This Old House

These are pictures of our old house. I can't say that I necessarily miss our old house, at least not cleaning it. However, I definitely miss a few things such as Portia's old room, her playroom and hands down, my personal decor. I love modern country and yes I realize it's not for everyone, but neither is the glossy oil painted walls that surround me these days. I'm starting to make a mental note of how I'm going to proceed in decorating this new place. I feel like an artist with a clean canvas. Some of the decor I will likely duplicate from our old home since I loved it so much but I will also add a simpler, clean cut look to places like the dining room.

5 AND A HALF YEARS OLD!!

Make no mistake, Little Miss Portia is 5 and a half years old, not just 5. She'll be quick to correct you. No matter how old she gets, she will always be my Little Baby Girl. Here are a few photos of our precious girl through the past years.

The Wait Just Got Longer

We received an e-mail from our agency today stating that they never get interim reports from the city that we are travelling to, as they do with other provinces. They only know the paperwork is done when it is done. The child dossier is sent from the Dept. of Justice from that city and then the travel is booked 3 weeks later. The dossier could arrive tomorrow or in 2-3 weeks, but they have no way of knowing. Their best guess is that we can travel in 4-6 weeks, from now.

I am so very, very upset. That would mean we would possibly depart between June 23rd and July 7th. I can't believe that we may have to wait 5 months from proposal before we see our son. I can't help but feel that they are going to keep extending it. Maybe we are going to end up like that family that had to wait a whole year! Too many negative thoughts going through my head right now and knowing that our son is still in need of medical attention, not to mention, iron deficient, I just want to cry. Will this adoption ever take place?

So Close, Yet So Far & Dinner with Dad

There are no updates. I was told to call back on Tuesday. At this point, they still don't have the child documents or know if the 3rd letter has been sent. The agency director has mentioned that the orphanage will likely only give us a 1 week heads up before we travel. In that week, they will process our visas. Although it is still an estimate, they are predicting that we will travel early to mid June. The agency's correspondent from the north is actually here in Canada so they are hoping that she will have some updates for us. To stay on top of things, especially if we plan to travel last minute, they have decided to send our travel request forms to the travel agency. At this point in time, they still aren't certain if Vietnam is using the courier services to submit their documents (as was originally done) or regular mail. There are a few families that although they received their referrals after us, their files were at the same stage in Vietnam, and they just got the approval to travel. They are leaving June 4th and 5th so that's good news since it was thought they they would travel mid June at the earliest. They are hoping that we are next. We hope so too!!

My Dad took the family out for Fajitas at the Lone Star. Of course, our meal was excellent. Got to catch up with my sister Stephanie since she's been in school all they way out in Thunder Bay getting her teaching degree. Her and her boyfriend, Aaron both currently work with special needs children (when they are not in school) and just loves what they do.

New Photos

Here are some new and unexpected photos of Reuben. He is almost 15 months old here now.

3 Months And Counting

Today will mark the 3rd month since we've seen our son's lovely face. I was hoping there would be some sort of an update today, but unfortunately there is absolutely nothing to report. Apparently our agency is still hoping that Vietnam will courier some of the documents vs. mailing. In the meantime, they wait to hear back from their contact located in the north. Our child's documentations have not come in yet, however in some cases they come in the same week the family will depart for Vietnam, so we were told not to worry. Our agency is not aware whether our documents are past the 2nd letter stage or if the investigation has been completed. It was suggested that we make an appt. with an adoption specialist here in Canada since it may take a while to actually get the appt. The best estimate that they can give us today is that hopefully we should be traveling by beginning to mid June. That's still another month away so I can't help but feel discouraged. I will call back on Wednesday, since it's a long weekend, to see if there are any updates. I was told that should anything come in before then, they will contact us.

On a positive note, our agency has started sending out quarterly updates. It makes waiting parents feel a little more involved and of course, it's always more encouraging when you hear things are moving along. Our agency is trying hard to get agreements signed and approved with new orphanages and it appears that this last trip was a definite move in the right direction. As well, our agency is now accepting new applications so I'm sure this is another positive since for so long both agencies here in Ontario, that have a Vietnam Adoption Program, were not accepting any new applicants.

Medical Update

No, we still don't know when we will be travelling however, we have been fortunate enough to get a medical update. In the last 3 months, he's shown considerable developmental progress. He went from being charted as a 5-6 month old child, to a 11 month old child. They even tell us on the report that he can pronounce consonants, walk and stand with support, wave bye bye, clap hands and blow kisses. He's growing up so fast! He's almost 14 pounds, a little over 2 feet tall and active and alert. I just want to hop on a plane right here and now. We have to call back on Friday to see if there are any updates in respects to when we may travel. Please let that happen soon!  As it currently stands now, our agency is still waiting for the child dossier, however the confirmation and agreement letter is in place with the orphanage, so at least that's a done deal.

