Start your engines folks!!

We received word today that we are to start our dossier. This is the major paperwork that needs notarized and state certified. We already had some of it done since we were starting the China Adoption. But we'll have to have some things updated. And since hubby works for a different company now our homestudy will need to have some work as well.
They are saying our agency is going to be recieving lots of girl referrals in the next Month to Month and a half. But I'm trying not to get over excited. I understand in the adopion world things don't always go as planned. Please say a prayer for the girls that have been patiently (by no choice) waiting thinking they would get a referral since the end of October. It has been a hard wait on them thinking the next week would be the week, then the next, then the next, and so on. Thinking of you Laurie, Susan, and Sarah!

what's up with the color here?

Help! Can someone tell me what the heck I did and how to change it back so half my blog isn't darker than the other????
Thanks!

Very Thankful

I am not doing so good keeping up on this lately. Tis the season!
I have a lot to be grateful for this Thanksgiving.
1. Family! We had a lot of family visit Thanksgiving day and we had a lot of fun. Everyone from in-laws, Mom, Sis-in laws and family, cousins, aunts and uncles. I like having lots of family around.
2. Food! As long as the kids leave me alone in the kitchen I really enjoy making all the favorites.... Party Potatoes, Carrot Caserole, Pumpkin Pie with homemade whipped creme, stuffing with all the goodies in it and more! Mom made deviled eggs and scalloped oysters! Love them! And Sis and laws made fabulous Pies and sweet potatoes!
3. Kids! They sometimes completely wear me out but oh we have so much fun! They amaze me more and more each day.
4. Hubby! (didn't mean to put you at #4 babe!) He works very hard for his family. Actually everything he does is for his family. He is a very self-less person, it's all about us. (isn't that the way it's supposed to be!) I would live anywhere and do anything as long as I was with him! (thinking warm climate babe!)
5. My Chocolate business and all the girls there. It's my passion. The girls help so it's not my "everything". But oh to work in the world of fudge, truffles, white chocolate lattes, gourmet hot chocolate!!! Not a better job out there! Spoken by a true Chocoholic.
6. My friends including my online friends. I love my friends. I have all kinds, young, old, my age, crazy, sane, smart, fun, dingy, loud, interesting, creative, loving, kind, giving, caring. They keep me sane and make my life fun. My online friends are true supporters and teach me a lot about the world of international adoption.
7. God for blessing me with good health and a great life!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I'm very excited that a couple of friends from my agency get to travel to Vietnam for Christmas! So happy for them. What a great Christmas gift! Congrats Kelly and Sherri for getting to travel to get your sweeties this year! May you get your giving and receiving appointments soon!

Look what my Mama bought me!

My Mom is so sweet. Here she is in the hospital and I go to visit her and she has a present for me. She had the nurse take her down to the gift shop and buy this really pretty angel that looks like it's carved wood with a nativity seen on it. She heard me say how much I liked it last time I took her down there. I asked if it was an early Christmas present and she said no it is a gift for me for helping her. Funny thing is the same day I took her a Christmas Fairy to put in her room. We had fun sharing our gifts. Hopefully they let her out Thanksgiving week. She keeps asking me if I have my Thanksgiving menu started!!??? I just make all the favorites!

Oh Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree!

Can you tell I'm home with a sick girl today so I'm catching up on posting some?
Kelly's motivated me to post pictures of some Christmas Cheer I've put up. (Yeah! A link worked finally!!) Check out her awesome pictures. I love decorating for the Holidays and have a ton more to do. I love to decorate the railings but oh that takes some work. We have a family tree that the kids help with that has ornaments from different places we've vacationed to, and their homemade ornaments. And the kids each have a tree in their rooms that's not done yet. Plus a few things here and there to spice the house up. I also want to put lighted garland on the deck railing. And I put lighted trees in the planters out front. I want it all done for Thanksgiving since we have a lot of family coming then. Back to work!!

Oxygen anyone????

In Vegas Hubby and I decided to try this. It had three different kinds of aromatherpy to revitalize you, relieve pain and more. They give you a back massage and scalp massage while you're on the oxygen for 20 minutes. Honestly I couldn't tell any difference. But I can say it was an experience!

