My How Quickly Things Can Change....

This post shows you how fast International Adoption can change. Yesterday I received a very distraught phone message from our CM telling us that the Vietnam Government has decided to shut down inter-country adoptions to the US. This was rumored but yesterday as confirmed. The DIA has stated that they "intend" to finalize all in process adoptions who have a referral by July 1st. Sounds like no problem for us right.....WRONG!!!! First of all we are still waiting to receive in our mailbox the "Official Match Letter" and without that we legally do not have a referral yet. That's the first problem. Not a huge problem since we are sure we will have it within the next 10-14 days. Our next dark fear comes once the I600 is submitted to the USCIS. The USCIS is approaching every adoption as if it were a fraud and they are scrutinizing each case. We are praying that Derek (and the other 7 families with us) will have nice clean, clear, cut and dry dossiers and that there will be no little loose ends for the USCIS to nit pick about. As long as the dossiers slide through USCIS without incident we should be (well Derek should be) home free. The second problem is that as I mentioned above the DIA "intends" to finalize all adoptions in process but that statement has not yet been confirmed by our agency so it is a little scary as we hang on the hope and prayer that this will all transition much smoother than the past 21 months have. Roadbumps.....we have seen all we care to see now God!!! I have laid this adoption in God's hands about a month or so ago as I have lost all of my strength to fight the battle alone and in that time we have seen great positive thingss happen so we are going to continue to pray that He will continue good works for all of us.
We are asking that if you haven't prayed for us lately please do so and if you would please pass on a prayer request for us to one more person that you may not have told about us before. Prayer will get us there and back with Derek in our arms!!! I will remain strong in faith that God is going to work through this for all of us. Please be strong with us!!!!

My Baby Girl Turned....."16"

Wow I can't believe it has been 16 years since I held my baby girl. We have made many journeys together over these past years. As you remember I posted about the purchase of a car for her for her 16th birthday and how she thought it was "ugly". Well Saturday on her BIG day she had a complete change of heart. I got up bright and early and hung signs and balloons on the car and parked it right out front in the driveway so everyone could see it as they drove by. Lots of heads turned. We gave her the keys for er day too. She reluctantly left me take a few pictures of her with it even. We took her along with her sister and her best friend miniature golfing and out for ice cream. When we got home I left her drive the car in the driveway a little. She was all of the sudden....THRILLED to have her own set of wheels. Those of you who told me to hang in there and that she would soon like the idea of it being HERS....you were right!!!!! I've attached a few pictures. Don't mind how she looks in the close up, she has very bad allergies and her eyes were at one of their worse points.
a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPPBkP0gifIJ03tasIxt0sIh9j0Vz-ndWfaWhSTGlvjj-ws_Ub191jToOvfzs2DLzZ9pI83L7aqsCUtZCPQpiqpuDBJisRW1cUSgF2BzlkzZD47hgUARYJscH8oyz4RwRDTHxW/s1600-h/Picture+1022.jpg">/a>

Okay so Friday's update came as a surprise to us!! We have found out that the Vietnamese government is at this point saying any families who get an official referral before Sept. 1st WILL get to finalize their adoption. WOOHOO...that counts us IN!!!!! We had to fill out a Commitment Letter to accept Derek's referral on Friday and we Fed Ex'd that to Arizona to our agency to arrive Monday morning. We are hping that will get sent over right away so we can get our "Official Match Letter" from the DIA. The associate should be meeting with the DIA early in the week to pass on the Age letter and then he DIA can send us the match letter as soon as they get them. Continue to pray that the DIA will recieve the age letter Monday or Tuesday at the latest and that they will issue the match letter immediately since May 1st is a holiday in Vietnam and as we all know by now the country shuts down government operations for a few days for all their holidays. Therefore if they send the match letter at the beginning of the week it should get to us while they are clebrating their holiday and then when they ge back in the swing of things we should be lucky enough for them to submit our I600. WOOHOO!!!! We are finally seeing positive forward action!!!
Keep praying!!!!!

ROLLIN..ROLLIN..Rollin...Keep Those Updates Rollin!!!!

We got word today that our Age Ammended Letter was delivered to the DIA TODAY!!! WOOHOO!!!! So we now wait to get "The Matched Letter" in the mail. Don't anyone tell out mail lady but I will be secretly stalking her every mov for at least the next week. And each day she neglects to deliver the letter the more stalking I will do. I will be peering around corners and curtains every day. Once we receive that letter we will also get Derek's dossier documents expalining his abandonment. This is very crucial to us as we are veru curious of his situation. Right on the heels of that will be the submission of "The I600" for Derek's visa (I know he is a little young but hey...a guy's gotta have some credit) to come to his FOREVER HOME!!!!
Keep praying because as you can see it is sure working for us!!!! Thanks to all!!!!

Great News.....
We got an email from our CM today that our Age Ammended Letter that was successfully notarized, certified, and apostilled (thanks to a group effort and a well syncronized plan) was sent to the DIA TODAY!!!!! WOOHOO!!! This means we wait now (hopefully not long) for the DIA to issue us through the mail the match letter and for our agency to forward to us Derek's dossier documents and our I600 will be submitted for the FINAL wait!!!! Soon Derek Soon!!!!!!

Your continued prayers are certainly working and we are truly thankful to each of you for them. Most of all we are thankful to God for the work He is doing!!!!

Update to previous post......

Another couple whom we will "hopefully" be traveling to VN with will be helping out with the Consulate end of the paperwork. Matt will be in San Fran for business this week and we found out that he can walk in with the paperwork and have it apostilled and pick it back up later that day!! WOOHOO this saves about a week or two or more of paperchasing through Fed Ex!!!! THANKS MATT!!!!! We owe you big time....maybe a good old Vietnamese meal on our trip will pay you back for your kindness!!! Plus he is taking Michelle & Jeff's along too!!! WOOHOO all 3 of us will stay on the same track until....out stupid home study update drags us behind. Please pray that this will move in a timely manner so we don't get separated from "the crew". We also got a call from our CM that the DIA has requested to have a copy of the age amended letter sent to them ASAP so they can continue working on our cases knowing that the original authenticated form will be sent to them shortly. This is tremendously good news as this way there is a chance we will get this finalized and travel before our HS even expires. Of course we still have to do it. We are hoping to get the matched letter this week and that our I600 will be submitted by next week. Seems the USCIS is moving on approvals at this time so we hope this will be working for us too!!!
Keep praying it's working!!!!!

HURDLE ALERT......

One more hurdle to jump but it is a low hurdle so I think we will just be able to step over this one!
The DIA has requested us to send a letter stating that we amend our original request of age for our adoption. We initially requested as young as possible up to 12 months. Since Derek is now 16 months we have to send an amended statement stating the age of 24 months. We also have to have it notarized, certified, and authenticated. Soooooo.....we are having it notarized over the weekend and I am driving to the SOS office on Monday morning and then Overnight Fed Ex'ing it out Monday afternoon to San Fran to the Consulate for authentication. Small hurdle but none the less yes it is another one to jump. Seriously I am running out of steam.

Also we have to have our child abuse and state police clearances updated which we completed and mailed on Monday so hopefully that will be a quick turn around time and then on May 2nd our SW will return to upate our home study. Man oh man I never imagined this stuff would expire before we got him home. Keep praying for smooth transition through this paper chase for us!!!!!

A Packing We Will Begin.....Again!!!!

I have decided that since it will only be a short time until our I600 is submitted that I will repack (for the 4th time) our bags for Vietnam. I figure if I keep trying sooner or later we will get there. We went over the weekend to do a little shopping with the girls and ended up at Carters buying for Derek too. It is an irresitable addiction of mine!!! There's probably some kind of help group out there for such addictions b ut please don't contact me about it since I kinda like this one!! Anyway we got these outfits to take along for Derek. Hopefully they all fit, it's hard trying to judge sizing for a little guy you haven't met yet. We have an array of sizes accumulated though since my addiction started. Fortunately our new nephew Levi came along and was born the same month as Derek one year later. WOW will he have some awesome hand me downs. Check out these cute clothes...


Well I have to go dig out the suitcases and get started. Hopeully I don't miss anything!!!!

Just a little more progress.....

