Vietnam here we come!

Well- we are leaving at an ungodly hour tonight on a red-eye flight. Our plane leaves LAX at 1:50am , fly 13 1/2 hours straight to Taipai, Taiwan on EVA airlines. Then , we have a 3 hour layover, then fly another 3 hours to Ho Chi Ming City, Vietnam. So, total travel time (excluding being at the airport before & after is 19-20 hours. Realistically, it will be a 24 hour trip + 14 hours ahead. So, we will arrive in Vietnam on Sat morning. From there, we will be in HCMC for 1 day. The next morning (I believe at the crack of dawn ie 4am) we will fly up to Danang. After arriving at Danang, we will go to the Que Son orphanage where Kyle is to visit him for the afternoon. We finally get to meet our son- we are very excited! We will be staying at the Sandy Beach Hotel in Danang until Thursday. Our G & R (Giving & Receiving Ceremony)- this is the ceremony/ courtdate where we officially get Kyle and adopt him will be on Monday August 4th. On Thursday, we fly back to HCMC and stay there for a few days. In HCMC, we need to get Kyle's passport photos & passport and his medical exam. Then, we will fly to Hanoi for a few days for Kyle's visa interviews and visa. We will fly out of Hanoi on Thursday, August 14th back to LAX. We arrive LAX Thursday afternoon and will stay overnight there before driving back to Phoenix on the 15th.

Here are a few pictures of Kyle's room that I got semi-ready before we left for our trip.

Earthquakes, parties & the beach

Well, its been a good trip to southern CA so far. We did have an earthquake yesterday afternoon - 5.4 on the richter scale! Jack says the lights and fans were swinging in our condo and the ground was shaking. I missed it.... I was in the ocean with Devin and didn't feel it b/c of the waves. Otherwise, it was not a big deal. We have been to the beach twice (we are right on the beach) and Devin LOVES the ocean. She is my water girl. We will go back tomorrow but headed to Sea World today. We went to Legoland on Monday--- great for the little kids- but wore Devin out. She still takes naps and it was hard on her without a nap. She fell asleep in Jack's arms in one of the lines.

We celebrated my parents 50th wedding anniversary on Sunday night. Eric made an awesome DVD of my parents' lives and their children and grandchildren. He is a computer whiz and made copies for everyone. It was really special. Last night, we celebrated Devin's 4th birthday early b/c she will turn 4 while we are in Vietnam. I have to say California is REALLY expensive and we are glad we live in Arizona--- I can take the heat instead of being price gauged everywhere!

Things aren't all peachy though... I've been fighting a killer head cold for over 10 days now which turned into a bad bacterial sinus infection these last few days. Fortunately, my doctor back in AZ was willing to call in a prescription for antibiotics!! Thank God- we are leaving for Vietnam tomorrow. Also, our adoption agency has slammed us with "extra fees" at the last second... we are very unhappy about this. I have worked very hard these last few weeks and months to pay for this adoption and I don't appreciate it. We are not rich and this adoption is expensive. I feel like we don't have a lot of choice at this point since we are leaving tomorrow.

On a good note, Julie, our regular daycare provider has agreed to take on Kyle when I go back to work. On the downside,I have to pay for Devin's daycare the whole time I'm on unpaid leave. So, we will be financially stretched to say the least for the next couple months. But, we really like Julie and feel it is best for Devin & Kyle to have them together when I go back to work. Kyle is joining a new family,new country, new language and new culture. So, the most stability and familiarity we can give him (ie. staying with his sister) will be the best for him.

Oceanside, CA

Hi-

Well, its been a hectic week getting ready for our vacation to Oceanside, CA for my family reunion and packing for Vietnam. I am now in Oceanside ... finally figured out how to get on the internet in my room It is quiet now... kids are up & watching Lady & the Tramp. Thought I'd take a few quiet moments to myself and update before the mayham starts. I was on emergency duty at the clinic last weekend and I got slammed with emergencies. So, needless to say, I did not get much done to prepare for our trip. Thank God we got a lot of notice before traveling. There have been some families from my agency who have only a 1-3 days notice! Well, I worked MWF and was on emergency duty and again Thursday night. Of course, I got called out on emergencies Thurs night & Friday morning. Again, it set me behind on the packing. So, I've been scrambling getting everything packed for the family reunion and Vietnam. Lots of final preparations to be away from our farm for 3 weeks! Jack was cleaning the pastures, cleaning & filling stalls and spraying for weeds the morning we were leaving. I had to set up two of my friends... thanks Deb & Lynne... for taking care of all the animals and house while we are gone. We are having a neighbor irrigate our pastures while we are gone. We have our lawn guys coming while we are gone. And, of course, packing all the paperwork, plane tix, visas, passports, medications, etc.. we will need.

