We are flying to Hanoi on Sunday (less than a day away). We have an appointment to get Daniel's Visa on Monday. We should pick up his Visa on Tuesday night. We can all go home Tuesday night! But, its not that easy. Some of us have had trouble finding flights back Tuesday night. Yep, thats right, just us. We are on a waiting list for Tuesday night and Wednesday. The only flight that is confirmed is on Friday. Hopefully something will open up and we can take the Tuesday night flight out with everyone else.
For some reason, starting on Friday, Daniel will only let me hold him. He obviously loves Renee. She can make him laugh much easier than I can, but if she comes over to pick him up, he just starts to whine and will turn his head away. Yesterday, I had to leave to go and check on our plane tickets, and when I left him alone with Renee he absolutely freaked out kicking and bucking and screaming at the top of his lungs. I stayed around the corner of the partition wall hoping he would calm down before I actually left so I would feel better about it, but he did not. And for a few hours after that event, he would start crying even if Renee gets near him. But the good news is that after some play time with Renee, he is just fine until she tries to pick him up. So, we will just have to wait until we all get home and let this all straighten itself out.
This will be the last post until we make it to Hanoi.
Saturday, June 9, 2007
Mekong and Beach (Friday and Saturday)
Friday - Today we went to the Mekong Delta. It was one of those tour deals which included boat rides, watching how the local Vietnamese make coconut candy, tasting honey tea and various fruits. And we got to see a large Python. The guy was looking for tips by letting people hold it around their necks for pictures. We also got to go on a canoe ride through these beautiful Vietnam canals. I don't mean some kind commercial looking canoe, but an authentic Vietnamese canoe fully equipped with two Vietnamese people paddling while we hung own trying to not turn it over. That was probably my favorite part of the day except for the feelings of danger of doing this with a little child and the real possibility we may turn over. Again, it was hot! You just cannot escape it. Daniel hung in there well except he wined the entire canoe ride.
--Sorry for no pics for the Mekong trip, we only used the Video Camera. I will post something after we get back home.
Saturday - A day at the beach. We went to the South China sea today and stayed a little while at the beach. As far as I know, this was the first time Daniel has ever been in the ocean or a pool. We started out in the ocean, but the water was too warm and it was very hot in the sun. Renee covered both Daniel and I with sun block. We then headed to the pool, which was much better. The water was great and Daniel just loved it. Despite the sun block I ended up burnt to a crisp. I don't how that happened.
This is on the way back from the beach.
Kyle and I really got him giggling.
This is in the pool after we had already been
on the beach and burning our toes off because
the sand was sooo hot.
Heres the family at a real Vietnamese
restaurant overlooking the sea. This was
on our way back to Ho Chi Minh City.
Thursday, June 7, 2007
All is well in Ho Chi Minh City
Well, it is almost 6:00am on Friday morning. Sorry for not posting until now, but we have been busy and wore out.
Wednesday-- Well this was a good day for all of us. One of the CHI reps took the families site seeing. We pretty much just drove around and then we went to see a Chinese Temple and then we went to the Museum of Vietnam History. We had a lot of fun. Then it was back to the hotel. Today was the day that we actually got Daniel's passport. It is his Vietnamese passport, so when he get home, we will not be able to use it anymore. Only one of us had to go get the passport, so I stayed in the room with Daniel. He was napping when Kyle left, and I did not want to sit here with nothing to do, so I decided I would wake him up. He actually smiled at me :), it was so cute. I finally got him to eat quite a bit. We have been worried because he has not been eating a lot. We were told that he may not eat or drink a whole lot for the first several days, but we were still worried about it. After his lunch, I propped him up on some pillows, and started tickling him, and he just laughed and giggled. I was totally shocked, I immediately got the video camera and filmed a little bit of him. It was not easy trying to tickle him and film at the same time, but I did not want Kyle to miss THIS!!! After a few minutes of tickling him, I thought I would try to stand him in the floor and see if he would walk to me without whining, and low and behold, he did GREAT!! I also got this on film. After just a minute or two, he decided he just wanted to play with a few little toys in the floor. About that time, here Kyle came in the room and was surprised at what he saw. After all this, all of the couples came to our room for a meeting with Thuy (our main CHI rep). She was going over our agenda for the next few days. The next step she told us, is to go to the CIS Immigration office here in Ho Chi Minh City. After our meeting, Thuy took just a couple of the families to a traditional Vietnamese restaurant. It was on the river and it was a very nice place. The dinner was excellent, and we ended up tasting a few different dishes. After we got back to the room, it was late and we were both so tired.
