Another New Year Begins!

Seeing as the 29th begins the year of the dog I couldn't resist posting a pic of Dyna, our 2.5yo black lab rescue. She's named after Georges' Harley, and is just the sweetest, smartest (sometimes way too smart!) dog.
She's going to go absolutely nuts once there is a baby in the house.




Anyway, this is a link to some interesting info about the

Vietnamese New Year (Tet) ,and the celebrations/traditions surrounding the beginning of the Lunar New Year. Just for fun, see what your Vietnamese zodiac sign is!

The First American Family Is Home!

It is not our agency who worked with this family to bring their daughter home, but its so exciting to see someone who has completed the process. Ooooooh.......when will it be our turn???

Click here to see the new family!

Big News From Our Agency!

This is the latest news from the director of our agency who just returned from her second trip to Vietnam. Sounds like it definately wont be long now!!!




Vietnam Update
January 22, 2006

What a trip! One week in Vietnam and every minute was filled with work, adventure and beautiful children.

There were two primary reasons for the visit - to meet with the Director of International Adoptions in the Ministry of Justice and to visit several orphanages to bring supplies and aid funds.

The first few days were in Ho Chi Minh City where we finalized some legal work for our office lease and our humanitarian aid agreement with the orphanage we will sponsor this year. All went well with the paperwork and I was able to meet and work with several officials who will be important to us in the adoption process.

I spent the weekend in Danang with Tran Van Thanh, my guide and assistant throughout this trip. Danang is a beautiful city with Danang Bay on one side and the Han river on the other.

We visited six orphanages and delivered gifts to them all. What a wonderful experience to see the work being done by dedicated people with few resources and little money but with an abundance of love and respect for the children. The programs ranged from a traditional orphanage to a program for street children to a home for children whose families cannot feed and house them but are part of their lives. We look forward to providing continuing support for these programs.

The last days were in Hanoi, where all of our families will go to receive their child’s visa at the U.S. Embassy before returning home. My first impression was not good. The ride into the city from the airport was long and grueling. Terrible traffic, noisy horn-honking cars and trucks and masses of motor bikes . . . not what I was hoping for. A day later, the city grew on me and I found there were many wonderful things to do and see and the people were friendly and helpful.

My appointment with the Ministry of Justice was terrific. Dr. Long, the Director and his legal expert, Mr. Dang Minh Dao, were gracious men with tea prepared and much enthusiasm for the future of our adoption program. We discussed Vietnam’s goals for successful adoptions and Mandala’s interest in assisting their office to carry out the mandate they have. Both of them had wonderful senses of humor and an attitude that was refreshing. They want to find families for their children and think the process should be as efficient as possible. We reviewed the dossier documents our families will complete and they have indeed reduced the amount of paperwork required. They were very supportive of Mandala and our interest in their country.

Because the licensing process involves three local committees in addition to their office, Dr Long could not give me a date for issuing the license but he did say they will push the local reviewers (who have our application) to expedite the process. Once it is back in their office, they will finalize the license right away. Dr. Long suggested that we have families start preparing dossiers in March in anticipation of receiving our license. We will begin making referrals as soon as the license is issued. When I told him we wanted other agencies to go ‘first’ so all the kinks get worked out, he laughed and said it was a smart idea.

Mandala and the orphanage(s) will identify a child eligible for adoption. We will gather pictures and medical information on the child and offer him/her to a dossier ready family. When a family accepts the referral, we will Fed Ex the dossier to our facilitator for translation and personal delivery to Hanoi. Travel should be within four months of the dossier arriving in Hanoi. At this point, we think the stay will be about two weeks but this will be clearer once adoptions have resumed. Mandala is revising the dossier packet and will be happy to discuss any details of the program with interested families.

We are very excited about our role in assisting the children of Vietnam and look forward to seeing many Mandala families fall in love with their children and their children’s culture. It is an extraordinary country!

Licenses Are Being Issued!

At long last things are finally starting to happen! So far this month nine US agencies have been issued their licenses to begin Vietnamese adoptions. Several families are there already with their children!!! So exciting that it is really happening, and so wonderful for all the children who have been waiting so long to find families.

Our agency hasn't received their license yet, but they are expecting to have it next month. That's fine because we're still working on our paperwork, and arent ready to prepare our dossier for Vietnam yet anyway. Today we went to the CIS office for our fingerprints, so that is a huge thing out of the way. Now we just have to collect a few more pieces of info that we need for them, and the agency has to edit our homestudy report and send that in, and then there is nothing to do but wait to get our approval form, the coveted 171-H, in the mail. After that we are good to go.

Journey To New Jersey

This past weekend I went to New Jersey to visit family and shared more of my good news with everyone. My niece who is eleven was so sweet about it. Her face just lit up and she got so excited that she is going to have a cousin. I think she was a little disappointed because it wont be a girl, but she got over it pretty quick. She had so many questions about it, like why are the babies in orphanages and why did their parents put them there, how I am going to take care of them when they are home, will they speak English, and she also asked if I happen to get pregnant will I give the baby back to the orphanage. She really wanted to understand and had so many good questions! So after she was satisfied we spent some time thinking about possible names for the baby which was fun. She suggested some names that she liked such as Peter, Nicholas and Tyler, and I showed her a few cute little outfits that I bought.

