G&R Ceremony

Hi everyone!

Well, I am getting excited! My faciltator is here in VN. We went and applied for the G&R Ceremony today!! They gave me a date of 2 weeks out!! I almost passed out - but my facilitator told them that I had already been her for 6 weeks and my husband had gone home. They looked at me and I tried to look very pitiful. The they changed it to Friday!! So now we have to make sure the orphanage director can do it on Friday, we should know for sure tomorrow. I am really trying not to get impatient. I am sooo ready to go home - but the most important thing is making sure that the baby goes home with me!

My husband and I decided to change the baby's name from Brenden. Everytime we said that name, we just kept seeing our first child in our minds. So, we have decided on the name - Ian - which means God is gracious. It just seems fitting. Now we are in the process of changing the items in the room that had Brenden on them to Ian. I can't wait to post pictures of him. He is just soooo cute!

I will try to write again soon - hopefully by that time I will be an official mother - again!!!!!

Updates

Hi everyone!

I haven't written in a while - I just wanted to give an update of what is going on here in Vietnam.

Paperwork update:
I took a copy of the baby's dossier over to CIS yesterday for them to preview to make sure that everything is ok with it. They told me it looked great! That means that it is safe for me to have a G&R Ceremony! The US will issue a Visa to our new child! Now we are waiting for the Ministry of Justice here in HCMC to finish with their paperwork and set a new G&R date! They told me that it would be one day next week! I am praying that it will be early in the week so that I will have a better chance of getting home before Christmas.

Baby update:
I am visiting the baby everday in the orphanage. He is doing great!!! He is beginning to know who I am. I spend most of my time there just holding him close to me. I think this is helping us bond with each other! That is by far the best part of my day! Today I saw some families from another agency there picking up their children. It sent a pang through my heart because I want to bring my child home too. However, until we have a G&R Ceremony - that won't happen.

Personal update:
Things are good here in VN. I can honestly say that when my husband left me here alone I wasn't sure that I had strength enough to get through this alone! However, I know that I am not alone. My heavenly Father has been and will be here with me through all of this. I am becoming more and more joyful daily. I am doing things on my own that are soooo not me. For instance, I eat my meals in restaurants alone, I am starting to explore the different stores in HCMC, I am learning how to bartar for items with the locals, I ride on the back of motor bikes, I have taken control of the paperwork for this adoption, and I am trying to talk to people that I don't know. For those of you who know me, you know that all of this is completely outside of my comfort zone! I know that I couldn't do all of this if the Lord wasn't giving me strength to not only endure this trial, but begin to enjoy it as well. I know that I will come out of this a MUCH stronger person than I was in the beginning of this. Of course, I still have concerns about trying to trust this process again, trying to be a single mom while here in HCMC, and flying home by myself with a child. But, I know that if the Lord has strengthened me so much this far - I know he will give me strength to endure the rest of it!

Again, I want to thank all of you for your very encouraging comments. Also, I want to thank those who are praying for me and my family during this time. A few months ago the Lord showed me the verses Proverbs 3: 5-6 - Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not lean on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do and he will show you which path to take. I thought at the time He was showing me this about waiting on travel approval. Now I see that He was preparing me with those verses for this trial. Believe me, I have been repeating those verses in my heart constantly since my husband left!!!

I will write again when I have good news about the G&R Ceremony. I am trusting that it will be soon!

NOID - not exactly

So, I have been wondering how I was going to let everyone know what has been going on in adoption land the past couple of weeks. So I will do my best to explain everything...

In a nut shell - we were given a NOID because the mother came back and said she wanted the child. We found out that he was born with "water on his brain" (which we did not know about, but the birthmother did). That is why she abandoned him because she knew she couldn't afford to help him. However, she was told by CIS that he was healthy, so she said she wanted him back. Much to CIS surprise, and ours as well, a new medical report surfaced from the Ministry of Justice that said he did have water on his brain and was "retarded". By this time the mother didn't care - she just wanted her son back, so we ask our that our Giving and Receiving be overturned so that he could be returned to his birthmother.

The orphanage was very sorry for all of this and told us they had another little boy who was paper-ready and was just waiting to be matched up with a family. We were asked by our agency if we were interested in pursuing another adoption. We prayed about it and decided that this is what we were supposed to do - so we agreed. They told us that since we were in country, and our last adoption was so messed up that the Ministry of Justice and the CIS would do everything in their power to see that we got throught this process in another 2-3 weeks.

So, my husband left a few days ago to go back to the states so that he doesn't lose his job (he has already been off for 1 month). I am out here in HCMC alone waiting for all the paperwork to clear so that we can proceed with this new adoption. I get to visit the new child everyday for 2 hours. He is very cute. He was born on Jan. 13, 2006 - so he is 10 months old. He seems like a very happy baby - but it is hard to tell in the orphanage. I am ready to have the G&R so that I can bring him back to the hotel with me.

What a whirlwind of events!!! Giving back our child and staying here alone waiting on a new one has been the hardest thing I have ever had to do. I am constantly praying that God will continue to show grace and mercy on my husband, our child, and me while in this process. We never thought that we would have to deal with the biological mother in an international adoption, but we were forced to. CIS told us that this is the first time this has ever happened. We have made friends with the CIS and they have told us they will help me every step of the way - they even want to come to the Giving and Receiving!!!

Please pray that God will help to speed things up here. I want to be home for Christmas. I can't imagine being here over that special holiday! The Dillon International families have been staying at the same hotel that I am in and have been absolutely wonderful to me!! They are leaving tomorrow to go to Hanoi - I am very happy for them, but I will miss them very much. I hear the new Dillon families will be staying here as well - I am looking forward to meeting them and sharing in their joy as they bring their new children home with them! Hopefully we will be traveling to Hanoi together!!!

Thank you for all who have been praying for us over this most trying time! Please continue to pray! I will write again soon!! Hopefully I will have good news!