Thursday-- We went and had our CIS interview today. It went like we expected, just some questions about ourselves and then about Daniel. We met with the US representative of Homeland Security for no more than 5 minutes. So now, the only thing we are waiting on is our interview in Hanoi with the Embassy. It is looking as if this could happen on Monday or Tuesday. If this does happen, we should be getting home earlier than expected. Things have gone pretty smoothly so far, so I am hoping that this does as well.
We also went to the zoo. Daniel wanted to point at everything. He makes sure we are looking at what he is pointing at. We kept trying to give Daniel water because it was so hot, but he would have none of that. Finally Kyle poured some water in a bottle cap and pour it in Daniel's mouth. Daniel would then spit it out letting it run down his shirt and then smile real big. Maybe he got a little water. It was so hot at the zoo, we were all wanting to leave within 30 minutes. Kyle asked one of our CHI reps if she thought it was hot. She said, yes it is very hot. We had wondered if maybe the Vietnamese thought this was just normal feeling weather. They just deal with it better. When we got back, Deanna and Jason (another set of CHI adoptive parents) let us have a bottle of peadialite. Daniel drank half of it in just few minutes.
Daniel has been having some issues today. He has not wanted me what so ever except about for a total of a couple of hours or so. I got to feed him at breakfast, then while we were at the CIS office, he feel asleep and I held him. Also, I got to hold him at lunch for a little while and then at the zoo for a few minutes. When we got back from the zoo, he did not want anything at all to do with me. He absolutely screamed his head off when I tried to pick him up and console him. All he wanted was Kyle. Thursday night, Daniel discovered an empty bottle box. He investigated it for nearly 20 minutes, then discovered he could put his little cars in it. He then put cars in and dumped them out for over an hour. When Kyle was next to him, he would hand the cars to Kyle one at a time, then want them back one at a time and fill the box again. Then dump them out and over and over. He did this until eyes were nearly shut and head drooping. It did not take 1 minute for him to fall asleep on Kyle's chest.
Renee and Daniel at the Chinese Temple
Daniel feeding himself Yogurt.
Daniel looking at the elephant at the zoo.
Daniel and the empty box he played with for over an hour.
Wednesday-- Well this was a good day for all of us. One of the CHI reps took the families site seeing. We pretty much just drove around and then we went to see a Chinese Temple and then we went to the Museum of Vietnam History. We had a lot of fun. Then it was back to the hotel. Today was the day that we actually got Daniel's passport. It is his Vietnamese passport, so when he get home, we will not be able to use it anymore. Only one of us had to go get the passport, so I stayed in the room with Daniel. He was napping when Kyle left, and I did not want to sit here with nothing to do, so I decided I would wake him up. He actually smiled at me :), it was so cute. I finally got him to eat quite a bit. We have been worried because he has not been eating a lot. We were told that he may not eat or drink a whole lot for the first several days, but we were still worried about it. After his lunch, I propped him up on some pillows, and started tickling him, and he just laughed and giggled. I was totally shocked, I immediately got the video camera and filmed a little bit of him. It was not easy trying to tickle him and film at the same time, but I did not want Kyle to miss THIS!!! After a few minutes of tickling him, I thought I would try to stand him in the floor and see if he would walk to me without whining, and low and behold, he did GREAT!! I also got this on film. After just a minute or two, he decided he just wanted to play with a few little toys in the floor. About that time, here Kyle came in the room and was surprised at what he saw. After all this, all of the couples came to our room for a meeting with Thuy (our main CHI rep). She was going over our agenda for the next few days. The next step she told us, is to go to the CIS Immigration office here in Ho Chi Minh City. After our meeting, Thuy took just a couple of the families to a traditional Vietnamese restaurant. It was on the river and it was a very nice place. The dinner was excellent, and we ended up tasting a few different dishes. After we got back to the room, it was late and we were both so tired.
