26 weeks!

Wow! 26 weeks! It's so unreal that we are at this point. I have never been this happy in my whole life.



So here is the belly at 25 weeks. My belly is HUGE! My mom came in town the other day and we were shopping at Kroger. I was a few feet in front of her and I turned to tell her something and she just started laughing hysterically. She said "You are so pregnant". It really is comical.

I feel pretty good, although I can't remember the last time I got a good nights sleep.

Our little monkey is moving and kicking and punching and I think sometimes he is doing cartwheels! He kicks so hard you can see my belly move now. It's amazing. I am so ready to meet this little guy, but I know a part of me will miss being pregnant. I have honestly enjoyed it and realize just what a blessing it is.

I still very much am interested in Vietnam adoption news and am so saddened to hear how things are turning out. I can't stop thinking of all those families who have been waiting years for a child who suddenly are faced with the reality they have to consider other options. And most importantly the children who need families to love. Richard and I would have been waiting 19 months (not long compared to some) if we were still in the program. And let's please not talk about the money lost. And when we signed on to the VN program we were assured by our agency it was a very stable program. Which at the time I am sure they believed it was. But by September 2007 (or a bit earlier) I had serious doubts and went to our agency about them. I told them I was concerned about the program being over taxed and the corruption. I expressed my fear that the program would implode and we would all be left at square one. I knew that with all the problems and issues that the program was having it was not a 'secure program'. Yet I was assured by my agency that I was wrong and that I was being "emotional" and that my fears were baseless. Everything I heard was "rumor". So I took their word for it. After all they were the experts, not me. Richard kept telling me to be more positive. But I could not ignore what I kept reading over and over. I don't want to be negative, but I didn't want to be naive, either.

I still have that email from my agency assuring me how stable the program in Vietnam was. I was urged to not switch programs (we strongly considered Ethiopia) and that we would bring home a child from Vietnam.

I understand at that time they might not have KNOWN what exactly was going to happen. My point is that if I, someone who was pretty new to adoption, had a strong gut feeling, idea, suspicion that things were not going to turn out well for all, that CHI knew a lot more than they were letting on. I believe they had information that they chose not to share with their clients. I got all my information from just doing a little research on the Internet. They had first hand connections, yet they didn't realize how bad it was but I did...?? I feel like they handled my husband's and my case very carelessly. My Bestie Samantha and her family are adopting from Ethiopia. I had to recommend that she not go with our agency based on our experience.

I want to stress I am not blaming CHI for what happened in VN, obviously. But I was not happy with the way our specific case was handled and I feel like all through the process information was with held from us.

I didn't mean to get into all that, but when I think of the families that I started the adoption process with who are hurting it breaks my heart. It's just a sad situation for everyone. The families and the children.

Okay, something that I found hilarious!-- So Richard does most of his research on rats (sorry rat lovers),so we got Samuel a stuffed rat so he can grow up and be like his daddy. Well, we got our swing for Sam the other day and we noticed the thing has buckles. So Rich decided the sensible thing to do was to practice strapping in "the baby" so when it is really time to put him in, we know what we are doing. The rat is what Richard practiced on!