Christmas Blessing

As you may recall, we have two different issues delaying our adoption. One is sign-off of the baby's dossier in the province. The other is the US DNA test required for I-600 approval. The DNA test has been held up because there was no sucess in locating our baby's birth mother. Our first DNA test was scheduled in November, but it did not happen.

Thursday, I was surprised to get an email from our coordinator. She said that our baby's birth mother had been located and they were scheduling the DNA test. She cautioned me that this did not insure that the birth mother would agree to do the test. I was later notified that the test was scheduled for December 22 at 1:00. Again, I was reminded that this was no guarantee that she would participate. Regardless of the warnings, I was thrilled to get some good news. This information renewed our hope. Everytime I seem at my lowest during this adoption, something happens that assures me we are on the right path.

I got confirmation today that the orphanage vice-director, our baby, his
nanny, and his birth mother traveled to HCMC and the DNA test was
completed. We are so grateful that this hurdle has been passed. We
are thankful to his birth mother for making this journey, which she
could have easily refused. We will make sure he knows that she did this
out of love for him and so he could have a family to care for him.

Please remember our baby and his orphange buddies in your prayers as well as the families waiting to bring them home! Merry Christmas! A.

"If you beleive, you will recieve whatever you ask for in prayer" - Matthew 21:22

Holiday Prayer Request

We are still experiencing delays on the Vietnam side of our adoption. There are 24 families affected. Our adoption agency is working diligently trying to resolve the situation. They have limited options left. None of these babies can come home to their waiting families until this issue is resolved. Our families have been waiting for 2-3 years to bring a child into our homes. We have been falling in love with pictures of these children. In our hearts, they are ours already. This additional complication has made the wait torture, especially at the holidays.

Many of you have asked what you can do to help. We need your prayers!
We know that God can move mountains! Please read the prayer request
below. We would love your support. Please feel free to pass this information on!

FTIA VIETNAM Waiting Parents
Prayer Requests
On behalf of all the Waiting Parents: We have put together a list of specific things that our families and friends can pray with us about. Specifically, between now and just after the first of the New Year, we would like to blanket our situation—our children and our forever families—with prayer and fasting*.

Times for prayer
We do, of‐course, welcome your prayers at any time. But we thought we would suggest the following times (regardless of time zones) for prayer over the next 3 weeks so that there will be several periods of concentrated prayer for our children and our families:

Saturday, December 20 – Friday, January 9: 7:00am and 9:00pm
Christmas Eve & New Year's Eve: 11:30pm ‐ Midnight

Specific Prayer Requests
• For the health, safety and care of all of our children
• For peace, strength and health for the waiting parents
• For success and determination for FTIA's director and those he enlists to help the situation
• For the Police and other officials, that their hearts and minds will be softened; that that they will consider the welfare of children above all else
• For USCIS (US Immigration), that they will be reasonable, especially
in regard to the new requirements they are imposing (that they too will put the welfare of children first)

There are 24 waiting families and children. We request prayer for our group as a whole, as this situation has been very difficult for all of us.

11 Months

Today our baby boy turned 11 months old. Another month has passed. Unfortunately, we don't seem to be any closer to getting him home. Our agency director is in Vietnam again trying to make some progress. We are happy he is there. There are 24 families waiting for children from the same province. We hope and pray that there will be a resolution soon, and that all the children can join their forever families.

This holiday season has been difficult. I'm having trouble getting into the Christmas spirit again this year. We do have our tree up, and most of our presents are bought. Our little guy has gifts that will soon be wrapped in festive Elmo paper and placed under the tree. They will stay right there until he is home in our arms. Then, we can truly celebrate Christmas. A.