Follow-up Report #4

Tonight Matteo and I picked up the photos that will be sent as part of the package with his 4th follow-up report.  For those who adopt from Vietnam, you will be legally required to send 4 copies of a Report and at least 4 photos, twice a year for the first 3 years....so six reports in all. Only a couple of years ago it included, after these initial 6 reports, one report a year until the child turns 18.  They have changed that. I hope to still send a report once a year with updated photos if they want, even to the orphanage but will have to look into that and see if it is still possible. Anyhow Report #4, like the other reports is slightly late.  It was due on Oct. 22, a month before the G&R anniversary of Nov. 22.

Of course these days with all that is going on, it is still a focus of my attention to relive November 2010 when my life changed forever.  Actually I usually go back to July just before the referral came in, and then all the posts on the blog subsequent to that...(still working on getting that portion made into a book)....and then when I get to November and travel, and meeting Matteo and the G&R and remembering those days, always makes me cry. These days I have an even more heightened sensitivity to how precious time is and how fragile life can be. 

Matteo continues to blossom and change....yestereday we walked home from daycare holding hands...the first time to do this and will be the first of many walks back and forth to school.  Yesterday for the first time he also started peddling the tricycle at daycare. We have one at home and while we have gone on rides, Matteo has resisted even trying to turn those pedals..but yesterday when I arrived to pick him up, there he was walkign the tricycle and then peddling. His caregivers were also very happy as he was riding the tricycle which was something they usually see with the preschoolers not the senior toddlers.  I sense something has changed in Matteo in the last few weeks...we are having more conversations now...not full full sentences, but Matteo using vocabulary that I didn't even know he had. It is such a blessing to be part of so many of his firsts while also knowing that the environment where he spends his days has also contributed to his developing sense of self and curiosity. 

Anyhow the 22nd of November will be our 2nd anniversary of the G&R and we are still not sure what we'll do, (I teach that night so we'll celebrate the day after) but whatever it is, we'll be together and just celebrate that. Two days later it will be my birthday. November continues to be such a memorable month in my life and Matteo continues to be the best birthday present I ever got!!