Safe in Hanoi!

Good Tuesday morning!

In Hanoi it's Tuesday at 1pm and we've just settled in to our hotel. We need to wait here until the plane tickets are delivered for the rest of our trip and then we'll head out for a little exploring.

Our flights were great (yes, Dad - I just experienced a great 12 hour flight in economy nonetheless!). EVA Airlines has amazing service and the seats are comfortable. Instead of just leaning back, the seat slides out as well. Long flights are the worst for me - I have never been able to sleep on a plane. While I love being in places like Hawaii and Mexico, I am always so whiny about the flight. Brian can just nod off at will. I do the doze off for 15 minutes, wake up because I am so uncomfortable, repeat. Last night, I am positive I slept 6 hours on the flight - an amazing feat.

We were just wowed by the drive into Hanoi. It was beautiful. The airport is about 45 minutes away from our hotel and in a rural area. Saw our first load of pigs on a motor scooter along with a TV and various other things. We've heard, read and watched YouTube videos of how bizarre the traffic is but didn't once feel uncomfortable. Don't get me wrong...it's crazy, but at a slower speed. Haven't yet had the pleasure of trying to cross the street so I'm sure my story will change.

Tomorrow, we fly out at 11am for Hue and will spend Wednesday night there. I am looking forward to seeing the architecture and history. I'm sure we'll have plenty of pictures to post.

Wendi

We Have Passports!

They were delivered to our front door at 9:03 this morning (along with your package Mary Li). Thank God!

Just a few more things on the list to complete...48 hours from now we'll be close to checking in for our overnight flight to Taipei and then on to Hanoi.

Wendi

Why oh why???

Must we have so much stress?

Until 24 hours ago, we had been pretty relaxed about all of our travel plans. Really...we've been ready for the travel call since last May when it should have come.

Last night around 7pm I checked the FedEx tracking number for our passports expecting to find them on their way back from San Francisco. Vietnam doesn't do Visa on entry. You have to send your passports to the Embassy or a Consulate prior to departing to have your Visa stamped in your passport. So, after receiving the travel call on Monday, we sent ours off and dutifully checked to ensure that they were received on Tuesday. You can't do this in advance because the Visa is only valid for a month and since we have to be there for 3 weeks, there isn't much room to estimate what date you might travel on. We paid to have them expedited - turned around in 24 hours - so really they could have been mailed back to us Tuesday but definitely by Wednesday.

Back to 7pm last night...the tracking number had not been activated. They had not been sent. I tried to convince myself that I should just relax - there was nothing that I could do until this morning. The reality is that I didn't fall asleep until after midnight and woke up at 4am worried about it. Feel back asleep until 6am. Shortly after getting up, I checked the FedEx tracking system again just to see if maybe it had been logged over night. No break for us.

At 9:30 this morning, I was finally able to call the Consulate. I politely asked if I could inquire about the status of our passports and the pleasant man said please hold on for a few minutes. He came back 4 or 5 minutes later and said that our passport numbers were logged in the system but he couldn't find them. He said they were really busy and could I call back this afternoon?

*insert lots of words that aren't very nice*

So, I found that the Consulate takes a nice long lunch - from 12:00-2:30. That's 3:30 my time. I don't think there is more that one flight to San Francisco after 3:30 so I was a little worried (yeah right...little doesn't begin to describe it - let's call it freaked out!). Believe me, I'd have been on a plane in an instant if necessary.

At 3:30 I called back. (Okay, I might have also called at 1:30 and 2:30 just to see if they really took that long of a lunch.) He said he'd found our passports and that he would put them in the mail today.

Now really...how many times in this process have we heard a promise about a particular action by a particular date? I was most appreciative to him, but knew that until I saw the tracking information, I wouldn't be relaxed.

"Date/TimeActivityLocationDetailsMay 21, 2009 5:19 PMPicked upSAN FRANCISCO, CA"

The adreneline is still flowing through my veins but I may be able to sleep again...

Wendi

The Day We've Been Waiting For!!!!!!!

This morning around 9:15 we received our travel call! Everything is finally approved and we are scheduled to complete An's adoption on June 1. We should be able to meet her on Friday, May 29 - we hope that meeting her and then having her return home with her foster mom will make the transition a little easier. Her foster mom will have the weekend to convince her that it's going to be okay and we are not scary people!

