The Davis Family Scoop

Almost Home...

2009-10-07T06:21:00.000-05:00

We had a great last day in Taiwan. When the Typhoon moved back towards the Phillipines, the weather cleared up. So we traveled about an hour outside of the city to a national park. It was beautiful. Waterfalls, mountains, and volcanos...what an amazing site. We could actually see the steam coming up from the openings of the volcano. After the park we headed to the hot springs, where we spent an hour soaking in the water heated by the volcano. The Taiwanwse believe that it is a fountain of youth. Soaking in the waters makes the skin look younger, noy to mention that it heals several ailments from arthritis to digestive problems.

Then we did some final shopping and headed back to the hotel to pack up. Finally off to the airport!

It has now been 23 hours since we left Taiwan. We are on the home stretch...from Chicago to St. Louis. We arrive in STL at 8:25 this morning. We invite everyone to meet us at the airport to welcome Hadley home!

We have the best kids ever. They have been awesome the entire trip. The travel was a snap...the kids all slept about 12-13 hours of the trip so far.

See you soon!

Heading Home Tomorrow - Meet Us At The Airport Wednesday!

2009-10-05T08:54:00.008-05:00

Today was a nasty day. It has been windy and rainy all day. Which severely limits the ability to do too much of anything outside. Unfortunately 3 kids cooped up in a hotel room isn’t much fun either.

We started out the day rushing to our 9:00am immigration appointment. We arrive right on time, only to wait over 2 hours for our final interview. Fortunately, everything went smoothly. They asked us if we met the birth mother and what we knew about the father. They seemed satisfied with our answers and told us we could pick up the visa tomorrow afternoon. We fly out late tomorrow night (11:55pm). UGH! There is an earlier flight to LA, but unfortunately there isn’t an earlier one from LA to STL (meaning at 10 hour layover in LA). So prefer to spend our time here rather than in LAX airport. If the weather is nice tomorrow we are going to spend the evening out and about. Otherwise, we may be paying for an extra nights hotel so that we can have a place to hang out until our flight.

After our appointment we hit McDonalds for lunch. With the kids here, we have had a lot of western food. We have eaten traditional Chinese food a couple of times. It wasn’t bad, but they don’t even have egg rolls and crab rangoon here. No thank you! I think I will stick with Green China in Lake St. Louis!

Chaunta and the kids spent the rest of the afternoon in the room. I went out on a quest to find a laundry service so we wouldn’t have to worry about laundry when we get home. I found one about 1/3 mile from our hotel. They charged by the kilogram – we had a boat load of laundry and they did it all for about $12USD. If we had done it at the hotel they would have charged $3 per shirt and $4 per shorts/pants. We saved a bunch of money and headache doing it that way.

This evening we decided to check out IKEA. We have only been to it once in Chicago a few months ago. We were surprised to find that it was exactly the same. We bought Hadley a few wooden toys, had dinner there, and headed back to the hotel.

In Taipei, they have 4 Costco’s. As you probably know, I am addicted to Costco. I am curious if they are the same or not. I probably won’t make it there to check it out…but who knows, if it rains all day tomorrow we will need something to do indoor. Unfortunately, most of the sight seeing in Taipei is outdoor.

I probably won’t be able to update our blog tomorrow, so I want to invite everyone to meet us at the airport to welcome Hadley home. We arrive in STL on Wednesday morning at 8:25am on flight 407 from Chicago. See you there!

Does this picture remind anyone else of Jim Carey playing

Vera De Milo on In Living Color.

I think it is the pig tales!

Leave us a comment and let us know what you think.

Another Great Day in Taipei

2009-10-04T08:24:00.011-05:00

We had another eventful day. Thankfully everyone slept until 8:30am this morning. I think that is the latest we have slept since we have been here. Aiden has been getting up at 5:00am most mornings and since he has a tendency to be very loud…the rest of us end up getting up too.

This morning we enjoyed the Dunkin’ Doughnuts right outside our hotel. It was a nice change of pace. After breakfast we hung out in the room until lunch time. Hadley enjoyed playing with her brothers…unfortunately they didn’t enjoy it as much because she kept messing up their Lego fort.

After lunch visited several sites in Taipei. It has been raining here today, but not enough to keep us from enjoying the city.

First we went to the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. This memorial is dedicated to the memory of Chiang Kai-shek, the former president of the Taiwan, who fought China for sovereignty. It was huge and absolutely beautiful as you can tell from the photos. We also got to witness the changing of the guards – very cool.

After that we went to a Buddhist and Taoist temple. There was some sort of religious ceremony going on and people were chanting and playing instruments. Outside the temple they had a huge furnace where people burned their offerings to Buddha.

Then we headed to the Martyr’s Shrine. A memorial built for those who died fighting mainland China and overthrowing the Ching Dynasty. We arrived just in time for the changing of the guard there as well.

Finally we headed to the National Palace Museum featuring many articles from China’s Forbidden City that were moved to Taiwan during the Civil War. Lots of really really old stuff. We only spent about an hour there. I am sure you could spend a whole day and not see it all.

After all the sightseeing, we headed back to the hotel to freshen up and then we met up with 2 other adoptive families for dinner. It was nice to have some American company and we enjoyed our visit.

Tomorrow we have our immigration interview at the American Institute. If all goes well we will get Hadley’s visa on Tuesday and leave on Tuesday evening.

The latest Typhoon news is that is appears Typhoon Parma is going to sit over top of the Phillipines for the next 2-3 days. Taiwan ins't going to be hit while we are here. We will probably get some of the peripheral rains from the Typhoon, but nothing serious. It is good news for us, but unfortunately it is devestating to those in the Phillipines that were already hit so hard last week by Typhoon Kitsana.

An Eventful Day

2009-10-03T09:17:00.016-05:00

It seems each day Hadley does a little better. She spent a lot of time playing with her brothers today. She getting really attached to us, but is having seperation anxiety whenever we arn't right there with her.

Since we arrived in Taipei so late last night, we didn’t really get a feel for what the city was like. So after breakfast this morning, we decided to do a whirlwind tour of Taipei before the bad weather hits.

We went to Taipei 101 which is presently the tallest building in the world. We the took the elevator to the observatory deck. We did some shopping then headed back for naps mid day.

This evening we went to the snake night market. Which was really over rated. There was just one store with snakes. You picked your snake and they cooked it for you and you could drink it’s blood. NASTY! We did however pick up some nice souvenirs and get to see a parade for the Moon Festival.

TYPHOON UPDATE - The Typhoon seems to have weakened some when it passed over the Phillipines today. It is still headed for Taiwan, but may not be as severe as previously reported.

In Taipei - Preparing for Possible Typhoon

2009-10-02T10:32:00.007-05:00

Hadley is getting better with each passing day. Today she has been great and very easy. She is actually letting us sit her down and she plays on the floor. She is crawling and cruising along furniture. She gets into everything. Nothing within her reach is safe!

We had a really long day today. We spent most of the morning packing up (which is more difficult than you think with a family of 5). We went to the agency at 3 today to pick up all the paperwork for our immigration appointment on Monday. Unfortunately, it wasn’t ready yet. So we waited. While we waited NiLi suggested that I go to get Hadley a keepsake souvenir – which is a wooden stamp with her Chinese name carved into it. I went with another worker at the agency and rode on the back of his moped. It was fun, but traffic busy (therefore a little scary). The paperwork didn’t arrive until almost 5. By the time we finished saying our good byes at the agency, it was nearly 6. We headed back to our hotel to collect our stuff and catch a ride to the train station. We just arrived in Taipei after a very long day. We are all really worn out.

BAD NEWS HOWEVER – Typhoons Melor and Parma are tracking toward Taiwan with landfall between Monday & Wednesday. They are classed as very severe. But just like hurricanes, they can die down over the course of a couple of days. The American Institute in Taiwan (US Embassy) has issued a warning to US travelers and requested that we register our presence in Taiwan in the event of an emergency. They have also suggested that we make provision for food, water and shelter. Please pray that neither Typhoon hits with any significant strength and that we make it out Tuesday night as planned.
Hadley wouldn't be a Davis baby if drama didn't surround her joining our family...

Our Agency's Staff

Things Are Looking Up!

2009-10-01T10:19:00.009-05:00

Today has gone so much better. The major crying fits have finally subsided and a much more pleasant baby is emerging. She has been playing today and smiling a lot. She is still a little fussy, but nothing like the last few days. She is finally eating and taking her bottles. And the big news today was that she finally POOPED!

This morning the skies were so bright and blue, so we decided to take a trip to the South China Sea beach. I had a tourist map that showed a photo of it and it looked great. So we hailed a taxi from our hotel and took the 30 minute trek to Cinjin Island. The cabby dropped us off and we took short walk to the beach front. Only to realize that it wasn’t a swimming beach, in fact the waves were so big, it was a little scary just being near the water. So we walked back to the park entrance and realized our taxi had left (which was no surprise). The problem was that there wasn’t another taxi in sight. We were so hot and Aiden was whining and wanting carried. We were the only people at the park. So we just started walking hoping to find a taxi. What we found was a marina and fish market. We browsed through the market which was a nice retreat from the hot sun…except for the fishy smell. The boys seemed to enjoy seeing all the fish (dead and dried), and Aiden’s attitude was improving. We hoped that someone at the market could tell us where to find a taxi…but no such luck. None of them spoke even a word of English. After walking for a while, we ended up finding a bus stop. I figured that a bus could get us to a subway stations and that there would be cabs there. I was enjoying the challenge, unfortunately Chaunta didn’t have the same perspective. Fortunately, we saw a taxi drive by and he saved the day.

We returned to the hotel and re-showered for lunch. It is so hot and humid here, you just walk outside and you are drenched with sweat within 2-3 minutes (not an exaggeration). So you need a couple of showers a day.

And after lunch the boys and I took naps. Chaunta and Hadley played. It was the first day with no screaming! This evening we went for a walk to find a place to buy formula and check out a small night market. Taiwan is famous for night markets…I can only assume that the reasons is that it is too hot during the daytime for people to shop. We bought a few small things and headed back to the hotel.

Hadley is now officially asleep for the night. One full day with no fireworks or temper tantrums. Overall, it was a great day. Hadley smiled a lot and laughed with us for the first time.

Tomorrow, we are supposed to pick up all of our immigration paperwork at 3:00pm from our agency. From there we head for the bullet train back to Taipei. We have the weekend free to sightsee. Monday is Hadley’s immigration/visa interview at the American Institute (mini-consulate).

Quotes of the Day:
Aiden told me, “Dad I kinda feel jealous when Hadley gets held all the time.”
Liam said, “When we get home and Hadley sleeps in her room, I will sleep on the floor so she don’t be scared.”
Chaunta said, “I can’t believe you let us take a cab out here and didn’t have a plan to get back to the hotel” after walking in the miserable heat for about 30 minutes carying kids while looking for a cab.
I replied, "Honey, I have everything under control. We will be fine."

Nikki - The Sling & Mei Tai Have Been Lifesavers

Such a Good Big Brother

Our 3 Beautiful Children

Hungry Anyone?

Daddy's Little Angel

Crazy Beach

So Sweet

A Little Better...

2009-09-30T06:55:00.010-05:00

Today has been a little better . Hadley slept all night and finally drank a bottle this morning. We all woke up this morning at 4:30 again. We just can’t seem to get on the right schedule.

Hadley’s temperament is improving although still pretty fussy. She seems to do better when we are out an about than when in the hotel room. It is evident that she is spoiled rotten. She wants to be held all the time. Which is okay most of the time, except we have 2 other kids that want our attention too. Both the boys are really enjoying Hadley. Aiden is a great big brother and so helpful. Liam is warming up to her and starting to be affectionate. Hadley took a bath today with Liam and she seemed to enjoy playing in the water.

After breakfast we went to Lotus Lake and visited the Tiger and Dragon pagodas and a temple. We all really liked it, except it was so hot. Today was the first day that hasn’t been cloudy. The sun was beating down on all of us. It was over 90 degrees with 100% humidity. We lasted just over an hour and headed back to the hotel for naps. However, on the way all three kids fell asleep. When we arrived at the hotel we realized that having 3 kids was not going to be easy. How do 2 people carry 3 sleeping kids and all our bags. UGH! Fortunately the doorman helped carry Aiden in.

At 2:00pm we headed to our agency to meet the foster mother again and give her our gift. As soon as we got there, she latched on to Hadley. Hadley was immediately smiling. We told her that she wasn’t taking her bottle or eating much. Her foster had brought her some food and just shoveled it in. She wouldn’t take a bottle for her either though. She told us that she was very sad and that she didn’t sleep last night because she missed Hadley so bad. She held her and cared for her for about 45 minutes. We gave her our gift and then she left.
At about 3:00pm the birth mother arrived. She looks very young (even younger than 17). She is petite and very pretty. She brought gifts for Hadley. One was from her, one from Hadley’s father, and one from Hadley’s great uncle. It is very special to be able to have those for Hadley. She also brought a letter for us and two for Hadley (one from her and one from her birth father). The agency made copies of them and is translating them for us. We sat and talked for about 45 minutes. We had a list of questions for her that we thought might help Hadley know about her when she is older. She gladly answered all of them. At the end we asked her if she had any questions for us. She told us that she wanted us to raise Hadley as our own daughter and she wants her to learn to speak Chinese and learn about her culture when she is older.

We then let her hold Hadley and took several pictures of her as well as one of her with our whole family. After that we gave her our gifts. She first looked at the St. Louis photo book and asked about the arch. Next she looked at the photo album that we made for her with pictures of Hadley, our family, and our home. She burst into tears as she looked through each photo and asked about them. At that point tears welled up in all of our eyes (even the agency representatives). Finally she opened the necklace and we explained the meaning behind it and she sobbed even more and then hugged Chaunta. We let her hold Hadley one more time to say her final good byes. As she got up to leave, Aiden ran up and gave her a hug. She bent down and gave him a big hug back. She thanked us and then left to go to work.
It was the most amazing experience to meet her birth mother. We feel so blessed for the opportunity. We agreed to send regular updates and photos to the agency for her. The agency also copied the photos from our camera for her. When they did that, I noticed that they had some baby pictures of her that we hadn’t received so they gave those photos to us. It is great to have more photos of her as a tiny baby. Included in them were photos of her birth mother feeding her a bottle at about 1 month old.

After leaving the agency, we went straight to dinner (TGI Fridays). We were starved since we hadn’t had lunch. It was a nice break from McDonalds and Subway. She was great the entire time. However as soon as we got back to the hotel, the waterworks started again. We are having trouble getting her calmed down and settled in for the night. It looks like it will be a long night!

If the weather is nice tomorrow, we plan to go to the beach.

What a Day!

2009-09-29T09:51:00.005-05:00

Wow, what a day. We still haven’t quite adjusted to the 13 hour time difference and so we all woke up about 4:30 this morning. When it finally reached a decent hour, we spent the morning walking around exploring the city. We found the Kaohsiung Cultural Center nearby our hotel. It was a great place to “people watch”. Lots of people doing Tai Chi, dancing, and other traditional Chinese arts. The boys enjoyed watching everything, especially the martial arts. There was a group of about 25 ladies line dancing. We watched for a while until Chaunta’ dared me to join them. Of course, I never turn down a good dare…so I joined in. They all seemed to enjoy watching me try to do their dance.

