Update Day!

We received updates yesterday on Linh's progress! She is crawling around the room very fast to get toys and play with her friends. She can stand with support. She gained 2 1/2 lbs and grew 2 inches in 3 months. Her hair is a bit shorter too. Here are the updated photos from 8/6/08.

People really are good

I checked the Holt blog today (at work which I try really hard to limit). And I had a PM from another family adopting a little boy from Hanoi. They had received a video of their little guy. In the video is another child that he thought was Linh- based on her referral photos I posted. So I sent him my email. I am unable to check home email at work (security and all). As soon as I arrived home, I checked email and would you believe he already sent the video? It is about 1 minute in length and their little boy is the focus (very adorable baby about 1 month older than Linh) and there is another child in the background. Most of the time you just see 2 little legs moving around and the child is playing with a toy. But then the little baby turns around and it is Linh! There is no question about it. All that hair and those eyes!

I am so grateful to this family that sought me out to send me the video clip. We do not "know" each other and have never communicated before today. But they gave John and me a glimpse of baby Linh. It is wonderful to have this snippet of her.

I600 Submitted!

Yes, our I600 paperwork has been submitted to CIS in Vietnam! CIS typically takes about 60 working days to investigate orphan status. This means that the required child documents have been received from the Department of Justice and sent with our CIS paperwork for review.

This happens concurrently with the submission and review of Linh's dossier and the hopeful approval of the Peoples Committee.

Still Waiting

My mother and I went to Ikea today. I love that place! We filled up my Honda with goodies for Linh- a chair, rugs. and light fixture for her room, essentials like bibs, potty, step stool. Grammie of course picked up some soft toys for her. She couldn't resist. I came home and John arrived with a nearly new dresser from one of his Navy friends. It is perfect. We had planned on refurbishing the one I used growing up - but now we will have one less project. I will put new knobs on it to match the color in her room. We will try to paint her room the weekend after Labor Day. Then we can start loading the room up - I'm looking forward to that! It is going to be so fun putting it all together. It has been fun planning too!

Other than planning and shoppping- we are waiting for an email from Holt with some news. Hopefully we will hear something soon.

Linh Elise

I believe we have decided on our daughter's name. John wants to keep Linh Thuy without making any changes. I want to add in another name. We had always planned on naming a girl Lena after my grandmother. But when we were matched with Linh - which is so close - we agreed to keep her name as Linh instead of changing it. Plus my middle name is Lynn - so now she and I share a name. So we are going to leave her first name as Linh, but give her another middle name, and keep Thuy as a second middle name. This way she will have her Vietnamese name as well as an American (although really its a French name). She will have options when she is older and has her own opinion of what name she wants to use.

Linh Elise Thuy Austin

What do you think?

MOJ Approval

Well, it is official. The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) has approved our dossier! This is wonderful news.
Now, we wait for Linh's dossier to be sent to Department of Justice and approved. This may take approximately 30-60 days (more or less).
Then certain child documents will be added to our immigration paperwork and submitted to USCIS in Vietnam. This may take 60 working days for the USCIS to investigate her orphan status.
At the same time Linh's dossier is sent to the MOJ for their approval. This approval may take a week or so.
Then a couple of weeks for the processing of the commitment paper- which Holt submits for us.
Then local Department of Justice verifies MOJ approval and requests a meeting of the local People's Committee (PC) in Hanoi. The PC makes their adoption decision, travel approval and schedule the Giving and Receiving date. This is expected to take 2 weeks.
Travel to Vietnam is about 2-3 weeks after the People's Commitee approval.
Potentially, we could be makeing travel plans by the middle to end of November. Wow!

Different Trips to the Same Place

This was posted by an AP and I thought it was perfect.

Different Trips to the Same Place
Unknown Author

Deciding to have a baby is like planning a trip to Australia. You've heard it's a wonderful place, you've read many guidebooks and feel certain you're ready to go. Everyone you know has traveled there by plane. They say it can be a turbulent flight with occasional rough landings, but you can look forward to being pampered on the trip. So you go to the airport and ask the ticket agent for a ticket to Australia. All around you, excited people are boarding planes for Australia. It seems there is no seat for you; you'll have to wait for the next flight. Impatient, but anticipating a wonderful trip, you wait--and wait--and wait. Flights to Australia continue to come and go. People say silly things like, "Relax. You'll get on a flight soon." Other people actually get on a plane and then cancel their trip, to which you cry, "It's not fair!" After a long time the ticket agent tells you, "I'm sorry, we're not going to be able to get you on a plane to Australia. Perhaps you should think about going by boat." "By BOAT!" you say. "Going by boat will take a very long time and it costs a great deal of money. I really had my heart set on going by plane." So you go home and think about not going to Australia at all. You wonder if Australia will be as beautiful if you approach it by sea rather than air. But you have long dreamed of this wonderful place, and finally you decide to travel by boat. It is a long trip, many months over many rough seas. No one pampers you. You wonder if you will ever see Australia. Meanwhile, your friends have flown back and forth to Australia two or three more times, marveling about each trip. Then one glorious day, the boat docks in Australia. It is more exquisite than you ever imagined, and the beauty is magnified by your long days at sea. You have made many wonderful friends during your voyage, and you find yourself comparing stories with others who also traveled by sea rather than by air. People continue to fly to Australia as often as they like, but you are able to travel only once, perhaps twice. Some say things like, "Oh, be glad you didn't fly. My flight was horrible; traveling by sea is so easy." You will always wonder what it would have been like to fly to Australia. Still, you know God blessed you with a special appreciation of Australia, and the beauty of Australia is not the way you get there, but in the place itself.