Norman Adoption Blog

We have arrived safe and sound! It has been a very long journey. The worst was the 15 hour flight from LA to Hong Kong. It was crammed worse than all the flights before and after. Our 8 hour wait in Hong Kong seemed to pass pretty quickly. We took a nap on some pretty isolated comfy chairs and then had a wonderful Chinese meal. Everyone we’ve met so far has been super friendly. The food on the plane was even surprisingly good and satisfying.

Getting out of the airport in Vietnam was really fast. I was in complete shock the moment we stepped outside. Just seeing the taxi drivers weasel their way into the line to pick up their passengers was entertaining. Being on the road was a little scary at first. There was constant honking and people would just merge into the traffic without even yielding or looking to see who was coming. Patrick even said he felt at one point like we were in the bull run. There would be occasional red lights, which seemed still optional, and tons and tons of mopeds and vehicles would pile up. Once the light changed it was a mad dash. Our driver who would turn right would have his blinker on and just move on over, ignoring (or seeming to ignore) the bikes and people riding right next to our side door.

The weird thing is, this is their system and they’ve got it down pat. Our driver used his high beams to tell people to get over or use his blinker to say he is coming past. One thing that struck me though, in comparison to what I am used to, is that there isn’t road rage. In New Orleans, for example, people honk and probably have some choice words to go along with it when you are in their way. Here, they honk to let you know they are there and are coming.

Besides traffic I was struck with the beauty of Vietnam. The landscape is full of (I’m guessing) rice fields with many people working the land and tons of cows grazing the same areas. The architecture is also very impressive. They have lots of buildings/homes that are 4 or 5 floors high and very narrow. The style is almost like a rundown beach home that is in Mediterranean/ Spanish style.

There is so much more to my first impressions, but considering I feel things are starting to get blurry and my mind is literally shutting down, I better hit the sack. Since we arrived I feel my whole body has become lead. Tomorrow our plan is to get up and run down to the kangaroo cafe to reserve seats on the Halong Bay cruise. Two of the families are going on Saturday morning to be back Sunday afternoon. We are hoping to reserve a spot on the same trip.

Well goodnight (good morning to you!!)

Elise

Patrick and I have our bags packed with clothes so far this morning. We now need to pack our filler… shoes, diapers, medicines and lots of miscellaneous. My Mom came in this weekend and has been keeping David occupied while we get ready to leave tonight. Later this week she will be taking David and the dogs back to New Orleans.

For those of you who are curious about our flight schedule:

Tonight we leave Jackson at 6:25 for Dallas (8:00P); Dallas to LA from 8:55-10:20; LA to Hong Kong from 1:50A-7:25A; Hong Kong to Hanoi from 2:55P - 3:55P (we leave Tuesday and get there Thursday afternoon their time).

We are set to leave Vietnam on April 17 and get back April 18 (Wednesday). We wanted a couple extra days in case something gets delayed. We hope to leave earlier.
I also wanted to provide the timeline that was posted on AdoptionBuzz.org (the site posted by our agency, Orphans Overseas). We won’t know our schedule or how long we will actually stay until we get there and we start making appointments of our own. But you can see this timeline to give you an idea of what we are going to be doing during the two weeks after our Giving and Receiving Ceremony, which is either Monday April 2 or Tuesday the 3rd.

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Here is an estimated timeline for an adoption with a Monday handing-over ceremony:

1. Arrive Saturday: Day 1
2. Ministry of Justice on Monday for the ceremony: Day 3
3. Apply for baby’s passport on Tuesday: Day 4 (Pick-up the following Monday, Day 10)
4. Request I-600 interview on Tuesday: Day 4
5. I-600 interview on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday: Day 5, 6, or 7
6. Pick-up Passport on Monday: Day 10
7. Baby Medical Evaluation on Monday: Day 10
8. I-600 Approval from USCIS in Ho Chi Minh City approx. 48-72 hours after I-600 interview
9. Visa Interview on Tuesday: Day 11 (This would be the earliest possible day because the visa interview cannot be scheduled until the passport has been picked up, the medical evaluation completed, and the I-600 approved). Day 12 or Day 13 are other possibilities.
10. Pick-up Visa at 4pm on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday: Day 12, Day 13, Day 14 (The day after the visa appointment).
    

We finally have word… We were told today that a top government official has now invited us into the country for March 31 or April 1 to be ready for our ceremony on the 2nd or 3rd. We will probably receive more specifics, like the exact date and time, maybe once we get there. But considering this information has come from an official, we can basically bank on it.

That means that Patrick and I are going to get busy booking new flights. We will be leaving sometime the middle of next week so we can be there for the weekend. I feel more confident that this is the real thing. So we need to get serious about preparing for our journey. We need to tie up all loose strings and get the family notified so they can work out plans of caring for David and the dogs.