We got a very short but very sweet update today. Derek's dossier has been forarded to the DIA this week. We were expecting that to happen last week but the DOJ was asking for a few more documents and they expected to send it this week. So that is now done. The next step is waiting for the DIA to send us our "Official Match" Letter and then our I600 will be submitted and we will be able to read some of the details about Derek's abandonment. We aren't expecting there to be many details but it will be helpful and interesting to read what we can about it. Hopefully this coming week we will get that letter and our I600 will get submitted. Our oal is to see the I600 submitted by the end of April. Once that step is completed it could be anywhere from 1 day to 120 days to be approved by the USCIS and then we will get our G&R date and FINALLY bring our baby HOME!!!!!

Keep praying....it truly IS working!!!!! GOD IS SO GOOD!!!!!

No really earth-shattering news on the adoption front. Our dossiers are supposed to go to the DIA this week (heard that last week too) and then we will get out "official matched to orphan letter" in the mail and then Derek's dossier papers will come to us and we will get to read his abandonment report plus many other things about him. We are really looking forward to receiving them. Then our I600 and dossiers will be submitted to the USCIS and we await their approval. After that we will be contacted by our agency with our G&R date. It's FINALLY getting closer!!! Still a few hurdles to jump but looking good in any case.

As for our weekend away....
IT WAS "FAN-TAB-U-LOUS!!!!!!
The wedding was beautiful. Kristin looked stunning in her gown!!! All went off without any glitches. The hair went perfect and all heads turned out beautiful (just tootin my own horn for a minute)!!!! I believe everyone was happy!!! I got a tension headache on Thursday night and carried it with me the entire weekend, as a matter of fact I still have it!!! No, it's not Norm....just a little tension.LOL!!! Anyway back to the wedding. After the ceremony the Bride & Groom rode off in a horse drawn carriage. The carriage returned to give rides to guests. It was beautiful. The horse looked exhausted though so we chose to walk. Hmmm, Norm was mad at me for that one!! We got to the reception....WOW!!!! talk about phenomenal. It was stunning. So perfect. I did however get sick from my headache and have to go to the room to try to get a little quiet and some shut eye. I returned to enjoy the last 1/2 hour though. The next morning we rose and had brunch with Kristin & Charlie and many others. That was amazing in itself. The food was incredible. I wish I had taken pictures. I forgot the camera and truthfully I don't know when I'd have had time to take pictures anyway. We just had the time of our life there. It was great to spend time with Barb & Alan (All Time Bestest Friend Forever). Can't wait til Keith's wedding now so we can do it again. :)

I have been busy gearing up for this weekend. Norm & I have a wonderful couple we have been friends with for several years and we don't get to spend much time with. This weekend their daughter is getting married. WOOHOO Kristin!!!! I get the honors of being the on site hair designer. I will rise early Saturday morning and begin creating 8 beautiful heads of hair. It would've been 9 but Alan pulled what little he had left out already therefore not allowing for any creativity for him. LOL!!!(Just had to get you Alan!) so anyway this is going to be a phenomonal wedding and reception and we are looking forward to it. We will get to spend time with several couples that we love hanging out with but never find time to anymore. The reception is formal so I have a full length gown and VERY high heels. I can't wait to dress up, dance, and well....have a few drinks (open bar, alllll night long). WOW!!! This will be a very much needed weekend away for us. We are going to head out Friday and be back sometime Sunday later in the day. We are sure to have a fantastic time together with everyone. So my weekend is chock full but in a FUN way!!!

We are also hoping to have some good progressive news come in on Friday so that we can celebrate that as well over the weekend. We should soon be able to submit our I600 and after receiving 5 emails of approvals this morning it is giving me a good sense of completion coming our way in the next few months!!!
Keep praying....it is working!!!!

YAAAHOOOO!!!!!

Say a prayer in the "correct" manner and GOD will respond.....

Here is today's update chock full of great news....

As reported by our associate in Vietnam, the review of the 5 child dossiers by the DN DOJ was completed, there was one more minor mistake that the officials at DN DOJ found on the dossiers, but was corrected by orphanage staff the very next day. PC endorsement and police endorsement also accomplished. The DN DOJ will be sending the child dossiers out to the DIA next week. The next thing to happen would be that the DIA will officially introduce or refer the children to matched families. The CAI associate in Hanoi will be getting those official referral information from the DIA. We are not expecting this step to take very long, mostly likely within two weeks. As the DIA is busy dealing with the DoS and USCIS, we hope that this simple step will not be affected. Translation of child dossier documents are still in the work, and expected to be completed shortly.

Therefore, case managers will be preparing families with the I-600 petition form next week, and will give families more details on supporting documents.
Thank you and we hope all families will have a Happy Easter weekend!

So we already Fed Ex'd our I600 to our CM on Wednesday and she should have it Monday morning. Things are moving in a positive pleasant direction!!!!

GOD IS SOOOOOO GOOD!!!!!!

Thanks for your continued prayers....it is working!!!!!!

UPDATE DAY......
Today's update was VERY encouraging and positive. We are finally making forward leaps!!! There are still concerns however we are moving in a good direction. Here's what came across "the wire" today...

The 5 child dossiers have been submitted to the DN DOJ already on Thursday afternoon! The DOJ asked the orphanage for a couple more "administrative documents" which are not related to the children, and have accepted the dossiers already. This means they will review the details of each documents and compare with the parent dossier for the matching process. No words on how long it will take, but the associate thinks that approval should come within two weeks if no issues found, and no need to wait for 1 month.

We want to prepare families with the I-600 form first, although it still take a few weeks that we can file the petition with the USCIS in HCMC.
We will provide families copies of completed form and translated child dossier documents when ready to be send to USCIS.

About update pictures, the orphanage staff broke the camera that we provided to them. We are buying them a new one. Hopefully will be sending to families next week or so.

So we filled out the trial I600 today nd will wait for word about filling out the actual real one!!!!

GETTING CLOSER!!!!!

Keep praying....it is definately working!
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I am not going to try to make light of the situation we are all facing at this time but I want to express something to all of you that is helping me along right now. We started attending a new church a few weeks back. I am at peace there. We have looked for quite a while to find one we both could get the full benefit of The Word from. Over the past 3 weeks we have been studying the 23rd Psalm. I have been able to use this to make the adoption easier for me. I truly BELIEVE that Our Lord "The Shepard" will bring His sheep home to their folds. He is GOOD and He will provide for us all. I have learned that I need to pray for His will to be done and focus of asking Him for safety and health along with conviction upon the hearts of the officials there to review, expedite, and approve all pending issues in adoption world. There are so many questions we all have and so much fear and doubt which is normal and human. I am not saying that I stopped having all of that but I have handed it over to a stronger and higher power than what I have. I BELIEVE that God will bring goodness to us all. It may come slower than we want it to but I BELIEVE it will come.
Please continue to pray with us!!!!

I am writing this post a day late. However it has been really hard to make it through the last few days. It was ONE year ago yesterday (March 5th) that we received our referral news about Derek. It was ONE year ago TODAY that we received Derek's picture. Seems somedays like an eternity. It has been quite a year since that picture came to us. We have jumped and re-jumped every hurdle you could face in this process. Our journey isn't over yet and we are still hanging on the edge of uncertainty but after the good news of the final signature FINALLY coming through we have a little more hope. Derek's dossier is supposed to go to the DN DOJ on Monday for review and from there to the DIA. Hopefully we will get our letter shortly after that and begin our I600 process. Today I received an email from a family that only had to wait "9 DAYS" for their USCIS approval. WOW...I hope God is that good to us too. The average waits have been 60 -75 days lately so we aren't anticipating any great strides for a few months. We hope to have him home for summer while the girls are on their summer vacation from school and we can all get comfy with one another. Besides we have that really cool Mustang in the basement that he should be able to cruise around in this summer....of course there will be plenty of pictures of that to come. So as we begin facing the 2nd year of waiting for Derek's arrival we will still remain hopeful that he will soon be home to love!!!!

HIP HIP HOORAY!!!!!
Derek's dossier got that final signature yesterday!!!! PPPHHHEEEWWW!!!! Now we can breathe a little easier on that. Next step....DaNang DOJ approval...DIA approval...send our I600....
Then the wait becomes looooong again as we have to await USCIS approval. It is looking like at this point the approval process which originally was supposed to take 30-60 days is not being met. It seems USCIS is backlogged and the approvals are taking well over 60 days...some have gone as far as 90 days waiting for approval. We are going to continue to pray tha God will continue watching over th process and that His will is going to be done.