Thursday-- We went and had our CIS interview today. It went like we expected, just some questions about ourselves and then about Daniel. We met with the US representative of Homeland Security for no more than 5 minutes. So now, the only thing we are waiting on is our interview in Hanoi with the Embassy. It is looking as if this could happen on Monday or Tuesday. If this does happen, we should be getting home earlier than expected. Things have gone pretty smoothly so far, so I am hoping that this does as well.
We also went to the zoo. Daniel wanted to point at everything. He makes sure we are looking at what he is pointing at. We kept trying to give Daniel water because it was so hot, but he would have none of that. Finally Kyle poured some water in a bottle cap and pour it in Daniel's mouth. Daniel would then spit it out letting it run down his shirt and then smile real big. Maybe he got a little water. It was so hot at the zoo, we were all wanting to leave within 30 minutes. Kyle asked one of our CHI reps if she thought it was hot. She said, yes it is very hot. We had wondered if maybe the Vietnamese thought this was just normal feeling weather. They just deal with it better. When we got back, Deanna and Jason (another set of CHI adoptive parents) let us have a bottle of peadialite. Daniel drank half of it in just few minutes.
Daniel has been having some issues today. He has not wanted me what so ever except about for a total of a couple of hours or so. I got to feed him at breakfast, then while we were at the CIS office, he feel asleep and I held him. Also, I got to hold him at lunch for a little while and then at the zoo for a few minutes. When we got back from the zoo, he did not want anything at all to do with me. He absolutely screamed his head off when I tried to pick him up and console him. All he wanted was Kyle. Thursday night, Daniel discovered an empty bottle box. He investigated it for nearly 20 minutes, then discovered he could put his little cars in it. He then put cars in and dumped them out for over an hour. When Kyle was next to him, he would hand the cars to Kyle one at a time, then want them back one at a time and fill the box again. Then dump them out and over and over. He did this until eyes were nearly shut and head drooping. It did not take 1 minute for him to fall asleep on Kyle's chest.
Renee and Daniel at the Chinese Temple
Daniel feeding himself Yogurt.
Daniel looking at the elephant at the zoo.
Daniel and the empty box he played with for over an hour.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Latest happenings
It is 5:30am Wednesday morning (5:30pm on Tuesday evening back home). We were so exhausted after yesterday, that we decided to wait until this morning to fill everyone in.
Yesterday was not that great of a day for Daniel. He had to have a medical exam (this is one of the 4 things that has to be done in order for him to get an exit VISA) at one of the hospitals, and he did not like it what so ever. The first thing we had to do is weigh him, measure his height and his head size. When I stood him on the scales, he cried so loud, that Kyle could hear him out in the waiting room. All he wanted was to be held. The technician that was doing all this, did it so fast, I was wondering how he was getting everything. After that was over, we had to go back out to the waiting room and wait to see the doctor. The doctor was asking us questions, and then came the exam. Boy was that rough for him and me. We had to undress him, and he was not cooperating one bit. All the doctor did was look in his ears, and try to listen to his heart, but I do not see how that was possible, he was squalling so loudly. I was having a hard time, because I could not even console him. After we finally go his his clothes back on him, the doctor wanted to see him walk. At first, he did not want to move, finally, he went to Kyle and that was it. As soon as we walked out of the office, he was OK.
He was whinny all night long, both of us had a hard time consoling him. We finally decided to get out of the hotel room, and go to the market. That seemed to help. We had to buy some yogurt and bottled water, and of course, diet Coke for Kyle. When we got back to the room, he was doing better, but you could tell he was trying to fight falling asleep. Finally, around 9:00pm he went to sleep. This was the first night that he did not sleep all night.
We did have some very bright moments yesterday. Kyle and Daniel were playing with a couple of little cars that we brought with us, and while they were playing, Daniel dropped one of the cars and he decided that he would get out of Kyle's lap and walk over and pick up the car. This was the first time that he willingly walked by himself without any coaxing from either of us. That made us both feel very happy.