Praise God for He is good!!!

Encouragement for the day:

Rejoice, believer, in the Lord,
Who makes your cause his own!
The hope that’s built upon His Word
Can ne’er be overthrown.

Though many foes beset your road,
And feeble is your arm,
Your life is hid with Christ in God,
Beyond your reach of harm.

Weak as you are, you shall not faint,
Or fainting, shall not die;
Jesus, the strength of every saint,
Will aid you from on high.

Though unperceived by mortal sense,
Faith sees Him always near,
A guide, a glory, a defense;
Then what have you to fear?

As surely as He overcame
And triumphed once for you,
So surely you that love His Name
Shall triumph in Him too.

John Newton, 1725-1807

It is official! Everything has been canceled. Patrick sent back our plane ticket yesterday. Our agency said not to worry about our visa (since it expires in 30 days) until we get confirmation on the new date. They are also going to help sort things out with our hotel. We had to take our mail off the hold we put on it as well.

Laura told us that the earliest they could request a new date was sometime after April 1. So now we have to wait again on confirmation. Laura seemed pretty confident that we should get that elusive confirmation within days. Me…I’m not so confident. I hate to say this because I don’t want to sound despairing, but I am not going to allow myself to hope for that to be true. I have tried to block out hope some during the last month or so. It is a pesky thing and still found a way into my heart, only for it to get crushed over and over.

Yesterday was the hardest. We were told Monday we would probably cancel. The other families were having their ceremony Tuesday (our time Monday night). We were told we might know something about the dates then on Tuesday. So Monday night we didn’t know what else to do but to act as if we really could go. We were afraid by this time that it would be too late to round everything up if we weren’t prepared some. We didn’t pack in bags, but everything short of that. So once the news came yesterday that we should cancel, I was crushed. I had allowed too much hope in, and it stung.

I feel as if now I need to guard myself entirely. I am still excited, but I can’t allow myself to be broken many more times. When we get that confirmation I will be delighted, but I will still try not to put my heart into it. I will pack bags and let my thoughts dwell on our little angel, but I won’t believe until I am in Vietnam on the way to the actual ceremony. I hate it has to be this way. I kind of feel like one of those people who have been hurt by love or are afraid to be hurt by love that they are guarded when getting to know new people. For me to feel safe I want to be picky about what to hope in.

You may think then that I must be despairing… That I do not feel is true. I still believe that God is my rock. God knows the perfect time to be there. God will get us there and will work out every detail leading up to it. I will never know His plans until after it happens. I will never see far enough to know what tomorrow brings. I don’t feel I have to hope in God because hoping is leaning into the uncertain. God is certain. What I don’t want to place my hopes in are plans set by people, dates scheduled (or not) by mere Governments, or the whims of my fickle heart.

God is All Powerful and Sovereign. I can rest in Him because He alone knows all things and can do all things. I am not at the mercy of the VN Government (which I had been feeling in the past). I am only at the mercy of Christ. God could crush any government in a single moment. So I put my trust in Him, the only Omnipotent and Omniscient God.

The prayers that we need: That God would fill us with His joy! and that we would lean entirely on Him; That Patrick would be able to focus on his work and be very successful and productive in all his endeavors; That Hannah (Binh Thi) would continue to be well taken care of and that she would be protected from the bugs (lice, scabies, and chicken pox) that are going around among the babies- or would be healed quickly.

Thank you for all your fervent prayers up to this point!! We have been very blessed by the support that we have received so far from God’s people and prayer warriors. We appreciate all the encouragement and kind words. It is nice to have such an awesome family to look out for us!

God Bless,

Elise

If everything had worked out as easily as we thought it would, Patrick and I would have most of our bags packed and we would be doing last minute tasks in preparation of our flight tomorrow evening. Of course, that plan must have been too easy. For now, we are delayed and with no date in sight. I was told last Thursday that if they did not have the official word on our dates (the 23 or 26) that they were going to tell us to delay all our plans…

Well, Patrick just spoke with our agency and we were told that they still have not heard anything. We still have no date and we also have to reschedule our flights based on when everyone in our group is able to go. The first group has been in Vietnam now for over a week and they just learned that their ceremony is going to be tomorrow (or at least they seriously hope). I was hoping that if they knew their date, we would know ours. But again…too easy.

So now (again)…we wait.