It's a very good thing that we got travel approval today...at the end of last week, we decided that we'd had enough and bought tickets to fly to Vietnam on May 25. We figured as long as we got approval sometime this week, we'd only be arriving 2 days early. And if it was delayed another week, we'd travel to the central part of the country and Angkor Wat in Cambodia. And if it was delayed even further than that...well we'd figure it out. I'm so glad we don't have to figure it out.

Two weeks from today, An officially becomes our daughter. She's been our daughter in our hearts and minds since the day we received her referral on June 7, 2007.

Wendi

Happy 4th Birthday

To our beautiful little girl who is still half the world away. Today also marks 23 months since we first learned of you...

Breathing Again

We have MOJ approval. Thankfully, the MOJ was willing to approve the copy of the file that had to be sent by the Orphanage Director because the original is still missing. Now the file is on its way back to the DOJ to have a letter of recommendation attached for the People's Committee. Hopefully the DOJ will move quickly on this and pass the file off to the People's Committee for the last approval and invitation to travel. We are very close.
Wendi

Of Course There is More to Say...

Our file is now lost in the mail. The correspondence department mailed it on 3/19. The MOJ has not received it.

The Correspondence Department

Correction to the previous post. Our file isn't really with the DIA yet. Apparently the DOJ has a correspondence department. And they still have our file. So it hasn't yet gone to the next step for MOJ approval. Because it is waiting to be sent by the correspondence department.

Could there be anything else to say?

We do, we don't, we do, we don't, WE DO!

That sums up our experience with DOJ approval since last September. But I'm here to report that as of March 19, 2009 - WE HAVE DOJ APPROVAL (actually it may have been March 18 as the embassy says one thing and the agency another). Our file is now at the DIA where it should receive MOJ approval in the next few days. I'll bet none of you remember the post in October of 2007 where I talked about the remaining steps of DOJ, MOJ and then the sweetest, best acronym - TA (travel approval). No, 2007 is not a typo. Today would have marked 17 months waiting for this approval - and, understandably, we are thrilled to be past this step! We expect to receive travel approval in 7-12 weeks. We are so ready to meet our girl!
Wendi

Problem Solved.

Just a week ago, Brian and I were talking about some of the things we want to do once An comes home. Don't get me wrong...we were discussing important things...but at one point I said that I really wanted to have her ears pierced and that he was going to have to take her. If you are questioning why he would have to take her, feel free to read this post as it will refresh your memory.

Well, problem solved. We received new pictures today from our agency's recent visit and not only do her ears appear to be pierced, but she seems to have mastered dangling earrings at just under 4 years old. Don't think I started wearing dangling earring until I was in my 30's. Wow!

More important than the pictures, we believe we are getting close to the end of this journey. We'll update everyone the minute we have solid news. In the meantime, enjoy the pictures as we are...

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Wendi

December is Update Month

And An's update arrived this morning. She is doing well physically but misses her foster sister who is now home in the US. Some pictures:





Wendi

18 Months

Eighteen months ago today I was setting up for an education fair at one of our largest employers. As I finished getting everything arranged, my cell phone rang with a 541 prefix. At that time I didn't have our agency's phone number programmed in because we weren't anywhere close to receiving a referral. I almost didn't answer the call. But at the last ring before voice mail, it crossed my mind that 541 was Oregon.

The voice on the other end of the line said this is Robin and I have a referral for you. I was shocked.

We spoke for 10-15 minutes as she told me about An and then she asked if I'd like her to send her file. I said of course! At that time, it was minutes before the education fair was supposed to begin so I tried to get myself together. I quickly called Brian but knew that he was in a meeting so I left a message that he needed to call me as soon as possible (I think I remembered to say something like nobody was hurt, but he had to call me NOW).

The rest of the day is a blur.

The next day, I came home during lunch to find the FedEx package waiting on the front porch. I really did give some thought about waiting until Brian came home to open it, but that didn't last long and I tore into it. As I looked through An's pictures, I was amazed by her beauty. I do remember asking Robin at the end of the call which province An was in. I recall thinking that the extra time waiting for approvals was a fair trade-off for how quickly we received her referral.

But who could have imagined that we would be still here, 18 months later, without our daughter. I like to think that in the video below An is pretending to call us. Hopefully we won't need videos and pictures to get to know one another for much longer...



Missing An so bad it hurts,

Wendi

I-600 Approval

We have it. Good to know that it's out of the way.
Wendi

If you can't say anything nice...

...then don't say anything at all. That cliche pretty much sums up why I haven't posted for a while.

