SAFELY NESTLED IN!!!!!

So we have been experiencing some problems with our internet access, hence the delay in blogging. We have very safe and well nourishing flights to get here. We probably ate more on our International flights than we do in a weeks time and we did it all within a 17 hour span. Fly the friendly skies of International travel and you will see.

It is definately TROPICAL here. It is so stinkin' hot and muggy.

Yesterday when we arrived we were greeted by Michelle running out of the lobby. No she wasn't trying to get away from us...she was actually pleased to see us!!! We rested up alot yesterday and the most strenuous thing we did was go out to dinner here at the hotel. We stayed in a quaint little bungalow the first night. Nice place that would have been even better had the geckos stayed away from our doorway. I was not a happy camper upon our return to our room from dinner. Like screaming. crying not happy!!!! I hate critters!!!!!!

Today we rose around 8 and started our day with a delicious breakfast buffet downstairs and then prepared for our afternoon. We went to Marble Mountain today. BEAUTIFUL!!!!! The architecture of that place is unbelievable. This mountain is made of marble and has many carvings all around it. We were in caves that were undescribable. We have tons of pictures which we will try to sort through here and choose the best ones. We tried out the pool after that HOT trek!! Very refreshing. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention we went to the spa with Michelle this morning too. Norm had a massage and I had a head treatment (massage). Not the most relaxing for me but it was nice anyway. I could relax alot more here if there weren't these darn geckos everywhere. Dinner was great tonight in the hotel and we are doing this posting and then off to catch our winks for our BIG day tomorrow!!!!! we will meet Derek tomorrow afternoon at 2. We are so excited to see the kids.

Here are a few pictures for youto gander at until we get some video uploaded.

TODAY IS THE DAY.....

We are leaving Harrisburg International Airport at 3:30 this afternoon to begin our looooong journey to meet Derek and FINALLY bring him HOME!!!!!! What an exciting day.
I woke at 6am and got the girls up for school. Just finished making breakfast for them and soon they will head out the door. What a sad moment it will be!!!! I can't wait to come home to them already!
We will be leaving here at noon to head to the airport and do our check in thing and wait it out for the plane!!! My mom, Norm's mom & his sister Cheryl will be taking us to see us off. I don't know that my mom has ever been to the airport before in her life. This will be quite an experience for her.
Follow us today as we try to post as frequently as we can about our journey. I know we should be able to catch up with yo all when we get in to Hong Kong. Talk to you soon!!!!!

When it rains it POURS.......

Many of you along with us have been anxiously waiting to hear when our G&R will be set for. Well once again another DELAY!!!! The OD's son broke his leg and she needs to be in HCMC for his surgery and has asked that our G&R be set for around the 9th or 10th of September. Doesn't seem that far away bt when you are longing to hold your child and spnd every moment with them it is an eternity.
The DOJ has passed our paperwork along with Michelle & Jeffs to the PC and it is anticipated that they would be requesting the G&R date by the end of this week or beginning of next. Hence our quick arrival in Danang as we were hoping to get there and the G&R would be set for the 1st week of Sept. As Michelle has stated it's not so bad being in Vietnam (at least it doesn't look to be yet) but having to visit Derek occasionally rather than to have him with us is the heartwrenching part. I'm not sure how difficult it will be to walk out of the orphanage without him in my arms on Monday (Oh Yeah....I forgot that part, we are set to visit the orphanage and meet Derek for the first time on Monday).
Please pray that we will be able to finalize the adoption no later than the 10th so we can be heading back to the states by the week of the 21st. That's my birthday week (what a great gift I will get this year) so coming home would be great. Also it is difficult being away from our jobs for so long. I was hoping to return to the salon on Oct. 7th but that will depend on when we arrive back home and get through a little adjusting to Derek and jetlag. I will be missing the girls more than ever too. i can't wait to see them when we return and we haven't even left yet. What does that tell you???
Tomorrow will be bittersweet as I kiss the girls goodbye for school as I will miss them so much (my heart hurts when I think about it) but it will be so fantastic to board that plane knowing we are bring our son home. Home where he will have a wonderful life full of love and joy!!!!!

