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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