And so it begins...

Yesterday we got some seemingly bad news. We were told by our adoption agency that they would not be able to match us with a daughter at this time. There are currently no little girls available that were less than a year old. In fact most were at least 2 years. So we were crushed. We then asked if they had any girls that wer close to a year (13-15 months). Again the answer was no. However they mentioned that they would send us a listing of available children for our review.

Late last night we started discussing the option of adopting a little boy. It started out as a very light conversation, but before long we were begining to convince ourselves that another boy might be good. Knowing that there were several infant boys available that needed homes abd that most of the adoptive families are wanting girls made us sad for these forgotten boys. Afterall, one of the driving factors in adopting from Vietnam was the fact that there is such a great need for families there. And adoption should be first and foremost for the welfare of a child. So we began getting more and more serious about a little boy. Of course if we were having a baby the traditional way, we wouldn't be able to choose. Next we visited http://www.fcvn.org/ (a site for families with children from Vietnam). We started looking at all the pictures of little Vietnamese boys. Still unsure of our decision started praying. It was well past our bed time so we headed off to bed. Neither of us could sleep.

This morning we called our adoption agency and they told us of a little boy named Van Lai that was 6 months old. He was born to 42 year old single parent who cared for him the first two months of life. However, she was unable to provide for him and relinquished her rights and placed him in an orphanage in Ninh Thuan. He has been there since December 6th. She learned that he weighed approximately 10 pounds and was relatively small. We asked our agency for some time to make the decision. We immediatly called our doctor and got her opinion. Based on the VERY LIMITED information that we had received, she said that he seems to be in good health (although small). We then called our agency back and accepted him into our family.

Next they e-mailed us a picture. He has the chubbiest cheeks. Not quite what we were expecting given his wieght. We were completely in love with him.

So today we completed a mountain of paperwork so we can start the process of getting him home. The agency says it will be 3-6 months before we get to go after him. Please pray that God will watch over him while we can't. Also pray that he comes home soon!

Here is a picture of Van Lai from January when he was 3 months old. He is chubby huh!

Keep checking our site for more updates on our progress.

Your Truly,

Craig & Chaunta