About 12:30 our agency representatives arrived at our hotel with Hadley. She immediately went to Chaunta, but was pretty fussy. The only lady who speaks English was giving me all of the instructions about her sleeping and eating. We received all of her belongings, including a teddy bear from her birth mother, her clothing, bottles, diapers, and formula. Hadley was becoming increasingly fussy, so we decided it would be a good idea to feed her. She loved the Cheerios we brought and let the boys feed them to her. Of course they loved being able to help. They explained that tomorrow at 2:00we will go back to their office to meet Hadley’s birth mother. Then they left. FINALLY, we had our baby all to ourselves. Once they left, the uncontrollable crying began. Nothing seemed to help! We tried a bottle and that didn’t work. We tried food, and that didn’t work. After about 45 minutes of crying, I did what any man would do in the situation…I got the boys together and took them to lunch (so that mom could have some quality time with our new angel.) It was McDonalds…again (picky boys). While I was gone, Chaunta got Hadley quieted down and off to sleep. We brought back lunch for her, but unfortunately Hadley woke before she was able to eat it. Again, the uncontrollable sobbing began. I took the boys in the other room and got them quited down and off to sleep while mommy got her quieted down. After the boys drifted off, I came back in and Hadley and Chaunta were playing on the bed. She was smiling and having fun. She loves to play peek-a-boo. Unfortunately, the fun only lasted about an hour and the waterworks began again – it took almost an hour to calm her and she drifted off to sleep.

About 30 minutes later, the phone rings. I rush to answer it (not to wake any of the 3 sleeping children). It was LiLi from our agency, she was in the hotel lobby and needed us to come go to the government office and take a Chinese name. We had no clue what she was talking about, but we rousted the kids out of bed. Chaunta carried Hadley and I carried our two sleeping boys into a taxi and off to the office. When we arrived they explained to her that since we were not Chinese that we must adopt a Chinese name. I thought to myself cool, can I be Jackie Chan? But unfortunately, they just gave us names that sounded like our real names, my name is now some really cool Chinese Characters that sound something like “Tie way Es” (for Davis) and Chaunta’s is now “Tie Shan ta.” I think for her that took part of my name and put it with her name. So we are now honorary Taiwanese citizens. They had us sign a bunch of paperwork, and I think we may have actually denounced our US citizenship (just kidding). At the end, the told us that Hadley was now officially ours (by law). OH YEAH, I almost forgot…Hadley was happy and playful the whole time.

After we finished signing the paper work LiLi told us the other man in the waiting room with us was Hadley’s grandfather. Because her birth mother is not 18, her father must sign all the legal paper work. We asked if we could meet him. She ran over to the other agency ladies and they spoke a lot of Chinese back and forth until she came back and said that she would ask him. She asked and brought him over to talk to us. He looked young, maybe 40, and was handsome. He came over and shook my hand. LiLi introduced him to everyone. He spoke first to Hadley, he touched her head and said something we didn’t understand. He looked a Chaunta and said in English, “Thank you. I am very grateful. My daughter is only 17 and doesn’t have power to raise a child”. He eyes were glassy as if holding back tears. Of course, Chaunta didn’t do a good job of holding hers back. They welled up in her eyes as she told him, “Thank you.” He looked at me and said “thank you” again. I asked if we could take a photo of him for Hadley and he agreed. He stood next to Chaunta holding Hadley and I snapped a couple of photos. We all said goodbye and then left. It was a pretty emotional moment.

We then took a taxi back to our hotel and decided to go for a walk – because everyone was so tiered and it was too early to go to sleep. Earlier this morning, we had found a huge department store, but it was closed. We decided to go back there and check it out. The boys were in heaven because they had a toy store. We bought them both a new toy and shopped around for about an hour. We grabbed dinner and headed back to the hotel. Hadley was doing great for about 2-3 hours and then fell asleep on the way home.

Unfortunately, she woke up and started her hysterical crying again. Chaunta tried to calm her but it just wasn’t working. I finally took her and put her in our sling (thanks Nikki) and walked around the room with her. It helped quiet her down, but with the boys it was too noisy for her to fall asleep. I took her out into the hall and walked her up and down for about an hour until she went to sleep. She cried as soon as I laid her in her bed, but stopped as soon as I picked her up. This went on at least 2 more times until I finally took her to my bed and snuggled her. She seemed to love it. She finally fell deep enough asleep that I could get up. When I did, I found that Chaunta and the kids were already passed out in the other room. Now with everyone asleep, I finally had time to update our blog.

Please pray that tomorrow goes more smoothly. She is really having a rough time. She has eaten some solid food, but refused any formula.

Some Random Thoughts About Taiwan So Far:
1) We haven't seen one other caucasian person since arriving in Kaohsiung two days ago.
2) Almost no one speaks any English, and the ones who do, don't know much.
3) People make over Aiden because he looks different (quite the opposite of home where Liam is usually the center attraction. I don't think Liam likes it...but Aiden sure does.)
4) Do you remember Sesame Street? There a part of the show called "One of these things is not like the other." While it seems that the locals are trying to figure out our kids and why one of them is not like the others.

Kaohsuing Comes Alive at Night

2009-09-28T16:50:00.003-05:00

When we arrived in Kaohsiung yesterday, we both thought that is was much more subdued than Vietnam. The traffic was so organized and the city was so much less crowded. But then we realized that city comes alive at night! And no wonder...it is far too hot and humid to be out walking around during the daytime.

We Meet At Last!

2009-09-28T07:05:00.014-05:00

First of all, I have to brag on our boys. They were absolutely excellent the entire trip here. From the time we left our house until the time we arrived at the hotel in Kaohsiung, it was just about 30 hours, most of which was spent in the air. They were so well behaved and weren’t even cranky from the lack of rest (like I was). They didn’t sleep as much on the plane as we hoped, but they were still great.

We arrived in Taipei on Monday morning at about 6am. We immediately took a bus to the train station and caught a bullet train to Kaohsiung. We were completely on our own (no one to help) and I am proud to say that we had no difficulties.

When we finally reached our hotel, we were all so tired. We took showers and napped for about 3 hours. After our naps, we had McDonalds for lunch and headed to our adoption agency.

When we arrived at our agency they were so excited to see us. Hadley wasn’t there yet, but arrived with her foster mother within about 10 minutes. She is even more beautiful that her photos. She has a very pleasant demeanor. She is smiley and happy. Her foster mom says that she rarely cries. She was really reluctant to associate with either of us…she is very attached to her foster mom. She cried as soon as Chaunta tried to hold her and stopped as soon as she got back in her foster mom’s arms. She played with us and let us feed her Cheerios and was happy (as long as she was on her foster mom’s lap). Liam was immediately jealous and tried to climb up on Chaunta’s lap... Aiden on the other hand was in love with his new baby sister. She actually let Aiden hold her for a minute or so. Her foster mom told us that she has two little boys also in her care, ages 5 and 7. She loves playing with her “brothers” and her foster mom was so glad that she is going to have new brothers to play with. Aiden loved on her the whole time.

Finally after about 45 minutes she let Chaunta hold her for about 1 minute before she realized that she wasn’t with her foster mom. I think we are going to have a difficult transition while she gets used to her new family.

Her foster mom is great. It is obvious that she is being taken very good care of. Her foster mom told us that she loves her like her own daughter and is very sad to see her go, but very happy that she has a good family.

Tomorrow she is going for her visa medical exam in the morning and then we will get her at about 1:00 – 2:00pm. She will officially be ours. Then on Wednesday we are supposed to meet her birth mother.

Please pray that things go smoothly with the adoption and that she adjusts to her new family quickly.

Our First Glimpse

Mommy Gets a Smile

As Close as She Let Me Get

Aiden Showing His Sister His Toys Aiden Holds His Sister -She really likes him! Liam's Jealous FaceSaying Good Bye for the Day

Headed to Taiwan!

2009-09-23T15:55:00.004-05:00

It has been a long time since we updated our blog and much has happened. Most notably we received our final adoption ruling and are leaving for Taiwan on Saturday (9/26). We will meet our daughter (Hadley) on Monday and take custody of her on Tuesday. The great thing about adopting from Taiwan is that all the work is already done. We just have to show up for the Visa interview on Monday October 5th (unlike Vietnam were we spent four weeks getting the paperwork together and getting the Visa interview).

We will be taking both of the boys with us. I know it will be a little crazy, but our boys are great travelers and have been out of the country a number of times. This however will be the longest trip they have ever taken. Liam is so excited to meet his sister and experience the process of adoption. Aiden is even more excited to get 1-2 weeks off school (but seeing his sister is OK too).

We have spent the last week making all the preparations. Lots and lots of shopping to get travel stuff, bottles, diapers, baby food, etc… It is kind of scary starting all over with a baby…I’ve grown rather accustomed to not changing diapers.

We will likely meet our daughter’s birth mother, so we have spent countless hours trying to find the perfect gift for her. Unfortunately, there isn’t much you can buy that communicates “Thanks for giving us your daughter!”. Somehow nothing seems to be enough… We finally decided on a gold necklace/pendant in the shape of a teardrop with 3 diamonds. We want her to have something that she can keep forever. Additionally, we picked out some small gifts for the adoption agency and her foster mother. Now if we can just figure out how we are going to get all our stuff packed (so that we can managed it while corralling our kids in the airports).

We will be arriving back in St. Louis on Wednesday 10/7 at 8:25AM on American Airlines flight 407 from Chicago. We invite everyone to meet us at the airport and celebrate Hadley’s arrival to her “forever” home.

Your thoughts and prayer are appreciated during our travels. Check back for regular updates and pictures of our travels in Taiwan.

ONLY A FEW MORE DAYS AND WILL HAVE OUR DAUGHTER IN OUR ARMS!

New Photos...

2009-05-19T15:28:00.007-05:00

It seems like forever since we sent our dossier paperwork to our agency to be forwarded to Taiwan. We rushed around like crazy at the end of March so we would have it notarized, authenticated and apostillized by all the appropriate agencies. We got it completed and sent off just before we left for our spring break trip to Disneyland (in California). It arrived at our agency in the first Week of April and they sent it on to Taiwan. Since that time...there has been not updates.

Our adoption facilitator recently traveled to Taiwan for 2-3 weeks to meet with the various agencies. The good news is that she brought back pictures of our baby. The bade news is that there is no update on the progress of our adoption. Right now we are awaiting our first hearing (which as far as we know hasn't been scheduled yet).

We have been keeping busy, trying to keep our focus off the passing of each day that we are separated from our baby. Fortunately, keeping busy has never been a problem for us. We were fortunate enough to spend a week at Disneyland over spring break...and had a blast. Preschool is wrapping up for both the boys and there have been several programs and events to attend at their school. Most recently, Aiden had his preschool graduation ceremony (grad hat and all). It was very cute, and we can't believe that he will go to kindergarten next year. Aiden will celebrate his 5th birthday next week. The summer is stacking up to be pretty busy as well with church events, camp outs, and a trip to Williamsburg Virginia.

Stay tuned for more updates (HOPEFULLY SOON!)

Introducing our new little angel...

2009-03-30T10:50:00.007-05:00

We are very excited to share that we will be growing our family through the miracle of adoption once again. Unfortunately adoption is a long and unpredictable process. It will likely be 6-8 months before we are able to bring Hadley home. One of the nice things about adopting from Taiwan is that we are able to visit our baby as often as we like. We are planning go this summer for a week or so. We aren’t sure of the timing yet as we want to visit fairly close to finalization (as it will make it a little easier to leave her knowing that we will be able to bring her back soon). Hadley will be able to stay with us the entire time during our visit.

We are now beginning phase 2 of "the paper chase". We must sign a whole book of papers, get them notarized, get them authenticated by the Secretary of State, and send them to the Taiwan Embassy to be legalized. Then they will go back to our agency and eventually back to Taiwan. We are rushing around today to get all that completed so that it will be done before we go out of town on Wednesday for a spring break trip.

We are all so excited. Both Aiden and Liam pray for Hadley every night before bed. While the wait will be long and difficult, we have plenty to keep us busy (with two awnry boys). Please pray for a speedy process and that we will be united with our daughter very soon!

Catching Up...

2009-01-31T12:43:00.002-06:00

Wow, it seems like it seems as if our updates are becoming less and less frequent. Life has certainly kept us busy…and away from blogging.

With so much time since our last post it is hard to know where to start. So I guess Christmas will be a good place.

We have a great Christmas, Liam had his first Christmas program at preschool, it was very cute! I (Craig) was able to take the entire Christmas and New Year week off to spend with the family. It was a blast, and of course very busy visiting all of our family (all 4 sets of parents). But we did take some time out to spend together as a family. It was really nice. None of us were ready to go back to work/school when the holidays were over.

Christmas morning at our house was a little wonderful. (Santa was way too good to us this year - he must not have heard about the economy. But he promised that next year he will be more conservative with the presents.) Liam was so cute, he methodically opened each present and came and showed us…and he would make comments like “Daddy, I got a cars game, I so cited [excited].” It was really neat to watch him be so appreciative for each and every gift. Aiden on the other hand tore through his gifts in a matter of minutes. It took almost a week to find all the toys and gifts a place in our home…we had to do some serious downsizing of existing toys.

Right after the holidays, we went to an open house at Aiden’s new school – in preparation for kindergarten. WOW – we can’t believe that he will turn 5 in a few months and be starting kindergarten in 6 months! He is getting so grown up and says the funniest things… I was talking with his teacher recently and she told me that one of the kids was telling a lie in class, and she was talking with the kid about it. Aiden came and worked his way into the conversation and announced “lying destroys relationships…you shouldn’t lie”. I was so proud to know that the things we say actually do sink in. Aiden continues to be very “spirited” [read: HYPERACTIVE]. He is so much fun, but it takes a lot of structure and work to keep him in check.

Liam is going still going to preschool at a local church 2 half days each week. He really loves it there. He has learned to recite the “Pledge of Allegiance”…there is just something amazing to about hearing him say it, knowing that just over two years ago he living in a communist country. He is a pretty good little boy with a stubborn streak. He never ceases to amaze me.

Several months ago, we were fortunate enough to exchange letters and photos with his birth mother. We were amazed to see how much he looks like his mother and her family. We are pleased to have more information about her to be able to share with him. We hope to keep in touch with her via letters and photos.

A couple weeks ago (in the dead of winter when we were having sub-zero temperatures), we escaped to Mexico for a family vacation. We had a wonderful time spending the week together and enjoying the warm weather. That is were these photos were taken.

As for our adoption, we are now officially at the top of the wait list for a girl. The family ahead of us received a referral 2 weeks ago. We suspect it will still be a few months as this particular Taiwan program has slowed down. We are starting to get anxious, but honestly the boys keep us pretty busy, so we don’t have a lot of time to get worked up about it.

That’s all for now!

An Overdue Update

2008-09-10T13:22:00.001-05:00

Wow, it has been such a long time since we updated our blog. It is hard to believe how many months have passed. Kids sure do keep you busy!

We had a very exciting summer started off with our first trip to Disney World. I wasn’t really looking forward to going (quite honestly). The idea of non-stop theme parks didn’t sound like much of a vacation to me at all. But it was for the kids. But I was so surprised…we all had a wonderful time. It was probably our best family vacation yet! We went at the end of May. The parks were not at all crowded and the weather was great (not too hot). The kids had the most amazing time meeting all their cartoon friends and partaking of all the fun that Disney has to offer. We celebrated Aiden’s 4th birthday while there…it was a blast. He was served a small birthday cake by Cinderella and Prince Charming and became an honorary prince.

The summer months were a little crazy with Aiden not in school and out of routine. Plus, Liam discovered what it means to be a “terrible two” this summer too. Life got crazy, and I am pretty sure Chaunta was considering going back to work…and getting the heck out of the house! But through some planning and creativity, things finally came together just in time for school to start back up in late August. Aiden continues to go to preschool 4 half days a week. Liam also started going to preschool this year 2 half days a week. It is a nice break for all of us!

