Adoption Process Update

We are moving along in the adoption process. We have left the dreaded box 13 which is the good news. The bad news is we are now in limbo. Normally we would go right to box 14 but there has been a set back with our documents. In January we noticed a mistake on our I-171H form. This is the international form that goes to the US embassy in VN to state we are eligible to adopt x number of children. Our home study stated that we could adopt two children. Our front page of our home study stated only one child when in fact we are approved for two. In January we noticed the mistake and had it corrected. It was sent to the embassy in VN and is on file in the Embassy in VN. The agency never informed us that this document needed to be notarized, state certified and country authenticated and sent to the DIA. Our home study expired in June (it is only good for one year) so we updated our home study with our Social Worker this information was sent to the agency and we thought this was done and we would be ready to travel when the time comes. We were informed that the update to the home study was not processed by the agency and had been sitting on their server for months without any attention. Now that we are moving along in the process we found out that this paper work has to be done before we can move to box 14 and be given a G&R date.
Box 14 is when the DIA reviews and approves the child dossier. After the DIA has approved the girl’s dossier and they are deemed available for adoption the DIA issues at 2nd notification to the DMOJ (Province officials) to prepare for a G&R.

What all this means is that we again wait and the girls wait. In an ideal adoption we could travel within a month. Now we have no idea when we will travel but it will happen.

Scrapbooking

New Photos

We received new photos of the twins from our agency this week. I love how they hold their lollipops, so dainty. Each twin has a bracelet on their left wrist. This helps the nannies tell them apart. We refer to them as GT (green twin) and RT (red twin).

Scrapbooking

I've been learning how to do digital scrapbook pages and am falling in love with this new media. Here is one of my favorite layouts.

Keepers

Today is our 24th Wedding Anniversary and 11 years this month since my mom passed away from cancer. This morning I received this email from a friend. How appropriate...........

Keepers

I grew up with practical parents. A mother, God love her, who washed aluminum foil after she cooked in it, then reused it. She was the original recycle queen, before they had a Name for it... A father who was happier getting old shoes fixed than buying new ones.

Their marriage was good, their dreams focused. Their best friends lived barely a wave away. I can see them now, Dad in trousers, tee shirt and a hat and Mom in a house dress, lawn mower in one hand, and dish-towel in the other. It was the time for fixing things. A curtain rod, the kitchen radio, screen door, the oven door, and the hem in a dress. Things we keep.

It was a way of life, and sometimes it made me crazy. All that re-fixing, eating, renewing, I wanted just once to be wasteful. Waste meant affluence. Throwing things away meant you knew there'd always be more.

But then my mother died, and on that clear summer's night, in the warmth of the hospital room, I was struck with the pain of learning that sometimes there isn't any more.

Sometimes, what we care about most gets all used up and goes away...never to return. So... While we have it... it's best we love it... And care for it.... And fix it when it's broken..... And heal it when it's sick.

This is true... For marriage.... And old cars.... And children with bad report cards..... Dogs and cats with bad hips.... And aging parents.... And grandparents. We keep them because they are worth it, because we are worth it. Some things we keep. Like a best friend that moved away or a classmate we grew up with.

There are just some things that make life important, like people we know who are special.... And so, we keep them close!

Good friends are like stars.... You don't always see them, but you know they are always there.

Keep them close
Author unknown

Dreaded box 13

Today we enter the 30 day mark of the dreaded box 13. We are supposed to be in box 13 for 30 days and if the Province needs more time they can extend it another 30 days. It will be just another day of waiting to meet our girls.

Adventures in Vietnam

April 10, 2007
At 7:30 AM, we all loaded onto the van and headed north of the Ocean Star Resort.

We came to a place where a boat was being pulled in with the catch of the day and Mrs. Hanh asked the driver to pull over. I think she heard my sharp intake of breath, which usually signals a photo opportunity that I am missing. Of course, the entire country is a photo op waiting to happen.

We got out and climbed down to the beach, and K discovered wonderful sea shells.

We went over and examined the fish that had been caught that morning, took a few pictures, and then our entire party set to collecting sea shells for K. 4 CHSFS staffers, M, K and me (with very limited help from Miss M) combed the short beach and found wonderful shells. The colors are so different from those you find back home. The driver and staff probably thought we were nuts, but they cheerfully waded into the water and hunted for the very best shells for K. When we had collected a pile that was too big for us to carry, someone produced a bag and we took our treasures back to the bus. The driver wasn’t too thrilled to see the shells coming, but no one goes against Mrs. Hanh (or as we lovingly refer to her, the Admiral.)

We continued north and came to the fishing village. You round a bend and there before you is a bay with hundreds and hundreds of brightly colored fishing boats.

The van pulled over and we walked down to the beach, where fishermen and women were examining the catch and haggling over the prices. Children immediately came up to us with trays of things to sell. Woman came up and Mrs. Hanh started talking with them. She either knows everyone in Vietnam, or has that typical Vietnamese ease of talking to people she doesn’t know.

K was oblivious to all of this, she saw that there were more cool shells and set to work collecting those with two staffer’s always one step behind her. They are almost like a Secret Service detail for her, they never let her go too far away before one or both of them are with her.

I was busy snapping photos, everywhere you looked there were wonderful photos to be taken. I had my photos, K had her shells, Miss M had her bottle (which she kept dropping in the sand) and M had her wish for the day, which was to help create memories of Vietnam and especially her province for K. It was a great morning. But we weren’t done. M literally dragged me off the beach.

Moving along in the process to get the girls........

We received an email from our agency today. The Vietnam team has informed us that we have moved into box 13 on the flow chart as of July 10.

Box 13 is when DMOJ response to the 1st DIA notification. This is where upon DMOJ receiving the girl's dossier from the orphanage, the DMOJ works with the PMU, police, immigration department, hospital, birth family, etc. to investigate the documents & statements in the girl's dossiers.

I don't want to get my hopes up about travel but we are moving right along.