 

Reuben at 7 Months Old

I was looking through a family blog, and lo and behold, who should I see in some of their photos? Our little Reuben Tuan Vu (actually we haven't officially settled on his full name yet). This family adopted their daughter from another orphanage however she was at Vu's orphanage for a couple of weeks and came to visit one of the nannies that took care of her during that time. This family was kind enough to provide us with 6 photos of our little man. These photos were taken Sept. 25th, 2008 so he was 2 days shy of 7 months old. In the first photo, the little girl let Vu hold her finger and then she reached in the crib to touch his cheek. It breaks my heart thinking of him lying there alone, craving for touch, love, attention. I realize that the nannies are doing their best however it is a very large orphanage so I can only imagine the situation or lack of. I continue to pray that we will soon be holding our son.

He's Ours!!

Finally the news we've been waiting for!! We received an e-mail today indicating the following:

· The second letter has been sent
· The child dossier has been sent to the Department of International Adoptions
· They did bring him to the doctors but sadly the Nounou’s were late getting there so the doctor scheduled them to come another day
· They should be going Thursday of this week
· The agency director has confirmed that at this stage he is ours and that the recommendation for us to adopt and the child to be adopted has gone through. The agency has no concern about any changes happening at this point.

What this means is that we are finally at the home stretch. All that's left is a third letter and the completion of the investigation. The third letter is when the DIA (Dept. of International Adoption) sends a letter to the province saying go ahead. Likely at this point the child investigation may have already started. We will still need to wait for for the DOJ to prepare the final decision and then to send this to People's Committee. This is the point where our agency director will have a better idea of when the G & R (Giving & Receiving Ceremony) date will be set and when we will be on our way! Our agency is hoping to provide some more news by Monday.

Sleeping Baby, Life and Renovations

Here is an updated photo of our little Reuben. It would have been nice to see him awake but unfortunately he was sleeping at the time our agency director was visiting. He looks bigger and older now. I feel like we are missing out on such precious time, but I won't go on a tangent since I'm feeling so frustrated. We noticed that in the photo he was propped up on one of those special pillows which probably means he is still experiencing respiratory issues. At this point in time we still don't have results to the liver testing that was done last week, nor have we received any updated info from the agency's contact including any child documents. They are hoping by Friday that we will have more updates from a main contact, but I won't be holding my breath since I've been asking the same questions now for almost 2 months with still no answers. Unfortunately, as timing would have it, the DIA (Dept. of Int'l Adoption) in Vietnam has decided that courier or priority post will no longer be used to ship any corresponding documents. That means that the only option is regular mail. Simply put, this will likely mean that our travel date will get pushed back another 2-3 weeks minimum. As it stands now, there are no families that will be travelling before the end of this month. For now this picture will have to keep us going for a while. I won't even begin to guess when we may travel however our agency has had families wait five whole months and one mother even had to wait a full year, so anything is possible.

On a positive note, the renovations are moving along at a nice pace and maybe, just maybe, we'll be done by June 1st. All the drywall is up so we just need taping and flooring to be completed before we start any of the final details. We bought a new mattress for my FIL since he will be moving to a double bed and for whatever reason, it is short. He says he doesn't have any more back pain but his feet now hang off the bed. Who knew that IKEA made beds for people up to 5' 2". What's up with that?? (Reminds me of that song...Rain drops keeping falling on my head, just like the man who's feet are too big for his bed.) So what's left...we need to buy my FIL's bathroom vanity and all the flooring, backsplash and granite countertop.

On Saturday, we had an abolutely delicious, quiet dinner with our friends Bill & Sarah. It was good to catch up and laugh about life since we always seem to be at the same stage (along with Frank & Emi). There always seems to be some sort of relief when someone out there understands our crazy life. Sarah made this incredible cake (and I'm not a cake person, unless of course it's cheesecake) that made me want to gobble up the whole thing. Did I mention there was Malibu in it? One of my favorite liquers. On Sunday we had dinner with our friends Rob, Rose & Sonja. They made enough food to feed an army but it was DELICIOUS. Rose made this appetizer called Spanakopita. Out of this world!! And I'm wondering why I'm having problems losing weight. My friends are all too good of cooks.