A Year Ago Today

A year ago today we received the news that Maya would become our daughter!

We had just returned from a short holiday and our agency director had left us a message on the answering machine to call her. It took another 24 hours to connect, which seemed like an eternity! Finally on the evening of August 24, 2009, we received Maya's medical (healthy!) and several photos of our new daughter via email. She was absolutely precious and we loved her smile! And, it was clear she was a very alert little girl (nothing has changed!!)

I remember spending many hours just staring at her photos in disbelief. It had been a long, emotionally draining 3.5 years to that point and many times it seemed like the adoption might not happen. It took a while for the news to really sink in. It was very, very surreal.

We rushed to settle on a name (Maya Bao Thanh) and sent out a notice to our closest friends and relatives to let them know the fantastic news!

The next seven months of waiting to travel were very hard. The worst was when we had plans to travel in mid January. Then our flight got postponed suddenly and was not rescheduled for another 2 months, while the DIA reviewed and questioned the orphanage about Maya's file.

Then at the beginning of March, we suddenly got the go ahead to fly over and meet our new daughter! On March 15, 2010 we arrived in Vietnam and adopted Maya the next day! She has been with us now for over 5 months and continues to light up our lives. She is such a delight! And we love her smile! What a difference a year makes!