These pictures are of Camdyn after we got back to the hotel room. She was SO tired. She had vomited in the van and smelled terribly with urine/vomit/sweat. We had to bathe her, but the sink bath was very traumatic. She did get comforted afterward and didn't scream quite as much. Unfortunately, she was very tired and after a bottle, she quickly fell asleep on the floor beside Daddy.

Vietnam--Day Three--Adoption Day

What an incredible roller coaster of a day. First we got up at 4:30am and met downstairs in our hotel lobby to start our drive out into the province where her orphanage was. We drove mostly in the dark, but by the time the sun rose, the mountains were huge and beautiful. What a wonderful part of the world, so much farming and very little commerce. We were first taken to her orphanage (picture above) and we were told to stand in a ceremonial room (kind of like a little lobby/conference room). Anyway, our case manager was taking these goofy pictures of us in front of those huge U-haul boxes of donations and sure enough our daughter had been brought into the room by her nanny. We missed the whole entrance somehow (typical us!). She was SO scared of us and clearly loved the woman who had raised her pretty much her entire life (woman in the picture). It’s actually a good thing if orphans have bonded with someone prior to coming to you, so we were thrilled at how much obvious care she had gotten and how well she had been loved. After we visited for a few minutes with the baby (which consisted of her screaming and breaking her neck to find her nanny), we were told to give the baby’s back to their nannies and we boarded the van again to go to the provincial officials office. When we got there, the formal Giving & Receiving ceremony where we sign the book forever taking custody of this child was performed. The baby sat pretty much with her orphanage nanny the whole time, but it was a very simple civil ceremony. Once we finished the picture taking and such, we changed her clothes (very traumatic with lots of screaming), and then we all boarded the van with all the new babies and headed about 3 hours back to Hanoi. The best part about the ride was that the baby fell asleep on my chest as we left the ministry building, so she slept most of the way. Unfortunately the nap did not last long and she woke up screaming, drank a bottle, and then vomited the entire contents out all over me just after finishing. We are a bit exhausted and frantic. We brought her home and nearly scrubbed the skin off of her, so she is super clean and sleepy. We put a duvet cover on the floor and played with the baby stuff. We saw her sitting up so well, her first smiles for us and cooing, as well as putting some babble words together. She has a total of four teeth (two upper/two lower) and has a little bruise on her right cheek and a little bit of a cold. She’s pulling on both ears and I think she’s got an ear infection. WE have an international clinic that does pediatrics about four blocks from our apartment, so we’ll see how she is doing in the morning. We are absolutely exhausted. She just fell asleep, so we are sleeping as well. Please tell Ma (she always wonders) that she has a little peach fuzz of black hair. She seems to be very on par developmentally for her age. She is probably about the size of a six month old. She seems short to me, but obviously I like short people. I will write more and fill in many more details tomorrow. She took her bottle like a charm and I hope we get some sleep tonight. She’s a joy and a delight and we love her as much as we possibly could. Also, tomorrow our guide is taking us to buy a calling card, so we’ll try calling the grandparents and giving them the scoop on all that’s missing here. Thanks for all the prayers. We could sure feel them.

Motherhood

There have now been two occasions in my life where I have waited up the night anticipating the arrival of my child. The night before our Bird was born, I remember tossing and turning and sitting up pretty much all night while my wonderful husband slept peacefully. Tonight I am doing the same. It's a different anticipation, yet this night feels so very familiar. Yes, I'm in a foreign land and the circumstances are extremely different, but the anticipation of the heart opening for one more little person to take over is exactly the same. It's strange to think that in a few short hours I will have two children. My two little shining stars who will dominate my world and heart. I awoke from what little stretch of sleep I had with a hymn of praise going through my mind. I have to say that God did a wonderful thing when he created motherhood. It is truly life's best job and greatest joy. Though I love being a nurse and teaching more than anything I could imagine, that role will never top that of being a mother. I have so much at this very moment to be thankful for...I just praise the Lord tonight for my sweet little (almost member of four) family...my best friend who is sleeping soundly next to me (how he is sleeping so soundly I don't know?), my little Bird who at this moment is at the Animal Kingdom NOT missing me, and for my little sweet girl just down the road who at this moment is probably sleeping not knowing that her whole world is about to turn upside down. Praise the Lord indeed.