Here is an updated estimated timeline we received from our agency for Derek's adoption:

Estimated timelines for the remaining process:
Mid March - DOJ Approval of child dossiers - send parent dossiers and child dossiers to local police and to DN PC for endorsement. (Hopefully takes about 2, or 3 weeks). DOJ provides copies of approved child dossiers to DN associate. DN associate gets document translated.

End of March or early April - DOJ sends matched and fully endorsed parent dossiers and child dossiers back to the DIA in Hanoi for final approval. DN associate sends translated document to adoptive parents in the U.S. for filing I-600 petitions.

Early April - DN Associates file I-600s with USCIS in HCMC for adoptive families.

End of April - DIA gives final approval, notifies DOJ and DOJ waits for I-600 approval in order to arrange G&R

G & R - totally depends on the timing of I-600 approval.
if 45 days, mid May, then G & R end of May or early June
if 60 days, early June, then G & R mid or late June
if 90 days, early July, then G & R mid or late July.
If USCIS decides to investigate, it would take even longer.




Let's hope and pray that this will be it. It should have been this way exactly 1 year ago. HMMMMM!!!!!

TEENAGERS....Just what does make them TICK??????

Okay so this a little off the adoption topic but yesterday I had a bad day. My oldest daughter, Alyssa, is turning 16 in April so I thought I wanted to be the "Good Mom" and buy her a car. Well with Norm owning his garage and all we found a car that needs some engine attention (easily done by Norm) and a few paint touch ups (easily done by our tenant) and a little interior cleaning (easily done by the "good mom") and it will be on the road. Well Norm went and picked up thecar on Monday night and I was so excited about getting it. It is a 1997 black Chevy Cavalier 2 door sporty little thing. She will look so cute in it. Here's the deal..... I took her to show it to her yesterday when she got home from school (because I just can't keep a surprise and certainly couldn't keep it a secret for 2 months) and she took one look at it and wrinkled up her nose and rolled her eyes and said it is ugly. My mouth dropped and my eyes swelled with tears and anger raged all at one time. As if my day wasn't emotional enough and now she just triggered every one of them again. So now I have this cute little car with my money invested in it and she doesn't even like it. TEENAGERS!!!!! AAARRRGGGHHH!!!!! So now I need to decide do I just go ahead and clean it up, have Norm fix it up, put in some cute seat covers, a nifty air freshner, and a tank of gas and top it with a bow for her birthday anyway and hope that on that day she is having a not so cranky day and decides she loves it or do I just clean it up have Norm fix it up and turn around and sell it to make some extra adoption money and let her find her own darn car when she turns 16. Any suggestions????

We actually got a bit of good news today. After a little pressure from me onto our CM for some clearer pictures I found out that once the child dossier is complete it will not have to do it's usual 30 days to the P.C. & 30 days to the local police because they have been so closely involved in the case that it will just be a formality for them to sign the adoption paperwork. I am waiting for word back when they expect that we can fill out our I600. The DOJ & PC still aren't totally back in their offices from the Tet holiday so it has things slowed up still. BUMMER!!! However once the dossier is done and the DOJ approves it then it will get translated and Commonwealth will send it along with our I600 off to the USCIS in HCMC and we wait for our approval and travel date. So once the I600 is filed hopefully 30-60 days later we will be packing our bags. This is very encouraging to me as it has been a bad day for my emotions today. We will hopefully get a full update the end of the week with clearer images of the steps to come. I have asked again for an outline of what steps need to be taken yet before we get our G&R date so hopefully they will come through with a rough plan for us to ponder over. But all in all it is sounding better and I am holding my breath that we can have those babies in our arms for Mother's Day!!!!

On March 4th 2007 our telephone rang and when I answered I heard the voice of our CM. I knew it was going to be something exciting. It was that day that we made the decision to accept the referral of "our son" Derek. It will be 1 year ago in 2 weeks that we laid our eyes and hearts upon Derek. It has been quite a year thus far. So much alot has (and hasn't) happened in our adoption process. We now await th elusive "signature" and the appoval of the DOJ and the USCIS to see if we can finally bring our little boy home. He has grown so much in this past year. We have missed so much of his life but yet we know we have so much of his life to share with him yet. We long to hold his tiny hand and see his eyes sparkle as he smiles at us. We long to hear him call us "Mommy & Daddy". We still have alot of red tape to break through on this and we ask that you continue to pray for us as the updates bring us closer to G&R day. We anticipate an upate hopefully today so watch here for breaking news. Our "No Update" note we got on Friday told us that we would get "new information" early this week. We'll see what they come through with for us!!!

Another crappy Friday....
NO UPDATE!!!! Once again we received the elusive "No DaNang Update" email today and once again they say we will get early next week but for our agency that never seems to come. We are just slightly peeved today over this. We didn't get an update last week either because of Tet. I just hope when they finally give us one that it is telling us they obtained "The Signature" and that Derek's dossier is complete and on it's way to translation. We NEED the next few weeks to go by quickly as this is getting to be depressing again. Derek NEEDS to come home!!!! Please continue to pray!!!!

WHAT TO MY WONDERING EYES DID APPEAR....

I opened my email this afternoon for the bazillionth time in hopes of a glimmer of news and "SURPRISE, SURPRISE" there was a new picture of Derek and a measurement update. He is now 26 pounds and 33 inches. To the best of our knowledge we have been told he is around 14 months old. I'm not sure how that holds out with the medical charts but none the less he is growing and looks healthy. He is so dang cute too!!! If you'd like us to pass on his picture to you leave us a comment with your email address at the end of this and we'll send it out to you!!!
Thanks for praying!!!

The excitement and anticipation builds as the updates roll in each week. I spoke with our CM yesterday and she reminded me to stay cautiously excited. We are expecting to be working on our I600 in the next 2 weeks and returning that to be sent to the VN officials at the end of the month. With Derek's dossier approaching completion (FINALLY) at the end of the month we are looking at the fact that it still needs a few more investigations and approvals before we get the ultimate....G&R date and travel word. The dossier will have to be reviewed by the Peoples Committee and the Local Police after the final translation. Each entity is legally allowed 30 days for their review. Then it will travel to the DIA for approval and off to the DOJ for our G&R date to be issued. In amongst all of that going on the USCIS will be reviewing it also to give us the approval to get a visa for Derek. So as you can see it is still a process however we are much further along than we were 6 months ago. We are still noy out of the woods on appovals and so forth but we have great faith that all will go smoothly and we are praying that the entities involved in reviews yet will not take their full alloted time. Since all of the entities are so involved over the past 6 months we think there may be a possibility that they will roll the dossier along quicker. Hopeful thinking!!!!
Today Derek is 14 months old. WOW!!! We will have so much to learn about him. I am so curious about his personality. I have so many questions that I wish we could get answered. I guess we'll figure it out when he's in our arms.
Many people ask us each day how we have remained strong through this and whether our agency is being honest and trustworthy. I have seen such a remarkable turn around in our agency in the past 3 months that I now feel that they are really trying to acheive the best final result for our adoption. No they aren't taking our money since we don't have to pay anymore that the initial fees. It hasn't been a case of since it is taking so long we have to send more money. They are supplying for our children with what we have invested thus far. It really isn't about the money...it's about the love we hold in our hearts for Derek. We aren't buying a child...we are loving a child!!!! I know without the support of Norm, Diane, Michelle, and many friends and family I couldn't have forged forward as we have. I was ready to turn my cheek long ago and give up but others have made me see that I have to fight on, I have to give it 100%. Derek is so loved in many ways and has no clue. When he FINALLY arrives he will be showered with the love that a child needs.
So we are asking that you continue to pray for our process and we will continue to keep you informed of any progress or changes. There will be a quiet spell over the next few weeks since that is the time for TET Celebration in Vietnam. This is their holiday time. We will be doing some behind the scenes work such as that I600 and so on but the updates won't produce much progress as the celebration goes on in Vietnam. And believe me when this is all done and Derek is home with us we will be having a big celebration of our own!!!!

Here you have it....

