I'll have to try tomorrow. It won't let me post pics. Sandy

Hi all,

All is well here. We did here from the Embassy that all was "on track", it's just slowed down because of the new I600 changes. They assure us that it will be between 2 and 7 days. It sounds like a lot, but just having a time and not wondering is helpful. The kids are helping by taking care of things at home and Shonna stayed up til 2am giving me a list of bills that need to be paid so I can do that on line.

Jack is doing great, happy as ever. Is eating rice cereal now and drinking 6oz bottles. Still up at midnight and 4am, but that won't take long to change, especially once we are home and he has his own room. He is even sitting up on his own for one to two minutes at a time. He has found his tongue and loves to stick it out. A lot! Heres some recent pics. Talk to you soon. Sandy and Randy

Update

Hi All, I'm just sitting in the hotel room filing my nails. JK. Can you believe we are still here? Tomorrow will be two weeks from our first Embassy appointment. Thats all we are waiting for....just that second appointment and Jack's Visa. They say they don't forsee any problems, they just have a lot of paper work. Pray for Jeannette though, she has to stay another three weeks to redo fingerprints. She is in good spirits and continuing to get out and see the sights. You have to understand from my point of view that doing the I600 in the US has to be a good thing. Nothing else new, just waiting, and waiting. It's difficult to make any plans when you don't want to go anywhere and miss a call. I really can't think of anything else I want to see. We're done shopping! Jack is great. Seems to haven gotten over his UTI and the yucky meds. I've attached a couple pics. It's our first attempt at gel on the hair. Remember, we're working with what we've got. Miss you all! Sandy and Randy

PS: We've been here so long Jack can almost sit up on his own and is just starting to teeth. Hopefully he won't be shaving before we see you.

This is try #3 to get the pics up. Another thing I miss, DSL and the english language. Sandy

Flight delay

Sorry I haven't written for awhile. Jack's been sick and we've just been dealing with that. I forgot how anxious you can become when something is wrong with your baby. They can't tell you what it is, so it feels like it's all on you. God knew and revealed it to us and all is well. It is Wed. afternoon and we just heard that there is no way we'll get our Visa in time to keep our scheduled flight so that is being changed, but I don't know what to change it to at this time. They feel like we could fly out this weekend, UGH, it sounds so far away. As lovely as these people are, I'm just ready for the familiar; family, home, pets, friends, church, neighbors, STARBUCKS, SOY CREAMER, oatmeal, home cooked meals, Oh my bed, driving with a seat belt on, Italian food, you get the picture. I look forward to cleaning, laundry, groceries, paying bills, cooking. I'm really ready. Here are a couple pics of Jack. The first one is Jack sitting up, the second is jack falling over because he can't do that, the third is him stretching. He loves to stretch. Talk to you soon. Sandy and Randy

MUAH!

Two new things

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This is Jack showing off his new tricks. Never mind my moms baby talk ;)
-Whitney

Jack and Tanner

Here are some pics of Jack and his bud Tanner. Tanner is leaving for the US tonight at 1030pm. We sure are going to miss him. Oh yeh, and his Mommy Karen. The bible says God grants sleep to those he loves. We pray that he loves Tanner a lot on this flight home. Bye Karen and Tanner. Love Sandy and Randy

SOS Clinic

We had our SOS clinic appt. today. We thought Jack would hate it, but being the social butterfly that he is, he loved it. At one point the Doctor said he lost his train of thought while watching Jack do the "chicken Dance" and laughing. He loves to stand and his legs are still noodle-like. He had a lot of ear wax and rec'd a presc. for wax disolver to be used for one week. By then we'll be home and follow up with regular MD. Everything else was good. He did suggest a "professional" hair care person when we get back to the states. LOL The MD's are Western and do a good job. I'll post pics of the experience. Sandy and Randy

Jack "LIVE"

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Back from Tour

Hi Everyone,

We finished the eight hour city tour yesterday. If there is any advise I can give about this to the groups still to come, it would be to do this "before" you get the child. We all went together, Randy, Jack and myself, Karen and Tanner, Bridget, Mary and her friend Liz, Jeannette, Gianna and her cousin Nancy. The babies were as good as they could have possibly been, but it was hot, sticky and long. You're carrying babies, bags and if you shop and you will, more bags. In and out of a cramped bus. I think it feels worse than it might have some other place, because Hanoi is a very loud, polluted, crowded city. It can be a bit over stimulating for you and the baby. The tour included lunch and it was good. The people are all very nice and helpful. A young women in the mall told Randy and I, kinda in amazement, that Jack looked Vietnamese. It was funny, it never dawned on me they wouldn't know he was Vietnamese.