Vietnam--Day Two

Today was a great day. We LOVE Vietnam! We love the people and the culture and all that the city is showing us. We love walking everywhere and I think the Vietnamese women really like my husband because I catch young girls taking his picture (or they think he’s some kind of freak—who knows?). Anyway, we woke up about 6am this morning and got an early start. Our hotel has a GREAT breakfast. I had traditional Vietnamese noodles with beef which were wonderful and a whole different taste for breakfast. After breakfast, we met up with another adoptive family and shared a cab ride to the Ho Chi Mihn Museum. What an incredible place with so much history and surrounded by beautiful grounds including a 1000 year old temple. After this, we walked around the block and somehow got in the middle of a Japanese tour group. Because they thought we were part of the group, we were shuffled in by guards and brought into the grounds of the Vietnamese Presidential Palace (like the White House in the U.S.) We were cracking up because #1, we did not look like we went with this particular tour group (but no one questioned, so we persisted on), and #2, we were hoping we weren’t put on a bus and sent back to Cambodia or something . Anyway, the grounds and palace were beautiful. Ho Chi Mihn was a great character and has such an interesting history. We have both been so amazed at how revered he is in Vietnam. We never could get to the Mausoleum which contains his remains, but we’ll try that another day. Once we left Ho Chi Mihn land, we traveled to a quilt store run by French folks who employ pregnant Vietnamese females to stitch quilts. We bought two quilts (one we took with us and another we ordered) for the baby and we picked out some goodies for the grandmothers back home. Their things were absolutely beautiful (and cheap!). We laugh here because the denominations of money are so different. Approximately $1 US dollar is $15,000 Vietnamese dong. Therefore, when we cashed out $100 dollars, we were instantly millionaires (we got 1.5 million dong!). It feels so good to have what you think is so much cash. Our breakfast bill came this morning and it was like 98,000 dong. I thought to myself that we needed to budget a bit better until I realized it was like seven dollars??? I love this system! The taxi rides are $1 and we bought the kids (yes I said our kids plural) matching t-shirts and picked out a little Ho Chi Mihn t-shirt for the Bird which were dirt cheap. We cannot wait to send him back to his Free Will Baptist School in a communist party t-shirt (at least his Grampy will be happy). Lastly, we have been trying to get ourselves mentally prepared for tomorrow. We should meet this little lady about 10am on Wednesday the 23rd of January (that’s about 10pm on Tuesday in the States). We basically meet her and then we are taken over to what is their court system to have a ceremony and then legally she is OURS forever. That sounds so wonderful and yet so surreal at the same time. We think we are actually VERY close to choosing her name. People have thought for months that we’ve known her name and just not shared it, but we really have not. We wanted so desperately to choose something that had meaning and yet was appropriate for what her personality might be. We still want to meet her, but I think we’re close (more information to follow on this grand announcement). We want to send lots of Love to our son (who we’ve still not been able to talk to) and to all the rest of our loyal followers. Please be praying for us as we start a whole new wonderful chapter of our lives!