Picture of her bedding

Once we paint the walls, then I'm hanging long floor length curtains and a chandalier. I still have to find a rug and vintage dresser. I don't think I'll put a changing table in there. I never used the last one for either kids.

Baby update

There's supposed to be 1-boy referral this month and 2-3 girls! PLUS our agency just got approval for another orphanage in Ca Mau and there's supposed to be 50 kids there. Some are older and we have a lot of women using our agency that requested toddlers and older. Please pray that those that have been waiting get to see their kids pictures soon! We're still not supposed to start our dossier yet, but I need to get organized so I don't feel the mad rush or pressure during our busy time after Thanksgiving.
I have been buying a few things for baby girls room! Tee Hee! It's so fun. I finally ordered the crib bedding. I decided to so the shabby chic look so I can mix vintage pieces in her room. I'm looking for a pink vintage dresser with crystal knobs. Her stroller should be in any day. I had to order another one from ebay because the first one I ordered was discontinued. But I found the same one! AND I ordered a precious moments tree ornament and Vietnamese Christmas ornaments so I can put a little table top tree in her room! Sorry I can't get the link to work. check it out at www.mandysmoon.com Thanks Laurie! Great site! I'll post a picture when I have it done. I'm pretty sure we've decided on her name but we're not going to decide for sure until we see her picture. They are still saying the end of December of January.

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!

It's been almost a Month since I've posted! I got a little overwhelmed with our trip to Vegas and haven't caught up since. One of the disadvantages of owning your own business, you're NEVER caught up! Then the our kids have been sick on and off, and Mom is still in the hospital. Whew! (She feels great though)
Hubby and I really enjoyed the relaxing Lake of Las Vegas. We stayed at the Hyatt and it was beautiful. We went to a Custom Home Builders show there and had a great time. We toured homes there. Even saw a lot that was 30-million. Yes I said "lot"! 6-Acres of flat land on the lake. We drove past Celine Dion's house and Paula Abduals. Very pretty gated area.
Then the last night we stayed at the Venetian on the strip. It was hotter there and of course crazy busy even on a Sunday night. I actually got tired of the window shopping! Maybe it was the shopping with the hubby I wasn't used to. I could have really let go if it was just me or with the girls! We went to see the Phantom. It was unbelieveable. They built a 43 million dollar theatre just for this show.
Thanks to my dear friends including my sister-in law for watching the kids. They had a great time. Before we left little girl said "I have a feeling I'm going to be a little bit sad Mom!" But when I asked her how she did, she said good and kept telling us all the fun things they did.

Movin up!

Ok now we're number 5 on the list. Come on referrals! Lot's of people I know traveling now or soon. Love reading about everyone's trips.
Thanks for all that posted! I was being a bit sarcastic. Those non-bloggers still haven't replied though.
AND they discontinued by pink and black stroller! Can you believe it? I was so excited and for some reason it wasn't meant to be. I can get it in different colors. But dang-it I wanted pink and black! No time to go searching for another now.
My Mom will be in the hospital another 6-weeks! They want to keep her on iv antibiotics that long! And after every test known to man kind they still don't know the source of the infection. At least she feels good but it makes me very nervous. Plus I don't have much time to spend with her right now because we are very under staffed at the store. It's always everything at once right?
I bought clothes from the Children's place online tonight because my daughter needs socks and $$$ later both kids have a bunch of winter clothes coming. No time to go into a store right now.
Next week will be better because I will be sitting in a cabana with a flat screen, drink with umbrella, and a cabana boy waiting on me. Snap! Snap!! We sell t-shirts at my store that say, "All I want is an umbrella in my drink!" Amen! And no it won't be the hubby playing the cabana boy. He'll be in meetings. Darn!

Have you left me a comment yet????

I know many of you are reading this but not many are leaving comments. So how do I know when you've read it???? Click on comments below each post and if you don't have a blogger account just post under anonymous and leave your name so I know it's you! Don't be rude! Say hi! lol!!
Another referral from our agency this week! Yeah and congrats Sherri!

New Stroller!!!

Love this bag!
Baby leg warmers/tights! Great for those diaper changings, or those trying to go on potty.
Got this! Great for cold weather.
Our new stroller is on it's way!