I have a task for you… The first four families have now gone over to Vietnam. They are still on the fence about when their ceremony is going to take place. But I am thrilled to see that 2 so far have posted their pictures online. Here are the links:

Kevin and Alison’s site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/oregonlahar/

Jason and Kristen’s site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/beechbaywindow

Now, for my task… There have been two pictures posted on Kevin’s page that leads me to think he got a quick shot of Binh. I cannot confirm for sure because our picture was so blurry. So compare his pictures (top 2) with our referral picture (bottom) and tell me what you think!!! Here ya go:

We are still over a week away from our expected departure and yet I have begun to feel the pangs of sadness due to leaving behind David. I knew it was going to be hard, but I never thought I’d dread it quite like this. I can’t imagine the first flight out of here, knowing that there is no turning back and there is no seeing him for 2-3 weeks! On top of all that, the happiness and excitement that would remain in expecting to see Hannah in 2 weeks gets sometimes overridden by the anxiety of the preparations of our travel and the fear that yet again we may get setback.

The families traveling the week before us just found out that their G&R ceremony has been pushed back a couple of days. My fear is that we may be as well…again!

But in all these things, I have hope still!! I know David is going to have a great time with his grandparents. He may miss us initially and a little throughout the time, but he is such a content baby and he loves being with family. He is comfortable in both Birmingham with Nana and Papa and in New Orleans with Grandma and Granddaddy (and GG). He will probably be so busy that he won’t even realize that 3 weeks have passed.

I know that I need not be anxious either. I know that God is taking care of all of our details. When I look back on this whole experience, I see His hand leading us over and over. So I don’t need to think on or dwell on the fearful unknown. God is watching over Hannah. She is well taken care of at the moment. I do feel saddened that we have already missed out on the last 3 1/2 months of her life (we knew of her when she was 2 months old), but all will be restored when we finally get to hold her ourselves. So until our time to get her has finally come, I will need to continually drop my fear down at Christ’s feet and to hold to His promises.

Finally!! We may not know for sure the exact date, as far as Friday March 23 or Monday March 26, that our ceremony will be held. But we heard from Laura, who spoke very confidently that it will be on one of those dates. We could choose to hold off buying a plane ticket until we know for sure, which could be tomorrow or could be 5 days from now. The other option would be for us to buy our tickets now, planning on being in Vietnam on March 22nd and hope for the best. If for some reason we get bumped to Monday instead, we will have a couple days to enjoy Vietnam.

–This is me of course trying to be positive that it WILL be on Friday and that we won’t have to wait to see Hannah any longer than we have to while we are there.–

I feel this is a good decision. I think we are making ourselves more anxious by not doing anything and not moving forward with our plans. The longer we wait the more anxious I feel. But now we have a goal. Our goal is this… We plan to leave March 20th, on Tuesday evening. We will arrive on Thursday morning about 10 or so. That will give us most of the day to unpack and prepare for our ceremony (I hope) on Friday. Our best guess at a return flight is April 8.

We have suddenly changed our hotel arrangements as well. We have decided to go with Hoang Ngoc. We know that staying at the Somerset would be a nice luxury, but it is probably very unnecessary. Yes, it would be nice to spread out. But Hannah is already used to staying in a room with a bunch of other noisy babies (so we don’t have to feel we have to tiptoe around her when she is napping). Also, how much are we going to even be in our room? We hope to be able to get out and just take strolls if anything. Plus, another upside at staying at Hoang Ngoc is that it is MUCH cheaper and we will be with at least 2 other families (maybe more).

So things are looking peachy! Ha! (See Patrick, I CAN be positive..hehe) I’ll keep you informed on anything new…say we change hotels again!

We are getting very revved up for this trip, or more importantly to finally get Hannah. Although we are still waiting on that 100% approval of the date for the ceremony, we have been told that it is okay to send off for our visa on Monday. We also decided to make our arrangements for the hotel in which we are going to stay. We have decided to stay at the Somerset Grand, which is not at one of the hotels that were recommended to us by Orphans Overseas but at a hotel that one of the other families mentioned they are planning on staying.

The Somerset Grand is a great hotel that gives you apartment like space for the stay. We figured that would suit us better since we will be “living” there for 2+ weeks. We have a kitchenette with microwave, fridge, and rice cooker (which is awesome! hehe!), washer/dryer, internet, 2 bedrooms, and a nice comfy living room. They have a pool and continental breakfast. The Grand is also located right in the middle of a great shopping district. I think we are going to be very comfortable and I greatly look forward to our stay. Check out the hotel at their site: Somerset Grand Hanoi

With all the excitement, I decided to try and pack our new diaper bag. I have been looking all over the place for a diaper bag that I think is cute, is big enough to hold all our new baby things, and is comfortable enough for the treks around Hanoi. I really like the fabric. It is a smooth, black Asian type fabric. Next on our list is to maybe pack all of Hannah’s things in a real bag for the journey.