Also, while Kyle was holding him, we would kind of run toward each other and give each other a big squeeze, and he really seemed to enjoy that. We also found out that he enjoys looking at himself in the mirror, and he will will put his finger on the glass and smile.
While we have been out in the van, going around, he has been pointing at just about everything. And he makes sure that we are looking at what he is pointing at.
Hopefully today, we should be going to the CIS Immigration office here today for an interview. We do not know for sure if we will be able to go today or tomorrow until around 11:00am today. There are 4 other families here with us and all of his will hopefully be getting our children's passports on Thursday.
After the CIS interview we will be here a couple of more days, and hopefully we will be flying to Hanoi on Sunday. While we are in Hanoi, we will have the Exit VISA interview with the Embassy. After that is done, we will be able to come home.
We will be doing some site seeing, and hopefully we will be going to the beach on Saturday. Well, he has just woken up and it is 6:20.
Here is Daniel feeding Kyle some rice. He would rather feed us than get fed.
Here is a typical picture of the traffic around here. You cannot possibly imagine what it is like until you are here. It is like witnessing a near crash every second, but they don't seem to ever crash. They sometimes are inches away from each other. There apparently is no kind of law of who has the right away. It just kind of flows like water. It is very scary to cross the street. They don't stop for you. You just give them time and room to go around.
Sunday, June 3, 2007
The Tasmanian Sleeper / G&R
Our first night with Daniel was like sleeping next to the Tasmanian devil. He slept 10 straight hours without waking. Although he slept the whole time, he would sleep silently for 20-30 minutes then roll over and over kicking, squirming and thrashing. Then came another 30 minutes silent sleep.
He does not want to be put down for anything. He is OK going from Renee and I or vice-versa, but he cries if you let go of him. He is also OK with me laying on my back and he will sit up on my belly. Kyle will lay on his back and Daniel likes to fall asleep face down on his chest. After all, it is such a large surface to stretch out on. Its like a king size bed to him.
Daniels first bath experience went OK. He cried a lot and shook from being cold because he would not sit down in the warm water. Maybe it will go better tomorrow. If not, we may just switch to the wash cloth method until we get back home.
It is 11:26am Vietnamese time and Danny boy is taking a nap. We just finished with the Giving and Receiving (G&R) ceremony where he is now officially ours. It was a non-event really. We just walked in and signed some papers and that was it. They were so busy with marriages, adoptions, etc that we had to go to some other room to finish the ceremony.
He is not eating that well, but he is drinking enough. He will eat better in time. Thuy told us that not eating is normal for that for adopted children his age. Just before his nap, we got our first smile. Lots of teeth! Renee captured it on video. If I have time later, I may try to find a way to post it. I was able to get the smile by picking him up high over my head and wheeeeee! Then I discovered a ticklish spot on his belly. Another good smile for that was displayed. I did not keep doing it over and over because I know that the attachment process is a long one and I did not want to use up my allotment of smiles yet.
Oh yeah! I was all worried about changing a diaper for the first time. Its a breeze!
He does not want to be put down for anything. He is OK going from Renee and I or vice-versa, but he cries if you let go of him. He is also OK with me laying on my back and he will sit up on my belly. Kyle will lay on his back and Daniel likes to fall asleep face down on his chest. After all, it is such a large surface to stretch out on. Its like a king size bed to him.
Daniels first bath experience went OK. He cried a lot and shook from being cold because he would not sit down in the warm water. Maybe it will go better tomorrow. If not, we may just switch to the wash cloth method until we get back home.
It is 11:26am Vietnamese time and Danny boy is taking a nap. We just finished with the Giving and Receiving (G&R) ceremony where he is now officially ours. It was a non-event really. We just walked in and signed some papers and that was it. They were so busy with marriages, adoptions, etc that we had to go to some other room to finish the ceremony.
He is not eating that well, but he is drinking enough. He will eat better in time. Thuy told us that not eating is normal for that for adopted children his age. Just before his nap, we got our first smile. Lots of teeth! Renee captured it on video. If I have time later, I may try to find a way to post it. I was able to get the smile by picking him up high over my head and wheeeeee! Then I discovered a ticklish spot on his belly. Another good smile for that was displayed. I did not keep doing it over and over because I know that the attachment process is a long one and I did not want to use up my allotment of smiles yet.
