a strongly worded letter

12 April 2007

Head Vietnam Adoption Official
International Adoption Department
Hanoi, Vietnam

Dear Mr. Adoption Official,

I implore you to let my paperwork move forward quickly. I urge you to encourage your provincial counterparts to move with equal haste. You see, my son turned 9 months old today and he needs to be home by his first birthday, if not before. Though I am confident that he is being well cared for in his orphanage, it is simply not the same as being home with his family. To complicate matters, there are some medical issues that truly need additional assessment. I know that your hospitals are top notch, but I would very much like to have him evaluated by the doctors who would likely treat his condition here in the United States. I am told that if his diagnosis from your physicians holds true, his condition is easier to treat the younger he is, and frankly sir, the clock is ticking. Additionally, it is traditional for us to have celebrations honoring the first anniversary of a child's birth. At this time, we cannot move forward with the planning of said festivities as we have no idea we will be travelling to your fine country to retrieve our son.

In addition to the concerns noted above, there is the issue of my sanity. As each day passes without news of progress, I become increasingly agitated and uneasy. I regret to inform you Sir, that I am not a patient person. I appreciate your cunning plan, and embrace that fact that this process is in fact helping me to become slightly more patient and willing to embrace the unknown, therefore making me a better mother. I am in awe of your brilliant training regimen. To that end, I would like to petition for my graduation from the training program. At this time I am as patient as I am destined to become, and further training will be in vain.

I look forward to hearing that our child's dossier is complete, and that provincial approval has been granted. In fact, if you would like to set an immediate Giving & Receiving ceremony date, I assure you that we would happily comply.

Thank you for your time. I appreciate your prompt attention to this matter.

With kindest regards,

we've been schooled & some emotional manipulation

Last night we went to a three hour Infant Care & Infant/Child CPR class at one of the local hospitals. I am proud to report that we are both capable of changing diapers on non-moving doll babies, and I feel that we would be completely competent taking care of a newborn. Too bad Beckett is almost 1! See, this hospital offers a Newborn class as well as the Infant class. We purposefully chose the infant class as we will not have a newborn, and we wanted to know about caring for an baby that is somewhere between newborn and toddler. Instead, we learned all about newborns and what to do the first week home from the hospital. Perhaps I should sign up for the newborn class so that we can learn what happens after the first week... you know, during infancy. Uugggghh! Odd side note: There was a couple at the class having triplets via surrogate. Yowza.

So, I read a blog about Baby James. This little guy is fighting some nasty cancer. His parents are doing an amazing job of keeping their sanity and caring for the baby. Oh yeah, did I mention that he is newly adopted and that his cancer was diagnosed only five weeks after he arrived home. I can't even imagine. Baby James is a fighter, but they have had a week of bad news. The cancer has metastasized. They have confirmed a new tumor on his liver which grew during chemo. Despite all the bad news, Baby James' mom has a fairly upbeat attitude. I'm sure that her positive energy is part of what helps him fight. Find some kleenex if you are a crier, and take a few minutes to read about this amazing family and their little guy's heroic fight. They can use all of the prayers and positive energy they can get, so please send some good thoughts their way.