I had to buy the baby a new stroller. Isn't is cute? A little premature but I was in one of those moods! So I'll feel better when we put it up in her room even though it's not decorated. See the baby leg warmers? They wear them as tights and then it's not such a pain to change their diaper or if they are potty trained. Love those! I havn't decided on a diaper bag yet. There's a company that has some great Asian prints. I may get one of those. We're having a baby shower tonight for a friend so maybe that's why I'm in this mood!

We're number 6 or 7!!

I talked to our agency today and we've moved up the list due to the referrals and a couple leaving the agency.
A really bad typhoon hit DaNang this weekend. The babies at the RC orphanage were evacuated to the hospital. Luckily before it hit hard. Part of it lost a roof. I guess there is a lot of damage. Anyone wanting to donate to help rebuild please contact our agency www.vorf.org Let's all pray all everything is able to get back to normal there soon. We have a couple of girls with our agency with babies there waiting for their families to come and get them. Hopefully the storm doesn't slow things down. Plus we have families waiting on Visa's so they can come home.

Nieces

These are my nieces plus a great niece and great nephew. Aren't they are beautiful? There are 23 years between myself and my sister so my nieces are closer in age to me than my sister is. My sister has 11 grandchildren! I just wish they lived closer. Can you guess which one is my great niece? She's almost 16, and she looks WAY older in this picture. I was shocked! She's beautiful like her Mom. (who's also in the picture)

referrals!!

Our agency is giving (or has given) out referrals this week!!
Congrats Kelly!! She has a precious bundle and is a 1st time Mom! We're all so excited as we've all been waiting for this all Month! Let's pray they get to travel before Christmas. Our agency is saying 3-4 months after referral to travel. I would LOVE to get our referral before Christmas. I just want to be home with the baby before spring but it may not be until then when we actually get to travel. You never know. We really aren't ready. I have a LOT of things to catch up on. We are going to move the spare bedroom into the basement (my old office) and then the new babies room will be upstairs with her brother and sister. The 2-girls will have a jack and jill bathroom. With at least 4 years between them that should be ok. There will be 10 years between the baby and her brother so when he moves on to college (U of I!!) she could always have his room. When he's 18 she'll only be 8!!! Just thinking about it makes me sad! He's a mama's boy, maybe he'll want to live at home awhile. But not too long! I will teach him how to be independent just like my Mama did! (Or was that me CRAVING it?) I couldn't wait to get my own place. I just turned 18 and didn't even mind only having mac n cheese and eggs around to eat for awhile. I had my freedom! College kids these days seem to have it way easier. My first car was a rust bucket! White mustang. And it was the one I wanted! I didn't ask for much. I just needed a car to get back and forth to the 3-jobs I had while going to school full-time. Two cars later (after a dodge horizon) I bought (with a loan) a 2-seater, stick shift, with a sunroof! I loved it! It was a Ford EXP. Last Ford I ever bought! Then I worked in the car business and bought my very first new car, a Honda CRX. It was burgandy with black leather interior and sunroof. Loved it! Then I had a red mazda mx3 (i think), then a purple mazda mx3, then a icky green mazda 626, then I bought a burgandy blazer to be more practical for my husband, then a silver volkswagon passat, loved that car! Then I had a white extended Envoy that I kept for a winning length of time-4-years! My husband couldn't believe I got rid of that, well my father -in law has it, and the car I'm driving now I bought out of spite. (another story), hubby bought a car on ebay and I was NOT happy about it. Well not really mad just a little taken back so I went a bidding between 4 dealerships online and had it delivered to my house 5-days later. And guess what? Hubby's deal fell through!! That's what you get!
How did I get on this????? Can you tell I love cars? Some day when I'm old and the kids are older (I didn't say grown) I want a little convertable, black or white. Problem is the kind I always like only have 2-seats and that's not exactly practical with the kids. Hey Mom maybe the hubby is rubbing off on me! He is her favorite. He grounds me. She always says, "What's J. think?" Like what I think doesn't matter! We better get the MAN'S opinion. His Mom said the best thing to me the other day. "I'm so impressed with what you've done to my Son!" I HAD to tell my Mom that one. She said, "Why would she say something like that? He's such a great guy, you're so lucky to have him." I don't believe in luck. You make it what it is. Whew. I got way off subject tonight.
Let's all cheer for the referrals!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yea! And congrats!!

Fun with the family-no kids!

