Norman Adoption Blog

Patrick and I got our call this afternoon!  I am glad we decided to come back to the hotel to let Hannah sleep after doing a little bit of shopping around lunch time because at 4:00 we got our call from the Embassy.  She explained that there was some document that they had translated incorrectly or had the wrong document.  Either way the correct one was delivered to them this morning.  So our I-600 has finally been approved.  She set up our 2nd interview for tomorrow at 3:15.

According to the other couples, the interview was even more of a piece of cake than the first.  They were told that they might be able to get their visas on Friday, but since their system has been having difficulty it may actually be ready by Monday.  It seems everyone is going to be hanging around until maybe Wednesday because there aren’t any sooner flights available.  So keep your prayers going for little Ella.

We are thrilled by this news!  Hopefully if our visas are available to us by Monday, we’ll be flying out on Tuesday evening and be back by Wednesday afternoon.  So now we just need to enjoy the last bit of time we have here in Hanoi and do all those things we were hoping to do.  Thanks for all your prayers.  I know that it has made a difference!

We just learned some great news!! Sondra and Rob are going to be going home early after all! Praise God! We got word when Dat came to the hotel this morning for breakfast that Rob and Sondra and also Jim and Charmin are going to be having their 2nd interview at the Embassy today. Tomorrow they should be able to pick up their visas after 4 and fly out on the weekend.

This has been a major answer to prayer. That means that if they are able to get back this weekend, that Ella might be able to be seen by the specialist eye Dr. in their area on Monday and see about surgery shortly after that.

We don’t exactly have any reasons why our number was not called for the interview today. It has nothing to do with alphabetical order, the order of the 1st interviews or anything like that. We asked Tad if he thought there was some hold up with our file or there was something that was incomplete. He didn’t think there was any problem and in fact the Embassy had everything they needed for our case. He says sometimes this happens, where one family gets delayed a few days behind the others. We were first told to wait near the phone for the call from the Embassy today. Tad however feels confident that tomorrow is a new day and that perhaps tomorrow morning we will get news that our interview will be in the afternoon. If that is the case, we can get our visas Monday and fly out Tuesday as planned.

Be praying for this! Patrick and I just learned that David has just started to express how he misses us. Patrick’s parents have him this week and have heard two times where he has asked for Mommy or Daddy. We are surprised to learn that he is communicating now in fuller sentences. He said to Nonna, “I want more Nonna”, and “open the door.” I can’t believe how much he is growing and learning. But the fact that he actually said “I want Mommy”  just melds our hearts to know that he thinks of us. But it also breaks it. We are desperate to get back home to him. We feel we have nearly worn out the tourist lifestyle and are ready to get back to normal.

So pray for patience and endurance.  Pray everything goes well for the other families in their interviews and that there would be no holds up in getting their visas.  Praise God…He is good!

The red glow on the water was a beautiful thing to us.  The morning we woke on the Ha Long Bay was the first time we had seen the sun rise (and the sun at all) since we were in Vietnam.  It made the ride back to the port a lot more clear and less hazy.  It sure was a warm and humid day, but to see the sun it was well worth it.

This is the dining room on the boat.  We had a very large spread of food the night before of salads, fish (whole head and eyes intact), spring rolls, soup and many other things.  Patrick and I enjoyed a Vietnamese white wine with our supper the night before as well.  For breakfast we had fried eggs (that are always super dry!!), fruit, baguettes with butter and jelly, hot tea or coffee, and fresh squeezed oj.

There were lines of houseboats that were fish live-wells, where there is a hole in the floor that has a net that contains the fish and keeps them alive.

This is the “wedding couple” (the bride on the groom’s knee).  All kinds of objects could be found in the largest of Ha Long Bay’s caves.  They had giant turtles, dragons, elephants, and so on.  They also had a fertility room, but that is all I will say on that matter. ;o)

Lots of these boats had this type of decoration on the front…the dragon is a common symbol for the Vietnamese.

There hasn’t been any new developments since yesterday but I wanted to mention that Tad and Mr. Dat are expecting that our visa interview and approval won’t come until sometime next week at the earliest. They are processing 22 applications since our interview last friday. Even though we were hoping to hear something by the end of this week it doesn’t seem likely. So we aren’t going to change any plane tickets or apply to extend our visas until sometime around or right after the weekend. Everything else seems to be in order though. I feel all of the unknowns have been resolved and taken care of by all the appropriate people. So now we basically continue to wait.

This afternoon Charmin and Jim joined us to go see the Temple of Literature which has incredible architecture and history. We walked around after to look into some shops, grabbed a quick bite, then went to the Fine Arts Museum that has the collection of art and artifacts from many centuries past. It was interesting seeing the Chinese and Thai influence in some of the art, as well as seeing that the same styles used in the early 20th century is similar to the styles we are finding in all the shops nowadays.