Please keep us in your prayers as we travel. And again THANK YOU ALL for all you have done for us!!!!!

NEW PICTURES......

Here's a few new pics from Michelle....

I don't know where to begin.....

THANK YOU TO ALL who have blessed our adoption!!!!

We want to THANK everyone who has donated time, baked goods and yard sale items for our sale this weekend (which went very well today), monetary donations, listening ears, open hearts and especially PRAYERS!!!!!

You are all so special to our lives and you will be to Derek's as well.

May God Bless You as You Have Blessed Us!!!!!!

LOOK AT OUR LITTLE MAN......

Thanks to Michelle & Jeff for the many pictures and video clips of our kiddos. Derek is so fascinating!!! I can't wait to get there next weekend and see him for myself!!!

HERE HE IS......

Gotta admit....He's a cutie isn't he!!!!!!

Be sure to check out our link to Michelle & Jeffs blog as there you will be able to see some videos and more pics!!!!

So much is happening that I haven't taken the time to sit down and jot about it.
Michelle & Jeff made it safely to Vietnam and will be going today to the orphanage to spend time with the kiddos. WOW...I can't wait to hear more and of course to see pictures and video. She has told me so much about what they have seen already. We can't wait to get there. Our associate, Hung, sounds like an awesome guy. He is working so hard for the families and it is through him that we will finally get toreach our goal....BRINGING DEREK HOME!!!!! We are anxious to meet him in person when we get there.
I have secured our flights and our hotel in Danang. Thanks to Lauren & Matt for the air miles for our domestic part of the flight. You are truly wonderful and we look forward to meeting you both!!!!
We will stay at the Sandy Beach Resort which Michelle has posted pics of on her website (link at side) and it is BEAUTIFUL!!!! It will be so relaxing....at least til Derek comes to stay!!! LOL!!!!
We have been told that Derek is the "bully" of the orpahange. He steals the toys from the other kids and makes them cry. Oh Boy do we have alot of work to accomplish. But as I'm sure you guessed he will get away with alot around here!!!!
Donations are pouring in for the Yard & Bake Sale coming up this weekend. We are so pleased with the response from so many people. We received several monetary donations as well. GOD IS SO GOOD!!!!!
Well I need to get a little rest before jumping up tomorrow morning bright and early to chat it up with Michelle and get the low down on Derek!!!!!
I'll post more tomoorow about Michelle's visit to the orphanage!!!!

STAY TUNED.......

Progressive Busyness......

This basically means that over the next 2 weeks we will be so busy our heads will surely literally spin on our shoulders.
1. We are in the midst of trying to successfully book our flight to Vietnam
2. We are trying to secure our hotel accomodations via internet for our arrival in DaNang
3. We are rearranging work schedules, calling clients/customers, securing credit cards, stashing money into our travel account, sorting change to be exchanged for paper currency, running girls to basketball & field hockey practices, back to school preparing, and preparing for next weeks big benefit yard & bake sale here. Oh there's lots more but I could bore you with it all.
4. I have charged all batteries and packed all electronic devices except the laptop.
5. I need to get prescriptions filled.
6. I NEED HELP & SANITY!!!!

So Michelle & Jeff are getting ready to fly out to Vietnam on Saturday night so she and I are trying to catch up with each other as much as possible since we will have no connection together until their very sleepy arrival. I can't wait til they get settled and head to the orphanage to see the kiddos. Bring on the pictures!!!!!
Lauren & Matt will be arriving in DaNang around the 22nd & 28th I believe so we are looking forward to finally meeting them face to face after many emails and phone conversations. May I also mention how wonderful and generous Lauren is....everytime we tried to secure flights she managed to have some kind of voucher or mileage assistance to help defray our costs. We now found out that we will fly the domestic leg of our trip with US Air and she has enough miles to gt that flight booked for us at no charge to us. SHE IS WONDERFUL!!!!!!
I wish safe travels to all of you and we'll seee you there!!!