Speaking of Liam, he is growing up so fast. And he is so independent. I bet we hear him say “I do it myself” at least 20 times a day. Those of you that know us know that Aiden gave us a run for our money at that age too… But Liam takes things to a whole different level. He is extremely smart and always seems to be one step ahead of us. Aiden was always in trouble (and to some degree, still is)…but he easily corrects and apologizes. Liam doesn’t get into trouble as often…but when he does, it is usually bigger trouble and he refuses to relent. He is very strong willed. But he also has a great sense of humor and can sometimes weasel out of trouble by making us laugh. He talks a ton, although sometime we don’t understand what he is saying. He gets so frustrated with us when that happens. Usually his brother can translate. On Sunday we celebrated Liam’s “Gotcha Day”. It is hard to believe it has been two years since he joined our family. We are so thankful for him and the miracle of adoption. By the way, he will be turning 3 in just a few weeks too.

Aiden is growing fast too and getting so tall. We are so thankful that he is now four…he is maturing so much and becoming so much fun. I think 4 must be God’s reward with putting up with the 2’s and 3’s. We celebrated his 4th “Gotcha Day” in late August (for him it is the day he came home from spending the first 3 months of his life in the Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit). He is of course still very busy, and it takes a lot of structure to keep him out of trouble. He started taking martial arts recently and really enjoys it. We are seeing great benefits in his behavior. He continues to work hard to overcome his disabilities. Most recently he was released from weekly physical therapy (the first time since birth).

As for our adoption, we continue to be on the “slow boat to China (Taiwan)”. We are expecting to receive a referral in the next 3-4 months. There seem to be several challenges facing multiple International Adoption programs that ultimately affect even the ones that are running smoothly. In any case, we aren’t in a huge hurry. As you can tell, our boys keep us pretty occupied. It will all happen in God’s timing.

All in all, we are doing great. We have taken so many pictures since our last update…I don’t even know where to begin. But here are Aiden’s 4th B-day pictures. There are of course more of Aiden than Liam. But we will be posting Liam’s 3rd B-day pictures as soon.

Vietnam Family Reunion

2008-05-02T12:56:00.002-05:00

We had the privilige recently to get together with our friends the Perryman's from Tulsa. We are so thankful that we get the opportunity to see them from time to time...hopefully we will make it to Tulsa again this summer.

Aiden is always so excited to see Miss Avi Joy...and Liam was happy too. We thank God for our beloved child from Vietnam and for the opportunity to make lifelong friends with a common bond!

A Long Overdue Update

2008-04-07T08:26:00.000-05:00

Wow, I can believe it has already been nearly 4 months since our last blog update. I just got busy, and thought I would do it later…pretty soon a few weeks turned into a few months and I just never got around to it. I will try to keep this reasonable in length, but I have a lot of ground to cover.

Christmas…We had a wonderful Christmas. This year was the best so far. Aiden was at an age where he could grasp the concept of Santa and it was a blast. The kids of course got way too much stuff, but each child selected 2 gifts to donate to an orphanage in Honduras that we planned to visit in February.

Vacation…We went on our much anticipated cruise vacation through Central America. During our week long trip, we visited four countries and had a wonderful time.

First stop was Roatan, Honduras were we visited an orphanage and lots of brought supplies. The boys both really enjoyed the time with the kids at the orphanage. The children were so grateful for all the stuff we brought as was the caregiver. We also got to play with Monkeys while we were in Honduras.

Next stop was Guatemala were we went up the Rio De Leche to a Mayan village in the Rainforest and visited a community and school. We all loved our visit to Guatemala, Chaunta and I agreed that it reminded us very much of the area of Vietnam that Liam came from).

Next we went to Belize City where we snorkeled on the Great Barrier Reef and swam with sting rays. The kids spent most of the time on the boat with my mother, but did swim with the sting rays. Liam just loved it and was touching all over them…Aiden however was pretty scared.

Our last stop was Cozumel, Mexico where we spent the day at a beach resort. I had the privilige of performing a wedding ceremony for my sister and her fiancé. It was a great wedding right on the beach.

Easter…
The boys were really excited about Easter this year. Especially Aiden…I think he thought that the Easter Bunny was like Santa Clause. He kept telling us what he wanted the Easter Bunny to bring. We did explain the true meaning of easter, and he did grasp it (kinda).

Adoption…We continue to wait for a referral, but we do expect to see one this summer. We officially went on the waiting list in July of last year. They have been telling us the wait should be approximately 12 months since we switched programs. According to the message board, we are 2nd on the list for a girl. However, referrals seemed to have slowed in the recent months. In any case, we are really not in a big rush like we were last time. With two boys, we keep very busy.

Overall…Overall, our family is doing well. Aiden is thriving at his new school. His teacher just loves him and has had a huge impact on him. We are so thankful for Ms. Liz. Aiden will turn 4 next month….WOW, it is hard to believe. Liam is doing well also. He is now 2.5 and really doing great, but the terrible part of two’s are really setting in. My last post was about his potty training. He continues to do really well. He will start preschool in October when he turns 3.

Chaunta and I are doing well also. We recently joined a gym and have been working out together a few times a week. We really enjoy doing something together (and getting a small break from the kids).

Bye Bye Diapers!

2007-12-08T21:03:00.000-06:00

Wow, I never thought the day would come when we would have both our boys out of diapers. It's true...Liam is now officially (mostly) potty trained. Besides the occasional accident, he now uses the "big boy" potty. We are are so proud and happy we could almost cry (but we are way too busy celebrating). :)

Both the boys are doing great. Besides learning to use the potty, Liam is learning so many other new things. He talks a ton and uses complete sentences now (although they are sometimes difficult for the untrained ear to understand). He can dress and undress himself, put on his own shoes and sox, tell his brother to go time out! He is growing up so much already. He continues to favor his mommy, but he gets really excited when I come home from work and wants me to hold him for a while. He is the perfect fit in our family...God really knew what he was doing when he gave us Liam.

Aiden is doing good too. We recently watched the "Dennis the Menace" movie and couldn't help but see some very strong similarities. He can sometimes wear us out...but he is so affectionate and loving. Not just to us, but to everyone. He has the ability to tell when people are sad and try to cheer them up...and also to celebrate with people who are happy. He is so sweet. He is very much a daddy's boy - and it is a good thing...I am almost hyper enough to keep up with him...almost! He is doing very well in school...we had our first parent teacher conference in October and we were very pleased with his teacher's report. He is so excited about Christmas and can't wait to see what Santa is going to bring.

Speaking of Christmas...we are all finished with our Christmas shopping, cards have been sent, and the Christmas tree is up. The kids had a blast decorating it and we occasionally catch them getting candy canes off it and eating them. It is a nice feeling to be ready for Christmas and just enjoy the season. We have been teaching the boys about the true meaning of Christmas...sometimes Aiden asks me to come over to the nativity so he can tell me all about it.

Our adoption process continues, we went on the waiting list in July and don't expect a referral for another 6-12 months...which is completely fine with us! We are going to savor every moment with our boys (especially the time without diapers!).

Overall, we are very thankful to God for the many blessings that we can celebrate this Christmas.

Family Christmas Photos

2007-11-30T19:27:00.001-06:00

Photo Update

2007-11-12T21:40:00.001-06:00

Happy Birthday Liam!

2007-10-19T15:49:00.000-05:00

Well this post is quite late…but Liam turned two last Saturday. We have had such a busy month that we just haven’t gotten around to posting the update.

We just can’t believe how big Liam is getting. Last night after getting the boys tucked in bed, we went down to the living room to enjoy some “kid-free” time. About 15 minutes after we tucked the kids in bed, we hear a noise on the stairs…assuming it was our dog, we paid little attention to it. Next thing we knew, little Liam was running to his daddy carrying his blanket and Elmo doll. WOW – This had never happened. He scaled his crib (bringing both his doll and blanket) and opened the door (he can barely reach the door knob). So we laughed a little, kissed him and put him back in his crib…5 minutes later, he comes running to his daddy grinning ear to ear with the blanket and Elmo doll in tote. So I guess he is done with the crib and it is time to switch him to a toddler bed.

He is talking so much. In fact, he doesn’t quiet down much at all. He regularly speaks in 3-4 word sentences. We just can’t get over how fast he is developing. Our “Parents as Teachers” coordinator can’t believe that he was ever in an orphanage…he is on target and ahead with most milestones.

Slow Boat to Taiwan...

2007-10-02T11:14:00.000-05:00

Time for an update.

First off, Liam's 2nd birthday is quickly approaching so we had to get pictures taken. Once again we went overboard and purchased way too many! Liam is getting so big and developing quite the personality. He fits so well in our family...sometimes it is hard to believe that he is adopted. He is talking quite a bit, but the words can be somewhat difficult to understand at times. He loves his brother, and wants to do everything that he does. It really ticks Aiden off sometimes...

Aiden is doing well. He started a new school last week and so far he likes it. He is getting more individualized attention as well as occupational therapy twice a week. We are very glad that he is getting the help that he needs to be prepared for kindergarten. He continues to do hippo therapy (horse therapy) once per week. He can ride forwards, backwards, and standing up. He really enjoys it. He is also incredibly sports minded (which is crazy since neither of us really get into sports too much).

We have not posted much about our adoption in a while so here goes... We are starting to realize that life with two small children (age 3 and 2) is crazy...and adding a 3rd right away would be sheer madness. Thus we have decided to take the "slow boat to Taiwan". We have elected a different program within Taiwan that has a much longer wait for referral (12 -18 months). This will give us more time to devote to our two boys (and allow Liam plenty of time to be the baby). It was a difficult decision because we both really want a little girl, but we believe it is what will be best for our family in the long run.

Now for those pictures...

Happy Gotcha Day Liam!

2007-09-08T17:06:00.000-05:00

Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of Liam’s adoption. Wow, it is so hard to believe that Liam has only been with us for year. He fits in our family so well, we can barely remember life before him.

Liam will also turn two in about a month. He is getting so big. He says tons of words and several phrases. He can sing several songs from church and “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”. He loves his big brother, and loves to torment him. His favorite game is hide and go seek. He often quietly slips away and hides. He will stay hidden 5-10 minutes without making a peep. We often have to search high and low to find him. We walk around the house calling for him, waiting to hear him giggle. As soon as find him, he yells “Peek-a-boo”!

Happy Gotcha Day Aiden!

2007-08-30T10:04:00.000-05:00

Monday, August 28th marked Aiden's 3rd gotcha day. You are probably thinking you yourself, "I didn't think Aiden was adopted." Well, you are right. Aiden wasn't adopted. However a few years ago when we decided to adopt, we also decided that we would celebrate Aiden's "Gotcha Day" to make it fair for all our children. And yes, Aiden actually does have a "Gotcha Day"... As most of you know, Aiden was born extremely premature and he spent a few months in the hospital. Thus we now celebrate his homecoming from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (13 weeks after his birth) as his "Gotcha Day".

He was so excited about opening his gift, he had Chaunta call me on the cell phone to tell me to hurry up and come home from work so he could open his present. When I finally got home, he was squealing with excitement. He got a Diego tree house toy and was glued to it all night. In fact, we offered to take him to the park for gotcha day, but he wanted to stay home and play with his new toy instead. He did a great job sharing with his little brother too.

Speaking of Liam, his Gotcha Day is just around the corner on September 7th. I can't believe it has already been a year.

Update on our Family and Adoption

2007-07-12T09:40:00.000-05:00

It has been a while since we posted but we wanted to take the opportunity to update you on our adoption and our family.

First, our family continues to have a very busy summer. We have been out of town most every weekend. In fact, this will be our first weekend at home since mid-June. Aiden’s potty training has been very successful and we are now saving a bundle on diapers! : ) He started some new therapy programs this summer including a program called Therapeutic Horsemanship. Basically each week he spends an hour riding horses and receiving occupational and physical therapy while he rides. He absolutely loves it and it seems to be effective! Liam continues to develop and learn new things. He talks quite a bit now and is putting words together (saying things like “hold me”, “get the ball”, and “where’s my binky?”). His personality is really developing and he seems to be completely bonded to his family. He is much more attached to his daddy and brother than he used to be. But don’t get me wrong…mommy is still his favorite.

Our adoption continues to move along faster than we originally expected. We made it on the “official wait list” for an infant girl on July 2nd. That very same day, we received an email from our adoption agency stating that they had just received 11 referrals virtually wiping out the wait list, and that our expected wait for referral should be shorter than the 4-6 months originally quoted. After we receive a referral, it will take another 4-6 months before we travel to Taiwan. We also received our approval from the US Department Citizenship and Immigration (I-171H) yesterday. In short, things are moving along nicely.

Potty Training Paradise

2007-06-20T22:15:00.001-05:00

I am pleased to report that AIDEN IS POTTY TRAINING! After 3 long years, our oldest son Aiden (who just turned 3) is finally using the potty like a big boy. Last Tuesday we woke Aiden up in the morning and had a little "graduation" party for him. We gave him a present to open...a small box stuffed with undies. Undies of every variety including Diego, Spiderman, Sports, etc. Aiden was so exicted. Then we told him that he "graduated" and that he would no longer be wearing diapers. Over the last 10 days, he has only had a few accidents. If you have kids, I am sure you understand how exciting it is. It is such a great feeling not having two children in diapers.

YAY AIDEN!

Aiden's 3rd Birthday

2007-06-05T22:16:00.001-05:00

It is hard to believe that just 3 years ago Aiden was hanging on to life by a prayer. He entered the world at a tiny 2 pounds with a little heart that wasn't even beating. Aiden's birthday always floods us with memories of one of the most difficult times in our lives. But praise God for miracles! Thanks to the dedication of some extremely talented medical professionals and the grace of an Awesome God, after 3 months in the hospital and 4 surgeries Aiden is very much a normal little boy.

Happy Birthday Aiden!

“Hasta La Way To Go!”???

2007-05-31T11:51:00.000-05:00

We just completed a week long family vacation in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Wow, what a wonderful time we had. Chaunta and I both agree that this was our best vacation ever. The boys both had a wonderful time, and it was great to be together as a family for an entire week.

We stayed at a resort that catered entirely to families with children. It featured a water park with multiple pools and slides for kids of all ages. The boys thought they were in heaven. Each morning we awoke and enjoyed a family breakfast and then headed to the pool. We usually spent about 2-3 hours swimming every day. Then lunch, and nap time. And by nap time, I mean we all took naps (it was great). The resort also provided child care as long as parents stayed on the property. It took us a few days to warm up to the idea, but it was absolutely wonderful. We would spend the whole day with the kids, and then enjoy a nice dinner just the two of us. The child care was amazing with lots of activities and games. The child to adult ration was about 3/1…WOW! We felt so comfortable leaving them…and it was great to have some time alone to connect with one another. After dinner, we gathered the kids up for a walk on the beach and finished each day out by watching the nightly fireworks. I know that this sounds like a commercial, but I can’t begin to describe what an amazing vacation we had.

That was pretty much our daily routine except for one day we went on a cruise on a pirate ship and show. It was cool, but it was Aiden’s favorite part. He made friends with one of the pirates, and he still talks about him. This pirate was one of the main characters and Aiden was so worried when they made him “walk the plank.” He kept asking if his friend was alright. We reassured him. Chaunta was selected for one of the contests as part of the show and won Aiden a pirate hat. He was so excited…he hasn’t taken it off since. : )

Liam is quite the little swimmer and not afraid of anything. He would go down the waterslides all by himself with little coaxing. Aiden on the other hand, took some time to warm up to them. Both boys are quite tanned, but thankfully didn’t get burned. Liam has such a beautiful complexion and is so dark from his time in the sun.