Rob and Sondra discovered an incredible place to get Thai food, so we are going to venture there in just a couple minutes. Until then I am going to post some pictures I’ve been meaning to post from our Ha Long Bay expedition the weekend before the ceremony. Enjoy…

Our ship, a junket boat. Dining room up top, deck out in front, sleeping quarters down below with two twins and a bathroom (shower is bathroom, toilet, sink).

This is not our boat..but just another we rode next to for a bit…

The first day was very hazy.  You would hardly know you were surrounded by these large formations unless you got really close.

Our room. The boat didn’t sway too bad, so I got a decent night sleep. The others figured out they had to move their pillows to the foot of the bed because the engine was at the head and our heads pointed down. We didn’t notice, but maybe we seemed dumber than we thought the next day.

The view of the bay from the top of the mountain that we climbed up.

Rob and Sondra at the top, the lookout on the mountain.

We all climbed all the way to the top, on very steep steps. My legs were putty when we were done! But the view was worth it!

I’ve got to run. I’ll post the others after we get back from dinner. Thanks!

These pictures were taken when Kristen, Jason and Tova went with Patrick, Hannah and I to see the Mausoleum.  Unfortunately the museum and the mausoleum were both closed.  The grounds were beautiful and fairly quiet and we at least got to see the “changing of the guard.”

Yellow and red are the two colors that you see everywhere in Hanoi.  Red of course for is for communism.  We were told by the tour guide on the way out to Ha Long Bay that yellow is used since it is such a bright color and the weather is usually so rainy and overcast that it helps to brighten things up a bit and look more cheery.

I don’t know what they are, but they have some beautiful flowering trees in the area.

It is not uncommon for the babies to be a popular subject for tourist photos.  I think part of the interest is seeing the daddies carry the babies.

This dog/dragon creature was on the staircase of the one pillar pagoda.

Crazy “round about” with communist banners lining the streets.

Kristen taking a break to feed Tova.

Beautiful Tova!

Mommy and baby: Kristen and Tova.

The changing of the guard at the front of the Mausoleum.

The Beech Family: Jason, Kristen, Tova.

Today was a pretty successful day! This morning Patrick and the men went to pick up the passports while the ladies and the babies went to the SOS clinic. We had to wait for the men to walk over with the passports before the children were seen by the doctor. But Hannah’s weight, height, head circumference were all very good. I can’t remember her length, but she was 13 lbs and 39 for the head. Her oxygen levels in the blood was very good as well. They didn’t take any blood, since they did that on the first medical report. But the Dr. checked her overall health and found her in great shape. We thought he would correlate her serious drooling with teething, like it was with David, but he never did. He said that isn’t always the case, but they stop drooling eventually (lets just hope before 5 years! Ha!). Her right ear looks good, but her left was very waxy so he couldn’t see the drum. He seems to think it was fine.

Hannah has been such a good baby lately. We have really tried to make sure she gets at least one really good nap in the day. Today she went for way over 2 hours (maybe close to 3). We are amazed at how scheduled she is in the evenings as well. We ate out this evening at Paris Deli, which is very good (Patrick and I actually enjoyed a steak and potato type dinner…. I have been typically avoiding meat since I get sick off it…but this place has proved to be good so far). It wasn’t until her set night time of 7:15-7:45 that she starts to get fussy. We have been trying really hard to honor that. She will normally reward us by waking only once (maybe twice) in the night/early morning. She goes down very easy, with little fuss if any. I think having Hannah as our second has really helped because some of the trouble we had with David has taught us what to expect and how to act with her. Keeping her on a schedule seems to work well for her, and for us. We have started using the pacifier just a little bit with her too when she goes down because it knocks her out more quickly and calms her down during her explosive outbursts that she has occasionally.

On a totally different note, I wanted to mention the latest with all our paperwork craziness. We got an encouraging email from Tad this morning basically explaining that the public notification was actually completed and posted for each of our babies. This confirmation was provided to the Embassy when they submitted our I-600. But since it was requested again, Dat requested the information and was able to submit it to the Embassy. However, in further conversations with Dat, Patrick learned that the “receipt” that Greg was requesting does not actually exist because in our province, Phu Tho, they do the notifications for free. So what Dat had to request was the letter sent to the radio for this notification and had to have it stamped or notarized. Hopefully this will suffice. I know that I don’t quite understand all the details, but I trust that everyone, including the Embassy, is working in our best interests. I am now, since our email with Tad and our talk with Dat, more confident that everything has been done that was requested and that the only hold up now will be in the number of applications they are having to work through at the moment. My most hopeful guess is that we can have our visa interview (our final step) by the end of this week or start of next week. This though I know is only wishful thinking. Maybe we’ll get a call soon telling us more. We shall see.

