a gift and a LONO!!!!!

Yesterday, a family from Ottawa left to complete their adoption in Vietnam, and they are delivering a parcel for Mai! They are so kind to do this when they have so much to carry and think about, and I am eternally grateful.  I kept it as small as possible--a compact photo album, a mini doll and some fairy princess stickers. They will give it to the representative for my agency, and somehow it will be delivered to my daughter. I have no idea if anyone has told her about me yet; in any case, this will be the first time she sees me. Given Mai's age and what she has already been through in her life, I hope and pray that the people who play a part in her transition do so with sensitivity and care.  I wrote in the front of the album "I have loved you for a thousand years, I love you for a thousand more", from the song A Thousand Years by Christina Perri. I don't expect anyone at the orphanage to read English or to translate that. I just hope one day she will read it and understand that we were always meant to be, and I will never leave.

This morning I received my letter of no objection from the Government of Ontario. My social worker sent the request on June 14 (she said it was the fastest LONO request she's ever made, because after so many years of obstacles she's not going to get in my way!). Then I was eating lunch at an outdoor concert downtown with a friend, and a dragonfly came out of nowhere (you don't see them much in concrete jungles with no water anywhere in sight) and landed right beside me! In Vietnam, the dragonfly is a popular cultural image, and on this side of the planet it's a symbol of rebirth or a renewal after a great hardship or loss, so I took this little guy as another sign on another very happy day on the journey to Mai!

Now I'm waiting for a letter of invitation from Vietnam. My agency says that I will travel in about a month. My heart is overflowing with love, my head is spinning with everything I have to do, and the countdown (of the good kind, finally) is ON!