On the last day of our trip (yesterday), we celebrated Aiden’s 3rd birthday. We gave him a few small gifts in Mexico which he loved. He got a baseball bat, glove and ball. He has been wearing the glove ever since (quite a site with his pirate hat and baseball glove on). When we got home last night around 6:00 he got his Spiderman Bike which he has been wanting for months. Tonight we will have a little party for him a Chuck E. Cheese’s.

Both the boys have flown many times now…but this was the first time Aiden really knew what was going on. He was so excited and talked about it for the entire week. Liam was great on the plane…he slept half the trip (both ways).

You might be wondering about the title of this post “Hasta La WAY TO GO!” The boys were practicing their Spanish that they have learned from their good friends Dora and Diego all week. Both boys have mastered “Hola,” “Adios,” and “Gracias”… But we were trying to teach them to say “Hasta la wego”… and Aiden began to proudly use this new Spanish phrase to say goodbye…and so he told the various people he came in to contact with “Hasta la WAY TO GO!” each time he said good by.

One last note…today (May 31st), Liam officially became a Davis. We went to court today and his adoption was recognized by the state of Missouri and his name was changed. We are proud to “officially” introduce our son as Liam Van Lai Davis.

So I will sign off this entry with … HASTA LA WAY TO GO!

Happy Mothers Day

2007-05-13T11:12:00.000-05:00

Time for a quick update on our family...

Both boys are doing well and keeping us very busy! Aiden will turn 3 in a few weeks and he continually reminds us that he wants a "Spiderman bike and helmet". He is starting to potty train and uses the potty about one to two times a day. We yearn for the day when he is completely potty trained. Liam is developing quite well. He learning things so much faster than we expected...I guess that is due to his older brother who teaches him all sorts of awnry behaviors. : ) Liam is "mommy's boy" mostly, but he loves daddy too (just not a much). He wants to do everything that his big brother does. It really frustrates Aiden because Liam is always "tagging along."

Out adoption is going much more quickly than we originally planned. We officially filed one month ago (this Monday), and have already completed our homestudy visits and dossier. We should be officially on the waiting list soon. The wait for a referral of an infant girl will be approximately 4-6 months, and then it will be another 4-6 months before we travel. So we are expecting to travel somewhere between 9-12 months from now. We are getting really excited...

Now for the photos...

Again...

2007-04-20T09:17:00.000-05:00

Well, we have exciting news to share once again. After much consideration and prayer, we have once again filed for adoption. We submitted our application last week and it has been approved and we will begin our homestudy shortly. We anticipate the process to take approximately 18 months before we will travel to Taiwan. We anxiously await the day that we will hold our little Asian angel. Yes, this time we WILL wait for a little girl.

While waiting, we will enjoy our time with our sons and give them tons of love and attention. Aiden is already excited about his little sister (of course he was excited about Liam too, until he arrived).

Both boys are doing great. Aiden is talking so much these days and Liam is learning quickly. It is amazing how much faster they learn when they have an older sibling to mimic. Liam is definitely mama’s boy and Aiden is definitely daddy’s. While we long for the day when we can clean the house and it will stay clean for more than 15 minutes, we can’t imagine life any other way!

For more information on Taiwanese adoptions see the following links:

Journeys of the Heart - Taiwan

St. Lucy Center

Cathwel Taiwan

Easter Update

2007-04-10T21:21:00.000-05:00

We had a wonderful Easter Sunday. The kids had a great day. Aiden was so excited about the Easter Bunny coming to visit. In fact, he keeps asking about the Easter Bunny coming again. He first wanted a bike and helmet from the Easter Bunny, but we explained that the Easter Bunny only brings small gifts. So now he wants a bike and Spiderman helmet for his Birthday next month.

Liam didn't really get the hang of Easter egg hunting. He had more fun just wandering around outside. He did pick up and egg or two...but otherwise he enjoyed running around the yard.

He is getting so big and begining to talk regularly. He is developing quite the personality. Chaunta often says that we went halfway around the world to adopt a child that is just like Aiden. Their personalities are so similar it is amazing. In fact, you would think he was my birth son (if his almond eyes didn't give it away).

Ninh Thuan Reunion & Easter Pictures

2007-03-27T21:46:00.000-05:00

I just returned from a long trip to India. I was there working for the last 3 weeks. And I couldn't wait to get home... On the last leg of my 40 hour journey, my flight was canceled in Chicago. I was so close to being home, but didn't make it as expected. So I finally was reunited with my family in Tulsa a day late. It was great to be back together.

While in Tulsa with our Church, we planned a visit to the Dillon office. It was so great to finally get to meet Jynger, Katie, and others in person. They were all amazing. We had so much fun chatting with them. And of course everyone loved up on our kids. Denise even took Aiden to her office to play a game on her computer. Aiden had a blast. He still talks about it. Liam was happy as usual and enjoyed all the attention. We only planned to stay about an hour...but that time quickly passed and we ended up staying almost 2 hours. I can't say enough good things about the Dillon staff. We continue to be impressed by their operation.

After we left Dillon, we met 2 of the families we traveled to Vietnam with. It was great to see them again...and my, how all the children have grown. We had pizza and went back to the Homan's house. The kids had a fun playing together, and the adults had a great time catching up. Aiden also had a good time...in fact yesterday he asked if he could go play with Sarah and Avi Joy. I wish we lived closer because it was so much fun catching up.

NINH THUAN REUNION

After we got home from Tulsa, I took an extra day off work. We went to the zoo, and then after nap time we had Easter pictures taken. Both boys were so well behaved and did great for the pictures. We were so pleased with the outcome. See for yourself.

HAPPY EASTER

Happy Tet!

2007-02-17T16:44:00.000-06:00

Well, I know it has been a while since our last post. Life with two little boys keeps us very busy.

Both boys are doing great. Aiden started Montessori preschool in January and loves it. He goes half days all week. It was quite hard on Chaunta’ to be away from him at first, but she has discovered what a great bonding time it is with Liam. Speaking of Liam, he is doing great. He started walking really well in December. Although wobbly, he walks everywhere. His newly found mobility makes things a little more challenging to keep up with. He loves his big brother and wants to do everything Aiden does.

We were just talking the other day about how well adjusted Liam seems. He is very comfortable in our home and with his new family. We wonder if he even remembers orphanage life. In fact, for us it is hard to imagine life without Liam. It feels as if he has been with us since birth.

All in all, our family is doing well. The boys keep us very busy. I think we highly underestimated how challenging it would be to have two boys only 15 months apart. But we wouldn't trade it for the world.

Below are some pictures from the last few months.

Christmas Pictures

2006-12-11T22:35:00.000-06:00

Here are our family Christmas pictures. Hope you enjoy!

India Update

2006-12-03T09:51:00.000-06:00

I have now been in India for over a week. I thought I would enjoy India given how much I enjoyed Vietnam. However, I've not been too fond of it here. I have been in the city of Chennai mostly, and there isn't much for tourists there. It is very dirty and has poor infrastructure. This weekend, I traveled to New Delhi and found it to be much more advanced (infrastructure wise) but still very dirty (but not as bad as Chennai). Throughout the city you will find areas where people pile their trash right next to the street...and the stray dogs, stray cows, stray pigs, and stray goats all gather round to eat it. I now know why many Indian people are vegetarians. It doesn’t really make you crave a burger when you see the cow sifting through trash and eating paper. In fact today I even saw a wild monkey eating from the trash piles. I also haven’t felt very safe here. In Vietnam, we went everywhere and did everything without a worry for our safety. But here, I am much more cautious.

The highlight of my trip was definitely today, I visited the Taj Mahal. I traveled 4 hours by car to Agra to catch a glimpse of it...knowing that it is one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It is far more wonderful than I imagined. Evidently the Emperor of the Mughul’s wife died in child birth (her 14th child in 14 years). He was crushed! His love for her was so great that he ordered a mausoleums be built for her. It took 22 years and 22,000 workers to complete it. Construction was completed in 1654. It is made of all white marble. Changes color throughout the day, in the morning it appears pink, in the afternoon it appears white, and in the evening it appears yellow. It is absolutely amazing! Without a doubt it blew away everything I saw in London.

London Update

2006-11-26T15:47:00.000-06:00

Here are pictures from my trip to London over the weekend. I just got to India a few hours ago. Wow it is a long trip...I am not looking forward to the trip home!

All is going well...

2006-11-24T12:05:00.000-06:00

Life as a family of four is starting to settle down. Both boys are now used to eachother. They play more than they fight now...which makes our lives a little easier.

Aiden is constantly talking about Liam to us. He will tell us things like, "Liam is sleeping," "Liam is funny," or my personal favorate..."Liam is stinky and nasty.". When Aisen prays at night, he always prays for Liam first. There is much more brotherly love than sibling rivalry now.

Since adopting Liam two and a half months ago, he has gotten 3 teeth, started crawling, cruising, and most recently walking. So far he has only taken 3 steps...but I am sure he will be completely mobile by Christmas. It is exciting, but a little unnerving too. Soon we will have two children that can walk around and get into trouble.

Liam seems to be settling into our home and family well. He definitely knows his mommy, daddy, and brother. He is so much like his older brother...we know we are in for double trouble.

Please continue to pray for his health as he has one more test to clear him of the issues that were discovered last month. We believe that the final test will show that he is completely healthy...so just pray that it does.

I am on my way to London as I type. I will then go straight to India from there. Two weeks away from my family...UGH! I am thankful that we have so many good friends that will look after my family. If you get a chance...give her a call or stop by to say hello.

I plan to post some photos of my travels.

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Fall Fun Pictures

2006-11-05T21:35:00.001-06:00

Get Your Own! | View Slideshow

Thanks for your prayers...they have been answered.

2006-10-30T19:58:00.000-06:00

Thanks so much for all your thoughts and prayers. Our gracious Lord has answered them and once again given our family a miracle.

Prayer Urgently Needed

2006-10-27T10:12:00.000-05:00

Without being specific, I must ask that you pray for our family. We have recently received some very devestating news and urgently need prayer.

Sibling Rivalry

2006-10-18T16:31:00.000-05:00

I have already mentioned the sibling rivalry that is going on since we arrived home from Vietnam. But sometimes you have to see it to beleive it. Here is a typical day in our home.

Our older son is spending a lot of time in "time out", but as you can see here...he is not the only problem.

Liam's First Birthday

2006-10-17T13:26:00.000-05:00

Get Your Own! | View Slideshow

New Pictures and A New Adventure

2006-10-05T22:43:00.000-05:00

Wednesday we had our very first experience eating out since we have been back from Vietnam. It was a sure sign that we will stay home for dinner from now on...

We walked into Quizno's and got in line just like any other day. We ordered food for each of us...and as we waited for it Aiden started having a conniption over chips. He wanted them and wanted them now... I explained that he needed to eat his sandwich before he was allowed to have chips. And after a minor fit, he was fine. We all sat down at the table. Aiden had his sandwich as did mommy and daddy. Liam had soup, but we were waiting for it to cool. Mommy and daddy started eating, but Aiden just stared at his sandwich. The moment we started to give Liam soup, Aiden decided that he wanted soup. There was plenty to share, so we got a separate bowl so that both boys could have some. The only problem was that they only had the large soup spoons (not standard tea spoons). Aiden started to eat, but because of the size of the spoon, he was wearing much more than actually made it into his mouth. Liam on the other hand wanted nothing to do with the soup and was spitting it out faster than we could get it in. Neither of us had actually taken more than 2 bites of our lunch. So we finally give up on the fact that Liam is going to eat the soup. And mommy starts feeding Aiden herself. Things are starting to calm down... But then Liam decides he wants everything on the table. He starts reaching out and pulling things off the table and throwing them on the floor. UGH!

Then it started to occur to me that our family is now only suited for McDonalds. We are one of those families that people avoid sitting next to in the restaurant. The ones that they whisper quietly to each other about how unruly our children are. Just then things start to settle down some, and we finally get to eat our meal. I ran out of soda and went up to get a refill, while mommy is cleaning Liam up. As I am filling my soda, the clerk says "Sir, you might want to check on your son.” I turn around to find Aiden with his pants down around his ankles (diaper too), playing with his wee wee. I can't believe this is happening. So I say "Aiden, stop that." He starts to shuffle across the floor toward me (pants and diaper still around his ankles), and he says "Sorry Daddy, Sorry!”

What a hilarious and humiliating moment. We quickly cleaned up our mess and got out of there was fast as we could. Hopefully we will never see any of those people again!

Photo's of our Homecoming

2006-10-04T07:59:00.000-05:00

More updates will be coming soon. We have been so busy since returning home. But in the mean time, here are some photo's of our homecoming.

Two sides to the story...

2006-09-30T04:16:00.001-05:00

PART 1: AN AMAZING HOMECOMING

We were so excited when the pilot came on the intercom and said "Flight attendants, prepare for landing." We had been traveling for nearly 40 hours at that point. It was all about be over and we were about to see Aiden for the first time in a month. The plane landed and taxied into the gate. As soon as the fasten seatbelt sign was turned off, we jumped up grabbed our bags and waited for the door to open. When it finally did, we walked as fast was we could through the airport making our way to our family. As we exited the terminal and headed to the baggage claim, we saw our many of our friends and family waving American flags. As excited as we were to see them, we were looking for Aiden. And all of the sudden, he came running toward us with a huge American flag in his hand. We dropped everything (except for Liam) and grabbed him up. Chaunta started crying...not just a little either...it was one of those big "boo hoo" cries. Aiden was saying "mommy" and "daddy". He was happy, but wasn't sure why Chaunta was crying...so he cried too. As our family approached, we handed them Liam to pass around a little and we continued to hug Aiden. After a few minutes we started to hug and visit with all our friends and family...many of them were crying too by this time. This was it, we were now really a family of four.

We headed to the baggage claim, only to find out that one of our bags didn't make. So I filed all the necessary paperwork and we headed home, as happy as can be. (Oh, by the way...I did remember how to drive. And we did get our Taco Bell on the way home) When we finally pulled into the driveway, there was a welcome hope sign in our yard. We walked into the house to find baloons and decorations. Aiden was in heaven with all the balloons. This was it...we were in our own home and family life together was about to be begin.

PART 2: JET LAG and JEALOUS BOYS

Little did we know how hard life would be after our return. Neither of us had slept for about 2 days. We got home at noon, which was midnight in Vietnam. We were both zombies trying to get through the day. Our goal was to stay awake until 8:00 PM so we could sleep all night! We did make it...thanks to all the visitors. I think if we didn't have them to distract us, we wouldn't have been able to hold off that long. We slept so good and so sound for the first time in a month. And then it happened...the clock struck 2:30 and I was wide awake. Not the least bit tired and ready to get up and start the day. I laid in bed trying to get back to sleep. The minutes slowly advanced forward and I was still awake. Then 3:30 rolled around...I decided to get up and take some Benedryl in hopes of going back to sleep. I was just about to doze off with Liam woke up ready to play. That was about 4:45. Chaunta got up with him and took him down to play (since she was wide awake too). I laid there a little longer and start to drift. That is when Aiden came running into our room, climbed in bed with me yelling "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy." Then he started to tickle me. At about 6:30, I realized I would not be going back to sleep.

