Enough Procrastination

Okay, I have procrastinated starting this blog for long enough. Everyday when I am alone, maybe in the shower or driving to/from work I think about what I want to journal for that day. I have been doing this for almost 4 years now. Many adoptive parents started their blogs when they started the adoption process but I have put it off and put it off for well over a year. Part of it was laziness, part of it was business and perhaps part of it was denial. Denial about our infertility and denial that this adoption was actually, really, going to happen. But enough is enough so here goes...

I will start off with something easy, our daughter Norah, was referred to us on 10/11/07. It came as a bit of a shock to say the least. Barnabas and I were expecting a boy even though we had put "no preference" on our paperwork. With the long wait time and high demand for baby girls in Vietnam we thought our chances were slim at best of getting a girl. So we prepared for a baby boy. We chose the name, painted the room, bought a wardrobe to last him until he was 3. (I admit it, I have a small Gymboree addiction.) Buying things helped it feel real, they were physical, touchable. Getting the nursery ready, finally after all these years, let us feel closer to him. Then we got the call we had been waiting for... an I heard "SHE is 2 months old..." Wha??? SHE?? Norah is special needs and her physical issues were a bit overwhelming at first but that passed soon after referral. Then were out to dinner (Vietnamese food of course!) discussing our options and what the doctor had told us, best and worst case scenarios and he was sensing my hesitation and asked "How would you be feeling if SHE was a HE with the same issues?" And I knew from that point on that it didn't matter anymore that she was going to have a blue room or that I had only a few girls outfits or that I felt totally unprepared like we were starting from scratch. We were going to have a daughter!!!

Norah will be 3 months old on Monday November 5th. She was 7.48 lbs at birth and 9.69 lbs about 3 weeks later so she is growing like a weed. Her cleft lip is not impairing her eating ability. She is in the 75th percentile for weight and 50th for height. She can following light and reacts to sound and from the photos we got of her on 10/15/07 she was on her tummy and holding her head up like she should be. I can't wait for the next set of pictures to see how she is changing but feel very lucky to have the ones that I do of her at such a young age. And of course, we can't wait to get her home!! In the mean time there seems to be a ton to do and with the holidays approaching and year end at work and we hope the time flies by and before we know it we will have our travel dates. So, I promise to be better and start actually typing my thoughts out on a regular basis and we hope you follow our journey to bring Norah home!