We are scheduled tentatively to fly out of Philly at 6:15 pm on Aug 28th and arrive in Hanoi Vietnam on Aug. 30th. I won't even try to figure out the time thing. It is so confusing!!!!

Hopefully today w can secure the flights and the hotel so I can check that off our list.

There will be a Benefit Yard & Bake Sale at our house on Aug 22 & 23 for anyone interested. We will be using the proceeds to support Derek's Orphanage as funding has ceased from our agency. The children are in danger of being moved to another facility which could affect our adoption proceedings so we are going to try to help defray some of the cost to help keep it going. If you want to help out we need baked good donations, yard sale donations, or just come out and shop!!!!!

Norm, Alyssa, Jessica, & I are also doing a fundraiser with PEZ dispensers. As many of you know Jess is a new but blossoming PEZ COLLECTOR and she thought it would be cool to sell PEZ dispensers to try to raise money to SUPPORT ADOPTION!!! So we ordered some dispensers which will be available at the Yard & Bake sale and I will have them in my shop and at Norm's garage for the next few weeks. They will sell for $4.00 per dispenser and all proceeds will be used to SUPPORT ADOPTION!!!!! Later we will have some SPECIAL dispensers selling that will be custom imprinted for all of you Collectors out there. Be on the lookout. We will link our webpage for them on this site. We hope to have them available in the next few weeks. We will be shipping them out as ordered!!! Help Us Help Children Find Homes!!!!!

Okay I rambled enough and when I think of more I'll start a new post!!!!!

Keep Praying!!!! GOD IS GOOD!!!!!

FYI.....Birthday Change

Just letting everyone know that after alot of (and I mean A LOT OF) deliberation Norm & I decided to make Derek's birthday January 9th. This is the date that the orphanage found him abandoned and since there is no record of any birth day or any connection with a birth family pkus the fact that all of his documents were filed with Jan. 9th as his "date of birth" we have chosen to keep that date as his "BIRTHDAY"!!!! So today Derek is officially 19 months old!!!!

TAKING A LEAP OF FAITH!!!!!

So here's the deal. We are going to put all of our trust in God getting us that G&R the beginning of September!!!! Norm & I talked last night and have decided that we will make our travel arrangements. We are planning at this point (barring no unforseen interuptions again) that we will leave the Harrisburg airport on August 28th or 29th. Of course we will continue to PRAY that God will bless us with a G&R for the last week of August which would mean we would need to travel the week of the 18th, right of Michelle & Jeff's heels. So I have COMPLETED the suitcases and will just need to pack all of our electronics into the carry on and we are ready to fly the friendly skies. It will be long but the award at the landing will be tremendous.
We are having our conference call Monday night at 7. Our 797C that we needed to get legalized (which BTW hop onto Michelle & Jeff's blog (linked to the right) and look at the feat they conquered to get that done for us) should be arriving in Hanoi on Tuesday via FedEx and hopefully will be transferred to the hands of the DN DOJ the same week and if all goes well possibly by the end of next week or the beginning of the next we will have our G&R. Now don't get too excited and bank on that happening but have hope with us. FAITH!!!!!
We are very excited to have Michelle & Jeff get to DaNang and go to the orphanage as they will take lots of pictures and video for us of Derek. What an exciting email that will be to receive. Imagine....VIDEO!!!!! We will get to see OUR son walking, talking, playing, running, smiling...WOW I just can't wait!!!!!
We'll post more info once we complete our conference call and have some insight into the remainder of our process!!!!!
KEEP PRAYING....we truly appreciate it!!!!!

PLAYLAND HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED.....