Mini Chocolate Martini's! Fabulous! I'm ordering these cute little glasses to put fudge in and sell as "fudgetini's!"

My Aunt and Uncle looking so chic at 80 + years old! My Auntie said, "Well doesn't he look good!" My Uncle says, "There's my sweetie! I knew I would marry her the minute I put my eyes on her!" They are our inspiration..

The beautiful couple! They looked so happy. We're very happy for them! They make a great family.

There's the hubby and I after many drinks. Who took that? I think they had a few too many as well! What is it with me and the camera when I drink. Hubby says I shouldn't be allowed to mix the two. I'm on my third digital camera! And then I start taking pictures of myself with everyone. Like I have a 5-foot long arm or something! I'm not posting those..

the older generations

We went out of town this weekend for a family wedding. It was great seeing all the family and getting reaquainted with those you only see once in awhile. We also met some fabulous people. I even broke the news of our adoption to the "Aunties"! They are in their 80's and are from that generation that isn't quite as open with adoption or race. But they took it well. But I didn't give them much of an option. One even said, "Why! Can't you have kids of your own?" I didn't even take it hard and came back with, "this is what we've always wanted to do and now is the right time for us." The end. Some took it better than others and shared our happiness. The cousins were great and very happy for us. Lot's of questions and all positive. Love that! I haven't mentioned this but my Mom hasn't exactly been supportive of this. She thinks we DO too much. She had my sister and I 23 yrs apart so basically had 1-child at a time. Very low key, not the high energy fast moving family like what we have. I felt it was boring. That's why I always wanted a large family. Hubby came from a large family. He initally stated he only wanted 1 maybe 2 kids. Funny the difference in how you feel based on your family or childhood. His Mom is impressed with what I've accomplished with him! (lol) At first my Mom would almost act mad and not even talk to me when I brought up the adoption. But I'm a talker and she's my MOM! So if I feel like telling her about it I DO IT! My sister has been kind enough to talk her through this and explain we're going through this no matter how she feels about it so she should be supportive. Thank goodness for her! She's there to listen to me through all this and be the supportive one. Good thing for email and cell phones! So I just kept on sharing bits of info on our adoption with Mom and now at least she doesn't get mad about it or try to lecture me. I include her in the baby name poll, and talk to her about our trip, decorating the babies room, what I'll need to buy. And I believe she's warming up. She'll fall in love with her when she sees her just like we will. She loved the kids of an old friend that adopted from Korea. She couldn't wait to get her hands on them, so I'm sure she'll warm up to ours as well.
But at first it was awful trying to explain things to her. I would even print out things from the internet on adoption, famous people, successful people, things to NOT say to the adoptive parents and more to include her in all of this. Being 43 years older than me, we've always had a few differences! Just think there will be 39-40 years between myself and my youngest daughter! NEVER thought that would happen. But I'm hipper! I'll be young forever! (all you older folk reading this do not laugh too loud!) I WAS just playing football in our hallway a few hours ago...

"Our Child"

Our Child

I haven't met you yet or seen your face,
but in my heart you hold a place.
My hopes grow with each passing day,
even though you're miles away.
I know you're there waiting for me,
as I am here waiting to see,
the child God has sent from above,
to make me your Mom and share all my love.
-unknown

The kids

I finally figured it out!

After many unsuccessful attempts I found the program on my new laptop to make my pictures smaller so they could be viewed on this blog and email. It was so frustrating to have things changed on me. Might seem so simple to all you computer geeks, but it was opening my pictures in a completely different program and we could not figure out how to make the pixels smaller so we could put them on here. So this was a late night but oh am I happy now. Thanks to our wonderful photographer Jill we have new family photos (I hate to admit this!) and haven't had any since little girl was less than 1-yrs old! You'd never believe I was in the photography business for 6 + years! I guess I'm always the one taken the pictures and it was so much easier having her do it. Just think next year we'll have to have new ones taken for our family of 5!!! Yea!!