Oh yeah! I was all worried about changing a diaper for the first time. Its a breeze!
This picture is our first in-person glimpse of Daniel being brought to us.
We Got Him!
After one of the most agonizing flights of our lives, we were hurried to the hotel then wisked to the orphanage to meet Daniel. We felt like walking zombies! Since Friday morning at about 5:30am, Renee and I have only had about 5 minutes sleep here and there on the flight. They usually only give you your adopted child on weekdays and we were told "do not to expect to take him home with you." While we were standing in the lobby getting ready to leave to meet Daniel, we were told that we were actually going to be able to bring him back to the hotel with us. This was a shock, we had to go back to our room to get some more baby care stuff and off we went.
He actually seems to be accepting us into his life better than we expected. He cried a lot when we first met him. He did not really want to have anything to do with Kyle, but reluctantly accepted Renee. Finally after some more crying and Kyle walking him around to point things out, he finally seemed to take to Kyle as well. He is still in shock from being yanked from the orphanage. He will not let you put him down. If you even re-adjust him in your arms, he holds on for dear life. He keeps looking around the room with this scared look on his face, but he is ok, if we hold him really close. He seems to like us rubbing lotion on him. That is about the only thing so far he seemed to like. After a little crying he fell asleep on Kyle's chest.
We are beat. We are going to try to get a little sleep tonight, but I just know that Daniel will wake up in the middle of the night and be scared to death, after he realizes he is not at the orphanage.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Its Finally Time
We are about to emark on the journey of our lives. Trying to get the house ready and everything organized and packed for the trip has been tough. We are just plain worn out. We dont have much to say right now, just keep checking in to see what we are up to while in Vietnam!
Thursday, May 17, 2007
We have our travel date!!!!!!!!
We will be leaving June 1st on the journey of our lifetime. Not only will we become new parents and Daniel will have a forever family, but we will develop memories of Vietnam that will last a lifetime. We are so excited, it almost seems like time has slowed down. Every day seems so long.
Now we start planning for the trip. CHI told us on a Wednesday (5/9/07) to get started on our Visas for Vietnam. We did not waste any time. We filled out the application that night and sent the application, passports and money to the Vietnamese embassy the next morning FedEx overnight. We paid the Vietnamese Embassy for the express Visa service. We did not want to take any chances. I have heard so many stories of families waiting on their passports down to the last day before they leave. Using FedEx tracking, I found out that the package arrived by 10:13am on Friday morning. I included a prepaid FedEx 2nd day air envelope for them to return our Passports in. When I got home Wednesday, our passports were there. Our plane tickets also arrived Wednesday. So we are pretty much set except for preparing and packing.
During our adoption process at CHI we met Bobbi, Josh and their daughter Julia. They are a wonderful family and I can tell from the short amount of time we have spent together that Bobbi and Josh are great parents. They returned from Vietnam in April from adopting a beautiful little boy named Thanh. They have helped us so much in preparing for this trip. They have given us all kinds of great advice, books, videos, etc. We will be very prepared. Thanks a lot guys!
During our trip to Vietnam, we will try to post to this blog every night if we can. I don’t know how things will go or how tired we may be, but that is our plan.
Now we start planning for the trip. CHI told us on a Wednesday (5/9/07) to get started on our Visas for Vietnam. We did not waste any time. We filled out the application that night and sent the application, passports and money to the Vietnamese embassy the next morning FedEx overnight. We paid the Vietnamese Embassy for the express Visa service. We did not want to take any chances. I have heard so many stories of families waiting on their passports down to the last day before they leave. Using FedEx tracking, I found out that the package arrived by 10:13am on Friday morning. I included a prepaid FedEx 2nd day air envelope for them to return our Passports in. When I got home Wednesday, our passports were there. Our plane tickets also arrived Wednesday. So we are pretty much set except for preparing and packing.