My brother was happy too, but his first response was something to the effect of how he has been waiting hear some news from us for a while. Yeah............me too. For nearly four years now.
I thought the day would never come when I could announce that we are "expecting" to anyone. Now that it is getting closer though, its sweet. It took a long time to get here, and now Im going to be sure to savor every moment of it.

Today Was Our Final Homestudy Visit

I cant believe we did it! Our two homestudy interviews are completed and we think we did really well. It was pretty unnerving and really intimidating, but we have a great social worker and she tried to make it a pleasant experience for us. Today was alot easier than the first visit which was more focused on the factual information about us like our education, work history, home environment and finances, whereas today was the day for our individual interviews. It was kind of fun actually just to get to talk about ourselves, our upbringing, our married relationship, and our plans for caring for our baby. The good stuff. When she was done she said she would see us again for our post-placement visits after our child was here!

The New Agreement Between Vietnam and the US

Vietnam's history goes back more than 2,500 years, to a time when it was part of the Chinese Empire. Vietnam became an independent kingdom in the early 10th century, and gained autonomy in the 11th century. The native dynastic period ended for Vietnam in the middle of the 19th century, when the country was invaded by France, and then by Japan in the 20th century. Vietnam regained sovereignty in 1954, but a war ensued causing the new nation to split for a brief period of time.

Today, Vietnam is home to more than 81 million people. In 2002, 766 Americans completed adoptions of children born in Vietnam. However, all adoptions by Americans of Vietnamese children are currently on hold due to new Vietnamese regulations regarding international adoption.

In July 2002, the Prime Minister of Vietnam promulgated Decree #68/2002, “Marriage and the Family in Vietnam.” Implemented on January 2003, this decree includes a new process for international adoptions that became effective immediately. Until the U.S. (and U.S. adoption agencies) meet the requirements of this new Vietnamese adoption decree, no international adoptions by Americans can be processed in Vietnam. The new Vietnamese adoption decree includes these main provisions:

1. A Memorandum of Understanding on international adoption must be formulated and signed by the governments of the U.S. and Vietnam in order for adoptions to continue;
2. Foreign adoption agencies must be licensed in their own country and in Vietnam, and these adoption agencies must maintain offices in Vietnam supporting humanitarian projects; and
3. All international adoptions in Vietnam will be processed through a new Central Authority at the Ministry of Justice.

Although families who have already received referrals and filed their paperwork in Vietnam are continuing to be processed, adoption agencies will not be able to make new referrals to American families until the U.S. State Department and the Vietnamese government sign the Memorandum of Understanding.

Ed. Note: The new protocal was signed in the summer of 2005 and implementation is awaited.

To see the actual agreement

News Is Traveling

So as time goes on lots more people are finding out about our adoption plans. Everyone who knows so far be it friends for family has been so excited and happy for us. Georges mom was beyond happy. This will be her first grandchild and she is just over the moon. Someone who we dont know very well called today and congratulated me because he had heard the news (courtesy of grandma). I was a little taken aback by that, but its okay. I guess its just going to take some time to get used to people talking about it and congratulating us. Its wonderful though. So many people just cant wait for you to get here!

I just cant get enough of all of the wonderful pictures of Vietnam and its people. This is a picture of school kids in Bac Ha.

Before I Was A Mom

Before I was a Mom


Before I was a Mom I never tripped over toys or forgot words to a lullaby.
I didn't worry whether or not my plants were poisonous.
I never thought about immunizations.
Before I was a Mom - I had never been puked on.
Pooped on.
Chewed on.
Peed on.
I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts.
I slept all night.
Before I was a Mom I never held down a screaming child so doctors could do tests.
Or give shots.
I never looked into teary eyes and cried.
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.
I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep.
Before I was a Mom I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn't want to put it down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn't stop the hurt.
I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much.
I never knew that I could love someone so much.
I never knew I would love being a Mom.
Before I was a Mom - I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body.
I didn't know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby.
I didn't know that bond between a mother and her child.
I didn't know that something so small could make me feel so important and happy.
Before I was a Mom - I had never gotten up in the middle of the night every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.
I had never known the warmth, The joy, The love, The heartache, The wonderment or the satisfaction of being a Mom.
I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much before I was a Mom.

First Homestudy Visit Today

Things are getting so real now! I cant believe we actually sat with a social worker today and discussed our future child! What an amazing feeling to know that this year we will have our little one home. To make the day even sweeter, this week the first agency in the country got their license to work with Vietnam! Hopefully ours wont be far behind.

We were so nervous about today, but now that its over we think it went really well. The social worker took a tour of the house and saw the room that we will be converting into a nursery. Then she spent time just talking and getting to know us. Next week we will be doing our individual interviews with her.

Here's To A Great 2006!