Dear Sweet Boy

Dear sweet boy, today we had to say goodbye to you. It is the hardest thing we have ever had to do. The love we have for you has grown so much since we first saw your face almost eight months ago.

Be strong sweet boy. You are going to be reunited with your birth mother. We are so grateful you will have a family even if it isn't the one we longed to provide for you. We are planting a weeping cherry tree for you. It will bloom every year at this time. We will never forget the day we had to say goodbye to you. You will always be in our hearts and our prayers. We love you dear sweet boy...

Still here

We are still here! It's been a month since my last post, but I haven't really had much to talk about. We are still waiting for movement with the police in our baby's province. We are also still waiting for documents requested by USCIS to be prepared and sent. Our agency director has been in Vietnam for a few weeks, but there has not been much news.

The main thing that has changed for us is the difficulty of waiting. It is becoming much harder to deal with the wait and uncertainty. The tears are flowing much more freely. We are still clinging to hope that the issues will be resolved, and we can travel to bring our sweet baby boy home. He turns 14 months old tomorrow.

The highlight of the week was that we received a new picture. He's sad and fussy in the picture. I want so badly to scoop him up and rock him until he's no longer sad.
Thank you all for your encouraging comments, emails, and especially for your prayers.

Clinging to Hope

We are still here... still waiting. We still do not have I-600 approval. We are hoping it will come soon. USCIS has requested some additional documents, so of course, that's another delay.

There was some promising news from our agency this week. We had another conference call with the 23 other families waiting for children from the same province as us. This call was more upbeat than the last one. The agency is still working hard behind the scenes to resolve the issues keeping us from our baby. The director of our agency will be traveling to Vietnam again in about a week. He is very hopeful that we will see some kind of movement in the next month or two. We will be praying that his trip is successful and that the obstacles in our way will be removed.

This month marks 3 years since we turned in our application to adopt. There have been lots of different delays in this process. One thing that has remained constant the whole time is my desire to be a Momma. The ache is in my heart every day and never wanes. I have to believe that God put this strong longing in me for a reason. It may sound ridiculous to say, but in many ways, the trials we have faced during this adoption have been a positive thing. During this process I have branched out of my comfort zone and made some wonderful friendships. I have done an enormous amount of cultural and parenting research. I have had to be an advocate for our child and our family already. I know all these things will make me a stronger parent. In addition, I have learned without a doubt how precious every moment with a child is. Every minute we spend without our baby is lost forever. Once we hold him in our arms we will relish every second. Every cry, every laugh is irreplaceable. I can't wait to drink it all in.

Now, I'm not saying I have enjoyed the wait in any way. I'm just trying to take an honest look at what has happened to me as a result of the wait. The bad parts of the wait are obvious and are increasingly hard to deal with. So, maybe an exercise of looking for the positive will help... maybe.

http://poppytalk.blogspot.com/2007/11/art-glorious-affordable-art.html

Chúc mừng năm mới!

Happy New Year baby boy! I hope you are having a nice celebration at the Care Center. We are praying that this New Year will be a very lucky one and will bring us together very soon. We have lots of Tet celebrations ahead for our family. We can't wait to share them with you!

Birthday Picture

Dear Sweet Boy

Dear sweet boy, I wish with all my heart I was with you today. I would love to share this special day with you. A once in a lifetime... a boy's first birthday... and today is yours.
Know that you are in my heart, my dreams, and prayers today just like every day. I will be dreaming of the day you are home with us. We will celebrate this special milestone in person. Your highchair is waiting, and a yummy cake will be made. Shakespeare and Caesar will be more then ready to clean up the crumbs from the mess you will make.
So many friends and family are waiting with us. They can't wait to meet you. I hope you can feel how much you are loved. As much as I long to be with you, I have faith that God will bring us together soon.
Happy Birthday, my dear sweet boy! I love you!

Kisses in the Wind

Kisses in the Wind
Click to Play
I hold you in my heart and in my dreams.
You are here each day with me, that’s how it seems.
I know you wonder where we are. It’s been so long.
Just remember child that God will keep you strong.

Now go outside, feel the breeze and let it touch your skin.
Soon you’ll have a family, I promise you again.
Miles away we wait for you, but it’s coming to an end.
But for tonight, just as always, I’ll blow you kisses in the wind.

May God hold you in His hands ‘til we can get to you.
I promise you that we will see you soon.
May He wrap you in His arms and hold you tight,
and let the Angels bring our kisses every night.

Now go outside, feel the breeze and let it touch your skin.
Soon you’ll have a family, I promise you again.
Miles away we wait for you, but it’s coming to an end.
But for tonight, just as always, I’ll blow you kisses in the wind.

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.

Thankful

We have so much to be thankful for and so much to look forward to!

He smiles a lot!

We were filled with joy when we received the following update from our agency:

(baby) can sit, but can't crawl, he moves around on his tummy. He smiles a lot, eats very well. He can pull himself up. He is quiet. He is curious about strangers. He seems a content boy. He has 2 upper and 2 lower teeth. He is a handsome boy with head full of hair. He eats well.

This little snip of information about our sweet boy means so much to me. These little details bring me closer to knowing him. I am so thankful for this glimpse into his personality. And, of course, I can't wait to see his toothy grin! A.

Special Treat

We got a special treat last week. We received a new picture of our sweet boy. He still has a wild hair-do, and we LOVE it!