Vietnam--Day One

It seems that Monday is the day of the week that things are closed in Hanoi. We woke up thinking we would hit different museums before we had the baby, but it’s a day off here. It probably worked out OK because we got an opportunity to introduce ourselves to Hanoi. Today was such an interesting day. First, jet lag is a beast. S did really well because he slept about 19 hours last night (went to bed to take a nap in the afternoon and didn’t get up until morning), while I on the other hand walked about and did laundry and other chores during my insomnia. Anyhow, we got up this morning and it was raining (just misting) so we had breakfast at the hotel, met up with our new friends (another couple from our agency with their 13 year old daughter) and braved the weather to see a bit of Hanoi. We walked from our hotel and looped the Hoan Kiem Turtle Lake. Around the lake are multitudes of shops and vendors of every kind. Traffic is unbelievable. It seems very chaotic, but “S” has decided that it’s more courteous than not. I will try to post video later of the traffic. Basically, you have no traffic lights and few rules. They just go and keep going. If you have to cross the street, you move quickly. Despite the weather we made it around the lake and even went across the Red bridge (see top of blog) to the little island in the middle of the lake which housed a temple. Because Bear will be happy to hear, I must mention that we found the Vietnam version of “Wal Mart”. Amazingly, it sits on the top floor of a very nice six story mall. What is so funny is what a LARGE man S is in Vietnam. He was looking at the clothes at the mall and his normal size of “L” or “XL” was about the size of an American 11-year-old. The right size for him was a 4XL. Look at the picture of him with the guards to see that even this man of 5’7” looks big somewhere. Perhaps we were just meant to be Vietnamese. The other funny thing about size is that every time I have ordered a coke (in two different restaurants) they automatically bring me a Diet Coke despite the fact that others in the group get their regular Coke. I guess that is a nice way of saying, “your behind is too large and you need the zero calorie soda”. We have laughed. It’s funny because today as we were walking, we realized that despite all of the adventure of the adoption, we are on vacation and should just indulge in all that this wonderful land has to offer. We cannot wait to get this baby and start loving her up, but we are determined not to sit in this hotel and let this experience pass us by. We bought the Bird his first prize today. We also got some wonderful tiny watercolor paintings that will go wonderful in her nursery back home. At the end of our walk, we stumbled past a wedding party. We held up our cameras and they just invited us in to take photos. Can you imagine? How sweet was that to just let us barge in? The Vietnamese are very kind and gentle people. We look forward to seeing and learning more and updating with all of our adventures. We haven’t quite figured out the video posting yet, but we still have about 36 hours before we get the baby, and that’s all people want video of anyhow.

What day is it??

Well, It's 1am and we went to bed at 3pm yesterday, so I'm sitting awake as can be. We have a total of 30 channels and half are in Vietnamese. As a person who is used to being dependent on her TIVO and about 300 satellite channels, it difficult to be an insomniac with so few channels. The only good thing is that we have two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, and two bathrooms (can you believe that?) and so as "S" is sleeping, I can sit out here in the living room and click away on the computer without waking him. The world is too small these days. I'm sitting here in Vietnam just sending out emails like it's nothing. It's nice to hear from back home, so keep the emails coming to dezire2adpt@yahoo.com
Oh well, I guess I best try to get back to resting a bit. We have a washer/dryer, but it only holds two pieces of clothing at a time (tiny), so I'm keeping it going all the time. Tomorrow/Today later I have to wash and boil baby bottles/nipples and we have to go and buy diapers and wipes. We got a call last night from our agency coordinator in Vietnam and things are still on our G&R (final adoption) ceremony on Wednesday January 23rd. It should be a life changing day.
Love you all and miss you back home. Keep the emails coming? It's nice to hear from home. Mimi & Grampy if you are reading this, we hope that Disneyworld is going well (yes our son is at the Happiest Place on Earth right now). Please give the Bird lots of kisses and tell him that we are already buying prizes for him to bring home.

We're Here!!

Happy 50th birthday Mel, by the way. Yes, we are in Vietnam. We got in a little while ago, and I just now got Internet access. It was the craziest 36 hours of my life. It took us 8 hours to get to Los Angeles and then the long part of the adventure was 16 hours to Taiwan. We were able to get on a quick flight out of Taiwan, so we had no layover which was good.
The long flight was bizarre. It was so long that it felt like time was passing, but we weren't moving ahead. We ended up completely missing the 19th of January. The Asian airlines are so amazing. They are so helpful and bring you anything you even think about. It was hilarious, because at like 4am, they threw on all the lights (most people are attempting to sleep) and gave out a meal of noodles in soup broth for lunch. I have never seen so many people wake suddenly from sleep and slurp noodles. It's absolutely overwhelming to be just down the road from the baby. We're coming sweet girl!!! We have three more days until we meet her. I know tomorrow will focus on myself. I'm going to find a place that does massages (like 10 dollars) and then we'll explore the city a bit more. We ate at the hotel tonight, so we have to find something a little more adventurous. Oh well, will write more tomorrow. It's only like 3:30pm here, but our bodies say it's 2:30am and we're exhausted.

Twelve more hours

Well, in twelve hours we are on our way. I was trying to decide if childbirth was easier or this route of having children. Parts of the adoption have been tremendously easy and then parts have been more tedious. I guess if you had to compare, with this baby there will be no surgery (with Bird I had a C-section) and we do get a vacation out of it. I just wished that we wouldn't be away from our son quite so many days, but he is going to have a blast with all of his grandparents. We will be attempting posting during our trip, so keep checking in frequently.

