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!