We were quite hopeful that we'd hear some good news mid-November but its taken me this long to calm down enough about what we did hear to post. It's not that we heard anything particulary bad, but once again there needs to be more "consideration" before the province can do anything (they've been "considering" this since April as far as we know). On a good note, they've promised to decide whether they were going to need even more "consideration" by December. When in December, we have no idea. And it's hard to be hopeful about someone considering whether there needs to be more consideration...but the flipside is that they could just decide to approve her file. We pray that whomever these officials view as their higher power gives them the grace to make a decision in the best interest of this beautiful little girl.

So, I took small satisfaction today in making a small change to the blog description which you can see to the right, just below the clock.

Wendi

Another Milestone

Today marks one year since we received MOJ approval. There really isn't much to say about it. So I won't.

Missing An,
Wendi

When does a boy become a man? (in the eyes of his mother...)

As I was picking things up and starting the laundry this morning, I came across a handwritten list of candidates for our state senate, house, county commissioner, and highway commission races on Brian's nightstand. There was only one candidate's name written for each seat. It was undeniably my mother-in-law's handwriting.

Last I checked, Brian was 31.

She and I don't necessarily agree on things political. As a matter of fact, Brian prohibits us from talking politics after the great Hawaii incident.

I'm not saying where the list is now.
Wendi

Comfort Food

Sometimes you just need it.

Tonight was one of those nights. Brian went for the Tin Roof Sundae ice cream and I went way back to my childhood and had a bowl of graham crackers sprinkled with sugar and covered with milk. The challenge is that you have to eat it very quickly or the graham crackers disintegrate into mush.

Wendi

Update Day!!!

On Friday as I was waiting for a call from our agency to find out why our I-600 has not been submitted, I saw an email come through with An's quarterly update. Even though I had to open the pictures and report on my Blackberry (can you say microscopic in size?), it made my day!

An is doing very well, healthy and gaining weight. Sounds like she is becoming more of a typical toddler as she defends her possessions and becomes jealous when her foster mom pays attention to others.

No words can describe how much we want her home with us - we've been receiving these updates for one year and three months now...we're ready to give you reports from our own observation!

Now for the pictures:

In this one, she's reading a book we sent ("Where's the Puppy?" in Vietnamese)

Wendi

Extremes

This has been the worst week of my life...with a happy ending.

On Sunday, I arrived back in Boise at midnight from a wonderful weekend in New Orleans. I met another mom (and friend) that is adopting from the same province. Our files arrived in Vietnam on the same day and have been held hostage by the same officials for ten months - a process that the head of international adoptions for the country said should be completed in 4-6 weeks in a recent interview. Needless to say we needed a stress releasing adventure and the French Quarter was more than suitable. We even received a call from the agency on Friday saying the the head of the People's Committee (top level of government) in the province was going to meet with the officials to encourage them to complete our files. That provided a glimmer of hope.

On Monday we both learned that if the officials didn't approve our files by September 1 we would lose our referrals. Brian and I have been looking at pictures of An and dreaming about our life with her since June 7, 2007. To lose her now was more than I could bear to think about. Our agency was fairly confident that the approval would come, but they weren't going to guarantee anything until it was done. Tuesday afternoon they told us that some of the approvals were complete but they didn't yet know which ones. Nothing on Wednesday. Nothing on Thursday.

Thursday night at 8:12pm a message came through on my BlackBerry:

Hi Wendi,
Just wanted to let you know that all is well - the DOJ provided the needed letter. Will update you more next week, but wanted you to relax.

I am able to breathe again.

This means we have DOJ approval. While we have three more approvals to go, we anticipate that we will travel by the end of the year. Christmas in Vietnam is likely.

An - we are almost there!

Wendi

What a difference a year makes...

When we received An's referral just over a year ago, we saw a beautiful, yet cautious little girl. The most current pictures at the time were taken about a month after she was moved from the orphanage into her foster home. Here is one of our favorite pictures from that time:

Today, we received our quarterly update. Take a look at the confidence shining through in this picture:

And the sheer joy in this one:

An continues to be healthy and happy. She is speaking in short conversations, walking, running, throwing and kicking a ball and is turning the pages of a book one at a time. She is described as observant and helpful. And she loves her foster mother and sister very much.

To An - we can't wait to get to know you in person...we are confident that the outer beauty we see in your pictures and reports are complimented by an inner beauty matched by none.

To An's foster mother - we are forever indebted to you for the amazing gift you've given this little girl.

Wendi