AND SO WE MOVE ON...

After the information from the US embassy and the information today we have decided a change is in order for us. We had already decided that once our Vietnam adoption was final we would begin the process to adopt again from another country. Right now we are busy searching for another agency. We have decided not to go through the same agency because we were not 100% satisfied with them and they do not have the program we are wanting.

I believe we are going with Ethiopia. I have been following other blogs from those who have or are adopting from Ethiopia. The babies are beautiful.

Pray that we will find just the right agency and that the process of changing everything will go smoothly.

We will continue to keep everyone informed.

Until later...
Tina

A PRAYER REQUEST FROM EMILIE...

Emilie is our 9 year old daughter. Today at Church she wrote down her prayer request and she let me read it.

My parents are having a bad time with the adoption. I hope the Lord gives them faith.

How sweet is that!!! They know that their Dad and I have had a very rough weekend and that we have been back and forth discussing what to do now. We have ALWAYS included our children in the decision of adoption and they have hearts of gold and are like me and would love to adopt every orphan out there.

Church was tough today. I knew many would have questions and I knew I would be asking for more prayer about this. We certainly need God to guide us right now. We will be making some phone calls tomorrow and see what our agency says to an email I sent over the weekend.

Please continue to keep us and all of the other families in your prayers!

Until Later...
Tina

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE???

Well today started out a good day. Donald and I spent a nice morning together running an errand. We had a nice lunch together. THEN...we came home and I read my emails. WHY DID I DO THAT???

A friend called me last night and read me an article,that was listed on msnbc.com, about some more fraudulent things going on in Vietnam. I read it again after she hung up and was just so sad because I knew that it did not mean good things for our adoption. Even Donald agreed that it didn't sound promising.

Then, today I get an email from our agency. They said they still needed to verify what was on the US Embassy in Hanoi website but gave us the link to read it. First, our agency is very reluctant to give us any info unless it is 100% accurate!! So, my red flag went up!! I read it out loud to Donald and we were just devestated! Basically, it said that if we had a referral by Sept 1st they would honor it but without a referral our dossier will be returned to our agency and considered closed. WHAT??? WHY??? HOW??? We know that it is extremely unlikely that we will receive our referral by then. We have not moved from #5 since 9/07. Our agency has not received any referrals since then.

I feel so sad!! I have cried and cried. The kids have been sad with me but they just say it is time to go somewhere else. They don't care where our baby boy comes from they just want a brother! :)

We do have a few emails in to other places and are considering changing countries but we are just not sure we want to completely give up on Vietnam.

Please pray for us as this is a tough decision that we are being forced to make right now.

Until later...
Tina

WAY TO GO TIFANIE!!!

We are so very proud of our girl! Monday she took her test for her Certified nurses assistant. She passed with a 95%. We are all so excited for her. This is just the first step in her future that is looking so very bright! She is working in a nursing home and received a card from one of the patient's family members. I thought this was so neat that others see how much she enjoys what she is doing and cares for those she is working with. I have prayed for years that Tifanie would find her gift in life and I do believe she has found it. She is great at many things but we each have special gifts that God gives us and for some it takes a lifetime to find and others God shows a little earlier.

Graduation is a little over a month away. Next week we will begin working on the announcements and inserts for her reception. Can this really be happening? My baby girl is graduating in 5 weeks????

Blessings to all~
Tina

EVERYDAY LIFE...

Today we have officially had our paperwork logged in for 7 months. Our DTV was 8/28 and our log in date was 9/11. And still nothing!!! Not one person has had a referral from our agency in those 7 months. I believe our last referrals were the beginning of Sept and that was 2 infant girls.

We have been really doing a lot of talking lately and thinking about what we should do "if" things don't get any better. We have contacted a domestic adoption agency but they are not taking any more clients right now. This was an answer to my prayer. I prayed that if it was not the right path that God would slam the door! It was slammed! We are now kind of talking foster/adopt but are unsure of that also. We have also talked about Ethiopia. We are trying to keep an open mind in case things go badly these next few months with Vietnam. Our homestudy will expire in Oct but our fingerprints expire in Sept so we will be renewing our homestudy probably in July. By then we would kind of like to have our minds made up of what we want to do. There is no sense in paying twice to have our homestudy updated if we don't need to.

I received my new "Adoption Today" magazine a few days ago. It had a big article about Vietnam adoptions in it and kind of what appears to be going on. It was not very uplifting! That made me a little depressed. I know that God is in control and that I must keep trusting in His plan for us BUT there are days that it is very hard!

On a happier note, kind of...I took our oldest daughter, Tifanie, shopping for her prom dress yesterday. She chose a very beautiful peach colored long dress. We found her silver strappy shoes to go with it as the dress has silver on it also. I know she will look amazing that night! When she was trying on dresses I was a little envious of her figure! She looked lovely in every dress and she is so tiny. I remember those days- A LONG TIME AGO!! My favorite statement is..."Just wait until you have children"! She just looks at me and laughs. The thing is she is not built like me at all so she will probably have several children and still be tiny!

Emilie is enjoying soccer. We love watching her. She is too funny. She throws elbows about every chance she gets. So far she has not been caught. I am waiting for the day when someone says something to her about it! She will probably give them her evil eye. We love yelling for her but the real funny thing is she yells at us back. We will say "Get to the ball, Em!" and she turns and yells back " I am going!" Hilarious!!

Randy is getting antsy for his summer baseball team to start. He is so much better if he stays active.

So...this has been our lives for the last week or so. At least we are not floating away with all of the rain yet. It is hard to believe that we are towards the middle of April and today it was spitting snow!! WHAT!!??!!

Tomorrow we are going to go look for a new bed set for Emilie. She has been looking on the internet every night for the past week. She has an idea of what she really wants and I hope we can find something that we can all agree on!

A scripture to end with...

For the word of the Lord is right and true; he is faithful in all he does.
Psalm 33:4

Until later...
Tina