The rest of the week is up in the air. We meet with Mr. Dat again tomorrow for a small meeting. We will probably try to do some more sight seeing…water puppets, temple of literature, circus, etc; shopping and of course eating. We have been enjoying ourselves waay too much lately with some places to eat…for example, yesterday we binged on the chocolate buffet at the Sofitel Metropol Hotel (with High Tea as well). Eat your heart out dad!!!! Anything you can think of, they can make it in chocolate: creme brulee, bread pudding, fondu, cakes, mousses, candies, etc…Short of the only really bad side affect: a sugar coma afterwards, that was the best thing I’ve eaten since we’ve arrived (go figure…it’s chocolate!!!).

Well Patrick is begging me to come to bed (to stop typing, essentially). I’ll try to post some more pictures in the morning (evening your time).

Much love,

Elise

Here are some pictures of Hannah taken a day or two ago.  Good thing is, we have noticed a definite weight gain, or at least face filler, since we got her.  Patrick is pretty sure that she is heavier in the bjorn than before too.  It is not surprising considering how much she eats during the day.  This morning she ate shy of 14 oz in like 4 hours.  Usually it is like that in the a.m.  When we are out in the afternoon she tends to just snack here and there.  But either way, it is sitting well with her.  ;o)

At times I feel pretty thankful that things have gone so smoothly for us, considering everyone else’s experience in Vietnam so far. But for the majority of the time, I feel I have this constant state of fear that things are going to unravel very quickly for us. Everyday I am reminded that nothing is as easy as it seems.

We were told that by the end of the day we would have the receipt from the TV station or radio taken care of. It seems there has been a little bit of a breakdown in communication in what is expected and we have not seen the results we expected. Some of us, me included have been really nervous by this. I think lately I tend to assume the worst. For example, the worst would be thinking that the ad that was supposed to be posted for a month was never even done. If that was the case, that may mean we would be trapped here for quite some time (Would Patrick have to leave me to go back? What would I do alone with a baby? When can I see David again?). I don’t really think this is the case, but when you are left with no facts and are only able to speculate what is going on, it is easy to be tricked down the wrong road.

I tend to get frustrated when we are told one thing and another couple is told another. The only picture we can put together is from the pieces we all have. This is not the fault of anyone in particular, because like I mentioned earlier, nothing seems to be final with adoption. Things change constantly.

My other fear with this receipt thing is that our paperwork has not yet been sent to Ho Chi Minh for processing and they are waiting only until the Embassy receives all this information. Patrick thinks this is not the case. He is thinking that Greg has already passed on the information to Ho Chi Minh City to be processed (because Greg is as Patrick puts it- “a portal” to Ho Chi Minh…he has no power to approve or deny himself. He just gathers and passes on info to/from the South). Greg told us upfront that it would take 4-6 business days. I hope that countdown started on/right after our interview and not after we collect this document.

We are hoping to speak with Tad tonight or sometime soon to get a clearer picture of what is really going on. But please keep us in your prayers. We want the peace of Christ in our hearts and for the fear to be expelled. I look at Paul and his situation with the twins and I am just encouraged by his strength. He has already been here many weeks and doesn’t know yet when things will end for him. I pray for endurance like he has. I am glad I have Patrick to be my strength. In times like this my emotions tend to drive me, but he is more logical and able to filter out the emotions when needed to expose the truth. I pray for rest for our minds and our bodies.

At least tomorrow I feel we are getting one step closer. The men are going to pick up the girls’ passports and then will meet all the women/girls at the SOS clinic for the medicals. The last road block is the interview for the visas. We will keep you posted as soon as we get some word on what is going on!

Jim and Charmin; Sondra and Rob walking along a beech at Ha Long Bay.

Sondra and Rob

Sondra and Ella

Dat, Nancy, Sondra and Rob at G & R ceremony

Jim, Charmin and Lorrell at the Ceremony.

Lorrell at Ceremony.

Happy Easter!! Although our experience here was far different from the type of Easter service we are used to, it was one to remember nonetheless.

We woke up from a very restless night of people talking, walking loudly up and down stairs, the laundry being delivered to us about 11:00 and then getting a call at 11:30 saying they gave us a wrong bag. Hannah woke 2 or so times last night from a restless sleep of her own. I think we are seeing the pattern of sleepless day= sleepless night. That was true with David and has been true with Hannah as well. She did allow us to sleep in a bit in the morning which was nice.

We dressed in our Sunday type clothes and put Hannah in her Easter white. Charmin, Jim and Lorrell piled in the cab with Patrick, Hannah and I. After being given the run-around by the driver, we finally made it to our part of town. We went to Moca Cafe again for the third time in a row (and will probably go back again soon I’m sure) for some good breakfast. We noticed people were spilling out of the St. Josephs Cathedral, down the steps and into the street for the Vietnamese service at 9:00. We finished breakfast and headed over for the 11:00 service. It was far less crowded because apparently it was the French service. Patrick and I aren’t familiar with the Catholic liturgy and order of service, so Jim and Charmin would explain what was being said or what was about to happen. Even though we couldn’t exactly follow the service, it was just as special because we were able to share Hannah’s first easter with brothers and sisters that are normally half a world away from us.