Come on September referrals!! (It's not us yet) But we all pray those that are ahead of us waiting in their final stages will hear news soon. I can't imagine the heart-ache of waiting and waiting. Then there's those that have their referral and are waiting for TA -travel announcement news! They know who their little ones are, have their pictures and updates and are waiting to go get them. Let's pray for them as well. May their babies be well taken care of and healthy. For those of you that have given birth and know all the pregnancy symptoms....the same thing happens when you're adopting. Some call it "paper pregnant". You're irritable, anxious, emotional, afraid of the unknown, nervous about the baby/child, tired, tired of waiting, stressed over little news you read about on the internet! I feel for those that are closer in the stages then we are. As someone on another blog stated, you hurry, hurry, hurry to get your paperwork done, then you wait, wait, wait, and wait some more. But I believe that the baby that is meant to be ours will be ours when she is suppose to! Great things come to those that wait. We had to be patient with our 1st two, now patient with our 3rd.

Fun Baby shopping

I love looking at baby things online. The only thing I've bought so far are some books. Since we requested an infant 0-12 mos. we don't have any idea how old she will be. So I can't buy anything yet! She could be 4-months she could be around a year. I guess it's a good thing I can't shop yet! You can sure find some great things online!!

Our agency is expecting a couple referrals anyday! We're all hoping it will happen this week!
Very exciting! Another group is leaving very soon to travel. Pray for everyones safe travel and speedy referrals.

Do we take our Son?

Sorry I haven't written much lately. My Mom has been in and out of the hospital twice this summer. She is home and feeling better now. Plus we are short staffed at our store since all the college kids went back to school. This always happens this time of year.

I wasn't thinking about taking our Son before because I thought our little 4-yr old would be real lonely without all 3-of us. But when I talked to her about it she actually sounded happy to have her Aunt and Grandma all to herself. Although she doesn't have a concept on how long we will be gone. Our Son will be almost 10 so it would be a great age. He was worried about the long flight but said it would probably be ok if he had a Nintendo DS! Right! He knows how to work us! I think it would be a great life experience for him to go. But I so worry about our little girl missing us all that I think he'll probably stay with her. I wish we didn't have to stay so long. Right now families have been averaging 18-days. That's a long time! Our 4-yr old is NOT a good traveler or I might consider taking her. But then we would also have to take someone else to help with the kids and another hotel room! That would be a huge extra chunk of $$$$. I think they would stress me out. It might be enough if the baby is sick or has attachment issues.

Our agency may have a few referrals to announce very soon! We all hope so! I think we're number 9 because someone had to stop their adoption process. Right now we're thinking our referral may come in January. Then travel is approximately 3-months later. Let's all pray for LOTS of referrals this month!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Vietnam Facts

Official Name: Socialist Republic of Vietnam
Government type: Communist
state Capital: Hanoi
Location: Southeast Asia - bordered by Laos, Cambodia, and China
Population: Over 83 million
Economy: The average working person in Vietnam earns around $10 per week.
Climate: mainly tropical
Terrain: low, flat delta in south and north; central highlands; hilly, mountainous in far north and northwest
Geography: Vietnam has over 2,000 miles of coastline. At its narrowest point, Vietnam is only 31 miles wide.
Natural hazards: occasional typhoons (May to January) with extensive flooding, especially in the Mekong River delta
Religion: Buddhist 54.14%, non-Religious 21.80%, Christian 8.16%, Traditional ethnic 8.10%, Cao Dai/Hoa Hoa 5.60%, Chinese 1.10%, Muslim 0.70%, and Baha’i 0.40%.
Constitutional guarantees of religious freedom are meaningless, as government policy is to control all religious movements, including Buddhism.

more baby names...

I just read somewhere the name, "Jersey"! I like it! We'll see what the hubby and kids say about that one. My daughter keeps saying "Ruby" which I like and the boy likes "Ramsey'

Do you like these for baby bedding?

My 4-yr old has a room all girls would dream of. Crystal chandalier, picket fence, flowers and butterflies painted on her walls, "what little girls are made of" quote on her wall, 4-poster shabby chic princess bed, back porch floor boards with braided rug, antique shabby writting desk, beaded entry to her bathroom.... Ok my dream girly room!
So I'm thinking of doing the new babies room in pink and brown! And the same girly shabby chic theme.
Here's some bedding and looks I like..

Marriage certificate came!!!

Finally! This is the second time but finally it arrived certified with a notary date longer than a year! It had to come from Hawaii and cost a lot because I included an over night fed ex envelope so it would get back to us sooner.
Now all we need is letter from my CPA and passport photos. But we're told to wait on getting everything notarized and certified due to some documents being time sensitive and expiring in 6-months. Whew! It's a great day!