Leaving on a Jetplane

Yes, we are leaving in about 36 hours! We cannot believe it and it doesn't seem real, but it's time to go get the little one. We are SO sad about missing the Bird and he thinks that it's going to be quick (doesn't understand the concept of 3 weeks!). Anyway, we're packing and cramming and hoping that we don't leave anything of any importance back in the States. We are carrying four HUGE boxes of donations, so we are limiting ourselves and the baby to two suitcases to minimize paying for too many bags. By the way, the baby still has no name. We have just decided we need to see her. Maybe it will just come to us. I guess we're waiting on a burning bush :) Please be praying and we'll post from across the ocean.

Jumping for Joy!!

We're going to Vietnam!!!! Yes, that's right. We got our approval of our I-600 last night about 11pm and we immediately starting calling our agency to see when we can go and get her. The immediate response was, "as soon as you can get there!". That's all we needed to hear. We're in high speed now getting things together to be able to leave. We emailed the travel agent at midnight and he already responded early this morning. We think that we will leave on Friday the 18th and be in Vietnam until February 5th. We are still in a little shock but know that we can get all of this together quickly. NO ONE expected this to happen this quickly. We are certainly thrilled beyond belief. Please be praying for safe travel and a wonderful introduction to our forever child.

Get your Travel Visa's!!

We got the call on Friday to get our Visa's to travel to Vietnam! Don't get too excited because we are getting 90 day Visa's because we hope that we will travel sometime in the next 90 days. We are hoping for earlier, but this should cover us until the latest we could go and pick up our girl. Why are we still waiting? I will try to summarize the happenings.
Adoption update: Since the last posts have focused on our crazy son, let me just update quickly what's going on with number two in Vietnam. We have actually been delayed for the last two months by the new I-600 submission process put into place by the US government at the end of October. We applied to get the baby approved to come to the United States and have been waiting about 30 days for this approval to come through (they quote "in under 60 days" as the normal waiting time). Anyway, we are waiting it out and hopefully will travel quickly after we get that magical email that we are approved!!!
The glitch: If you know us then you know that there will be some glitch to this process. The first week of February in Vietnam is Tet. Tet is the celebration of the lunar New Year and apparently is the biggest holiday in Vietnam. The government literally shuts down for a few weeks to celebrate (makes me like Vietnam more for partying like this!). Anyway, this year they will celebrate the "Year of the Rat" and unless we are there to pick up the baby before Tet, then we could not travel until after the holiday is over. SO, the latest we should have to travel should be end of February (but we're still hoping for a miracle and travel by end of January). Keep all of this timing in your prayers. We would just like the baby not to age much more before she comes home. We're already missing so much of her life.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! We would have never thought we would be going into 2008 without our little one home. We hope that 2008 will be a great year with safe travel and good health for all four of us.

Merry Christmas!!

Today was our last Christmas as a family of three. We had such a great day. Bird said he was the "luckiest kid in the world" after he finished opening his gifts. He must have been a really good boy this year because Santa really brought a lot of toys. Amazingly, Santa must know that we are adopting because he even brought the baby a stocking with two new baby dolls :) We've missed not having her home today, but hope she is happy in Vietnam. We wish all of those reading this blog a very Merry Christmas!

Little Golden Pig

Vietnam celebrates the Chinese Zodiac calendar and our baby was born in a unique year, 2007. It is not only the year of the Pig, it is the Year of the Golden Pig. According to Chinese Folklore, this is an event that occurs once in every 600 years and will ensure that a baby born on this year will experience a prosperous and wealthy life. We are so thrilled to have a little Golden Pig coming into our family!

Maybe January??

Well, it's not going to be a holiday in Hanoi. We're disappointed, but we know that we will get to go just as soon as possible. Our paperwork for our Visa approval has been received by USCIS and we just await approval before we can travel and have our G&R ceremony (the official ceremony that makes her ours) in Vietnam. We are hoping now to travel sometime in January. We are so blessed to be able to spend Christmas with our son and as a family of three. We will miss our baby girl, but we know that Santa will still bring her some goodies that she can have when she comes home.

