A surprise at work

Last Friday, the 27th, my colleagues at work threw me a baby shower. It was really very nice and a true surprise.

Apparently, however, there is a tradition where ribbons and a paper plate are used to make a hat and the poor Mom-to-be is expected to wear it. This is the good picture of me (that tells you something about the other pictures) with the hat. I post this picture as a permanent reminder to always be humble. In case I ever forget myself I can log on, view it, and have an instant attitude adjustment.

The really cool thing about the get together, aside from everything, is that there was a book theme, so we received a ton of really cool books for the girls.

This was fantastic because I love to read and I can't wait to read to the girls. I hope they love reading too. Certainly they will have a better chance than most to love reading because of all of the wonderful books that we received. So thank you everyone!!

Love Tina

On Community, Family and Love

Last Saturday, April 14, two of my great friends schemed and threw Al and I a big baby shower. I don't know how these two pulled it off, because they are both so busy with work and family life, but suffice to say that they are nothing short of true wonderpeople.

I was so moved by the number of people that came out to celebrate the imminent (hopefully) arrival of Maia and Ilona. The thing that moved me was that everyone was so excited by the girls, so charmed by their pictures, so impatient about when they were coming. I felt in that moment, maybe more than ever before in my life, what it is like to truly be embraced by a huge family - to share joys and shoulder sorrows. More than ever I saw that it is impossible to stand alone, to be an island. We are all connected and sharing is truly one of the great beauties of the human race.

While many people came long distances to attend our wedding it seemed even more meaningful to me that the very same people came the very same distances to celebrate the girls. It warms my heart and fills me with hope for the future that this community will be the community that will raise Maia and Ilona with us.

How lucky we all are to have you as part of our lives.

Thank you so much,
Tina (for Al, Ilona and Maia)

Please Note Date Change!

Just wanted to let everyone know that the Christening Date for Maia and Ilona has changed. It is now set for Sunday August 12th at 2:00 pm. The church where the ceremony is taking place is the same church where Tina and Al got married.

We will e-mail everyone with more details in the future.

We hope everyone can make it.

Warmest Regards,
Al

New Pictures of the Girls!

Maia Angelina Thanh

Ilona Vita Hoang

Today we received a wonderful gift... new pictures of the girls! Aren't they cute? What a nice surprise. As in their referral photo's, Maia is staring straight into the camera and Ilona has her
eyes closed. I wonder what that says about their personalities?

Anyway, I am just so happy that the agency sent new pictures and that the girls appear happy, healthy and well. Their latest medical reports show that they are gaining weight pretty quickly, so hopefully all the clothes that we bought for them won't be too small!

I just wanted to share the good news as quickly as possible.

Now if we could only get a travel date!

Love Tina

Will we EVER get a travel date?

The last few days I am just feeling like we will never ever get a travel date. I know, I am whining, I just can't stand having everything just hanging out there with no end in sight. At least if you are pregnant you know that your pregnancy can't go beyond a certain point.

I just want to go get the girls and get on with our lives instead of hanging around in limbo.

We did receive some information from our agency although nothing that directly effects us yet. It appears 12 families traveled in March to pickup their children and so far only two are scheduled for April so far. There are 14 families (we are one of them) waiting for their travel schedules. It seems to me that there ought to be a big surge for families traveling at the end of April if the trend holds up - G&R dates would just need to be in by mid April. Of course, my opinion about how things should be really doesn't matter.

Anyway, I've got nothing. I'm just stumbling along trying to create a scenario that fits in with how I want things to be. We'll see how well that works out!

:-)

Love Tina

The Beautiful Flowers

Al and I went to our favorite Vietnamese restaurant Saturday. Of course, everyone there knows about the girls and are very excited to meet them. They have a lot of questions for us, about where exactly the girls are from, if we know anything about their biological parents, etc. They also have told us it is extremely rare for Vietnamese to have twins - "not like in America" they say.

The owner of the restaurant told us that Maia's Vietnamese name, Thanh Cuc, means green flower and Ilona's Vietnamese name, Hoang Cuc, means pink flower.

Isn't that beautiful?