We began tearing apart our dining room and transforming it into PLAYLAND on Sunday. Here are a few pictures. I keep stocking the shelves. Soon I can open my own toy & book store. I will slow down now though since it won't be long until Christmas and alot of people will want to get Derek things so I have to leave a few things on the store shelves. I forgot how fun it was to buy toys!!!!

I also wanted to add the latest update to this post. As I mentioned our agency has decided to close its doors due to financial ruin. Our PM/CM has been diligently volunteering his time to get our adoption finalized. We will be having a conference call along with (I think) 12 other families and our new agency (Holt) on Monday at 7:00 p.m. We are really looking forward to hearing details from them what we should expect at this point. Michelle & Jeff so kindly drove hours yesterday to have our 797C long with documents of their own and Matt & Lauren legalized at the Consulate in San Fran and then forwarded the via Fed Ex to Ray at Commonwealth. He should have received them today and was in turn going to Fed Ex them directly to Vietnam to our associate so they could be filed at the DIA. It is my understanding that they will then go to the DN DOJ and we can then get our G&R date. Please Pray that this is soon.

Michelle & Jeff will be leaving next weekend to head to DaNang to hang out and wait for the G&R. We will really miss traveling with them but the importance of their being there is much greater. After all we will meet up with them there and as I told her we expect that they will have checked out the latest and greatest spots for us to be until we get there. The best part is that they will get to go to the orphanage and meet the kiddos. I can't wait to have them love on Derek for us. We will at least now get tons of pictures and better yet....live video!!!! Michelle wants to try to teach him to say Mommy & Daddy in English before we get there. She'll have her work cut out for her. We aren't sure how often they will be permitted to spend time at the orphanage but every minute counts. Then at the end of the month Matt & Lauren will arrive on scene to add a little more lovin to the mix!!!!! THANKS GUYS!!!!!! We will get there as soon as we can. Unfortunately with our businesses we can't pack up and leave for an extended time.

So we are asking that you continue to pray hard and we have FAITH that GOD WILL GET US THERE WHEN THE TIME IS RIGHT!!!!!

GROWING MONEY ON TREES!!!!!!

I'll let you all know in time how it works.....

I brainstormed yesterday how I could begin raising money for the orphanage where Derek is staying until we can bring him home before they close their doors due to financial strains. I thought there must be something I can creatively put together that will raise a few bucks to help out.

That's when I headed to the salon basement and dug up this.....

I just put it up last night before closing and I sold $4 off of it already. Anxious to see how it goes. It is a conversation piece to see a Christmas tree set up in August so naturally people ask and then I can explain the situation to them and it becomes their choice to help or not. Clever huh!!!!

I'll keep you posted on how the selling goes.

And for my PEZ lovin friends, I am contemplating contacting PEZ to make some sort of adoption PEZ dispenser for me to sell to raise money. Maybe 100-200 of them to get started. What do you think???

We NEED Prayers, Support, Encouragement, & Suggestions.....

We received word last night and confirmed email this morning that our agency is filing bankruptcy and will close its doors. We are almost to the finish. We have gotten our I600 approval and are awaiting our G&R date. However our agency will not be handling this for us. Our PM/CM was "left go" from the agency last Thursday and is continuing to try to get our case (along with Michelle & Jeff's and Lauren & Matt's) taken over by a new agency. We are unsure of what the outcome of this will be. We may face further paperwork, financial stress, and waiting time. I will not place a price on my son however and I intend to complete this adoption. We have contacted several entities in hopes of some insight about our best approach to this matter. At this point the most important thing is to "Bring Home Our Children".

Can you help us?????

NOTICE ANY CHANGES???????

Just HAD to post the adorable gift I received today......


Thanks Alan....Lord knows I will be using these. I can't tell you how many blogs I have read in the past few days and every little thing in them makes me all sentimental and sappy eyed. Must be the "Mommy Hormones" kickin' in!!!!