Some other things: The water in the room is "filtered" and very HOT. You could make tea and definitely sterilize bottles. They don't suggest you drink it, but it appears to be ok for brushing teeth and such. At least it hasn't affected us yet. You can request the big 5gallon jug of water when you get here. It takes a couple of days so just order two. You'll have all the fresh water you need for everything. They also put drinks, and bottled water in the fridge daily. They clean the room and pick up any laundry you have daily. They have a complimentary menu and a Restaurant menu. You call ahead and they will call you when it's ready. The taxi has been between 15 and 25,000 dong for just about anywhere we go. 16,000 is about one dollar. The hotel will call you a taxi and tell you which ones are honest. They go out of their way to be helpful. They have a safe for any valuables and there is a safe in the rooms that you set the combination to. They love the babies and will carry them around while you eat. It doesn't make you feel unsafe at all, you really appreciate it. I know Karen has REALLY appreciated them. There are times she might not have gotten a shower w/out them. These are just silly things that I've been thinking about. Sandy and Randy

Hoang Gnoc Hotel and Jack

Hi guys,

We're off on the City Tour in the morning, so I thought I'd write tonight. We went to get the passport pictures taken today. It was very quick. They cover the front of you with a white shirt and put the baby on your lap and take the picture. You are the backdrop! It was 60,000 dong ( which is about 4 dollars). Sounds like so much more huh? We took some more pics today. Jack is adjusting well as are all the babies. It's amazing to me how they just know they belong to you. Very happy babies!! Sandy and Randy

Hi everyone,

It's about 6:00am on Friday for us. We found a Gloria Jeans and are going there this morning. Something familiar. Jack has had two good nights. He wakes up about every 3 1/2 hours in the night, eats and goes right back to sleep. He ate 3 full oz twice last night which is great. Tanner is up from 2oz to 6oz and sleeping through the night after only 2weeks. These babies are doing so good, you guys. You can't believe the difference in them after only one day let alone several. They are happy, content, they seem to know they belong to you and know they are loved. They have a whole new countenance. The Hotel is great, the people are great. The only complaint I have is the two trips to Phu Tho was sooooo bumpy that I actually got whiplash. There isn't much you can do with that except ibuprofen. We are all taking the city tour on Saturday. It will be a fun day of sight seeing and SHOPPING! WhooHoo! Talk to you soon. Sandy and Randy

Ceremony

We did it. The Giving and Recieving ceremony was today and it all went well. It was very emotional at the orphanage. The caretakers try to be brave, but in the end you just can't. We all cried, said goodbye and went to the Justice Department. Here's the latest pics.

Sandy and Randy

more pics

Thank God for Cori

I can blog! I'm going to give you guys some pics to look at. For all I know all these kids are spoken for??? Just in case, right? We wanted pics of Jacks old buds anyway. Jack is the one with the porcupine hair. The caretakers were laughing hysterically when I compared his head of hair with Randy's. We go to Phu Tho at 7:00am for the ceremony at 10:00am. I keep waking up at 3:00 anyway. Talk to you soon.

Sandy and Randy

Some pictures my mom sent to me!

In a country far, far away...

Hi, this is Whitney! Sandy's daughter. My mom just called and we couldn't talk for long, but I figured I'd squeeze some info out of her while I had the chance, and here's the update. THEY'RE IN VIETNAM!! Yeehaw! They just met up with Karen, another one of the adoptive parents and met her new addition Tanner who lived in the same Orphanage with Jack. Apparently Tanner and Jack are very chummy and tag-teamed running the orphanage care-taker's around, keeping them busy busy. My mom was telling me how they are going to be seeing Jack face-to-face for the first time on Sunday. Karen, who saw Jack while visiting the other orphanage children with Tanner, says that Jack is crawling around and starting to stand himself up against furniture and so on, so that's crazy!! Being that there are only 7 children in the orphanage, Jack and the others are getting plenty of attention and are very well taken care of.

Well, I guess that's it! My mom will hopefully be able to access internet in their hotel room soon and I won't have to do her dirty work! HAHA! Just kidding! I'm glad to do it. More info and PICTURES to come on Sunday.

Waiting.......

It looks like we might have to wait til Thursday to take off. I'm sitting here waiting for the travel agent to call me back with the new itinerary. It makes it more difficult to wait when you don't know how the process really works and what the hold up with the Province is. But...I will get there when I get there. I can say I am honestly ready to go, bags packed, both weighed in at 50lbs each, went over travel pack twice, Visas in hand, homestudy is supposed to be here today, bills are paid, list for kids to run the house take care of dogs, dinner is cooking. I WANNA GO!!!! That was my fit. This is the color photo I rec'd of Jack. They might have dressed him like a girl. We'll fix that.

Sandy