We made it through yesterday only taking a short nap. We went to bed around 11:00 and here I am updating our blog at 4:30 this morning. I have been awake for about an hour now. Chaunta is awake too, and Liam is playing as if it were the middle of the day. We feel great right now, but if today is anything like yesterday...we will be zombies again by noon. Dizzy, sick to our stomachs, tired, and a little slap happy. Adjusting back to time here in the US has been more difficult than it was when we got to Vietnam. Hopefully, it will get better in the next few days...I have to go back to work on Monday.

On top of the jet lag, our family hasn't turned out to be as happy as we had hoped. Upon arriving home yesterday, Liam decided to check out the new digs. He made his way around the downstairs of the house, until he came to the toy box. He was in heaven. He started playing with the toys immediatly and was very happy. Until, that is, when Aiden discovered what he was up to. Aiden ran right up to him, snatched the toys from him and said "That's mine!" We tried to explain to Aiden that Liam was his brother and that they would be sharing things, but Aiden really wasn't too in to that idea. He again saw Liam playing with another toy, and ran up to him to try to grab it. But this time, Liam knew what was coming. He clentched onto that toy and fought for dear life. (I think he might have done that before at the orphanage...he was a pro at it). Until Aiden decided to kick him. We immdiatly grabbed Aiden up and put him in the corner. He defiantly went and waited quietly until his time was up. I then told him to tell Liam that he was sorry, but he refused. I asked him again, and he still refused. So back to the corner. This time he cried for a few minutes and then he finished his time quietly. He did finally say he was sorry and gave Liam a kiss. This whole turn of events repeated it self several times the last few days. Aiden will say, "Gimmie, that's my (car, toy, monkey, balloon, etc.." and snatch it back. Liam will fight until the bitter end. Liam is much shorter than Aiden, but weighs nearly the same...he puts up a good fight.

We have been trying to spend some one-on-one time with Aiden too. Usually when Liam is napping, I try to play with him or take a walk with him. He seems to enjoy that. But yesterday Aiden was sitting on my lap watching a cartoon, when Liam decided that he belonged on daddy's lap. He made his way across the room, and pulled up on the couch. I picked him up and sat him on the other side of my lap. Aiden tried to ignore him, but Liam wouldn't let him. Liam started pushing him off my lap. Aiden fussed and started to push back. UGH! We never imagined that this would be this hard. Aiden was so exicited about Liam before we left. He watched his video every night before bed...but now I think he would rather send him back!

We are trying to divide our attention as equally as possibly. It is very hard on us knowing how unhappy Aiden is with his little brother. We can only hope and pray that in time things will get better. Please pray for our boys and for us!

Stay tuned for updates on the situation!

PS - We hope to have pictures again soon. We will go camera shopping as soon as we feel good enough to leave the house!

Flight Changes...UGH!

2006-09-28T04:03:00.000-05:00

We arrived in LA safe and sound. It took quite a long time to get through immigration. But after an hour of waiting in line and working with the immigration officer Liam was granted citizenship. We have a temporary Green Card until his citizenship certificate is received..

With still 2 hour to spare we made our way to customs. It was very easy to get through. Then we headed to the American Airlines counter to checkin for our flight. To our surprise our ticket had seats hadn't been confirmed properly and the flight was sold out with several people waiting on standby already. Still we headed to the gate hoping someone would take pity on us since we had been traveling for so long with a small child. And a few people did, just not the ones with the powere to help us. In fact one gentelman offered us his seat, and we had hope. Unfortunately, there were people ahead of us on the wait list and they got in. At 12:20am we realized that we would not make our flight. Tears flowed as we walked away from the gate. We headed back to the ticket counter to see if we could get booked on the morning flight (although we already knew that it had been sold out too). On our way, we found a flight getting ready to leave for Dallas. We figured that Dallas was one step closer to home, so we gave it a shot. It too was sold out and had a long list of standbys. But as we approached, liam started to sob. The young lady at the counter took pitty on us and put us at the top of the standby list. She then called Dallas to get us a flight to St. Louis. It too was sold out, but they somehow got us 2 seats. Within 5 minutes we were on our way to Texas. We arrive at 5:30 am. We then catch a flight to St. Louis that will get us home at 9:30. Only an hour and a half later than originally planned.

If you are coming to meet us at the airport, we are on flight AA1774 from Dallas. See you soon!
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Leaving Early

2006-09-27T04:53:00.000-05:00

We received Liam's visa at 11:00 AM today. Since it came so early, we tried to get a flight out. And after two very stressful hours we packed our bags and got tickets to leave tonight. With our new travel plans we will arrive in St. Louis at 8:00 AM on Thursday. We invite everyone to meet us at the airport for our homecoming.

We are so close now... See you soon!
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Visa Interview Complete

2006-09-26T07:46:00.000-05:00

Today we had our visa interview at the US Embassy. It went relatively smoothly. They asked us several questions about Liam's history, our adoption agency, and about ourselves. We answered them all honestly. Then he told us that we would be approved. Then about a minute after that he said that there was a problem.. Our hearts both sank. After a few moments of awkward silence as he reviewed paperwork, he finally realized that everything was ok.

We hoped we would get the visa tomorrow by 2:00pm so we could catch an earlier flight home, but it seems as if it will be 4:00pm...so there is no way we can leave early. We will leave on Thursday evening and arrive on Friday. It was disappointing, but we are very glad that the visa was approved and we will get to leave this week. Thanks so much for all your thoughts and prayers.

Today we also visited Ho Chi Mihn's mosoleum and home today. It was not really that interesting...and it was far to hot and humid to be outside. I will be glad to get home and enjoy some nice midwestern fall weather.

Tomorrow we will get packed up and ready to leave...ALMOST HOME!

VISA Interview Tomorrow

2006-09-25T11:01:00.000-05:00

We returned safely from our weekend trip to Sapa. It was a wonderful trip overall. However the train ride home was horrible. Six adults and four babies in a 6x6 cabin with bunks stacked 3 high. No AC and no matteress. The bunks were Vietnamese sized and much to short for me. But we survived the 10 hour ride with a very unique experience. We arrived back in Hanoi safely, minus our camera. We were dissappointed to lose it, but relieved that we only lost one day of photos.

Tommorow we have our VISA interview at the US Embassy. We dropped off all the paperwork today. Please pray that the interview goes smoothly and the VISA is processed quickly.

Tomorrow morning we are going to visit Ho Chi Minh's home and tomb before the interview. We will probably spend most of the day Wednesday packing (and coming up with unique ways to pack all the stuff we bought here).

We miss everyone so much. But we especially miss Aiden. I cankt believe that we will actually return home this week. We will have been gone nearly a month by the time we get home. WOW! I hope I remember how to drive (I have learned some very interesting manuvers while here). I think we could solve a lot of St. Louis traffic jams if we could just ignore stop lights and drive on the sidewalks. It seems to work well here. : )

Thanks again to everyone who is helping with Aiden. We can't begin to express how thankful we are.

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Tastes like…MONKEY???

2006-09-23T09:49:00.000-05:00

(I will explain the title later in this post…)

So last night we week took the overnight train to Lao Cai (right on the Chinese border). It was a very interesting trip on the train. The sleeping quarters were tight and musty… I took motion sickness medicine, so I slept better than Chaunta.

We arrived around 6:30 this morning. We met our guide at the train station, took an hour bus ride up on winding road up the mountain to Sapa. We weren’t sure if the trip was going to be good based on the train ride…but we were amazed at the beauty of this place. The pictures don’t even capture it.

This area is primarily inhabited by ethnic minority groups that migrated here from Thailand, China, Cambodia and Laos several hundred years ago. They means of living are very meager and they rely heavily on tourism to survive. We toured one of their homes. It was approximately 400 square feet and 12 people lived there. You could see right through the gaps in the boards that made up the walls. They only recently received a tin roof that was funded by UNISEF. Of the 400 square feet in the home, approximately 150 square feet were filled with rice and corn. Since they only have one crop per year they must ration it and make it last.

The weather is much cooler here. We are enjoying a break from tropical heat of the other areas we have visited. And we are dressing Liam in layers to ensure he doesn’t get cold, since he isn’t used to the cool weather. But it should be good practice since it will be cool when we get home.

Speaking of home, we are getting very close to leaving. Only 5 more nights here. We can’t wait to rejoin Aiden and begin life as a family of 4. But we are doing well here. I think we have both resigned ourselves to the fact that we just have to stay. This weekend away has been a great distraction to the homesickness.

Liam is improving everyday. Today he got his last does of antibiotics. I am sure he will be completely well by the time we leave.

Tomorrow we will visit 2 more villages here, visit the Chinese border, and catch a night train back to Hanoi.

Okay, now for the explanation of the title…

While on the bus coming to Sapa our tour guide was explaining about the local people and the different foods they eat. Many people here eat dog, cat, snakes and rats. WOW! He went on to say that dog meat is very good. Of course we asked him, “What does it taste like?” He thought for a moment and then said, “Monkey. It is very similar to Monkey meat.” Although that didn’t help describe the taste to us…it made for a very memorable story. By the way, monkeys live here on the mountain and they are also a choice meal to the locals.

Leaving for Sapa

2006-09-21T20:25:00.000-05:00

Sapa, an old French Hill station, is nestled in the Hoang Lien Son Mountains in North West Vietnam right next to the Chinese border. It is considered to most scienic mountain location in all of Vietnam. It is inhabited by many ethnic minority groups. We leave tonight by sleeper train and arrive early in the morning. We will be there all day Saturday and Sunday. Then we will return via overnight train again Sunday night. The pictures that we have seen are just beautiful. I can't wait to post our own here.

Today has been another day of rest. Liam is still doing very well, but we wanted him to be plenty rested before our trip. We did a little shopping today, but not much. We have spent alot of time to day packing up. It will be nice to finally be home next week and not have to live out of a suit case.

All is well with us. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers. And thanks to everyone who is leaving comments here...they are really encouraging. And finally, a big...no HUGE thanks to everyone that is taking care of Aiden. You all are the best. We love you so much. It makes our separation from him easier knowing that he is in excellent hands!

Here is the picture from yesterday that was never posted!

Liam is tons better today

2006-09-21T09:31:00.000-05:00

Liam has had a very good day. He has rested a bunch, and is acting much better. He has eaten solid food for the first time in over a week. We are so relieved!

It was a pretty uneventful day for us. We stayed in with him almost all day. We went out for a little over an hour to do some shopping. It was fun. I got fitted for a tailor made suit. I picked out my fabric and got measured. I go to try it on tomorrow. It was only $100. So cheap! We walked for a while until we got incredibly lost. It was no big deal…I figured we could catch a cab back to the hotel. But Chaunta had the great idea for us to take a rickshaw back. The driver spoke no English, but I showed him the card with the hotel name and address. We both got in, but were much to fat for it. I think it is only made for 2 Vietnamese which is about 1.5 Americans. But we squeezed in, sitting on each other’s lap. After driving us around for about 15 minutes and taking us to 3 places that were no where near our hotel, we started to worry that our driver didn’t know where he was going. But he did eventually get us there. However, he tried to grossly overcharge us about $12. We refused because a taxi would have only been $1. We argued for a while, but neither of us had any idea what the other was saying. We eventually got an employee from the hotel to translate. I told him that I would only pay $2, because he took us to the wrong place 3 times and a taxi would only be $1. The hotel employee agreed that it was a fair price. After some more arguing, he finally agreed on $2.50. We paid it. We felt bad since he was sweating profusely…we probably weighed about 400 pounds between us and the baby. But he was trying to rip us off because we were tourists.

After getting back, we relaxed the rest of the night. Liam is sleeping now. If he is still doing well tomorrow, we plan to take a train to Sapa tomorrow. Sapa is a small town in the Northwest Mountain Range on the Vietnam/China border. It looks very beautiful. We will take an overnight train there tomorrow, and then another one back on Sunday night.

Here is a picture of Liam today.

A very hard night...and day...

2006-09-20T08:33:00.000-05:00

Last night around 10:00PM Liam spiked a fever of 104 and had a seizure. We had to take him to the International Clinic to be treated. Before we got to the hospital he was no longer seizing. They put him on IV fluids and took his blood. It showed nothing, so they did an X-Ray. Then they found that he had pneumonia. They kept him there for a few hours until he was feeling better. We got back to the hotel very early this morning.

Today went pretty well. We let him rest most all day. We took him back to the clinic for a follow up and the prognosis was good. The antibiotics seem to be working. But then a few hours later his fever hit 104.2 again. We immediately gave him Motrin and Tylenol and got it down quickly. He is acting better again. Hopefully he will kick this quickly!

We are very fortunate that one of the other families traveling with us is a doctor. He is taking good care of us!

Since Liam is so sick, we have halted our sight seeing plans to let him rest and get well before our return flight next Thursday. However, if he gets better over the next few days we might still go to mountains…but we will not go if he is still sick.

Dillon International (our adoption agency) has been great support through everything. We are so thankful to have worked with such a good agency. They have excellent staff here in Vietnam, and have taken very good care of us. Even our contact in Oklahoma has called us a few times to check in. We are so impressed!

Thanks again for all your encouraging comments! Please keep Liam in your prayers! We miss you all!

A New Hotel...

2006-09-19T04:22:00.001-05:00

Today we changed hotels to something a little more economical for our longer stay. It is a local hotel chain and is very small, but we love it. It is absolutely beautiful. We have a 2 room suite and it is only costing us $55/night. The other hotel was $130/night, and although it was nice it was very big and very much like a hotel in the States. This hotel is very Vietnamese, but still extremely nice. And go figure it has free internet and the other hotel charged $12/day. Anyway, we are very happy here.

On Friday we are taking a train to Sapa, which in near the Chinese border in the mountains. Several ethnic groups live there. We figured that since we have to stay for another 9 days, we might as well make the best of it. All the other families will be traveling with us also.

Then tomorrow we are going to visit Hoa Lu, the former capital of Vietnam. And we will also do a boat trip down the Hoang Long River. We will ride in a small row boat and visit several temples in the countryside.

Liam is doing well, although he continues to become a little more difficult since we arrived in Hanoi. I am not sure if this is true, but it seems like he has realized that he is not going back to the only home he has ever known. Don't get me wrong, he is fine...but he seems to be a little less happy with us than before. I am sure he will come around...

He is feeling a better, but has a runny nose. His little cheeks are really chapped right now. We are learning that the asian skin is different than ours and dries out easily. There are so many differences between us that I never realized before. We love him so much. He can brighten the room with his smile...when he smiles big, both of his eyes close.

Vietnam is also so different than the States. It has been an eye opening experience. We never realized how blessed we are to live in America. Prostitution is pretty pervasive here. Last night the husbands took our Lawyer out, and while on our way home around 10:30 PM we were ambushed by 4 prostitutes. They were very agressive with their flirting and didn't want to take no for an answer. This also happened in Saigon while we were there. I think they target foreingers because they think we are rich. They left Thomas (our Lawyer) alone. Other than that, the people here are very friendly and hard working.

Yesterday I took a motor scooter taxi to the airline to change my flight. It was very scary...the driving here is insane. But it was cheap and cool experience.

Tonight we are headed to the water puppet show. I am not exactly sure what it is, but the one here in Hanoi is world renound. I will tell you more about it tomorrow and post some pictures!

Thanks so much for those of you that are leaving comments...they are really encouraging. We love hearing from you!

Stuck...