This is the update we received today. Still moving at a snails pace but things are looking up!!!
Dear families:

In the past two or three weeks, there hasn't been much progress in overcoming the last barrier to fixing the 5 child dossiers of the kids at the Lien Chieu orphanage. The population committee ex-director has been refusing to sign the five corrected “acceptance into orphanage” letters as ordered by the PC. As of this week, the PC has issued the final order to him and threatened him with severe disciplinary actions, according to what we were told. He lost his directorship last time he refused to sign the original documents, we are not sure what the severe consequences will be for him this time, should he still chooses to not cooperate.

As the Tet holidays are coming up, we don't expect some immediate results to be seen. The PC has talked about alternative plans, but we do not expect any of those to be implemented until at least a couple of weeks after the Tet. We are sure adoptive parents understand and are well aware that things work differently in Vietnam, and we want to assure you that we are diligently trying everything in our power. As a matter of fact, we have enlisted the help of the local DOJ, and were being advised that there are other ways to validate the documents without the signatures of the ex-director. While we are still lacking the details of the alternative plans, we were told that the dossiers will be ready by the end of February. We are very thankful to the DN officials who have been offering advice and assistance in dealing with this tough task. We are also very grateful to have the LC orphanage director's full cooperation in the last three months. As we had explained to parents in the beginning after discovering the child dossiers' errors, it would take some months for the dossiers to be all corrected. The progress came slowly, but also steadily as we expected so far. We incline to believe in the officials and we will be having the final results by the end of February.

Once all documents are approved by the local DOJ, they will release to CAI full sets of copies of the child dossiers. Therefore, in mid February, we will ask families to prepare the I-600 Petition Form, which are to be sent to Da Nang before the end of February. As soon as the child dossier documents are released by the local DOJ, we will have those translated in the shortest time possible and provide parents with copies of all the documents, and will send the petitions on behalf of families, to the USCIS in Ho Chi Minh City.

As a side note, some of you had sent care packages to the orphanage in Lien Chieu. We want to re-emphasize to you that it is not necessary indeed. CAI has committed to cover all the needs of all the children in the orphanage, including the ones matched with families, and the newly admitted ones, adoptable or not. That is our commitment to the Vietnamese government and Vietnamese orphaned children. Please also understand that supplies and goods in Vietnam are much cheaper than in the States. Probably only one-fifth of what you pay for here. Therefore, if you really want to have some more brand new clothings etc. for your matched child, send a check to CAI and we will have the money sent to VN. Just tell us what kind of supplies you wish to get for your child, and the associate there will do the shopping for you and provide you with receipts and a picture of the supplies purchased.

Finally, the orphanage director has been having much trouble with the camera that we provided to her for taking update pictures, and with emailing file attachments, hence the delay with providing you updated pictures and measurements. The DN associate will be going to the orphanage with his own digital camera and retrieve the measurement files shortly after the Tet holiday. He is now back in Hue, his hometown for Tet and to investigate on starting a new project there. As always, please be patient and thank you!

Sincerely,
CAI staff

Friday was UPDATE day again and here's what we found out....

This is a very long update and some of it will not make a lot of sense to some of you reading it. It sums itself up for our adoption of Derek as 1. We still need that dreaded signature that the official is reluctant to give and 2. The bilateral agreement that is coming up for negotiation in March would need to be signed so that we are sure that the adoption will follow through. The agreement doesn't actually expire until Sept.1, 2008 so hopefully we will finalize and have Derek home long before that happens. We are just going to have to keep praying and hold on tighter than ever to the hope of him coming home to his family. Please keep praying with us.

Dear Vietnam Program Families:

Because of the continued delay in getting referrals in Vietnam, it is imperative that you be informed of the conditions which are affecting the CAI referral process in Vietnam. Beginning with a new program in Vietnam in 2007, authorized by the Department of International Adoptions in Hanoi, CAI embarked on a campaign to provide prospective parents with the necessary pathway to creating the adoption of a Vietnamese child. Using prior experience and in-country staff of CAI, guidelines in place with the new laws in Vietnam, and the promises of the regions’ People’s Committee, this program was supposed to be a quick and successful pathway to our goals.

As many of you are aware, these expectations were not met. While the entire year slipped away and continuous problems plagued this program, numerous promises not kept, and a variety of obstacles were placed in the way of completing the adoption process, we were forced to pass on to you the information provided us by those people in charge. In many cases our information was inaccurate or overly optimistic.

Along with this and recognizing the failings of the program, we asked one of our board members and a cofounder of the agency to go to Vietnam in August of last year in an effort to correct these problems and to make the necessary changes in the existing program to secure the children already there. In addition, two more orphanages in a neighboring region were added to the program to enable us to get more referrals to our waiting parents. It has taken up to now to make the progress we had hoped for last year and this is where we stand now, as reported by our in-country team.

The children placed in our first project Lien Chieu orphanage (5) were improperly documented by the government employees who had been put in charge. Those of you involved in this process have been exceptionally patient and we thank you for that. Working with the orphanage director and the newly appointed officer in charge of our project, we have now corrected these dossiers making them acceptable for processing by the DIA in Hanoi. These documents must have a signature of an official who originally delayed this process last year. He is proving reluctant to provide his signature. We expect this to be taken care of momentarily and these dossiers will be sent to DIA for processing for the parents involved. The dates for all of these still have to be confirmed with the DOJ in Da Nang but it appears we are going to see quick resolution to the existing problem.

Also at present in the orphanage is one new born baby girl who will be available for international adoption in another 30 days if no domestic parents are available and there are three more children in process right now who will be also available over the next 30 to 60 days.

Our project in Tam Ky (Quang Nam) has one referral in process and all the documentation for her has been sent to DIA in Hanoi. Over the next ten days to two weeks, we should have the official assignment to the parents who identified her from DIA and we expect a travel date for the parents in early March.

There are two other children in this orphanage at present that we are going to refer to parents in our waiting queue. The dossiers for one of these children shall be processed this coming week through the Department of Justice and submitted to DIA. This is a thirty day process but we are trusting that we can shorten that with the proper submissions to DOJ. The other child still has some documentation issues that need to be resolved and most likely we can get that accomplished in a couple of weeks.

We have another project in Hoi An that has yet to provide us with any referrals. Discussions with the orphanage director there have given us new hope that referrals will be coming within the next thirty to ninety days.

We have in our employ two new associates in Vietnam who have been instrumental in providing us with new opportunities in projects already existing and new locations in the country. In one through four above the work done by one of our associates is evident. He has also provided us with a new location, not yet announced that will be on line in 30 days or less. We were told that there are waiting children with this project who need forever homes.

Our other associate is working in the Northern provinces and has given us two new projects in areas about one hour outside of Hanoi. We have been given verbal approval to work there and waiting for permission from the local People’s Committee’s which we expect in the next thirty days or so. These two orphanages have been working with European agencies and they were successful in placing over 70 children with those agencies in 2007. We are taking the place of those foreign agencies. We expect a similar number of referrals from these sources in 2008, although we cannot guarantee it.

In our working with items 1 through 6 above, and given our success in achieving our objectives with them, our overall goal for 2008 is to provide as many as 70 referrals which should take care of all of our waiting parents. However, this all is subject to the information following.

The referral process in Vietnam is difficult at best. There are a handful of agencies that have been very successful in the areas they chose to work in. However as many of you are aware from internet chat rooms there are many more agencies that have been experiencing extreme difficulties with providing new referrals to their waiting parents. There are 42 US agencies licensed in Vietnam. Of those, 12 have not completed any adoptions since licensing; others have been successful in creating one to three adoptions but have gone months without a referral. In addition, there are 20 families who dossiers have been stopped in process by the CIS or State Department because of improper or fraudulent presentations. Many of those parents are still in Hanoi awaiting resolutions to these problems which may never be forthcoming. Listening to the problems encountered by the CIS and State Department concerning field inspections of referral sources, it is very apparent that there is reason for extreme caution in what, where, and how agencies are to receive their referrals.

We were advised on Thursday, January 24th, in a meeting in Hanoi with the State Department and the USCIS, that they are going to post a warning to parents regarding the signing of a continuing agreement with Vietnam due in March. From the standpoint of the State Department, the Vietnamese government has failed to provide the necessary transparency in the adoption process agreed upon in the original bilateral agreement. In addition, there have been two provinces being shut down for improper practices and agencies working there have had their licenses suspended or revoked. In the event a new agreement is not forthcoming, your waiting dossier may not be able to be completed prior to the expiration date of this current bilateral agreement at the end of August. For families who are still working on completing their dossiers, the State Department will most likely be advising them to discontinue their effort on getting the dossiers submitted because of the risk of time running out. The State Department also speculates that there may be a possibility that the Vietnamese Government will require that all dossiers in queue, but without an assigned referral, be returned to the parents at a later date.