During our adoption process at CHI we met Bobbi, Josh and their daughter Julia. They are a wonderful family and I can tell from the short amount of time we have spent together that Bobbi and Josh are great parents. They returned from Vietnam in April from adopting a beautiful little boy named Thanh. They have helped us so much in preparing for this trip. They have given us all kinds of great advice, books, videos, etc. We will be very prepared. Thanks a lot guys!
During our trip to Vietnam, we will try to post to this blog every night if we can. I don’t know how things will go or how tired we may be, but that is our plan.
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
One step closer
We heard today that we should apply for our Vietnam travel Visas. Our estimated Giving and Receiving Ceremony (G&R) is June 1st. That means we will probably be flying out of the U.S. around May the 28th or 29th. It takes a full day of travel and we lose a day because we are crossing the international time line. We are supposed to arrive the night before our G&R ceremony and that usually means leaving 3 days prior. We are very excited!
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Exciting news
Today we found out that we should be travelling to Vietnam to become parents sometime before the end of May. We should be finding out the exact travel date some time between now and the end of next week. We are very excited! At the gym today I found myself telling everyone about it, even people I barely know. Its finally happening. We are about to become proud parents of a little boy. I can't wait to meet Daniel and make him laugh.
Friday, April 20, 2007
Updated Pictures
We received updated pictures today. It looks as if he has some friends. I am glad to see that.
Kyle and I can not wait until we can go and pick him up and just hold him in our arms. We miscalculated the travel time, so it could be as late as June before we can go, but we are hopeful that it will be sooner than that.
Kyle and I can not wait until we can go and pick him up and just hold him in our arms. We miscalculated the travel time, so it could be as late as June before we can go, but we are hopeful that it will be sooner than that.
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| Update-200 |
Friday, March 23, 2007
Updated Pictures
With great surprise we received new pictures today. We received a few last week, so we were not expecting any new pictures for a few weeks. Daniel looks a little upset, I wondered if they just woke him from a nap.
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| Update-200 |
Thursday, March 15, 2007
The Wait Continues
We are getting a little frustrated during what seems like an endless wait before we travel. There is nothing we or the adoption agency can do about it. We just have to remain patient. They did tell us that if we did not hear some travel news by the end of next week, we will probably not be travelling until at least April.
Although we really enjoy getting the updated pictures, it also kills us seeing him and not being able to pick him up. I would guess that the wait after your referral is one of the toughest part of adoption. In the evenings while we are watching TV, I sometimes image him being there with us trying to push the TV buttons and running around and playing with toys. It will be great when he is finally here.
Here is the link to the latest pictures we received. He looks just a little sad for some reason.
Although we really enjoy getting the updated pictures, it also kills us seeing him and not being able to pick him up. I would guess that the wait after your referral is one of the toughest part of adoption. In the evenings while we are watching TV, I sometimes image him being there with us trying to push the TV buttons and running around and playing with toys. It will be great when he is finally here.
Here is the link to the latest pictures we received. He looks just a little sad for some reason.
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| Update-03- |
Friday, February 23, 2007
Thursday, January 25, 2007
First Pictures of 2007
We keep getting regularly updated pictures. We love that we are, but it only increases our eagerness to get over there. We are also glad to see that he gets out of the crib some to play. I am sure they take really good care of him there. He looks very healthy.
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Baby Help!!!
Stephanie, our niece (by marriage), took us around to different stores and helped us register for baby showers. She has a little boy named Keaton that is around the same age as Daniel so she could really help us out in knowing what we needed and what we didn't. She also helped us understand the sizes of clothes he would be wearing. Since we have no other children, we felt really lost before she helped us. Stephanie gave us a great deal of confidence in knowing what we needed. So, over that past couple of weeks we have started buying clothes. It is a blast! We both always start smiling and giggling when we pick up these tiny clothes to look at them. We really appreciated Stephanie helping us out.
Tuesday, January 9, 2007
Updated Info
We received updated pictures, height and weight today. As of Jan 9th, 2007 Daniel now weighs 21.81 pounds and is 29.13 inches in height. This is great news because we have been shopping around for car seats and the minimum weight for a lot of car seats is 20 lbs and a few of them is 22 lbs. Since he is almost 22 lbs, we should have a larger selection of car seats to choose from.