2006-09-18T00:57:00.000-05:00

We received word this morning that we will not be getting an appointment on Tuesday as we hoped. But it is worse that we imagined. Our appointment with the US Embassy isn't scheduled until next Tuesday. Thus, we will be spending another week in Vietnam. Our original plan was to leave this Wednesday, but it is unlikely that we will be able to leave until next Thursday now. We are trying to remain in good spirits. Our adoption agency had done everything right...it is just that the US Embassy is very behind. We were told that if we had submitted our paper work even a few minutes later that we would have to wait 2 weeks instead of just one. So we are thankful that we only have to stay one more week.

We have not yet changed our flights...I am waiting for the Airline to get back from lunch to call them. Hopefully there will be pleny of choices for our return next week.

Below are some photos taken yesterday at Ha Long Bay.

Trip to Ha Long Bay

2006-09-17T21:06:00.000-05:00

Today we took a trip to Ha Long Bay. We were gone from 8AM to almost 8PM. It was a long day, but a very enjoyable trip. Ha Long Bay is very beautiful. We had a private cruise liner take our group out onto the bay. We also treked through a cave. I hope to post some pictures tomorrow.

Liam is feeling a little better today. I think he is starting to get over what ever he has.

Tomorrow we hope to hear from the Embassy about when our interview is. Hopefully it will be on Tuesday. If it is, we will likely be able to catch our flight on Wednesday. But if it is later we will certainly be delayed. Keep praying about it.

More tomorrow...
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Amazing Hotel

2006-09-16T06:38:00.000-05:00

We are staying at an absolutely amazing hotel. It is right in the center of Hanoi, and has beautiful view of the city. Hanoi is much nicer and cleaner than Saigon (at least that is what I can tell so far. It reminds me much more of your stanard big city, but it has a strong French influence.

We really haven't seen too much yet. Liam is still sick, so we stayed in the room most all day. Liam slept the day away. We hope he will sleep well tonight also. We figured it would be good to rest today since we will have a very big day tomorrow at Ha Long Bay. We will leave tomorrow morning at 8:15 and not return until around 8:00 tomorrow evening. Hopefully Liam will be rested up and ready for a long day. While Liam slept today we took turns getting massages at the salon. They were the best we ever had.

Here are a couple pictures from today...

Liam with his Buddy Thai

View from our Hotel Window in Hanoi

8 Observations about Vietnam...

2006-09-15T10:59:00.000-05:00

Today we traveled to Hanoi. It has been a very long day. Liam is not feeling well. We were greeted in Hanoi by our Lawyer with bad news. We do not yet have an appointment at the US Embassy to get Liam's Visa. It is not looking good for our return on Wednesday. We think will be delayed until Thursday or Friday. It was hard to hear since we are missing our son terribly. Please pray that something miraculous happens and that we will be able to leave on Wednesday as scheduled.

Below are 8 quircky observations that we have made during our time in Vietnam...ENJOY!

1) Motor Scooter Mania– 110cc’s of moped madness
Everywhere you turn – mopeds, mopeds, mopeds. We have seen as many as 6 people riding on one moped. I know you are thinking, “Wow” but remember the Vietnamese people are smaller than us. (see #7) Crossing the street is a challenge here. But we have learned, just keep walking and don’t stop. The moped riders will dodge you. Sometimes it is better to close your eyes…it is much less frightening.

2) Elevator Music Hell
We have previously heard Vietnam described as “Where bad music goes to die.” However, I am convinced it is where bad music is stripped of its vocals, turned into elevator music and SPENDS ETERNITY. Where else can you hear instrumental music from Lionel Richie, Britney Spears and Meatloaf back to back.

3) Vietnamese Dong – we are Billionaires (many times over)
$1 USD = 16,000 Vietnamese Dong (VND)
It is so strange to purchase something and pay $100,000.00 VDN. It is so hard to get used to cost of things. They are so cheap but sound like so much. We will be bringing home a little Dong.

4) Sqauty Potty – I have never been so thankful to be a man.
Imagine a gas station restroom with a toilet bowl built into the ground. You just kind of hover over it… I haven’t personally used one, but I would think that there is a splash factor. We have all been through those physics classes that teach you that falling objects increase in speed. The speed of the object hitting water increases the splash. That alone is enough to cause me to try to hold it. But if you aren’t sure, read number 5.

5) BYOTP – Bring Your Own Toilet Paper
Believe it or not, but many public restrooms don’t have toilet paper available. Either the Vietnamese people bring their own or don’t use it at all. Some questions are better left unanswered.

6) Rice, Noodles, or Rice Noodles. What’ll it be?
I have learned that no mater what you order, even if it doesn’t say it in the menu item description contains at least one if not all of the following: White Rice, Noodles (of various sorts) or Rice Noodles. Whether your order pork, beef, octopus or sand lizard, it will have one of those items. While a Kentucky Fried Chicken the other day, I found that they serve white rice with brown gravy (like mashed potatoes). I for one have had my fill of those items.

7) “You very large…”
Everything is negotiable here. Anything you want to purchase, you must haggle for. The Vietnamese people are very good at this. If you are a tough negotiator you can get more than half off. I usually settle for about 30% since they need the money more than I do. But the other day I was buying some shirts and trying to negotiate the price down. I couldn’t get her past 20% off. She kept saying, “You know you big size, right??? That take lot of fabric. Cost more to make…” At first it is a little insulting, but you must understand, I am easily 8 – 12 inches taller than the average Vietnamese man, and weigh probably about 75 pounds more (at least). We heard a story from an American lady that got a massage here. When she turned over to have her back massaged, the masseuse said, “You bottom very big and white, like two big marshmallows.” So I guess what they told me was mild.

8) Communism – The government either owns or controls most things.
From hotels to water bottling companies, the Vietnamese government has it’s hand in most business in Vietnam. It is hard to imagine having the government compete with local businesses using their tax dollars. But they do here.

Overall, we are enjoying our stay in Vietnam. There are a few quirky things to get used to, but being here is such an amazing experience. We are so thankful for the opportunity.

All better...

2006-09-14T09:21:00.000-05:00

Today we are all felling much better. It is amazing what a 12 hours sleep will do for you.

We had a busy day of sight seeing and shopping. After breakfast we went on a walking tour of Saigon. We first visited the American War Crimes Museum (aptly renamed the War Remnants Museum to draw in more tourists). It was an amazing opportunity to see the other side of war. We often get the Americanized version of what occured, but this was different. I imagine that the truth is somewhere in between. The photos were horriffic. It is hard to imagine war in your own backyard. We are truly blessed that we have never experienced war at on US soil for a few hundred years. We heard the stories of a few South Vietnamese that fled after the fall of Saigon. They took a boat to an island were they lived in a refugee camp until they were sponsored by a Church to come to America. They left everything behind for fear of the North Vietnamese. Of course their history books all tell of the wonderful reunification, but many southerners still have a very different account.

We also visited the presidential palace that belonged to the Southern Vietnamese President before the fall of Saigon in 1975. It was very nice, but not as posh as I expected. There were pictures of the tanks breaking down the gates and photos taken after the Northern Vietnamese had bombed it. It has since been restored. It is now mainly a tourist site, but it seems that foreign government officials are often entertained there even still.

After that, we had an afternoon of shopping. We bought a few more things and headed back to the hotel. We spent the evening packing since we leave for Hanoi tomorrow. We are very excited to go to Hanoi. We understand that it is less touristy. We plan to take a day trip to Ha Long Bay on Sunday. It is supposed to be the most beautiful place in all of Vietnam. We can't wait.

We still haven't been assigned an interview date with the US Consulate in Hanoi. We hope to hear tomorrow when it will be. Please continue to pray that it will be Monday or Tuesday so we can return as planned on Wednesday.

Liam is still doing very well. Overall he is incredibly happy and easy going. He is becoming less and less independant. Just for the record, tonight he didn't want his momma. He wanted me to rock him to sleep. That made me feel really good.

We can't wait to get home so Liam can meet his big brother. We miss Aiden terribly. We haven't called home for a few days, because talking to him makes it worse. Thanks to everyone that is helping with Aiden. We are so thankful to have such loving parents and great friends. You are all the best. If you see him, give him extra hugs and kisses from us.

We love you all!

Now we are all sick...UGH!

2006-09-13T07:50:00.000-05:00

The whole family is now sick. It seems as if we have the Asian equivalent to Montezuma’s Revenge. Last night was miserable, and so was today. We all seem to be feeling a little better this evening. We think we ate something bad.

Today was so busy, which was extra difficult since we were all sick. At 9:00 AM we went to get Liam’s passport at the immigration office. Then we went from there to the US Embassy in Saigon. We had an interview with one of the agents. She was American and very nice. She asked us a few standard questions which we answered honestly. She was in a hurry to get to the airport so she moved through all five families very quickly. She said that our paperwork was approved and that it would be available for pickup tomorrow. We went straight from there to the hospital for medical exams. The exam itself was very simple. They looked Liam over, asked a few questions, and took his weight, height, and head circumference. He weighs just under 20 pounds right now. The hospital here is not much different than at home. We waited about 3 hours to get the reports back. We did receive medical records for him also, but of course they are all in Vietnamese. We hope to get them translated before coming home.

Once the approval is received from the Embassy we can apply for an appointment at the Consulate in Hanoi. They only do appointments on Monday – Wednesday. Our lawyer is going to request Monday or Tuesday. If we get an appointment either day, we should be able to come home on Wednesday as scheduled. However, if we don’t get an appointment until Wednesday, we will have to change our flight. UGH! Please pray about that.

We purchased our Airline tickets to Hanoi this evening. We leave on Friday afternoon. We plan to do some sight seeing in Hanoi also. We are especially looking forward to seeing Ha Long Bay.

Tonight I went to Kentucky Fried Chicken and got dinner. Neither of us were feeling great, so we ate very little. The menu is very similar to the US. However Colonel Sanders has squinty eyes.

Hopefully we will all feel better tomorrow.

Oh, by the way. Liam is crawling on all fours now. It is amazing how much he is progressing with a little TLC. He still really prefers Chaunta, but is coming around for me.

Sick Baby

2006-09-12T07:46:00.000-05:00

Well today has been a rough day. Liam is sick. We slept in this morning and went to a late breakfast. After breakfast we went shopping. Liam seemed a little warm when we were out, but that wasn't unusual. It is about 90+ degrees here with 100% humidity. The air is really thick (even worse than August in St. Louis) and we were all a little warm. When we got back to the Rex, we took his temp. It was 102.5 degrees. He was incredibly irritable and cranky. We gave him Motrin and Tylenol and then his fever broke. He is still sick though. This is the worst behaved he has been so far (understandibly). We are going to take him to the doctor tomorrow. The docotor that is traveling with us suspects and ear infection, but doesn't have his equipment to check. Did I mention what a blessing it has been to have a docotor with us. WOW - we are so thankful for him.

We didn't have our interview at the Embassy today, but it is scheduled for tomorrow. Liam's passport is ready to be picked up also. We will have a busy day tomorrow. Hopefully he will feel a little better.

It seems like we are on schedule to be able to come home next week as scheduled. We just can't wait to be with Aiden and have our whole family together at last.

SICK BABY

2006-09-11T10:59:00.000-05:00

It was another early morning here in Vietnam. We woke up today at about 5:00AM. Not because Liam woke us up, but because Chaunta couldn’t sleep. We are staying at the Rex Hotel in Saigon. They have a breakfast buffet, and we really enjoyed it. Chaunta even found cheesecake on it this morning.

Liam is still really happy, but has the occasional temper tantrum. He has been so accommodating to our tourist activities. Nikki loaned us a baby sling and we have toted him all over Saigon the last few days in it. We have done a lot of shopping here. Things are so cheap. A lot of the big name brands in the US are manufactured here and imported. So the same things that we pay big bucks for at home are only $3-4 here. We have stocked up on several items. Additionally, we have bought the boys some traditional Vietnamese Aoi Doi’s. We plan to have the pictures done in them when we get home.

Taking advantage of the many choices here, we had pizza and pasta for lunch today. Surprisingly enough, it was very good. We did have a Vietnamese food for dinner tonight. I just love the Vietnamese spring rolls with peanut sauce. The restaurant we went to was very nice, but not really kid friendly. Liam learned to drink out of a straw tonight. He loved our fresh fruit juices (strawberry, banana, pineapple, and orange). I think that is what I will miss most when we get home. I have really enjoyed all the fresh fruit and juices.

We filed Liam’s passport paperwork today and also filed his I-600 (Petition to Classify Orphan as Immediate Relative) form with the US Embassy today. We hope to have our interview tomorrow.

Well it is off to bed. Little Liam already did...it looks like he has the right idea. Untill tomorrow...

On the road again

2006-09-10T21:14:00.000-05:00

Today we left for Saigon at 9:00AM. With the luggage of all 5 families, the minibus was quite crowded on the way to Ninh Thuan. Adding 5 children to the ride home was going to be interesting. However, amazingly enough the children all behaved beautifully. Liam slept for about 5 hours of the 8 hour trip. He was a little antsy during his waking hours, but not more than can be expected. Leaving Ninh Thuan was bitter sweet. It is such a beautiful area, but Saigon boasts some of privileges of the Western world that we have taken for granted at home.

On the way back from Saigon, we stopped for lunch. The menu seemed somewhat questionable so we chose not to eat. When we arrived in Saigon at 5:00PM, we were starved. We quickly made our way to Lotteria (the McDonalds of the Far East). Surprisingly, it was quite good. A double cheese buger and french fries never tasted so good. After dinner we went shopping at a nearby mall. Chaunta got measured for a custom Aoi Doi (traditional Vietnamese attire). She picked out her fabric and it will be ready in 2 days. We also bought the boys coordinating Aoi Dois with rice hats. They will look so cute. Then we went to the grocery store to stock up on diapers, formula and the like.

Liam has been so good today, even with all the business. Tonight he is fighting his sleep and is a little grumpy and slap happy all at the same time. It still amazes me that he is ours. He is so perfect. We are very blessed to have two miracle children. God is good!

Tomorrow we begin the paperwork to grant Liam US citizenship and get his Visa to come back with us. This is the hard part of our journey. Please pray for a smooth and efficient processing. If all goes well, we will leave next Wednesday.

Send our best to Aiden.
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Liam the Hoard...

2006-09-09T09:18:00.000-05:00

Today has been a day of rest. Liam slept very well again last night. We went to bed late since we took an evening nap. It was at least 11:00 when we went to sleep. Liam woke up at 1:00am and took a bottle. Then he slept until almost 7. It was very nice to sleep in a little.

Liam is still so well natured. He loves us, but I am not sure if it has anything to do with us being his parents. He just loves everyone. I know that I mentioned that he loves food, but we are beginning to notice why. He is a hoard. That is typical behavior of an institutionalized child. Since other children will eat their food if they don’t eat it quickly, they learn to store it. We noticed it in some of the children at the orphanage when we visited. When Chaunta shared our Cheerios with the children there, they would stuff them in their pockets and come back for more. We didn’t think that Liam would do this since he is so young. But we were wrong. We have often found rice stored in his cheeks long after the meal has been finished. Today at lunch, he must not have been hungry but he took food anyway and stored it in his cheeks. We didn’t notice until it was too late. He stored so much in his mouth that he started to gag and eventually vomited. Yuck! So we will have to watch him closely. Another family’s child does the same thing. They found soggy Cheerios stored in her mouth from hours before. It is sad to think that our children have learned to hoard food.

Just down the beach from our hotel are several tents and clap board houses. Evidentially, people are living in them. It is very sad. We have become friends with a waitress in the hotel restaurant. Her name is Kien (Kee-UHN). She has a four year old son that her grandfather cares for while she works. She just loves Liam. If she comes by and his face is messy with food, she cleans him up immediately. We noticed that she seems to always be in the hotel when we are there. So today we asked her what hours she works. She comes in each morning at 6:30 and works until 10:00 each evening 6 days a week! We were told that the average salary is $50-60 per month. It is so hard to imagine working that long and being away from my children. She is always so pleasant and helpful even after 16 hours of working.