A NOTE OF CAUTION HERE: The US State Department and the CIS have asked that we notify all of our parents, PLEASE DO NOT CONTACT THE OFFICES OF THE STATE DEPARTMENT OR THE CIS DIRECTLY. They do not have the staff or the time to deal with your inquiries or comments. Whatever your questions or concerns are, they can be sent on line to the State Department’s web site. Please respect their wishes..

If families want to tell the State Department that the U.S. should continue to work with Vietnamese authorities and allow orphaned Vietnamese children to be adopted by U.S. families, please email your concerns to the State Department at AskCI@state.gov. Another option is to talk to your Senator or House Representatives and ask them to forward you opinion to the State Department.

From the agencies’ side, as a result of the Vietnam Summit hosted by JCICS in late November, the “Vietnam Standards of Practice” (VSP) will have a final draft available by the end of this week. Like CAI, the majority of agencies working in Vietnam are members of JCICS and member agencies will be signing the final draft to endorse the set standards. The standards will be presented to both the Vietnamese Government and the State Department. JCICS hopes that it will help coordinate the ways agencies work in Vietnam, and to improve the transparency of the adoption process in Vietnam so that procedures will be in compliance with the conditions set forth by the Bilateral Agreement. At this point, agencies are still hoping that the VSP will act as catalyst for the renewal of the bilateral agreement. JCICS will also be attending a conference call with officials of the State Department and USCIS. As we hear any further information, we will keep families posted.

It appears that the intent of the US side is to continue to do adoptions in Vietnam as long as the Vietnamese Government is going to be more transparent with the adoption process and in compliance with the bilateral agreement. It is also the hope of the DIA, per several discussions between CAI and the director there, that the US and VN government will resolve these differences and continue to provide adoptions to waiting US families. However, it is another 30-60 days when that deadline will occur and obviously nobody can assure a perfect outcome by then. In the event the agreement is not renewed and the VN program is going to be closed by September, families will still have the option of changing program. The US processed just slightly over 800 adoptions from Vietnam last year. There are over 2300 dossiers logged in with the DIA office in Hanoi, which also means more than 1500 dossiers are still in the waiting status. All of these issues will affect your ability to receive a referral this year.

In an effort to aid you in your choices, the agency will provide you with information regarding alternative programs at any time you wish to make a change. You may wish to make that decision now or you may choose to wait and see if the final issues are resolved between the two governments. However, that being said, with a continuing Vietnam program, we are hoping that all waiting families will receive a referral within the next twelve months or so if the new projects will proceed as planned.

As usual, we are open to your questions and suggestions. In these difficult times, in order to relate most current information to families, we will be providing program updates every other week, rather than on a monthly basis. Please be assured that CAI as your agency will do whatever we can to protect the best interests of waiting families as well as those of orphaned children in Vietnam. Please contact your case manager if you would like to discuss switching programs.


Sincerely,

CAI staff

FRIDAY.....

A day of things to come---

1. Norm's 37th Birthday. Be sure to check out the pictures of him with his birthday cake. We were out shopping and wanted to pick up his cake but he is a chocolate fanatic and well....this is the only cake we could find in chocolate!! Cute huh!!!!
2. Hopefully an adoption update. After skipping last week I have myself set up for a good update this Friday. I hope we won't be disappointed!!!

ANOTHER UPDATE DAY......

Woohoo it's UPDATE FRIDAY....and it is a GOOD one!!! The news below is so encouraging to us. It has been a long road to get this far and I can feel the final outcome on the horizon. Only a little more work and a lot more patience and we should be headed to Vietnam to bring Derek HOME!!!!

Here's the update....


1) The move to the new orphanage location was completed on January 2nd. The new location is quieter and more convenient, and most importantly, provide more spaces for increasing the capacity of the orphanage. There is a relinquished baby girl accepted into the orphanage already since moving into new location, but will require another 6 weeks of waiting to become eligible as referral to families. The new location is still in the same district, hence the move will not affect the documents already in process. Commonwealth is fully supporting the orphanage financially, and the local government is committed to referring more orphaned children to be accepted into the orphanage.

2) The DOJ has formally asked the orphanage director to submit the child dossiers. The orphanage director has been cooperative in the past two months, and has been working diligently on fixing the child dossiers. As mentioned in last update, it was reported that all child dossiers has been corrected, and simply owing the signature of the former population committee director. There seemed to be another round of reluctance from this man to rectify the documents. PC and DOLISA officials are doing their best to convince the man to backdate the documents. Their plan B is to have the new population committee director to sign those documents, to be used alongside with an explanation letter signed by senior PC officials.

3) CAI also intends to consult the USCIS in Ho Chi Minh City on the child dossier documents, because of the special circumstances of the errors made by the orphanage director previously. Copies of child dossier documents would be available to adoptive parents once approved by DOJ in DN and given the green light by the USCIS. The documents will be needed for filing the I-600 petition with the USCIS in HCMC. Although much progress is made, it is still early to come up with an estimated timeframe for these steps to be completed. We should know better in the next month.

OUR TRIP TO L.A. TO VISIT WITH MICHELLE & JEFF....

I thought I better post some pictures from our magnificent trip. We had a wonderful time and the weather was perfect. Aside from the horrific travel delays and cancellations our trip was nothing short of perfect. It was hard to pick out pictures to post here since they are all great and each one has a meaning. This will definately be a trip we remember forever. On the last day Michelle asked Norm & I what our favorite part of the trip was and I had to study the question but looking back I would have to say it was the time spent with Michelle & Jeff that meant the most to us. Not to mention they are fantastic tour guides!!!!

Christmas was a bittersweet day for us. We had a wonderful time celebrating with family and friends but we longed to have our sweet son home with us to enjoy. Though it was grand to get such good news about the progress of the paperwork right before Christmas it still didn't make up for the void in our home on Christmas Day. We went to Norm's parents and enjoyed lunch and exchanging gifts for the day. We had out Christmas celebration at our house in Christmas night. The girls loved all of their gifts....especially their "Wii". That is a long story in itself how I finally managed to get my hands onto one of those. They have been really enjoying it though. And for the first time in years they actually loved all of the clothes I bought them. WOOHOO...no returns! We celebrated Christmas with my mom and brother and nephews on Wednesday. Another night full of great gifts, food, and fun times. My dad has been gone for 2 years now and it is still so hard to face the holidays without him. Our first stop on Christmas was at the cemetary to place a holiday arrangement on his grave and to wish him a Merry Christmas. I miss him so greatly. I have attached a few pictures of the girls on Christmas. Look at the excitement on their faces....

GREAT CHRISTMAS NEWS HAS ARRIVED!!!!!

Today we received our update on Derek's adoption. Things are moving in a VERY positive direction. We found out the corrections to his dossier should be completed in a few weeks. This could mean that once that is finished and the USCIS approves the completed dossier as actually complete and up to their required standards that it would have 2 more entities to go through then ,which legally they are each allowed 30 days to complete their investigations, and then it goes back to the DIA for a G&R date to be issued. WOOHOO!!! We are getting so much closer! If all goes smoothly and quickly it could be a few SHORT months and Derek will FINALLY come HOME!!!! Our CM said realistically it may be by May or June but if the process expedites it could be sooner. We have to remain optimistic yet cautious at the same time. So continue to watch for more good things to happen in the next few weeks. We do have to remember that in February we will have to deal with the country shutdown for TET again. That will delay things for a short time but hopefully it will pick up and take off again after that. We were told previously that our case will take precidence over the newer ones so that we can complete the adoption we have been waiting and longing for. So it sounds like we will be having a summer vacation and bringing home a baby at a great time of year. This will give the girls time to adjust to him too while they are on school vacation. We'll be loading up the camper and heading to the hills as soon as we can!!!!
Stay tuned......

New Pictures and an Update.....

We got an update on Derek this week. He is now:

23 pounds & 33 inches tall. He'll soon be a "3-footer". WOW!!!