Slow Going

When we originally got our CFC, we hoped to travel the first week of December. Since I'm typing this from home, it is clear that we are NOT in Vietnam. We are still home and wishing we were with our little girl. Of course, we wished to have her home by Christmas, but we know that there's just another plan. We have sent our last documents to Vietnam and hopefully they will be processed as quickly as possible. We are still hopeful that we might travel in January. It's likely that if we can't go in January then we won't go until March. Since Vietnam celebrates Tet in February, there is little possibility of travel during the entire month of February. Therefore, please be praying for fast processing of this last form so we can go and get our daughter soon.

Cold in Vietnam?

In the United States, we dress our babies less for more practical reasons than function. I see parents dragging their kids around in mini skirts, tank tops, and frilly dresses. In the summer, I laugh at babies who have on little spaghetti strap tops and very grown up looking outfits. In Vietnam, it's all about function. There is no fashion, no matching, and the babies are dress VERY warmly year round. We were lucky enough to receive new photos today of our little one. She is dressed in two sweaters and a snow hat. We laugh because she has the most precious very round head. It makes her look even more like our child (we all have very round heads-lol). Anyhow, this poor hat must be made for newborns, because it barely sits on top of this round head. We laugh because in lots the pictures we have received, she is wearing the same yellow pants and a Christmas sweater. She really has a lot of Christmas spirit! The good news is that all of her clothes ALWAYS look clean and she has never been wet or dirty looking in any of them. We believe at this point having her home for Christmas is impossible. We are now starting to hope for January. Here is a picture of that little hat and a glimpse at the round head. Looking at it like this, it kind of looks pointy. Imagine really pudgy cheeks and a round head below :)

Baby Shower and Indian Day

Today was a fun day in our household. We had a baby shower at my work and Bird had "Indian Day" at his school in preparation for Thanksgiving. Our shower was awesome. We were so glad to celebrate our little one and we received some really great baby items. We were given our stroller and high chair as well as many other wonderful items. The Indian costume was custom made (thanks to Mimi and Mommy) and he looked adorable. We are all looking forward to some family time with no work and school the next few days. Just think, we could have been in Vietnam this next week, but the new form/process had to come in and slow things down. Oh well, at least we know that the end is the same no matter what the process. We have so much to be thankful for this year!

Sending up prayers to the big guy in charge...

If you read this blog and are a praying person, could you please pray for the next step of our adoption? I don't want to go into any details here on the blog, but we are at the point where the timing of what is to come is completely out of our hands. As I explained in a previous post, the way that Vietnam VISA paperwork is being filed has changed and we were directly impacted by this change. We really do know that the change is a good thing for Vietnamese adoptions in general, but it has caused a little pause in our process. We know that God can move mountains, so certainly a little paperwork in Vietnam can be moved quickly right? If you've been following along, thanks so much for your support and for hanging in there with us and our adoption process. God's timing is always perfect and though we don't know why we are having a little delay now, we know that it will all be worth it when we are holding our new little one.

Happy 1/2 Birthday Baby Girl!!!

Baby Girl is 6 months old today. It is so hard to know that we may not have her home anytime soon. At six months, babies are starting to have stranger anxiety. This means that they know familiar people and then they can identify non-familiar people. Six month olds also are developing trust relationships and sitting up on their own. It's tough not forming a relationship with this little one, but we know that God's timing in this adoption will be perfect. We'll have her whole life to make up for this time apart. Happy 1/2 Birthday little one! Here is one extra sneak peak of the sweet face (almost a smile) in Vietnam. Check out the double chin :)

Happy Halloween

Watch out Johnny Depp! We have one cute Jack Sparrow. What a great Halloween. We stayed at home and the Bird actually enjoyed passing out candy as much as he liked going house to house to trick-or-treat. He was absolutely adorable with his beard and mustache. He acted like a "real" pirate all night and was exhausted when we came inside. After a quick bath, he crashed sitting up with his pop-tart sitting on his chest.

Bit of a Roadblock...