She's growing up....

Our youngest is getting so big. 36-lbs! She likes to do the "cheesy grin" for her pictures. I have to make the decision on if she'll start kindergarten next year or wait a year and put her in alternative kindergarten. She has a summer b-day and in out school district they always recommend all summer b-day kids to wait a year. Well I don't want her being the youngest! Even though she is a spit-fire and could take on those kids twice her age!!!!
When we were at the hair salon last week she was asking EVERYONE their names and how old they were. Then she sat in a chair next to a girl that was around 8-yrs old and stared at her making the poor girl a bit uncomfortable. Our little one can be a bit intimidating if she wants to. Once at Target the cashier gave her pack of gum to her and our little one said thank you. But then she kept saying to the lady whom was ignoring her and on to the next customer. Our little one then looked at me and said, "Mom I told the lady thank you but she's not saying "your welcome"!" Man you better talk to her when you're supposed to or she will let you know! And she won't forget ANYTHING!
So back to the school thing. I will be deciding based on classroom size where she will attend kindergarten. I am NOT sending her to a school that has over 22-28 kids in a class like what happened to our Son. That will be a fun decision!

baby names

I come up with a fabulous name and the husband doesn't like it! Our little girl likes one....the boy likes something else.....this will be fun!
Ramsey, Aunacka, Ainsley, Emerson, Laken, Rhanne,
I don't think we'll chose til we see her picture!!
As you can tell we like unique names!

We're number 10!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We faxed our I171 to our agency and was put on the wait list for a referral of a baby girl!
They did say that 3 on the list requested older girls, and they should have 2-3 infant referrals in September! So that would take us down to 5. But they are thinking January for a referral. Then 3-4 months to travel. This could speed up if they get approvel for more orphanages.
So we have to wait on our dossier till we're a little closer to a referral because some documents are time sensitive.
It's been a long time coming to get to this point and very stressful and time consuming! We're so excited!!!

Sports all begin this week!

Soccer, gymnastics, and dance all start this week!!!!!!!!!! Here we go again.
And School starts tomorrow! Yea!

we shall have pictures..

Thanks Laurie for helping me resize these babies! Now hopefully I can figure out how to get them on the blog! Scary!
Hey it worked! There we are! The Hubby and I! EWWWW, we're looking a bit old! I'm not 40 yet, I'm not 40 yet, I'm not 40 yet!! My goal is to be completely organized, home with baby, and in the best shape of my life before that big day! Luckily I have over 10-months for that.

We received the I-171!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yea baby!! It came only 6-days after our fingerprint appointment! And we didn't get the mail yesterday or I would have been doing the "happy dance" then!!!
What is it?
It is the Notice of Favorable Determination Concerning Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition. They state that we are able to furnish proper care to an orphan. Like we didn't already know that!
It gets forwarded to the National Visa Center, and to the American consulate/embassy at Ho Chi Minh City, (HCMC), Vietnam. We are approved for up to 2-children and for only 15 months! (or we would have to re-do it)
So now we need to wait for our marriage certificate from Hawaii and get everything noterized, then travel to get them state certified by the secretary of state. I'd love it if we'd receive the marriage certificate back by Wednesday then we'd notarize everything Wednesday night and drive to get them cerified on Thursday. Then we're officially in line for a referral.
Yea! Happy dance, Happy dance!!

Why Vietnam?