The one we have our eye on now is the Britax Roundabout. This car seat is highly rated, but pricey.
The one we have our eye on now is the Britax Roundabout. This car seat is highly rated, but pricey.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
We have a name!!!!
After going back and forth with names we have finally decided on Daniel Jamison Lawrence. It's great to be able to call him by his name now.
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
More Updated Pictures
We got some more recent pictures today. They look very similar to the last set we got. He is even wearing the same shirt.
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Updated Pictures
We got some updated pictures today of Anh Hieu. I wish we could start calling him by the name we will give him, but we have not decided yet what that will be.
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Our Baby Nursery
Updated 11/25/06: Even though Kyle was disappointed, we decided it was not a good idea to have the bunk beds for now. So we put some more pictures in the photo album below that shows the nursery without the bunk beds.
11/22/06:
We finally got our baby nursery done. He will be nearly 20 months old when we finally get him here, so the crib may not be in the room very long. As you can see, we went a little wild with the bunk bed. That was Kyle's doing. He has always wanted one. We plan to adopt again as soon as we can. So the other bed will not be empty that long.
11/22/06:
We finally got our baby nursery done. He will be nearly 20 months old when we finally get him here, so the crib may not be in the room very long. As you can see, we went a little wild with the bunk bed. That was Kyle's doing. He has always wanted one. We plan to adopt again as soon as we can. So the other bed will not be empty that long.
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Our referral - Nov 21, 2006
With great surprise we got our referral today. We did not expect it for a few more months. We are so happy!
He is a healthy 15 month old. He weighs 19.1 pounds and is 28.6 inches tall.
The orphanage says he smiles a lot and hardly ever snivels.
If everything goes as expected, we should be be travelling to Vietnam sometime around March 2007.
The pictures we have so far are located at our Picasa Web album.
Click on the following Picture to view the album:
He is a healthy 15 month old. He weighs 19.1 pounds and is 28.6 inches tall.
The orphanage says he smiles a lot and hardly ever snivels.
If everything goes as expected, we should be be travelling to Vietnam sometime around March 2007.
The pictures we have so far are located at our Picasa Web album.
Click on the following Picture to view the album:
Wednesday, November 1, 2006
The Dossier
Today, we received the phone call to start working on our dossier. We were number 14 on the waiting list. Our referral must be getting close.
Saturday, October 21, 2006
The Beginning
In March of 2006, we made the decision to adopt.
After we had seen an adoption special on News Channel 5 plus, we attended an informational meeting at Children's Hope International (CHI). Before attending the meeting, we had been watching a television show named Adoption Stories and had completely decided on adopting from Russia based on some of the stories on the show. It seemed that everyone else in the meeting was adopting from China. A family brought in their daughter that they just came home with from China. She was so adorable, so we changed our minds and decided to adopt from China.
During our home study process, we started hearing that the China adoption process was going to be taking longer and longer. After speaking with CHI about this and discussing other countries, we decided that Vietnam was the best adoption program for us.
Vietnam seems to have more boys than girls. We said either gender was OK with us. After our home study was completed, the wait for the dossier began. The dossier is just a fancy word for a bunch of paperwork about us. Unlike other countries, Vietnam does not want to see any document dated more than six months old. So we were not supposed to start our dossier until CHI told us to.
After we had seen an adoption special on News Channel 5 plus, we attended an informational meeting at Children's Hope International (CHI). Before attending the meeting, we had been watching a television show named Adoption Stories and had completely decided on adopting from Russia based on some of the stories on the show. It seemed that everyone else in the meeting was adopting from China. A family brought in their daughter that they just came home with from China. She was so adorable, so we changed our minds and decided to adopt from China.
During our home study process, we started hearing that the China adoption process was going to be taking longer and longer. After speaking with CHI about this and discussing other countries, we decided that Vietnam was the best adoption program for us.
Vietnam seems to have more boys than girls. We said either gender was OK with us. After our home study was completed, the wait for the dossier began. The dossier is just a fancy word for a bunch of paperwork about us. Unlike other countries, Vietnam does not want to see any document dated more than six months old. So we were not supposed to start our dossier until CHI told us to.
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