We were uplifted by the site of his sweet face. It is still sad that he is growing older every day without us, but we have faith that he will be coming home to us. The sooner, the better!! A.

10 Months Old

Dear Sweet Boy, today you are 10 months old. A big day for a little boy. I hope someone hugs you today and that you feel the love we are sending you in our prayers.

I've been looking at your last picture and wondering how you have changed since then. How many teeth do you have? Are you crawling? How long is your hair? So many questions I don't have answers for. I just pray that you feel our love and that you are well taken care of... and that it won't be much longer until we can be together.
This is no doubt the hardest part of our journey. We love you Dear Sweet Boy...

3 Months

It's been just over 3 months since we received our referral for our sweet baby boy. Unfortunately, our travel to bring him home is still months away. Due to delays on both the US and Vietnam sides, we won't be able to bring him home before the end of the year. We had hoped to have him home before his first birthday in January. It now looks more likely that we will not travel until at least March. There is still a chance it could happen sooner, but it is a long shot.

We are trying to stay positive. It is still very hard knowing our baby boy is growing older everyday without us. We long to hold him in our arms and pray that our delays will be resolved soon. This has been one of the hardest parts of our wait.

I hope to have better news to share soon... A

Operation Organization

Lately, I have been dealing with our wait with a combo of nesting and shopping. I have been working on the baby's closet this week. As you can see from the picture, I've spent plenty of time shopping... or Gymboree exploded in the closet.

I have been going through everything and sorting by size. The dresser is already full. I have been storing the larger sizes in plastic tubs. I still have more tubs to squeeze in there. I hope he doesn't outgrow all the sweet outfits before we get him home! E, do I earn points for stockpiling baby clothes?

In adoption news, we are currently waiting on DNA testing. This involves waiting for the province to locate our baby's birth mother. Once located, they will coordinate a date/time and travel to HCMC for the test. Hopefully, she has not moved and they can find her easily. I'm not sure when we can expect an update on the progress of that effort. This part of the wait is much harder. There is a lot of uncertainty on how long our next steps will take. The DNA process is still new, and the delays continue in our baby's province. There has been some movement to get cases progressing though. We are optimistic that every one's efforts will be rewarded, and families will get to travel there soon.

You may ask, what the heck is taking so long. Well, once the DNA testing is complete and possitve, we should get out I-600 pre-approval fairly quickly. This is the last major US hoop to jump through. In addition, we still need a few things on the Vietnam side. None of them can happen until the province delays are resolved. We are waiting for IAD Approval, PPC Approval, and scheduling of the G & R ceremony. Then, as soon as we can get on a plane, we will travel to Vietnam for the meeting of a lifetime!

In exciting news, families with our agency are leaving this week for Vietnam. Another group will be joining them later in the month. I can't wait to follow along with their life changing trips! It's the next best thing to traveling yourself ; ) A

First Set Of Wheels...

Baby boy's first set of wheels is on the way to our house. I finally decided on a stroller. D and I went to Babies R Us Sunday after Church. I had been researching them online, but I wanted to try them out a little. I am really happy with how this one steers and folds up. I hope baby will enjoy it as well. He has his own little steering system with sound effects ; ) Thank you to everyone who got us gift cards for the baby shower. They came in handy on our shopping trip!

Now, I'm in the market for his next set of wheels. I really would like to get him a Radio Flyer Tricycle and a wagon for his birthday. I have picked some out and added them to his wish list. Anyone have advice on one to choose?

I have been having fun using Kaboodle lately. If your not familiar with the site, it allows you to build a wish list... sort of like a registry... with any stores. When you're browsing online and you see something you like, you can click Add to Kaboodle, and add it to your list. I love it, because I always see something great, and then forget where I saw it. Now, I can be a much more efficient compulsive shopper ; )

There aren't really any adoption updates for us at this time, hence the compulsive shopping. We hope to hear some good news soon. There are currently delays in our baby's province. We are praying things are resolved soon! While there are no updates for us, there are fabulous updates for our fellow adopting families. Several families are traveling very soon to bring their sweet babies home. We can't wait to follow along with their journey. Good luck to all! We are so happy for you! A.

11:1

Hebrews 11:1 NLT

Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.

9 Months Old

We were happy to get the news this week that our baby boy was released from the hospital Monday. I am so grateful he is feeling much better. We love this little guy so much.

This is the earliest picture we have of him. He is about 7 weeks old, and he has a full head of wild hair. It is really amazing how he can steal my heart from so far away.

He turned 9 months old this week. It's hard not to feel sad for all the days we can't be with him. I think about him all the time, and I wonder what he is doing. We still have a while to wait, but it is so hard. I know that wonderful day is coming!

We will continue to pray for him every day and concentrate on that day when we can hold him in our arms. That will be our happy ending! A.

Busy week

This has been a busy time in our adoption journey!!! Last Friday, our I-600 was submitted. This week, we got our notice of receipt for the I-600 and a request for DNA testing. Those are all big milestones that bring us closer to bringing our baby home. We can't wait to have this sweet baby boy in our arms!!

Unfortunately, we received news Monday that our baby was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia. Several babies from his orphanage were also hospitalized, and some have already been released. They plan to keep him there until he has completed his antibiotics. We have been anxious, but trust he is getting the care he needs. It is hard not being able to comfort him. I am grateful that some of the Nannies are staying with the babies at the hospital. We have been praying extra hard for his health and protection.

Luckily, we got new pictures of him a couple of weeks ago. He looks good and healthy. Isn't he precious?