Well that's a loaded question isn't it?!!!!
We have looked into and thought about adoption since going through infertility with our first child. Our perfect first born came by quite a suprise! Then the expensive emotionally exhausting invitro fertilization that produced our second miracle baby!! We had seriously looked into adoption before her. Jeff felt ivf would work for us, and it did. But I couldn't get adoption out of my head. I've researched adoption for so many years. I researched every known way to adopt! I researched EVERY Country out there. Ultimately it come down to what was meant to be for us. I knew of many people that had adopted domestically and have a fabulous family. But I also knew of many that thought they were getting a baby and having to deal with the birth mom changing her mind. So international adoption was meant to be for us. We signed up with an agency that handled adoptions through China in April 2006. This was one year after I had tried to convince my hubby of this before. I prayed that I would either lose my urge to adopt or he would feel the same way I felt and want another child now as well. I don't want to have any regrets when I'm older looking back on my life. They say it's not what you've done you'll regret, it's the things you have NOT done! (one of my favorite quotes!)
Due to my business expansion (for some reason I like to keep that stress level high!) our paperwork got put off for around 2-3 months. We started the dossier paperwork for China. We thought if we had it all done by the end of summer and logged into China by September it would be the following fall when we would travel to China to get our approximately 1-yr old girl. Then as we progressed we found out things were slowing down in China as far as referrals due to an increase in the number of applications. It may have been 2008 before we would travel. I started researching Vietnam since it has reopened this year and had 6-months under it's belt. I wanted to wait till some of the kinks were ironed out and found a great agency that does a lot of humanitarian work there. They have a great foreign faciliator and reputation. We are now almost near the end of our paperwork! Once we are on the list it may take 4-5 months for a referral of an infant (4-12mos.) girl and approximately 3-4 months to travel. With adoption there are no guarantees. I'm hoping we'll be back home with our little one by next summer. Hubby and I will travel there for approximately 2-weeks. Please pray it all goes fast and smoothly!

What happens in Vietnam?

Here's a VERY brief answer....

You travel to Vietnam and head to the orphanage where you meet your child. You will attend a formal giving and receiving where your child becomes yours officially in Vietnam. (called the G & R) Papers are signed and the government gives you your child. The first of two interviews are set up in Saigon at the USConsulate. You travel to Hanoi for the second of interviews waiting on the passport to leave the country. Your child will get a Vietnam passport to travel your given a packet that when you arrive in the US makes your child a U.S citizen if your husband saw your child before it became official, a resident alien if your husband traveled after the Giving and Receiving. This would cause you to readopt to obtain Citizenship for your child.

Can't post pictures!!!!!

My files are too big for this! And my hubby and I tried to make them smaller files but for some reason now it's not working! Hate this technical stuff. Let me know if you have suggestions! I 'd also like to be able to attach links and other blogs of friends adopting from vietnam but that isn't working either!

why the wait to travel once you have a referral?

I came across this written by a lady on one of the yahoo groups.

I was curious about the exact steps involved in processing a dossier in Vietnam, so I asked my agency for some clarification. I thought this was very helpful in explaining why it takes 4-5 months between dossier submission and travel. Here is the process (according to my agency's Vietnam coordinator):

Basically there are 4 steps.
Your dossier first goes to Hanoi - step1. After it is translated in Hanoi it is submitted to the Department of International Adoption (DIA). They look over your documents and make sure everything is current and that you have all the documents present. Then they send your dossier to the province (where the orphange is) to the justice department.

This is step 2. This is the longest step. During this step, the justice department contacts the orphanage and asks for all the childs paperwork as well. They process the child's paperwork to make sure everything is accurate that the child is really truly free for adoption etc and make sure your paperwork is all in order. When they are finished, they send it back to Hanoi to the DIA

step 3 DIA gives final approval for the child and you and then sends it one more time back to justice department

step 4 The justice department calls our representative to come in and pay the G&R (giving and receiving) fee and our G&R is set for 2 weeks from the date the fee is paid.

Unfortunately, each case can take a different amount of time. We have no idea how long each step is going to take but the 2nd step is the longest. When the paperwork is in the province at the justice department we really get NO update. However, DIA is good about calling us and giving an update about our cases when they get your paperwork back in their office.(end of excerpt)

Adoption language

There is an appropriate way to talk about adoption. We came across the following excerpt that explains appropriate adoption language. We have found this to be helpful in educating ourselves and others.Using accurate adoption language when speaking about adoption is extremely important. Even well meaning family members and friends can inadvertently convey the misconception that adoptive families are less real or permanent, and that a child who was adopted remains somehow different. This can be hurtful and hard to forget by the adoptee or adoptive parents.
Here are some points to remember:
As with race or gender, the fact that a person was adopted should be mentioned only if it's essential to the story. If it's used, relevance should be made clear. A daughter, niece, granddaughter, or cousin who joined the family through adoption is -- and should be described as -- simply a daughter, niece, granddaughter, or cousin, not as an "adopted daughter", etc.