He is doing well and is walking and eating good. The pictures were absolutely adorable. They dressed him in a santa suit and hat and he was sitting on a reindeer. SO CUTE!!!! There was a second picture and it was him and another little one standing at the edge of the crib. He was hangin on and his eyes are so big. It was great to see him smiling!!!!

Hopefully we will get an update about the Danang orphanage. The one we got this week was program specific and didn't really relate to our situation at all. We will put the update hre if we get one today.

We are expecting snow, sleet, and freezing rain for the weekend so we will be staying in and staying warm & dry!!!

WEEKLY UPDATE TIME....

So I wanted to share our update his week with all of you following along on our journey.

The orphanage director is still working with the DOJ to rectify the children dossiers. The DOJ is saying that they should be officially notified by the DIA in order for them to get involved with that process. For this reason, we are moving forward to request the DIA to send parent dossiers to DN DOJ a second time, instead of waiting until the child dossiers being all fixed first. For now, we are still not sure how much time it will take to complete the rest of the child dossier rectification process, but will keep families posted of any new information.


What does it all mean???? Well we are looking at it as a MAJOR step in a great and positive direction. At least it is showing signs of cooperation in fixing the dossier and getting us another step closer to Derek. FINALLY!! We are hoping that each update will be more positive and that each one sheds light on a "Road To Recovery".

We are supposed to get updated pictures this week so we are really looking forward to those. The package we sent for the 5 babies at the orphanage was received there and hopefully the pictures will show Derek with his new "blankie". I do hope he finds comfort in it and that it is something for him to snuggle up to at night until we get there.

The holidays are approaching so quickly and though I have 2 beautiful girls here with me that I need to focus on I can't dismiss the heartache of not having our son home. My heart aches tremendously for him. It has gotten progressively more difficult to deal with the questions and accusations from everyone around us. The only way to stop all of this is to get that travel date and bring him home. In the meantime I am trying to get into the Christmas spirit and actually did force myself to finish shopping and complete the wrapping. I am also focusing on the after Christmas trip Norm & I will be taking as we head to sunny California for a few days. I have started thinking about packing but just haven't gotten started yet (yes Michelle you may be rubbing off on me a little bit. LOL!!!). I am not by any means a procrastinator I just don't know what to pack. I've never gone to California in my life. Oh who am I kidding I have never even flown before. I can't wait to get on that plane and see the beauty of our country from one coast to the other.

Please continue to follow with us as we anxiously await our weekly update and remember to drop me your email address again if you want a sneak peek at Derek's new picture!!!!

Please allow me to use this day to focus on our baby boy.....

Derek,
As you turn "ONE" today we are praying for your health and safety and for God to bring you home to us very soon. We may have missed many of your milestones as you have grown over this past year but we will have many years of milestones to still share together. Yes...I wish we were rocking you to sleep, bragging about your first tooth, first step, first word, and of course all the in betweens. You are in our hearts and our thoughts of you grow more each day as we wait to come hold you in our arms. Exactly 9 months ago today we got a call telling us that we had the wonderful opportunity to increase our family with the addition of a beautiful baby boy. You can only imagine the excitement as we waited for the picture of you to download on the computer screen. WOW...what an adorable face. You have grown so much over this past 9 months of knowing you and we are looking so forward to watching you grow each year of your life with us.
God has blessed us so richly and soon he will bless us with our travel to bring you home to meet all of your family. Your sisters are so anxious to play with you and teach you things (probably some that will be bad). You will have a wonderful and love filled life here.

Hang on Derek...Mommy & Daddy will come soon.

We Love You So Much,
Mommy, Daddy, Alyssa & Jessica


Please continue to pray with us for Derek's Homecoming.

Friday Update On A Thursday.....

We got our last week update today and no....we won't get a second one tomorrow I'm sure. Anyway it sounds like the work has started and the elves are going to be busy fixing the mistakes that were made. Hopefully the pressure will be VERY intense and the dossiers will get corrected quickly. Would make a nice Christmas gift now wouldn't it?!?!?!?!?!

Here's the update:
The Da Nang orphanage director, under the pressure of officials in PC and
DOLISA, is working on fixing the child dossiers.
After consulting the Department of Justice, she was told that the dates of
admitting the children into the orphanage has to be backdated.

Among some other errors, the biggest problem with the child dossiers seem to
be the sequence of processing required documents.
The children, are supposed to be officially admitted into the orphanage
(subject to the endorsement of the Population Committee Director at that
time), before advertising on local radios and informing local families that
a child is available for domestic adoption. For some unknown reasons, this
important step wasn't done until late afterwards. For now, we are not
sure how long it will take to get the documents backdated and also to fix
other errors. But with the support of the district PC and DOLISA, we
believe it would be just a matter of time.

We are supposed to gt an update late today or tomorrow. Lets hope together for it to be chock full of GREAT information!!!! And plenty of GOOD NEWS wouldn't hurt either. The past few weeks have gotten harder. The anticipation of Derek's first birthday next week and the holidays coming have me completely stressed. I just can't focus on every day life at this point. Some moments I am sad and just with the snap of my fingers I can become very agitated and angry. I am more than ready for this journey to get us to Derek and back home again.

In different news....I just completed booking my first flight ever. We are heading to sunny California to visit with Michelle & Jeff. We will be going to see the Rose Bowl Parade as one of our highlights of the trip. I can't wait I hear it is beautiful. I am just so excited to fly. It will be a little sneak preview to the long flight to Vietnam. We will be spending New Years Eve with Michelle & Jeff in L.A. so I am excited and I am going to need to buy me something really special to wear for that adventure. Looking forward to the get away!!!!

As soon as we get our update I will post it HERE!!!

We found out about 2 weeks ago that we could send a care package to Derek so I set out to the store to buy what I knew I wanted to send. I ended up preparing a package for all 5 babies in the orphanage. When my girls were small like Derek my mom used to sew them "blankies". Just a piece of flannel with silky binding around the edges. Something they could cuddle, snuggle, and feel secure with. They had several so we were able to take them everywhere. They grew out of carrying them around therefore I knew this was an item that was safe to send on to the babies. So I bought the cutest fabric with duckies and froggies on it and off to mom's I went with it to request 5 blankies. I also found cute teething beads and I decided since we always see them barefoot and I truly believe in socks, I sent them along too. I hope the babes love their package when it gets there. I will be sending it out tomorrow to Jim so he can take it to the orphanage for them. It's an early Christmas for them. We are really hoping that there will be some news this week with the holiday thrown in there and the devastating storms.

BEAUTY IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER......

Yes the winter snow may look beautiful as it clings so soft and pure to the trees but...I hate it. I have to travel in it today an it is giving me a headache just anticipating it. I thought yesterdays pictures were bad well the following ones were taken this morning after 12+ hours of snowfall. More light snow is expected today. Oh BTW I didn't mention that it is 33 degrees here too. BRRRRRR!!! The girls were happy though....TWO HOUR DELAY!!!! Always a big YEAH for those days. Even for me because I can snuggle under the warm blankies a little longer!!

Sunday Morning Snowflakes....

I hate the cold, I hate the snow, I hate waiting for my son!!!!
Today I woke up after an extremely restless night full of horrible dreams and looked outside....,SNOW. YUCK!!!! That meant cooped in the house and that meant pop open the bottle of Ativan. It will be a long day but at least I will stay warm. Hopefully the snow doesn't amount to much because we are going to the mall tonight to do "Evening Of Giving" to benefit a local Hospice program which helped take care of my Daddy before he passed away. They are truly special people with very warm hearts. Sooooooo I hope to get out a little tonight. I guess I'll spend the day wrapped in a blanket in front of the fireplace watching the NASCAR race. GO MATT!!!!

So I wanted to include a picture so you could see what it's doing here.

Vietnam Devastation strikes close.....

Here is a recent report from Vietnam News concerning the recent horrific storms hitting Vietnam. As you can see on the map the large area they are speaking of is very close to DaNang which is where Dereek is. Please continue to pray for safety as the report says this weekend will produce more storms.
Floods in central region kill 35; more downpours forecast

(16-11-2007)

HA NOI — Floods in central Viet Nam claimed the lives of another seven people yesterday, bringing the death toll this week to 35; 28 are injured and six are still missing.

As if that wasn’t enough, the central region is expected to be hit by torrential heavy rains followed by another flood this weekend, reports the National Centre for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting. This will be the 5th flood to hit the central provinces this month.