Well, we left yesterday morning a little late ... drove 3 houses down to our neighbor's house to firm up plans for irrigation and Devin asks "Are we there yet??" Uh Oh. Seriously, we were only 100 yards away from our house! She proceeded to ask us about 30x for the next 6 hours if we were there yet.... Just wait till we have a 20 hour plane flight next week. I think we are in trouble... Just gotta smile and say, "Not yet peanut."

We are at a timeshare right on the beach in Oceanside, CA. Most of my family members are here and it is great to see everyone. We took the kids down to the beach last night for about 1/2 an hour b/c they were so excited. Devin has never been to the ocean before! She love, love, loves water!! So, we are going to the beach today & then celebrating my parents 50th wedding anniversary tonight. Should be a fun day. I will write more about our travel plans to Vietnam later this week!!

San Diego & Vietnam here we come!

Well, it looks like we will be able to go to my family reunion after all. I am very excited... I really wanted to see my brothers & sisters' families and parents. We don't get to see each other much and I think it's so important to stay active in each other's lives. I want Devin to know her Aunts, Uncles, cousins and grandparents. So, it looks like we will make most of the reunion. I am excited and we plan to go to Legoland, SeaWorld and the beach while we are there. Plus, we are celebrating my parent's 50th wedding anniversary. We will be leaving for Vietnam tentatively on July 31st or Aug 1st and returning around Aug 15th. I should know for sure in the next couple days. Meantime, I am trying to make final arrangements with work and animal care for us to be gone for 3 weeks. It's been hard to do because I've been on emergency duty all weekend and part of last week. It really sucked and I've had a wicked head cold that is just about to do me in. Nothing like not having time to be sick. Even when I'm not working, Devin needs a lot of attention. No rest for the weary. Jack is helping a lot--- but I really need to rest and just have not been able to... work, laundry, cleaning, making arrangements, taking care of Devin, playing with Devin, etc.... Ok... I'm done my whine fest....

Approval to Travel!!!

We got approval to travel to Vietnam from USCIS (US Citizenship & Immigration Services) last night- YEA! Nothing like waiting till the last minute- we were on working day 55 of 60. We are very excited to at last have an end to our journey to have another child! It has been a long 4 years to have another child... lots of ups and downs. We finally know we will be able to meet and take Kyle home soon and have a family of four. Devin is very excited to bring "brother Kyle" home and wants to know if we are going today... "Well, not today Honey- but very soon..." I need to make some phone calls this morning to our adoption agency to find out more details of our travel and G& R date. The G&R is Vietnam's "court date" to officially receive and adopt Kyle. They usually set the date soon after receiving your I-600 approval to travel. So, we should be traveling in the next 10 days to 3 weeks. I don't think it will be immediately as there is another group traveling from our agency (Danang Red Cross Orphanage) in Vietnam right now. They usually don't want 2 groups traveling at once. I should find out more later today or tomorrow. Of course, Murphy's Law comes into play b/c my bi-annual family reunion is in <2 weeks & I was really looking forward to seeing everyone. So, I don't know if we will make it. I will keep you posted as soon as I find out...