We took Liam swimming again today. He just loves it. There is not many things that he doesn’t love, but there are a few. He hates getting his diaper changed and hates having his clothes changed, but he loves being naked! And it never fails, when he is naked he pees! He says da-da often, but no ma-ma yet. This makes me happy, but it is obvious that he prefers Chaunta over me (and that makes her happy!).

Tomorrow we leave to return to Saigon. We are not looking forward to the long bus trip (7 hours). This time we will have 5 children in tote. UGH! But I am sure we will survive.

We are really starting to miss home, especially Aiden. Chaunta is having a harder time than I am. Last night she broke down. Liam must have known that she was sad. He did his best to change her spirit…and it worked. He has the most infectious giggle. Check out the video below.

If you see Aiden, please love on him for us. Linda is brining him to Shane’s party today and to church tomorrow. I think it is a good break for my mom, caring for Aiden is wearing her down. We are so grateful for her. We are also extremely grateful for Nikki, Nathan, Carla, and Linda. They have been a huge help. It is so nice to know that we have an extended family to watch after Aiden. Thank you all so much!

Another Day

2006-09-08T10:19:00.000-05:00

Another day has come and gone. Although it was not quite as exciting as the two previous days, it was filled with new adventures nonetheless.

Last night Liam went to sleep around 8:00PM. He goes to sleep so easily. He slept in bed with us and seemed quite at home. We weren’t sure what to expect, but we had figured that he would have a harder adjustment than he has.

We woke up about 1:00AM crying for the first time ever. He had a dirty diaper that leaked…YUCK. So we changed him and fed him again. He was right back asleep again. He slept until almost 6:00AM. He woke us up by is laughing and playing in bed between us. It was very cute

Breakfast has become our favorite meal of the day here… It is the only meal where they have food choices similar to what we can have at home. We usually eat bread, fruit, and eggs. I am very happy with it since it is the only meal of the day where I don’t have rice or noodles. I am growing increasingly tired of them! The last few evenings I have only had fruit for dinner. I am sure it is good for me…I hoped to lose a few pounds while here anyway.

We have free time until we return to Saigon on Sunday. It is nice to have time to relax and enjoy our son. After breakfast today, Liam went back to sleep for a few more hours. Then we went swimming. He just loved the pool. We played in it for a few hours. He cried a little when we left.

In the afternoon, our lawyer arranged a tour of the Cham Towers. They were built the 1200’s by the native Cham people. It was a place of worship to the late king because he had done so much good for the people. Today they are ruins, but still very beautiful. Then we went to the Cham Village nearby and watched them make pottery. We bought a small pot to bring home. Hopefully it won’t break. In case you were wondering, it seems that the Cham people were the first to inhabit Vietnam. I would compare them to our Native Americans. They practice Hindu to this day, and are the only group in Vietnam to do so.

After the visit to the Cham Towers, we went to the Market place in Phan Rang. It was very crowded. People flocked around us. Most had never seen white people. Many people pointed and followed us. They were very intrigued at why we had Vietnamese children. One lady even tried to take Liam from Chaunta (even though he was strapped to her in Baby Carrier). Our translator told us that she was saying he was beautiful and that she wanted to take him. He did say that she was joking though. Although it didn’t feel that way since she followed us through the market for about 3-4 minutes. We have learned that the Vietnamese people are baby crazy. They love babies. People constantly try to hold Liam. We always decline, since we are trying to get him used to us being his care givers. But they are very persistant, and sometimes no isn’t enough. They just try to take them from you. Our translator explained that even if we were Vietnamese, people would still do that. They just love babies.

We were very tired after a long day of site seeing, and laid down for a short nap. Unfortunately, our short nap turned into 3 hours. We are really hoping that it doesn’t mess up our schedule. We just finally got rid of the jet lag.

More about Liam…

Liam crawls on all fours sometimes, but mostly he army crawls. He pulls himself up on furniture. He smiles all the time, and he smiles with his eyes. His hair is long for a boy, and so soft. He likes to jump in your lap, and he loves to be bounced. He loves his tongue. He often sticks it out and licks us. He loves attention. He loves to be held. He is independent, and likes to hold his own bottle. He loves food, any food, anywhere at any time. He is not picky. He is eating the baby food that we brought (even peas). He also eats fish, shrimp, calamari, squid, pork, chicken and beef. He just loves food…he will fit in with our family well. He prefers his mommy, but likes his daddy too. He often says DA DA, but I am sure he doesn’t know what he is saying. He loves to talk, he makes all sorts of sounds and seems to enjoy listening to himself. He knows just how to cheer Chaunta up when she is sad and missing Aiden. He likes to be rocked to sleep…Chaunta is doing that now.

SLEEPING

BAD HAIR

Liam is officially ours...

2006-09-07T07:45:00.000-05:00

It has been a very busy day…again. Last night was the first night that we slept through the night. Well I guess if you call 4:30AM through the night. But we did get 7 hours of unbroken sleep, so that was very good. Today we both feel much better and adjusted to the time zone here. After getting ready, we had breakfast here at our hotel. There is no western style food – only Vietnamese. We did find a few things we liked and they had several types of bread. We are very careful what we eat and drink since we are not used to the food here.

After breakfast we went to the orphanage and had a meeting with the director and the staff. The director thanked us for taking the children and let us know that they were happy to see them have good homes, but sad to see them go. He asked about each family, he wanted to know what our jobs were, if we had other children, and how long we were married for. He then told us that he was sorry that the orphanage wasn’t nicer, but they have very little money to provide for the children. He then told us that they did get a grant from the government and that they are doing renovations. The entire orphanage is open air, no glass in the windows, only shutters. I say things because as the director was talking, I watched a gecko crawl up the wall behind him. I don’t think there were any doors either (at least I didn’t notice them if there were). The orphanage is two floors, the younger children are on the 2nd floor and the older children on the first. There is a 2nd building with the office in it also. I didn’t notice if the building also housed children, but I think it did.

The director later asked that we provide good care for the children and that he hoped we would raise them as our “blood children”. He also asked that we keep our commitment to provide annual updates to the provincial authorities. He also asked that we send pictures our children and our family. He hopes that someday we will bring our children back to Vietnam and have them visit the center. He also said that he was thankful for the donations our group provided to the center (cloths, coloring books, tooth brushes, tooth paste, candy, etc) and also asked us to consider continuing to make donations after we return to the US. Then he thanked us again. He told us that he knows the adoption process is not easy, and that he knows we will be good parents because the commitment it took to adopt our children. He then asked us if we wanted to talk about our feelings. I was the first to speak and I thanked him for the wonderful care the children received and told him that it was obvious that the children were loved by the workers. I told him that we promise to provide for Lai (his Vietnamese name) as if he were born to us, and that we will give him every opportunity for education and success. And I told him that we would teach Lai about his Vietnamese heritage. Again, he seemed pleased with what I said. The other families also spoke.

After the meeting with the director we went to see our children in the other building. They were dressing Lai when we arrived. They were trying to put a diaper on him. He had never worn a diaper before…and they weren’t very skilled at putting them on. They dressed him and gave him to us. He nanny’s eyes welled with tears. Then she took him back and changed his clothes again. They passed him around from one nanny to the next as each said teary eyed good bye’s. The also “sniffed” him on his face, hands, legs, and head. We were told that the Vietnamese believe that they are taking in his essence by doing that. It was very sad to watch, and both Chaunta and I were teary eyed as we watched.

The nannies then got on the bus with our children and road with us to the court house. When we arrived they took us all into a medium sized room that was set up like a conference room. It was a little crammed with all of the parents, children, nannies, and officials. Amazingly, none of the children were crying the entire time. The director of the Provincial Justice Department thanked us and asked us to raise the children well again. Then they started the ceremony (which was not much of a ceremony at all). Each family went to the front of the room and signed several papers (none of which could we understand as they were all in Vietnamese). After we signed the papers, the nanny came forward and handed us our son. Then the Provincial Director came forward and handed us an official looking document with a seal. We all froze for a picture and then the next family was called. There are 4 other families with us and the ceremony took about an hour for all of us combined. We then took a group photo of our children, caregivers and provincial authorities on the front steps of the government building. After that we all loaded back into the bus and took the nannies back to the orphanage. After they left, the child were all ours.

We returned to the hotel and immediately undressed Liam and gave him a bath. He loved the water and was very playful in it. We discovered a small rash of some sort on his back. We have a doctor traveling with us (John and his wife Ly, who are also adopting) and he looked at it. He thinks it is some sort of yeast of fungus. We are going to have a local doctor look at it today. He also have several bug bites. We were told that about a month ago some flying ants came in over the water and infested the orphanage. Several of the children were bitten badly. The ones on the 2nd floor were not so bad as the older children on the 1st floor. They appear to be healing, and the doctor with us said that we should just keep an eye on them. He has a Mongolian spot on his back that will go away with time. Otherwise he is healthy and extremely happy.

We haven’t yet heard him cry. He is so happy and very rambunctious, I am a little worried about the trouble that he and Aiden will get into together when he gets home! He eats good and is chubby. None of the children appeared to be malnourished, I suspect that the staff gets paid by the pound. : ) Both times we visited, they were always offering him some sort of food or formula. At lunch he ate Chao, which I suppose is similar to rice porridge but it usually has meat in it. He had pork today, but I think they give him fish at the orphanage. He also takes formula. He ate very well, and then fell right asleep. That is what he is doing now. He looks so peaceful.

All of the men are going to the immigration authority this afternoon to apply for passports. The ladies will stay at the hotel with the children. We hope to take him swimming this evening if he is up for it.

We have free time until Sunday when we will return to Saigon. We plan to enjoy this beautiful resort, the beach, and the pool until we return. We are not looking forward to the 8 hour bus ride with 5 children, but I am sure we will survive. Please keep praying that things go smoothly with the US immigration authorities when we return to Saigon. Their efficiency really determines how long we will have to stay. If you see Aiden, please hug him and kiss him for us. By the way – Thanks to my mom and all of you that are taking such good care of him. We love you!

We meet at last...

2006-09-06T06:13:00.000-05:00

It seemed like forever as we made our way across the country side of Vietnam. It was bumpy and mountainous...the driver was constantly dodging cows and goats in the road. It was a 7 hour drive two lanes all the way. We thought it would never end...but it did. We finally arrived in Phan Rang (the city where Liam lives). We checked into the hotel which is ridiculously nice. It is right on the beach. This is the view from our room.

We settled in briefly and ate a very good lunch. We did however pass on the braised sand lizard. I had white rice with chicken and Chaunta had braised pork with rice. We were both pleased. Then we quickly loaded into the bus and headed to the orphanage. It was an exciting and nerve wracking feeling as we pulled in through the gates. We would finally meet our son.

We walked up the stairs and saw children everywhere. As we looked around we immediatly recognized Liam with one of his nannies.

He was more perfect that we imagined. He seems smaller than we expected, but he is very round. He immediately warmed up to us. He went right to Chaunta and was smiling and giggling. He is so happy. He never once cried the entire time we were there.

All of the older children were so proud to show him off to us. We watched him crawl (more of an army crawl) and he will walk when you hold his hands. The teenage kids there were very friendly...the loved to practice their limited English skills. And we enjoyed practicing our even more limited Vietnamese skills. There were so many beautiful babies. We could have easily taken several home if allowed. One little boy in particular took a liking to me. He sat on my lap for a long time. In fact, when I wanted to hold Liam, he kept coming back and getting on my lap. It was so sweet.

We stayed for about 2 hours. At the end, Chaunta rocked him to sleep. One of his nannies took him from Chaunta to lay him down. She sobbed as she picked him up. We could see how much she loved him. She said "Thank you" to us in Vietnamese. We too teared up know how painful this was for her.

We return to the orphanage tomorrow morning at 7:30. Then off to court by 9:00. After court, Liam is officially ours. Later tomorrow afternoon we will apply for his passport. We will stay here in this town until Sunday and then return to Saigon to begin applying for his Visa to enter the US. Please pray that it goes smoothly. We miss you all!

More Photos...

2006-09-06T06:00:00.000-05:00

We made it...

2006-09-04T23:41:00.000-05:00

We just arrived at the Rex Hotel in Saigon. It is very nice.

The drive from the airport proved that this place is much more different than we imagined. Motor bikes were everywhere. Young, old, even babies were commuting on them. The business reminded me of Manhattan, but more chaotic.

Today we rest, and tomorrow we leave for Ninh Thuan (where the orphanage is) at 5:30 AM. It is an 8 hour drive, but we are so excited to meet little Liam.

Thanks for your thought and prayers. I will try to post some pictures later.

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Almost there...

2006-09-04T16:56:00.000-05:00

We are in Taiwan now and leave for Saigon in about an hour. More to come...
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And we're off...

2006-09-03T18:57:00.000-05:00

As I type we are sitting on a plane awaiting to depart St. Louis for Vietnam (by way of LA and Taiwan).

It was very difficult leaving our Aiden behind. But it was not too bad for him thanks to our friends Nikki and Nathan. As we walked away and he started to cry, they presented him with a new toy that was an excellent distraction. It didn't really help us though, we sobbed all the way to the gate.

We should arrive in LA around 9:00pm (PST) and then leave for Taiwan around 1:00am.

We arrive in Saigon, VN around 10:00am on Tuesday (and yes, if you are doing the math that is over 36 hour of travel). I am sure we will look and smell quite funky upon arrival. We will rest for a little less than a day' before boarding a bus for the 8 hour ride to the orphanage. We hope to keep this updated frequently.

If you see Aiden, please give him hugs and kisses from us.
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Liam's Room

2006-09-02T16:08:00.000-05:00

We leave tomorrow, but I thought it would be good to post some pictures of his room before we leave. It is about 90% complete. Let us know what you think...

Also, we plan to keep this updated daily from Vietnam so check back.

Like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a distant land. Proverbs 25:25

2006-08-24T08:29:00.000-05:00

This morning we received more photos of Liam. He is so cute! We just can't wait to get our hands on him...and the good news is that we won't have to wait much longer.

We leave for Vietnam next Sunday (9/3). WOW - THAT IS JUST 10 DAYS AWAY! We have so many things to do before then, but are so overwhelmed that it seems difficult to get started. We are agonizing over the fact that we are leaving our 2 year old son (Aiden) home. We have never been away from him for more than 5 days. But we know that it will be so great to have a few weeks with Liam and not have to divide our attention between children.

This week we finished all of our shots to prepare for our trip. So we are now protected against all sorts foreign ailments, many of which we can't even pronouce. The packing has started (sort of). It is hard to pack too early since we will need many things between now and when we leave. But we at least have a good list going of what we need.

Please continue to pray for us. Pray for a safe trip, and that we will be able to come home after 2 weeks. Also pray for my mother, as she is keeping Aiden while we are gone...and she is really going to need lots of prayer (he is quite the handful these days).

NOW FOR THE MAIN ATTRACTION - The photos of our sweet baby!

At Last...We have a date...

2006-08-18T22:51:00.000-05:00

It is with great excitement that we announce that we are leaving for Vietnam. We received our official court date (also known as the "Giving and Receiving Ceremony") for September 7th. We must report to Ho Chi Mihn City no later than Tuesday September 5th. We just got word from our adoption coordinator at 10:19 this evening. It is likely to be a sleepless night because we are so excited.

