napping is blissful

Like the freckles? I know I have a lot of them, but it always shocks me when I see photos of myself. This was taken the morning before we moved. Can I just tell you that teething is ABSOLUTELY the work of Satan? Cupcake is having a really hard time with it. My mom graciously asked us if she could please take Miss Grace home for the afternoon/evening when she stopped by today. I almost fell down in gratitude. I really wanted to take that time to work, but I decided to take a "nap" instead. Seven hours later, here I am, and I am ready to go back to bed. I just looked in the mirror and it's the first time since June that I haven't had black circles under my eyes. I love sleep. In addition to a new house and a new baby, we also adopted a new kitty. Ginger has been at the shelter for several months, and we fell in love with her right affter she arrived, She was very very sick and Animal Control was going to euthanize her and her kittens, but our shelter took them in and managed to bring them back to health. The kittens have gone to GREAT homes, and Ginger has been waiting for us to finish the house so she could be part of our family. The other two cats are still trying to figure out why this new house came with a cat and if they like that or not. I hope they all figure things out soon. I want all the kitties to be happy. Ginger has become Cupcake's kitty- she's the only one of the three that lets Grace pull on her tail and ears and fur. We don't condone that, but "gentle baby, be nice to kitty" only lasts so long and then Cupcake sneaks a grab in. Ginger seems to love her more for it. ----- As usual, I just have had no time to read or answer email and I apologize. With the baby and the new house and trying to get back to work. I work in the home, so not a tremendous deal, but getting anything done besides keeping Cupcake happy and the house still standing seems impossible right now. Every time I sit down to work, the baby needs me or my parents stop by and need me or whatever. So nothing happens. Anyway, most of my emails from this blog consist of questions about our adoption experience and asking if we liked our agency. So I thought I would post a quick answer instead of completely unhelpful: Yes, we absolutely love our agency. I think there are a few good agencies out there, doing ethical adoptions. But as long as VORF is working in Vietnam, I would never consider another agency. When we switched agencies a few months ago, VORF literally saved our adoption. They walked us through completing a new dossier in just a matter of days, and helped us catch up and make up for the months we wasted in limbo with the other agency. Our referral came almost instantly, and travel three months later. While things have significantly slowed down because of the sudden popularity of Vietnam adoptions, VORF still has one of the fastest turn-around times as far as agencies doing true ethical adoptions. It seems like one way you can tell if an agency is decent or not is how long their delays are. The better agencies are taking their time to do things properly. It's miserable for waiting parents, but the way it's really supposed to be. Clearly, we have been blessed with an amazing, beautiful little girl. I can't believe how quickly this happened, and how incredibly LUCKY we are to have been matched with Cupcake. I thank God, and thank VORF and Vietnam for this every single day. There's a lot of controversial stuff happening now in Vietnamese adoption. The truth is, rules are sort of up in the air. Tom went through a lot of government appointments and meetings in order to be able to bring Cupcake home and the government was very careful in reviewing everything before they granted permission for her to leave the country, so I'm not sure how some things are happening so speedy for some agencies. VORF does every single thing in accordance with Vietnam rules, but they still get fast referrals and decent travel dates. The travel itself was just perfection- there was not a SINGLE snag in the whole process. No delays in country, no suspicious government waits or dealings in the middle of the night. Bottom line is that no adoption is perfect and there are snags regardless of how great any agency is. You'll hear good and bad things about every agency. But decide on your realistic expectations on your adoption and weigh the agency pros and cons on that. Don't get seduced by stories of instant parenthood- when we came into this we were hoping Cupcake would be home by Christmas, 2006. We got a little crazy with the promises of our previous agency of a baby by April. I tried to remember that I never expected this adoption to go faster than a pregnancy before I started the process. It wasn't much help, but it puts things into perspective. Remember this is a long, grueling, emotional, and complicated process no matter what agency you work with. There are no miracle agencies. Just miracle babies :) If you have any specific questions, let me know. I will try and reply within the next century. So sorry about this very impersonal reply. Bed, bed, while no monitor buzzes and crackles with the sound of a teething baby.