AlwaysClean

I love this pacifier!

The side wings close around the nipple with it falls out of baby's mouth! Right now they are only made for babies 0-6 months, but give it time, they are bound to make it for older babies soon!

Cute Wall Art

I am thinking about getting these three killer prints from SugarLoop for the wall in Olive's little area in our apartment! Just need to make sure Tim likes them.

Thought I was share this...

Christmas is over...

Christmas was a tough one this year. I was trying not to remember the time when we thought we would have Oliveia home by now. I am trying really hard to keep my head up, but Christmas brought me down. I didn't really get into it very much this year, I guess I was banking on having a baby in the house by now and starting some new family traditions. Together, Tim and I are still pretty mellow about the increased referral time, but, when I am alone is when I think about it way too much. Now, my new mission is, get in shape and get ready to keep up with Olive, and pray for a referral by my birthday in July! What a nice gift that would be, ahhhhh. I know 2008 is going to be a good year, I can feel it in my soul. We are so ready for our little one to be in our home. Financially, we are strapped down, tight budget, etc. but we will need to get used to that part of parenting anyway especially in San Francisco. We are always on the lookout for a larger place to live, but don't really want to do anything that will effect our paperwork that is already in process in Vietnam. Our agency said that we could move and we would have to take with us to Vietnam an amendment to our dossier, but we don't want to get all the way over there and have any problems. There is already enough going on over there, we don't want to throw anything off, you know?

Anyway, not really an update, just some thoughts I was having today I needed to get off my chest.

On a side note...check out how cute this dress is from Gymboree, from the "Holland Days" collection.

Grandma is hard at work

My Mom just sent me a photo of the quilt that she is making for Oliveia.

I love it so much! I know Olive is going to love it to.

My Mom is so sweet, she was telling me when she makes a quilt she imagines the baby that is going to have it, thinks about the family, etc. Sniff sniff....

New Referral Time

10-12 months...
That is our new wait time for our referral. Minus the time since we got our number, so one month, OK, so 9-11 months.
We found out last week. Nothing we can do except enjoy the time we have together before Olive is here! Some days are harder than others to be patient, but most of the time we are pretty content with the new timeline. We really have no control over any of this. We are happy that our paperwork is registered in Vietnam with the DIA and we started this process when we did. The future of adoption from Vietnam is unclear at the moment so we are just sitting tight and praying that we get the call soon and will be able to go and get our little one soon.
Stay tuned...

No News

No updates to post, just wanted to let you all know.

I guess no news is good news! Positive thinking and prayer are the only things that keep us level headed about all of the changes with Vietnam adoption lately.

We are getting ready for what is hopefully our last Christmas without a little one at home. I can't wait to have a child in the house and start some fun family traditions. Tim and I have some already, but we have more up our sleeves for when Olive is in the house.

I will update when I hear something to update about.

For those of you who know me, I love cupcakes! Gymboree has a Cupcake Cutie collection right now and it is to die for! I am waiting for some of it to go on sale so I can get a couple things and save them for Miss Olive.

Oh! How cute are the panda shoes?

We got our number!

We just got an email from our agency and they gave us our number in line. We are 21, so there are 20 families ahead of us - probably about a 6 -8 month wait if not longer. With all the bad news at the beginning of this week, it was nice to get a call with some good news. Our agency has voluntarily pulled out of the two provinces mentioned in the Embassy statement, they are not under investigation nor have they ever had a problem or questioned the status of an orphan in the orphanges they work in, but they hold a licence in those areas and think it best for families on both sides to put things on hold for now until the Embassy gives the green light to continue. This should help to keep everyone safe and free from a NOID (notice of intent to deny). Good thing is, the head of the agency is in Vietnam right now and is meeting with many officials to discuss the corrupt practices in those 2 provinces. Our agency is urging other agencies that have licences in those areas to temporarily pull out as well in order to stay ethical and set an example for those who are not. Their thought is, they would rather have PAPs (perspective adoptive parents) have a longer referral time than be involved in a region known for unethical practices. If agencies continue to conduct adoptions in these regions, they are putting all of us at risk and are doing a complete disservice to all PAPs. I have gotten many emails from our agency over the last 2 days and Tim and I both feel confident that they are taking all necessary precautions to keep everything legal, ethical and RIGHT. Our agency is NOT one that is under investigation and has not had any problems, but are trying to protect all parties involved and the safest thing for all of us is for them to halt things for now in the two regions and continue to work in their other provinces. It is hard to put a timeline on a referral as most of you know, you can't really estimate at what rate parents are going to make the heartbreaking decision to give their child up for adoption, so we just keep praying and when God is ready for us to be matched it will happen. Our main concern at this time is all of the wrong-doing over there and we are relieved to get clear and consistent communication from our agency about their ethics and practices and feel that we made the right decision with our agency. If you are reading this and are involed with an agency that puts you on the "fast track" to your child, THINK TWICE and do the research.
God Bless.

More SCARY news...

Click here for the official notice from the US Embassy that goes along with my last post. We got word late today after my last post that our agency is going to temporarily halt adoptions from these two provinces, they work in two others as well. Our agency is NOT one of those that have been mentioned in some reports as being "investigated" THANK GOD. For this we are thankful, but still very apprehensive. We have faith that God will take care of us, when things are right for everyone involved.
What is going on is WRONG and unethical and we are praying that all of this gets figured out and all children up for adoption are legitimate. I cannot believe in today's world that this would happen. I have been to Vietnam a number of times to do humanitarian work and have seen the worst of the worst poor conditions, but for those people to be preyed on for their babies is HORRIBLE. I am sick over this. Honestly, I would rather wait 5 years for us to get our referral if it meant knowing that it will all done appropriately, ethically and legally.
We pray for the families that are currently stuck in Vietnam waiting to come home with their babies, but on the flip side, we pray that the people with babies from these provinces are told the TRUTH about their babies and hope that none of them are victims of this mess.
Please pray that these Vietnamese Provencial adoption leaders changes their practices and start ahearing to the laws set forth in the Hague. It will protect all perspective adoptive parents. We know we my not have the entire story about how our baby became an orphan, but I can tell you we want to be SURE that she was not the victim of this INSANITY.
For more reading on this:
http://vietnamlucy.blogspot.com/
http://goodhappenings.com/
http://www.adoptionintegrity.com/

Road Block

Just got this email yesterday...we are sad but know when God has the right baby for us, we will be brought together no matter what.

"Dear Vietnam Adoptive Families,

The US Embassy officially posted a statement of concern over Vietnam Adoptions today and specifically identified Phu Tho and Thai Nguyen Provinces by name. Though we were surprised and disappointed that they would post such a statement with no specific details about the concerns that they have in these provinces, we do take the statement seriously and will carefully investigate the Embassy's concerns and respond accordingly. We will be meeting directly with the Embassy in Hanoi this week to obtain further information. Current referrals remain secure and will be processed under the new I-600 filing procedures.We hope to have further updates before the end of the week."