Bye-bye Binky

Well, today is the day. The "binky fairy" took away Devin's last binky. I have slowly weaned her down over the last few months... she was getting it just in the car & when she goes to sleep. My friend Mo gave me some great ideas of how to wean her off completely. So, I "bribed" her with Trident gum if she would stop using the binky in the car. Since Devin has been wanting to chew gum for a year (I told her she had to wait till she's 4)... she was thrilled to chew gum. :) It worked like a charm. But, she still wanted it to go to sleep. So, we have been talking about the binky fairy coming to get her binky.... The story goes like this... "When boys and girls get big enough, they don't need their binkies anymore. The binky fairy comes and takes the binkies up in the sky to all the babies in the world who need them. Brother Kyle needs a binky... so we need to send it to him. " We have been talking about if for a couple weeks now. We were going to do it last weekend, but Devin's normal homecare lady was gone this week. So, we didn't want to change too much this week. Well, today is the day... so we got some balloons and tied the binky to it and let it fly away ("the binky fairy is carrying it away to baby brother Kyle")... she said good-bye. And, then we gave her a bowl of ice cream. :) We'll see how it goes tonight... but she did very well. Here are some photos of our bye-bye binky ceremony....

As for Kyle, we are now on working day 55 of 60 with no news... hope to hear something soon.

Organ donors, reunion, & rambling...

This is the beautiful sunset the other night... well we are still waiting with no end in sight. Other families who are waiting for their children from the same orphange are now past the 60 working days our government promised. I am now on working day 54... so it looks like we will go past the deadline as well. At this point, we have no idea when we will bring Kyle home. I talked to the director of our Vietnam agency and their hands are tied. They cannot interfere with the US government's investigations and approvals of international adoptions. So, if we go past the deadline, he encouraged me to contact the USCIS, my senators, etc... You can bet your booty I will be. I have already written generic letters to my senators and emailed the USCIS (they did not respond). I am waiting to hear what happens with the families who have are now over the 60 working days. On a bright note (the only one), it looks like I will be going to my family's reunion in San Diego in a couple weeks. I will be excited to see everyone and celebrate my parent's 50th wedding anniversary.

On an odd note, I recently read that people from other countries believe that people from the US adopt children from other countries to harvest the children's organs!!! How gross and weird is that! This belief is prevelant and very real in Vietnam, China, Guatemala, etc... One Vietnamese man who even came to the US to study took months to convince him otherwise... He said, I can't believe the adoptive parents spend so much time & money and get emotionally involved and then do that! Huh?! In Vietnam, they think Americans sell the children's organs to China. This is about the weirdest belief I have ever heard about the US. Kindy creepy that the when the Vietnamese people see our family with Kyle they will think we are going to harvest his organs! Our agency's facilitators wife said it is true and many adoptive parents have heard this rumor. Remember the rumor going around the internet about people steeling people's kidneys and found in the bathtub full of ice? Well, I guess this is similar but other country's citizens really believe it.

Anyway, I haven't posted much lately... b/c we are in limbo. That is all for now...

A Thousand Burning Suns

A thousand burning suns... that is how hot it feels in Phoenix. The temp has been over 110 degrees for over 17 days now! Today it is 114 degrees. Ugh. Plus, I work outside. Fun. NOT!!! I am running out of things to do inside with Devin. One can only color, play with playdough, play with baby dolls and trains for so long. They say it will be very hot in Vietnam- but its gotta be cooler than here. So, I don't think I will mind the heat when I go to Vietnam. At least I won't feel like my skin is burning off my body when I walk outside. Seriously!

Got a letter back from my senator today & the Office of Children's Issues at the US Dept of State. I wrote everyone I could think of letters about our wait for Kyle. This is a portion of what the US Dept of State said...

" Because of the irregularities (of Vietnam adoptions), US government officials in Vietnam have had to undertake numerous field investigations to verifiy that the Vietnamese children adopted by American citizens and are applying for orphan visas are indeed orphans required by U.S. law. However, in a number of cases, U.S. officials attempting to complete the required reviews have been prevented from doing so by local Vietnamese officials even though they had been allowed to do this in the past without any restrictions being imposed by the Vietnamese authorities. This action has further delayed some cases. The US government is reaching out to these Vietnamese government officials regarding our ability to perform the reviews, and in some cases we have been able to resume field investigations."

I hope this is not happening at Kyle's orphanage. But, my gut tells me there has to be something wrong b/c no one has been approved for so long from his orphanage. I know many of the adoptive parents who have children from this orphanage are very anxious as well.

Well, I am still waiting on pins and needles for some sort of information.... In the mean time, I think I'll go cook some eggs on my sidewalk...