getting poked and jabbed this time round. :)