We will post more details as soon as we arrange our trip. Thanks so much for all our prayers...we are so close to holding our little Liam now!

One Step Closer

2006-08-07T14:52:00.000-05:00

Today we received news that our paperwork has been approved by the International Adoption Department in Hanoi. This means we are very close to getting our travel date. The paper work is now being sent back to the province that Liam is from. They will look it over one last time to ensure that everything is in order and then schedule our Giving and Receiving Ceremony. We are hopeful that it will happen quickly. But we are trying to remain patient just in case it takes longer than expected.

Keep praying.

Moving Right Along

2006-08-01T16:22:00.000-05:00

Things are progressing as we had hoped. Today we received confirmation from Vietnam that our paperwork has received the next set of approvals and is being forwarded to Hanoi for final determination. Our agency said that the estimated timeframe will be 1-2 weeks before a final determination is issued from Hanoi. That final approval will then be forwarded back to Liam's province and they will schedule our ceremony date. Based on the other families that recently got travel clearance, we anticipate getting our dates sometime during the week of the 14th. Our travel should be approximately 10-14 days after that. So if things continue to progress smoothly, we will likely leave for Vietnam by the end of August (or very early September).

We just can't wait!

Now we need to finish all the minor details before travel.

Good News Coming Soon???

2006-07-28T16:50:00.000-05:00

We are very excited to share that one of our fellow adoptive families has received travel clearance. They will be going to Vietnam to get their child in less than 2 weeks. We are so excited for them. But we are also excited because we are exactly 3 weeks behind them in the process. When we got the news yesterday that they were getting to go get their beloved child, we immediately pulled out our calendar and started doing calculations. Of course we know that things are different for each family, but IF things go a smoothly as they did for this family we will be holding our little Liam soon.

Next Steps…

We hope to hear early next week that our paperwork has been sent to the International Adoption Department in Hanoi.

Once it is there, it will take about 2-3 weeks before we are notified of final approval and are given a travel date.

We sure can’t wait. Keep praying for us!

What's In A Name?

2006-07-17T09:41:00.000-05:00

Riley…Caleb…Garrett…Avery…Liam…Van????

We just couldn’t decide on a name. When we were first matched to our little one, we had been preparing for a girl. So with a girl name already picked out, it was back to the drawing board. At first we figured that we would decide on a name in a few days. But somehow days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months and we still hadn’t agreed. Should we keep his Vietnamese name? Should we change it? Should we incorporate it into his new name? So many things to think about…

BUT, after much debate we have decided. His first name will be Liam (LEE+am), it really has no meaning, but it is Irish and is considered a variant of William (go figure). We liked it because his Vietnamese first name is Lai, and so the names are at least someone similar in spelling. We are then keeping his Vietnamese names as his middle name and of course adding our Family name.

So we are proud to introduce our son for the first time as...

LIAM VAN-LAI DAVIS

A Suprise Update

2006-06-28T16:20:00.000-05:00

Today we received an e-mail from our adoption agency with a new photo of our little guy. He is getting so big! It is exciting to see him sitting up, but we are sad that we are missing his milestones.

He sure looks happy!

We are officially "logged in"...

2006-06-14T10:14:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we received news that our paperwork was completed in Vietnam and officially "logged in" with the International Adoptions Department in Hanoi. This was the next big step for us in the process, which came about a week sooner than expected.

Our agency said that now that we are logged in, that we shouldn't expect another update for about 30 days. Basically the International Adoptions Department has sent our information to the province that Van resides. They will then review our paperwork and Van's paperwork. We know that Van's paperwork is also complete. We received a copy of it last week. It included his original birth certificate, a statement from his mother confirming that she is relinquishing him, and acknowledgment from the province that Van has been orphaned (all with English translations). We were quite surprised to get a copy of this paper work since it included his mother's full name, address, birth date, and circumstances on her relinquishment. It was very emotional to read. She basically said that she is a young single mother and her family didn't have the means to bring up a child and provide opportunities for him to have a good life. So she agreed for him to be adopted either locally or internationally. It is hard to imagine making such a sacrifice, and we are forever grateful to her.

We also received news about Van's current height and weight. Van now weighs 18 pounds and 12 ounces which means he is in the 75th percentile. Sounds like they are feeding him well. He is also 27 inches long, which is the 50th percentile. So it appears that he is healthy and growing appropriately.

We are hoping to be able to go get Van in about 3 months. But our experience has been that things always take longer than expected in International Adoptions. Please continue to keep our family in your prayers. Pray that things will go smoothly and quickly from here on out.

Another Wonderful Update from Vietnam...

2006-05-31T15:45:00.000-05:00

We received a FedEx package from our agency today, and enclosed in it was a video tape of our son. We were so excited. It was only about 5 minutes long, but wonderful none the less. It starts out showing his nanny holding him. He is very busy, squirming a lot. She then lays him down and starts talking to him…he then started smiling and giggling. It was great! After that he rolled over, but got mad because there was a pillow behind him. He started fake crying (no tears), and then Jynger (our agency program director) started playing with him…he stopped crying as soon as she started giving him attention. It looks like he is spoiled already. She then stood him up and he started to bounce up and down while holding her hands. He was having a grand time. Then the video stopped…we were so glad to get to see him, but it makes us long for him more than before.

We also heard from our agency today that they are sending our required paper work to the Vietnamese Consulate in San Francisco today. She said that they will take about a week to get it back. Then it will go to Vietnam to meet up with the rest of our paper work. Hopefully we will have all documents logged in with the government by the week of the 12th. After everything is logged, it should be around 3 months before we get to travel.

We started preparing Van's nusery over the weekend, and have made good progress. We will probably be posting pictures on our blog soon. Stay tuned...

Good Morning Vietnam...

2006-05-28T21:11:00.000-05:00

It is 9:ooPM in St. Louis right now...which means it is 9:00AM in Vietnam. Good Morning! We recieved a wonderful update today with lots of pictures of our precious Van Lai. The bad news is that they need a few more papers...the good news is that we already have them, so we just need to get them sent to Vietnam this week. Well here are the updated pictures of our son...

Updates...

2006-05-26T14:23:00.000-05:00

It has been a while since we last updated this site. Unfortunately, we haven't really gotten much new information over the last few weeks. However, the Vietnam Adoptions Director from our agency is traveling in Vietnam now. She saw Van this week and reported back to us saying that he is healthy and developing appropriately. She also said that the bump on his head is gone. She did take a few photos of him. She is supposed to be returning on Saturday, so we hope to be able to post new pictures of him next week.

We have also been busy gathering new paper work. Much of our documentation is now over 6 months old, so we recently refreshed everything so that we have it on hand if/when they ask for it. It was more of a precaution. So, the wait continues…

This weekend, our biological son Aiden will have his 2nd birthday party. We have been busy preparing for it, but it has made the time go by more quickly.

Please keep praying that Van will be able to come home soon! Look for new photo’s next week!

Marching Forward

2006-04-28T12:30:00.000-05:00

We wish we had something new and exciting to share about our adoption this week. Unfortunately, not much progress has been made. Our paperwork did make it Vietnam, only to discover that we needed a few more documents. We hope those papers will make it to Vietnam next week. Once everything is received our paperwork can be sent to the Department of International Adoptions in Hanoi. That is when the real progress will begin.

Although not too much is occurring in the adoption. This weekend is an important one for our family. We will be speaking at the March of Dimes Walk America event in our county tomorrow. The March of Dimes is an important organization to our family. They are directly responsible for funding research and development of several advanced neonatal technologies that saved our son's life. Our son Aiden was born 13 weeks premature. He was a tiny two pounds and died shortly after birth, but was revived. He had a difficult path with several more near death encounters. Fortunately, after a 4 month hospital stay and multiple surgeries he is now nearly 2 years old and doing great. He does still have some special needs, but in all likelihood he will recover completely and be able to lead a normal life. But many parents aren’t as lucky as we were. That is why we support me in March of Dimes WalkAmerica. Because premature birth can happen to any family. In nearly half the cases, the causes are unknown. The March of Dimes is leading the way to find answers by supporting research into the causes of premature birth. If you are interested in more information, please visit our March of Dimes family web page http://walkamerica.org/craigrdavis.

Notice Craig's Wedding Ring on his Arm

Aiden Next to Chaunta's Hand

Easer 2006 - Doing Well

The Lost Boys

2006-04-21T09:28:00.000-05:00

We received a letter today from a family that adopted a child from the same orphanage that Van is at. She painted a picture of the situation for little boys at the orphanage that we would like to share with you.

“…All of the nannies had their own kids to show off for [the adoptive parents]. Each was proud of her two babies. Some had us take pictures, especially of the boys, to try to find them homes. They all wanted their babies loved too. The director begged us to find homes for his boys. There were at least five boys to each girl, maybe more. You will see for yourself soon.”
Reading this really cemented the fact that God had planned for us to have Van all along. All this time we were planning for a little girl, God must have been chuckling. Too bad he didn’t let us know before we finished our little girl’s nursery. Hopefully, Van likes pink. Just kidding…we are coming up with a theme for Van’s room now. We haven’t yet settled on one, but we still have a few months.

Good News...

2006-04-19T10:28:00.000-05:00

We spoke with our pediatrician on Monday and she let us know that we should not be worried about the bump above little Van's eye. She said that it is likely just cosmetic and she is not at all concerned about it. She told us that he looks "vunderful" she Russian, so that really means "wonderful".

Our agency sent all of our paperwork to Vietnam on Monday afternoon. I don't expect that they will get it until early next week. Once they get it, our facilitator in Vietnam (Ha Crick) will have it translated. After the translation is completed it will be submitted to the Vietnamese government for approval. I think they have 2 weeks to review and approve it. After that it will be sent to Van's orphanage with instructions for them to provide documentation that Van is legitimately an orphan. That can take up to 30 days. If we understand the process correctly, the orphanage then submites the information back to the government and they then give us a date to come to get Van. I think we will get about 2 weeks notice for travel.

So please pray that things go quickly and smoothly as our paperwork makes it way through the process in Vietnam. We just can't wait to get Van home!

Below are pictures of Van's Orphanage courtesy of another adoptive parent who adopted a little girl from the same orphange in 2002:

Happy Easter

2006-04-16T21:07:00.000-05:00

Well it is late in the evening on Easter Sunday, and we are wishing we could share it with our dear little Van Lai. It seems that he is all we can think about these days. Wondering how he is doing, what are we missing, and how big he will be when we finally get to bring him home. Aiden is constantly carrying around his picture and says "baby bubba."

It was so nice to get an updated picture and information last week. I wish we could look forward to getting the update every week. It sure makes the wait a little easier. We also received pictures of the orphanage where little Van is staying until he makes it to his forever home (our home). It makes us a little sad to see where he is from, and even more anxious to get him home.

We spoke with a doctor at our church today about the bump on his head, she looked at the pictures and told us that we shouldn't be concerned. She thinks it appears to be a mole or a small hemangeoma. We have also dropped off the pictures at our pediatrician's office to get her take on the bump. Also the orphanage is supposed to be taking him to the doctor to check up on it also. We have become so connected to little Van, at this point I don't think it really matters what the bump is. We will just deal with it, whatever it is.

We still haven't decided on an american name for little Van. So it seems that we may end up keeping his given name. That is the only name that we have agreed on so far.

This week we hope that our dossier will be sent to Vietnam to be translated and sent to the Central Authority.

New Photo and Updates from Vietnam

2006-04-13T14:04:00.000-05:00

This afternoon we received a wonderful update from Ninh Thuan Vietnam about our precious Van Lai.

The update included his his current weight of 16.5 pounds, and that he is now 26 inches tall. That is excellent for a 6 month old. He is in the 50th percentile for weight, and 25th percentile for heighth. The letter said that "he is a very healthy and happy baby".

They are taking him to the doctor soon to check on the bump that appears above one of his eyes. We noticed in the first picture they sent, and the agency representative in Vietnam confirmed that it is still present. The exact wording that the letter said was "
a case worker told me this more likes a pimple." So they will be taking him to the doctor to get it checked out. Please pray that it is nothing to worry about. They are going to hold our paperwork until it is clarified, to ensure it is nothing big.

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers. We really can't wait to get to hold this little guy!

And so it begins...

2006-04-07T15:58:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we got some seemingly bad news. We were told by our adoption agency that they would not be able to match us with a daughter at this time. There are currently no little girls available that were less than a year old. In fact most were at least 2 years. So we were crushed. We then asked if they had any girls that wer close to a year (13-15 months). Again the answer was no. However they mentioned that they would send us a listing of available children for our review.

Late last night we started discussing the option of adopting a little boy. It started out as a very light conversation, but before long we were begining to convince ourselves that another boy might be good. Knowing that there were several infant boys available that needed homes abd that most of the adoptive families are wanting girls made us sad for these forgotten boys. Afterall, one of the driving factors in adopting from Vietnam was the fact that there is such a great need for families there. And adoption should be first and foremost for the welfare of a child. So we began getting more and more serious about a little boy. Of course if we were having a baby the traditional way, we wouldn't be able to choose. Next we visited http://www.fcvn.org/ (a site for families with children from Vietnam). We started looking at all the pictures of little Vietnamese boys. Still unsure of our decision started praying. It was well past our bed time so we headed off to bed. Neither of us could sleep.

This morning we called our adoption agency and they told us of a little boy named Van Lai that was 6 months old. He was born to 42 year old single parent who cared for him the first two months of life. However, she was unable to provide for him and relinquished her rights and placed him in an orphanage in Ninh Thuan. He has been there since December 6th. She learned that he weighed approximately 10 pounds and was relatively small. We asked our agency for some time to make the decision. We immediatly called our doctor and got her opinion. Based on the VERY LIMITED information that we had received, she said that he seems to be in good health (although small). We then called our agency back and accepted him into our family.

Next they e-mailed us a picture. He has the chubbiest cheeks. Not quite what we were expecting given his wieght. We were completely in love with him.

So today we completed a mountain of paperwork so we can start the process of getting him home. The agency says it will be 3-6 months before we get to go after him. Please pray that God will watch over him while we can't. Also pray that he comes home soon!

Here is a picture of Van Lai from January when he was 3 months old. He is chubby huh!

Keep checking our site for more updates on our progress.

Your Truly,

Craig & Chaunta

Follow us on our Journey to Vietnam

2006-04-05T16:29:00.000-05:00

Dear Family and Friends,

As you may know, we have begun a new journey in hopes of growing our family. This journey will lead us halfway around the world to adopt a little girl from Vietnam. We don't know who she is, what she looks like, or when we will be able to hold her close…but she has already become a part of our hearts.

We began the process of adopting nearly a year ago. It is an extensive process. The process has kept us busy carefully completing paperwork, getting copies of birth certificates, meeting with a social worker, getting fingerprints, attending interviews, getting fingerprints, background checks, and more fingerprints (yes we were fingerprinted three different times by three different agencies). Once all the paper work was completed it was sent to the Secretary of State to verify authenticity and then it was sent to the Vietnamese Consulate in San Francisco to be translated. It has now returned from it’s trip around the country and is ready and waiting to begin its trip to Vietnam. We are hoping to be matched with a little girl soon, but God only knows what the future will hold. It is likely that we will still have to wait several months to be able to bring our baby home.

We have set up a blog to track our journey to little Sophie who is waiting for us now in a Vietnamese orphanage. We will be adding updates and all of our adoption related milestones here and would love for you all to follow along in our journey at http://journey2sophie.blogspot.com

You are welcome to forward this letter to anyone who may be interested in adoption or in following us through this process.

Yours Truly,

Craig & Chaunta