TET in Vietnam

At the end of the week we got a phone call from our agency to explain our situation a little further. We know that there are six babies still in Hau Giang waiting to go home. Two of the babies had all their papers signed and those families should be able to travel and bring their boys home after Tet (which is most like a Vietnamese New Year). These babies were brought to the home this spring, and the parents weren't given the referral until Sept 08. Four other cases, ours included, will head back to DIA and wait for them to make a decision on the next step. We have been told that whatever DIA decides about our case, the province leaders WILL do.

It will either go one of two ways...

#1 DIA will tell the province leaders to sign the papers and finish our adoption, which means we pack and get ready for our trip to Vietnam. Once DIA makes that decision it literally could take just a few weeks before we are on the plane...

OR

#2 DIA will ask that our case be reclassified as a different kind of abandonment and all of our paperwork and investigations will have to be started over. This includes a ad in the newspaper searching for birthfamily that has to run for 30 days, and much more. #2 will add significant time on to our already 2 year adoption process.

Whatever the case, because it is Tet in Vietnam our papers won't even arrive at DIA until after the holidays. We were told it would be between 25-4o days before we would know ANYTHING.

This of course is not what we had hoped for or expected, however we are grateful that our paperwork is not just sitting on a desk in the province like it has done for the last 6 1/2 months.

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers. It is becoming increasingly more difficult to remain positive as we watch our daughter grow in pictures.

Some Clarification

We recently received a little more clarification on the meeting. Apparently our case is being sent back to DIA (Dept of International Adoption) in Hanoi. We are unclear if our police report was approved and going back just for a double check like the families that have traveled before us, or if the province leaders could not make a decision in our case and have asked for help from the DIA to decided how to proceed with our adoption. Either way, we truly believe that this is a fantastic step for our case. It is good to know that our paperwork is somewhere other than a desk. DIA approved our case in June, we are hoping they can now finish the details in our case so that we can FINALLY get our daughter home.

Meeting

We just got word this evening that the officials did meet with the Red Cross on Friday. We do not know what was agreed upon in the meeting. We hope to get more clarification soon. I believe at this point we are dealing with some communication barriers. We will keep you posted! Thanks for the thoughts and prayers.

No News

We've received many emails and phone calls. We can't thank you all enough for praying for this meeting to actually take place and decisions be made soon. Unfortunately we didn't hear about the meeting yesterday, and probably won't hear anything over the weekend. We will update the blog as soon as we hear ANYTHING! Thanks again for all of your thoughts and prayers.

Meeting Scheduled!

The meeting between the Red Cross and the Hau Giang province officials is scheduled for some time on Friday. As far as we know, they have never worked on Fridays so we are praying for a miracle. If you know ANYONE that will pray with us tomorrow for this meeting, please send them the message. This is a critical meeting for our adoption.

Still no news...

We are halfway through the week now with no news of a meeting. We were told it was supposed to happen last week or this week. We all know that nothing happens in the province on Fridays, so our best chance of any news is tomorrow. We'll keep you all posted as soon as we know anything.

"My brothers and sisters, when you have many

kinds of troubles, you should be full of joy, because you

know that these troubles test your faith, and this will give

you patience. Let your patience show itself perfectly in

what you do. Then you will be perfect and complete

and will have everything you need."

~James 1:2-4

Our other kids

We haven't heard any news yet about the meeting or even if it has taken place. We will continue to pray while we wait and will post something as soon as we know anything. Otherwise, here are two of our family members that you don't hear much about. They are our children. Their favorite past times are swimming, preferably at the beach, Percy Priest Lake or any swimming pool will do, barking at the neighbors, chasing a tennis ball and carrying their stuffed animals (or we could say unstuffed) around the house. They are looking forward to Dillen's arrival. I think they believe there will be more walks in store for them.

Ozzy, our 100lb Golden Retriever

Farley, our 75lb sweet Black Lab

Calling in the Warriors

We have had so much support through this process. We really appreciate your prayers and support, but we have to ask this huge favor. We found out yesterday that the meeting that was and is to take place in the Hau Giang between the Red Cross and the Justice officials is to find out why these adoptions are taking so long, and how they should proceed with them. We have been told that our case is a big topic because of certain circumstances surrounding Dillen's birth family. Please pray that this meeting takes place soon, and the Justice will proceed according to Vietnamese adoption laws. It has often felt like they are making their own adoption laws and Vietnam's DIA (Department of International Adoption) has been unwilling to step in.

So if you think of us this week, think of this meeting. Pray for these officials. Pray that the Red Cross can clearly communicate their concerns for our children. Pray for answers in this unending process.

Another Meeting

We got some information from our agency last night. They said that the Red Cross had asked for a meeting with the officials in the Province. The meeting did not take place because the one of the officials was too busy to come. We do not know what this is regarding but we are hopeful that they will reschedule the meeting for this week or next and we will have SOME insight to what is going on. The Blackwells took a video of Dillen when they were in Vietnam, and I am going to ask someone that knows more than I do about downloading part of it on my computer to post on the blog. Lets see what we come up with... Here's to hoping that you all can see our little one in action AND we get some news soon!

Finally, a New Year

It felt like we would never get out of the dreaded 2008. Really, how much worse can it get? So we were lucky enough to enjoy the company of our Michiganders that were dodging the cold, unfortunately it rained the whole time they were here. After they left Chris became ill and didn't recover totally until today. The sickness took much of his energy and the new year rang in while we slept through it. How dull can we get?

No news on the adoption front. An email from Thouc in Vietnam with out an ounce of news. It said, and I quote, "I will email you when I have good news for you." So lets hope that 2009 is better than 2008. Lets pray that little girl home. There are too many of us praying together to keep this from happening. Are you with me? Are you praying her home? WE NEED YOU!