Dinner

We attempted to make our own Vietnamese dinner on Saturday night. We used one of the recipes from Adopt Vietnam. I must say the meal was excellent & we will be attempting to cook more Vietnamese foods.





Here is the recipe:

NUOC MAM CHAM - FISH DIPPING SAUCE

1 cup of water
4 tablespoons of rice vinegar
4 tablespoons of sugar
5 tablespoons of fish sauce
1 tablespoon of garlic (finely chopped)
2 fresh small chili peppers


HANOI BUN BAO
1-1 1/2 lbs beef flank (can use chicken or pork) we used chicken- cut into thin slices & pounded

Marinate with:
1/2 thumb size piece of ginger julienned
3 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons of water
1/2 teaspoon of sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons soy sauce

1/2 lb roasted peanuts smashed
1lb- bean sprouts blanched
1/2 head of lettuce chopped
herbs- basil, cilantro, mint- 1/2 cut each

2 tablespoons oil in frying pan add chopped garlic. add beef or chicken & fry

serve beef or chicken on top of rice noodles and add- herbs, lettuce, bean sprouts, meat, peanuts,fried onion, add Nuoc Mam Cham sauce

ENJOY!

A Little Behind

Since starting the adoption process I have had in my head that I wanted a photo of the referral delivery. Thursday morning I just about missed my chance!. I had come downstairs & saw the "notice of delivery" on the front door, I raced to grab my shoes & call to the Purolator guy "I'm here!". Thankfully he saw me running out the door & brought me the package. I would have been so upset If I had to wait to pick up the referral papers at the Purolator drop off center.

I told him he was carrying the papers for our new baby. He was more than happy to pose for a photo with the paperwork. He said he does that all the time!

Crazy Week Recap

Let's Recap. We waited a total of 309 days from dossier to Vietnam for our referral call. Before that we waited over 9 months for the Vietnam program to open up for our agency. Waiting for over 19 months in the adoption process,that is a long time people.

Honestly, I've surprised myself quite a bit with my ability to keep it together. I'm sure I've surprised my husband & family as well. I know for certain that if it wasn't for all of the family & friend support, particularly the support from other adoptive parents, I don't think I could have made it through this process. It's hard, harder than anyone would have expected. But we've made it this far, & baby is just around the corner. So thank you to everyone that helped with their kind words etc. over the past year & a half.

When I think about how long we waited to see his face, & to find out his birthday & exactly where he lived, & to now have those answers I get choked up. It's amazing. More awesome than I could have pictured it. I feel like a weight has been lifted off of me & I can finally breathe.

He's beautiful. My God he's perfect. His name is Owen Danh (Danh apparently means fame & prosperity in Vietnamese). He weighs 11 pounds. He was born in Northern Vietnam. He has the cutest little lips, chubby cheeks, round face, short spiky black hair. He looks healthy & happy, he looks like our son. More importantly he feels like our son. I'm dying to kiss him & hold him, we are told that the agency is expecting travel in September. Probably late September/October. We were originally told that his birthday was the end of July, but that is being confirmed.

We are going to hold off posting pictures until everything falls into place.I really want to share the photos with everyone, so we will see. Currently we are awaiting his translated paperwork, then we will make an appointment with the Dr. & social worker. Everything will be translated once again & returned to Vietnam. Our agency will be helping us with travel arrangements, we are to travel with 2 other families. It's a very exciting time around here.

Thanks again to all of you for sharing in the excitement of Baby Owens referral. We are truly blessed.

We are coming baby Owen, we love you.

Oh yeah, I'm a MOM!!!!!!!!