*Faith Family Picnic

Today was our agency's annual "Faith Family Picnic" at Point Defiance Park in Tacoma. This was our first time attending, of course, and we felt a little out of place without our little Asian daughter, but it was fun and amazing to see all the beautiful families. Our agency adopts from China, Vietnam, Nepal, Mexico and Panama, but the majority of the children at the picnic were from China and Vietnam. One lady asked us where Koen was from. We weren't real sure how to answer that - Seattle? My womb? :) There were many families that had a biological child or two and then an adopted child or two.

We got to meet our adoption case worker face to face for the first time. She started working for our agency only a couple months ago. We also got to meet another family who is at the same point as us in the process. We met one family that adopted a little girl from Nepal a year or so ago - their first. Another family that are former missionaries to Mongolia and Nepal adopted a 2 1/2 year old girl from China with minor special needs (a hand deformity), even though they've already raised 3 children to adulthood.

We also got to meet our agency's Vietnamese official, Henry, who comes every year for the picnic. He suggested to us that it is best to adopt from the northern provinces in Vietnam, as they are better cared for, and less likely to have HIV or Hepatitis. This way we are less likely to get "mad at Vietnam" because our child will be healthy. It made me sad to think that there probably have been people who have been disappointed in the child they've received. He probably also feels a sense of pride in his country and wants people to see the best of Vietnam. Henry saying this makes me think that most families are probably trying to adopt from the north, so we need to head south, and help a child who may be less healthy and less cared for. We'll see. He also said that the majority of Vietnamese adoptions are to France and Italy and that if we didn't say yes immediately to our referral, that someone else will adopt her quickly.

We also learned that there are currently 75 families who are adopting from Vietnam through Faith (our agency), and 13 are in our stage (paperwork). That's a lot of waiting families that are in line ahead of us! The wait may be long. Nepal is currently having some governmental issues that caused them to temporarily shut down adoptions. Several families have switched from Nepal to Vietnam, and I know many have switched from China to Vietnam too because China's wait time is so long.

Here are some pictures from the picnic:

This is our agency's founder and director, John




Koen and I with our case worker, Amy