The rising water levels have left hundreds of thousands homeless, scores dead and remote regions holding on by a thread. Domestic and International aid organisations are rushing to the rescue, delivering money, supplies and hope to victims of this tragedy.

Nearly 400,000 houses have been submerged and more than 2,500 ha of rice paddies have been damaged. Landslides have destroyed several sections of national roads.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on Wednesday sent messages to officials, government offices and people’s committees of affected provinces, demanding leaders focus on feeding people and fighting disease.

Dung asked local authorities to ensure students were returning to school and provide the materials necessary for farmers to restore production.

Statistics show that Quang Ngai Province was hit by five separate floods in the past month; 34 people are reported dead or missing.

Two helicopters transported 2.5 tonnes of food from Quang Ngai City to Tay Tra District yesterday. This was the first time aid made it to the district since flooding started four weeks ago. Local authorities were unable to transport supplies by road due to landslides.

As many as 2,400 households are facing the possibility of starvation. The two helicopters lowered goods to isolated areas including Tra Vinh, Tra Tho and Tra Thanh.

Vietnam News Agency Correspondent Tri Phuong yesterday reported that Quang Nam Province has spent VND15 billion to help victims restabilise their lives and most students had returned to school.

Chairman of Phu My People’s Committee Huynh Van Nam said the district presented VND1million to two men for their daring rescue of three trapped people.

Raising donations

The Party Central Committee’s office on Wednesday raised VND300 million from leaders and staff to support flood victims in the Central region.

Organisations and people in Ha Noi have sent VND1.6 billion to affected provinces. Meanwhile Binh Thuan Province has sent VND310 million.

The Viet Nam Red Cross Society in co-ordination with the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies have sent nearly 5,000 boxes of family appliances and 420 tonnes of rice to victims.

The Canadian Embassy yesterday announced it was sending C$100,000 to flood hit areas including Son La, Hoa Binh, Quang Nam and Quang Ngai. — VNS

It's Friday....
Today is our weekly update day. The news we received is sad and I am passing it on to all our readers so you can pray for the lives involved.


In the past 2 weeks, there had been typhoons and rainstorms hitting central
Vietnam, including Da Nang. Although those storms are not new for the
people there, the storms have caused serious flooding problems in Da Nang,
especially in rural areas. But the orphanage in Da Nang is located in a
higher area and the kids are well protected. The threaded message is a
report from our associate in Da Nang.

Because of the flooding, government officials are putting aside everything
else and gave priority to handling the floods and sending relief necessities
to affected families there. Not much was done in regard to the child
dossiers. Jim will be contacting them next week.

-----Original Message-----
From: Hung Hoang

Hello Ray,

I called the orphanage about the children yesterday and got confirmed that
all the kids are fine. The orphanage is located on a high area so it was not
flooded. The kids were well taken care of during the time that the flood
came. Only the rural areas of Danang city have been seriously flooded while
the orphanage is located in the urban area. I have just come back from the a
joint rapid damage and needs assessment in Danang and Quang Nam province
with other international agencies so I learned that only Hoa Vang district
in Danang was badly affected. Just let the parents know about the kids'
situation so that they can have peace of mind.

Best regards, Hung


We are so thankful for the safety of Derek and the other beautiful babies in the orphanage. Hopefully relief will come quickly and we will get back on track again.

BTW....Our Friday Update didn't share much news with us. Here is a copy of it:
The Vice Director of Lien DOLISA has met the orphanage director one more time during the week. Jim is contacting him to find out if he was successful in pressing the orphanage director to work on fixing the child dossiers. Hard to tell as the orphanage director is still not eager to cooperate somehow. The PC meeting in last week has made it clear that the DOLISA will replace her if she is not cooperative.

And DOLISA is supposed to contact the Da Nang DOJ to seek their advice on fixing the child dossiers. We have no information on whether that has been done yet, or any initial results so far. But Jim is optimistic that we will get some kind of confirmation on that as early as next week. We will keep families posted.


I have confidence that e will hear more news early in the week regarding hopeful progress. We continue to worry that if the OD needs to be replaced that it will add on a lot more time in the fix ups as she it will be a time consuming process of hiring someone new and acclimating them to the situation at hand and then digging n to fix things. This could take more time. We are also concerned with the increase of "NOID's" being reported that there will be moratorium measures taken and our baby boy won't come to his HOME. Please continue to watch over us. We trul appreciate all of your prayers and concern. What a wonderful family we have made in the adoption world!!!

Yesterday we received an absolutely adorable picture of Derek (which by the way I would pass it on if I knew how to convert it from a word fike to one that can be copied into my pictures file). Included with it were a few details we were curious about. He is now 22 pounds and 30 inches tall. He is walking everywhere and he is eating rice, bread, noodles, banana, and cakes. He is babbling cha, cha and ba, ba. If anyone knows what those translate to we would love to know. He smiles and he interacts normally and closely with his caretakers. We were thrilled to get this news. Now we await our Friday update. Stay tuned!!!

After a busy weekend I woke this morning refreshed and ready to face another week of waiting. Yes it is getting harder, the wait is unknown yet and we are getting so close to Derek's birthday knowing we won't have him in our arms for that or for Christmas. It is VERY hard. I am attaching a copy of the update we received on Friday. It is another step in a forward direction with still unknown results but it is none the less POSITIVE! This Friday should produce more news in the next step of the process. Let's hope that this week of the paperwork being at the SOJ will produce results that are going to be quickly repaired and the process will proceed on a timely basis.

From Mr. Jim Mayhew's report regarding yesterday's meeting with LC PC, LC DOLISA and orphanage director:

We met with the Vice Director of the PC for Lien Chieu, who is totally and completely on our side in getting this straightened out and the new vice director of DOLISA, Mr. Thanh who will be the person overseeing Ms. Mai, the orphanage director.

Ms. Mai has been ordered by the PC and her DOLISA director to repair these dossiers.

Mr. Thanh asked for one week to take these dossiers to the SOJ and soliciting their assistance in making the proper corrections and getting the files in order so that we will be able to properly process them with the SOJ and the CIS.

Ms. Mai was given the new CIS requirements for the child dossiers preparation and Mr Thanh acknowledged that the problems with the dossiers should be solvable.

This does not mean that we are through the hoop yet but it is the first step in the right direction.
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Excitement...
I just got an email from our CM that we are allowed to send a care package to Derek. We don't have an address yet but hope to within a few days. I am already starting to contemplate what to put in the box. I will make a small album of a few pictures with American & Vietnamese translation in hopes the nannies will show him the book frequently. I will also send a blankie and a few toys. I am going to put something in for each of the children there. I can't wait to send it off to him. This brings much contentment to the fear of him not coming home. I now feel more confident that Derek will be HOME it will just be a little more time.

I am so nervous....
As most of you know, Vietnam time is 12 hours ahead of us here so that will officially make tonight November 1st there and as we lay our heads onto our pillows tonight and TRY to fall asleep the anticipation of "The Meeting" taking place there will mount inside if us. This will be a meeting that will hopefully be successful and provide us a light at the end of this hellish long tunnel. It will be the opportunity to demand the orphanage director to fix the baby dossiers and hopefully convince her to do it quickly. Wouldn't it be grand to get word for Christmas that our babies will soon be home. Today will be long and tomorrow even longer as we await our weekly update on Friay that will produce the results of "The Meeting" tonight.

On a side note, I wass cleaning up the yard and flower beds yesterday and poked myself in the corner of the eye with a branch (stupid move I know) and now have a dandy shiner. Makes for a diversion question for everyone to ask intead of an empty answered adoption question.

We received this update late this afternoon.....

J** has been working in Hanoi this week, but he is expecting the Nov 1st meeting to be a major event - PC officials, DOLISA, and the orphanage director will all attend the meeting, together with (Our Agency) representatives will keep families posted on the result of the meeting.

(Our Agency) has hired a local associate and a part time consultant in Da Nang in order to help J** deal with the L.C. orphanage affairs in a prompt manner. J** said he has more reasons to believe that the child dossiers can be fixed.

....so this is another positive side to our saga. We will anxiously await our update next week as that should really shed light on what needs to take place to correct the problem at hand.

Thanks again for your continued support and concern for our son and our family.