Once an adoption is final, a child is simply a regular member of the family. If it is relevant to mention adoption, past tense phrasing is appropriate, such as "Elia was adopted in August 2006" rather than "She is adopted". Adoption is just one of many events in Elia's life, not an immutable personal trait. Elia's family should be referred to simply as father, mother, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. The man and woman who shared in Elia's conception can be referred to as the birthparents (NOT "real" or "natural" parents). You should never ask, "do you have any of your own?" They are all their own!

The reasons that people adopt are rarely relevant. To suggest or say that someone "couldn't have a baby of their own" is inaccurate. Adoption is a choice, and is not second best. Children who join families through adoption are their parents "own" by law and by love. Families are formed by love, not biology.

Words not only convey facts, they also evoke feelings. The way we talk, and the words we choose, say a lot about what we think and value. When we use positive adoption language, we say that adoption is a way to build a family just as birth is. Both are important, but one is not more important than the other. Please choose positive adoption language instead of the negative talk. People who use incorrect terminology should be politely corrected. When we use positive adoption language, we educate others about adoption.

The Dossier.....

We are almost ready to get it done, notarized, and state authenicated!
What the heck does that mean?
We are currently still waiting to get our marriage lisence back from Hawaii. They had sent it before but the notaries commission expired a few days later. Once we get that we need to start notarizing all of our documents. I'm going to have one notary do them all and then we head to the secretary of state's office to have them certify the notary. We need our marriage certificate, passport copies, I171-H, medical letters for both of us, employement letters/cpa letter, police clearance letters, our homestudy, power of attorney for our agency, and our application for adoption. That's all! And most of them have a 6-month shelf life or they have to be redone. Please pray it all goes smoothly.

Back from the Lake

The kids were great! What a relief! We had an awesome time. AND what was waiting for us in the mail? Our FINGERPRINT appointments! In 2-days!!!!!!!!!!!!
But we were both able to make it with only 3-detours on the drive there. We were a half hour late but luckily they were able to get both of us in. Our state is very fast at getting the approval back (called the I-171a) which is great because once we get it we can fax it to our agency and be officially on the list for a referral of a baby! Yea!
We're almost done!

Our decision to adopt!

July 22 2006

At Raven's preschool they asked us if we were adopting. They said Raven had told them that we are adopting a baby girl so she will have a little sister. I thought this was funny because I've always wanted to adopt and honestly we went through infertility treatments with both Ryker and Raven and before Raven I looked very strongly at adopting from China or Cambodia. But the IVF procedure worked and we were blessed with our kids! Then a friend adopted from Korea and that got me thinking again. Now our Raven seems to know something we didn't know! So I prayed for a long time and then started researching online. I prayed that either Jeff would come on board with the idea or I would lose the urge. Two equal hearts! So in January of 2006 Jeff said we would look into our options in Feb. I never thought he'd come on board. BUT He decided we would move forward and decided on China. I was SO excited! I was READY to get it started! I had researched so much already and knew what China agency we would go with. They ONLY did China adoptions and were based in CO. I set up the homestudy interviews. We had to have references, physicals and write biographys on our lives starting from our childhood! After starting the process the adoptions from China started getting really backlogged. There was a huge wait. They estimated it to be longer then 2 years for a referral. Vietnam recently reopened back up for adoptions after being shut down for 2 years. I found many people online and learned a lot about the country. So we switched our plans and decided on Vietnam. We also switched agencies to another that did worked with only Vietnam. I was upset when hubby's Dr. wouldn't sign a simple 2-sentence paper that said he was mentally and physically healthy and able to adopt. He wanted him to go back in for a physical. I told the nurse he just had a full physical for his scuba diving certification, but she didn't have any record of it! So it would be 2-months before he could get in for his appointment. I freaked! I told her very calmly that my dr. after only seeing me 1-time EVER signed my paper, and my hubby goes in to see his all the time and I hope they feel good in their hearts that they would be holding us up on getting our baby girl by over 2-months! And that it was silly to not sign something saying hubby was able to adopt. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I got it signed by a different dr. he has seen in the past. Now I have to fax it to our social worker for the homestudy and she will send it to my agency for review then on to the state. Then we wait for our finger print appointments and a week or so after that our dossier will get sent to our agency for authentication and translation. Then we wait for our baby girl to get referred to us. Lots of unknowns right now but we can't wait to see the girl God chose for us!