Well, we have hit what might possibly be a bit of a roadblock in our beautiful fast adoption timing. The United States Department of Homeland Security decided last week that they were going to change the way that they processed the VISA form for adopted children from Vietnam. What they are requiring is that instead of applying when you are in Vietnam and getting it back in approx 7 days, that you mail it from home before you ever travel and wait to travel until they mail it back "in less than 60 days". Therefore, we should have been traveling in Nov/Dec, and now we will be filing this form in November and hoping it comes back in December so that we will travel before the end of the year. The actual process is a good thing and will make the process much smoother in the long run. The problem is that we've already waited for what seems like forever already (not even really that long!) so we are a bit penalized in that we could have mailed this form weeks ago if there had been some notice. Let's face it, when has the government ever processed a rule which went into effect in 7 days? Give me a break. We were hoping to be "grandfathered" in to the old way of filing the form, but there are absolutely NO exceptions (believe me we even called our Congressman!). We are mentally preparing for January or even February for travel just in case we have to wait the entire 60 days. We are asking all who might read this blog to pray for fast processing of this form so that our little one can come home before the end of the year.

We're Dreaming of a Vietnamese Christmas

We received new pictures of our little one yesterday. How wonderful it is to open up the email and there is a sweet face looking back at you. We are delighted to see a new glimpse into her life. The best thing is that apparently she is getting started on celebrating Christmas early. Just like her mom here at home, she's ready for the holidays. We are still hoping and praying to have her home by Christmas. Wow, what a Christmas present that would be. Enjoy the little sneak peek at the baby. She looks big in the pictures, but we're sure she is still pretty tiny. Isn't' that a sweet little hand?

Care Package

One of the families who is ahead of us in this process will get to travel next week to meet and adopt their son from the same orphanage as our baby girl in Vietnam. They have offered to hand carry a care package to her and we are so appreciative. The tradition is usually to pack a one gallon zip-lock so that you don't take up too much of their luggage space. H and I went last night and picked out three pairs of pants, two shirts, a hat, tiny blanket, and two toys. We washed everything to make it clean and soft and I tucked the blanket into bed with Bird so that it might smell like home. When it was stuffed, the zip-lock looked like it would explode. Packing everything into the bag was so wonderful because I knew that when it was opened that she might have something from us. Here are pictures of her first care package :)

Orphanage Life in Vietnam

As I said before, she lives in an orphanage with many other children as well as elderly people. Yes, she lives in an orphanage/old folks (which is kind of funny to imagine). Apparently in Vietnam, the state funds elderly and orphans to stay in one facility. I just wish that we could be there soon and pick her up. This picture is not necessarily at her orphanage, but it is probably very similar to how she lives. Our house will probably seem quiet and boring after living with all of those babies. One month down...

Five Months Old

Baby girl is five months old today! We just want to wish her a little birthday happiness from far away. What does a five month old do? She should be laughing & squealing, rolling from her belly to back, and sitting when held with her head steady. Does it absolutely kill us not to be seeing these things? Of course. We would love to see her smiling and laughing. We would love to watch her rolling and looking up in amazement at her new found tricks. God has a plan for her and for now she's to stay in Vietnam. We count the days until she can come home and experience her birthdays and milestones with us. Until then, we pray she is well cared for, eating well, and being loved on by someone in her orphanage.

She Smiles!

We received new photos of the baby. As you know, we cannot post her real pictures, so here is a little hint of what she is like at five months old. It is amazing to see how she is growing and becoming more alert. I had to post a little bit of her smile. We were both so glad to see her happy (though it's probably just gas!). It's so wierd to be starting to fall in love with someone you've never met. I guess this is what I felt like when I was pregnant. You can call it hesitantly loving. We constantly think of her and hope for the best, but we can't begin to imagine what it's going to be like at the end of this process. We are hoping still to travel after Thanksgiving if all continues to go as planned. What a great Christmas gift. We still don't have a name for her. We are hoping that it just comes to us one day. With Bird, we had the name picked out since we were dating. With this one, who knows??? Enjoy your little peak at baby girl!

New Nursery

This weekend Bear and Mel came up and got us started on the Nursery. The colors are very bright and we think it looks sweet. Here are some pictures. The walls are still pretty bare, but we are just getting started. We hope to get some things in Vietnam to put in her room. Also, the curtains are in the works, so hopefully they will be up soon. If you can't tell it in the pictures, the top of the room is a bright pink and the bottom is kind of a bright/lime green. It's really a big change from the baby blue that it was for Bird's nursery. We are working on some daisies (like on quilt) to put on the wall that are about 18 inches tall. Call us Martha Stewart wannabes, but we like to get crafty :) We will post more pictures as it gets a little more decorated. I think if you click on the pictures you can see a bit more of a close up.