The uncertainty of this adoption we are swirled in the midst of has been udderly ridiculous and exhausting. I just feel like I can't go on fighting this. We now find out that the I600 form is going to be handled differently which for all of us who are going to be traveling (sometime) it is GOOD. It will most likely shed a week off of our in country stay. Lord knows this is good because I just want to get Derek in my home and move on with our lives. However...due to the fact that Derek's dossier is on screwed up mess with no end in sight to the repair of it, it could be an eternity yet until we get to the point of filing the I600. My concern is also that it is a 60 day process and there are documents in the baby dossier that must accompany the form and well.....the dossier is screwed up and the agency "has no access" to it. Therefore we don't even have an upfront abandonment report. I don't even know the real story as to how Derek got where he is. I have asked for it but was told there is "no access" to that information at this time. This whole process seems shady to me. Anyway I think it sounds like I am babbling so I will stop for now. We have also once again requested pictures and updates 2 weeks ago and still have not received any of that. As I sid before you would think this agency would be bending backwards for our comfort in the situation. Really with the agency president over there wouldn't you think taking a little time to send a few pictures and maybe a word or so about how Derek is doing would be the least the man could do. I realize he is busy trying to correct the problems that lie within the dossier mess but really a quick few pictures and we would be calmed for a week or so. We should be able to get something.
Okay I am stopping now.....

We got our update phone call this morning. we have been issued a form which might I add for those of you who have been following this for the duration...it is "THE FORM" that we have waited for since waaaay back when. We have been instructed to print the form, sign it, and FedEx it back to our CM for Monday. She will notarize it and send it off to the AZ office to forward to Vietnam. This is a step in a good direction. Not the end yet but a good step. We have been told that once the DIA has this document in our dossier they will forward it to the DOJ of Danang (where Derek is) and they can then beging their DEMAND for the orphanage director to fix her mistakes on the baby dossier and they will be matched together and the process will continue in a positive direction. I hope this means good and quick things are happening. I am setting our travel goal at May. It would be great to go before but I don't want to open a door that will once again slam on our noses. All in all I feel good about this news and I am looking forward to getting more info next week.

BTW did you all check out my new ticker????

Well tomorrow should be a BIG day. We are expecting some kind of news...hopefully I'm not setting myself up for a huge disappointment. News could come in many degrees at this point. I have requested from our agency updated pictures, measurements and the developmental update that I asked for 2 months ago and was promised. We'll see how compliant they choose to be at this point. We received our packet of info about the possible 2nd adoption we would like to dive into but have no energy to do so. It is financially hard for us to do but if it is meant to be we will find a way. If only I were a good fundraising type of person. I would never make a good salesgirl that's for sure.

On an exciting note we are making plans to hop a plane to California to spend a few days with Michelle & Jeff. I can't wait to see her again. I am really missing her. I think a little adoption bonding time is needed. Not to mention I can't wait to take my FIRST plane ride and to see L.A. This is going to be great!!!

Stay tuned for what I hope to be a "good" update tomorrow!!!

We still have nothing NEW to report here. We are expecting an update on Friday and hopefully it will be a GOOD one. Our agency forwarded out an update yesterday to all families in the VN program explaining the delay which I was glad to see them do this way everyone knows what is going on and what to expect. Naturally our paqperwork delay will cause a backload for the other families in line waiting. Seems so unfair. I never imagined we would get so tangled up in this type of web. I am still trying to sort out in my head how this all happened and I just can't get to a rational reasoning no matter how many angles I try to look at. I have sorta started slipping into my anxiety and semi depression mode. Last night we went to Gymboree to buy a gift card for a friend of ours (we chose to do a g.c. since I just can't think about going to see their new baby and hold her in my arms while I am longing so badly for Derek to be there) and I left the store in tears. I want to buy things for Derek and I can't because the situation is still so shaky and I don't know when or entirely "if" he's coming home for sure. This is so hard.
Well I am trying to occupy my time by cleaning up the basement. We just got the girls a treadmill so Alyssa can continue running during her sports off seasons(which are few and far between) so I had to make a little extra room. The salon is very quiet this week and I'm not sure if that is good or bad. It just gives me more time to sit and think and stir around on this crazy computer.
We have requested information from another agency about another adoption. We will still carry through with Derek's adoption because even though not legally yet we are his parents and he does belong here. We will pursue another country through a different agency and hope that it is a smoother transition than this one has been.
Well when we get that update on Friday I will post the news.

We received an update today that sounded a little more upbeat and positive. The PC has recommended that the adoptions be pursued and that it will just take more time (not sure how long yet) and that it is still possible that we will be bringing Derek home eventually. We hope that the documents are fixable in a timely manner and that it won't take months. We are supposed to be getting weekly updates on Fridays now from Vietnam. This is a good thing and we are looking forward to hopefully better news soon!!!!
Thanks again for your continued support!

Thank you to all who requested to continue to follow our adoption. We have not had any more news and we aren't anticipating any for about 2 more weeks. The wait has been gruelling and it isn't getting any easier. I have maintained strength through this and have relied alot on Ativan to get me through the panic attacks. Looking at the nursery and the many piles of clothing have been so hard the past few weeks. We have started looking into compiling a new dossier for another country and hope to have that completed by Christmas or before. We still intend to pursue the adoption of Derek if the agency returns with news that he is still adoptable. We just don't want to wait to hold our child so we have decided to plunge forward and if we are meant to have 2 more children that that is the way it will work out for us. Keep us in your thoughts and we will continue to update you as we receive news.

Due to some things we have encountered in our adoption process we have made a very hard decision about this blog. We have been forced to change this to a private invitation only blog. I will be making the final cutoff on October 10th so that you will all have plenty of time to get on the list. If you would like to be put onto the invitation list you are welcome to leave us a comment and include your email address. Thanks for following our journey and as soon as things smooth out we will be back on here for all of you to follow to the end. Thanks for all of your wonderful comments and your much needed prayers and support.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE.....

Let me hold my baby boy!!!!!

DEVASTATION!!!!!

We received a call that there has been a total devastation in our adoption. Our baby along with the 4 others in the orphange have dossiers that are incomplete and incorrect and possibly unfixable. We are awaiting a call back from our agency in the next 3-4 weeks to give us insight as to whether the dossiers can be fixed and we can continue to move forward giving us at least a 8-9 month time frame from now until he's home or the worst case scenario being that Derek will never come home.
My heart hurts so bad!!! This is my baby boy who God has chosen for me and now He wants to take him away. WHY????????
I can't continue on with such a heavy heart. Please wish us well as we struggle through the next few weeks waiting for the Vietnam Officials decision.

WEEKEND OF FUN....

We had a fun time this weekend all the way around. Friday we chilled out with the girls after heading out for suppe at Friendly's. We also did a little "Derek shopping" again. Gymboree had a HUGE sale and I can't pass them up. I think we now own about half of the store. I just hope he fits into it all when he FINALLY gets home!
Saturday my girls had plans with their dad so they couldn't tag along for our Saturday night adventure but we were lucky enough to take my monm, brither (Ken) and hi 2 boys (Kyle & Kurtis) along to Balloon Fest. It wasn't such a success though due to the windy conditions only 1 balloon was brave (or crazy) enough to take sail. Look how beautiful though!


Here are my nephews looking as though they have about enough of it for the night. It was rather cold and windy and truthfully till it was all over we all had enough for the night...


Sunday Norm & I headed to Boyd's Bear Bingo for the afternoon. e didn't win a thing but we had a great time smiling across the table at each other. Then we went to a local fair Sunday night and stuffed our bellies FULL!!!!

I was hoping for a little jingle of news today but that didn't happen. Hopefully by the end of the week we will have an update again.

Stay tuned....

PLEASE DON"T ASK WHY......

Because I don't have the answer. Yesterday we received our update from our agency. Our director had spent 3 weeks in Vietnam trying to tie up some ends and speed along our adoption of Derek. No success!!!! Instead we were hit yesterday with the fact of no travel until late November or early December. And truthfully....I will only believe it when I get the call to go. We were so sure that this was going to be the final delay when they told us October buy that hasn't been the case once again. We have been at this point in the road way too long now. Actually I am still feeling shocked and the pani attacks are still hitting me pretty hard. I am fearful of depression at this point. How much can one family take???!!!! I just don't understand. Now they tell us December and I just don't want to be spending Christmas there away from my girls. It's going to be a loooooong 3 months ahead.