Happy Birthday

Today is Nieman's second birthday. He remains in Vietnam not knowing he has a family waiting for him. We miss him and wish he was home with us. All I can say is Happy Birthday.

More Pictures

Here is a picture of the boys. Nieman is the one on the far right. He has on the yellow shorts and the Power Rangers tank top.

Here is one where Ms. Lam asked what Nieman was doing when he pulled up his shirt and pointed to his belly and smiled.

New Pictures

While Keith has been in Vietnam trying to fix our mess, he took many pictures of the children and the new Center. The children and the staff moved to a new location. They said the rooms are bigger and have 3 different rooms for all the children. After visiting the children this is what they said about Nieman.

Active boy, often play w/ Diep, Lan, Nghi, Ho… The Vice Director, Ms. Quyen likes him very much. Whenever Ms. Quyen's daughter comes to the CCC, she often brings Son Nhi to Ms. Quyen's room, fed him and let him sleep there. I took one picture when he was sleeping in Ms. Quyen's room at the CCC. In one picture that I'll send you, he turned his T-shirt and touch his belly-button, and when I called and asked "what you're doing?", then he smiled!

Here are some of the pictures they sent.

I'll post more tomorrow cause this program is making me mad.

How's it going

People keep asking about the acupuncture. It's really made an improvement in my neck and shoulders. The pain and tightness are gone. My sleep is improving. I find it easier to fall asleep but I still have problems staying asleep. This, of course, depends on my cat's mood. She loves to step on my pillow and hair to wake me up at night. I can't figure out why, most times, so I've been ignoring her. This does not satisfy her and she continues to step all over me. I love her but I will never get another cat when she passes away.

The infertility has yet to be broken, however, I did notice additional pain for several days relating to ovulation. Of course, I will let everyone know if it works. I'm down to seeing the Dr every two weeks. He made sure to focus on the infertility the last two times I went. I keep thinking positive thoughts and hope for the best.

Update on Nieman: Not much to say. There are several waiting parents that have taken an active role in getting the attention of Senators and Hilary Clinton. I'm very grateful for all their efforts. We plan on send a letter to Hilary and our Senators to try to raise awareness. Keith, the agency's CEO, is in Vietnam now trying his best to move things forward. We still hope everyday to get Nieman home and at some point depending on how things progress we will make a decision on what is best for us. I do expect new pictures soon and I will post them as soon as I get them.

Optimistic

My new goal this year is to be optimistic. We are waiting for movement still with Nieman's paperwork. Our agency director is in route to Vietnam. He plans to meet with officials to see if he can get an answer on whether or not this adoption will be processed. The group of us waiting parents (24 in all) are actively writing letters to The State Department (i.e. Hilary Clinton) to see if she will take an interest in our cases and get involved.

I am also trying to be optimistic about the acupuncture. This week will be my third round of it. He is trying to focus the needles on the infertility. I keep trying to picture us with Nieman and me also pregnant. That would be the greatest. I could have my two kids and be done and my stress level would be less. I know, the parents reading this are thinking, you'll have new stress to deal with having two kids. I know I will, but it will be a enjoyable stress, fulfilling even. I'll take that over this.

Anyway, this is my new goal.

Big ball of stress

I've been a big ball of stress for a long time. I recently had some very painful neck and shoulder pain, I attributed to my pillow. So I changed pillows, it didn't fix the pain. I had always wondered about acupuncture. They say it was able help with infertility, too. I finally found someone who had done it and got the name and number of their doctor.

My first visit was today. I told him about my neck and shoulder pain, insomnia, infertility and poor circulation. He was very optimistic that if I gave it a chance over a couple cycles he could fix the infertility. He inserted about 25 needles in my feet, legs, hands, stomach, ears and top of my head. I have a high pain tolerance but he would put the needle in then push it deeper into the muscle. Then he would twist it until I felt some burning sensation (not bad). I laid there for 30 to 40 minutes relaxing and he removed them all.

He then had me sit in a chair and felt around on my neck and shoulders. He inserted another 7-10 needles there. I sat again for 10 minutes relaxing. He said that the tension in my shoulders and neck was from long term stress (wondered what that could be??). I plan to give this a try. I have another appointment next week.

New picture for December.

We received a new picture for December of Nieman. His growth is not very significant. He looks good but also sad. I'm sad that he is not home yet. I hope that he will be with us soon.

The Trip to Miami

We are back from Miami after watching our home town team lose. That was the worst part of the trip everything else was great. I had the best time. It's great to be with friends who know all the stress you've been under and they make sure you have nothing but fun. I feel like they did that for me and hopefully I did that for them.

We had three great dinners at 3 wonderful and different restaurants. I had stuffed shrimp, a huge chicken Cobb salad and paella (which is a seafood rice dish). The Paella was the best of all the meals. Chris and I split it. It had a full cooked lobster on top with mussels, clams and calamari mixed in with the rice and vegetables. We also scored a free bottle of wine with our meal due to our new waitress' mistake. She was great and made sure she let us know she made the mistake but the meal was enough for both of us and the wine was great.

We went to the most expensive outdoor mall I've ever seen. We visited Versace, Gucci (never buy from them they support Unicef), Fendi, Jimmy Choo, Coach, Prada, Debeers, Neiman Marcus, Hermes, Dolce & Gabbana. We couldn't even afford 50% off at Dolce & Gabbana.

We did, however, make a run at the Steve Madden store. We took over the store with all of trying on shoes and finally purchase close to $600 in shoes for all six of us. Their deal really drug us in buy 1 get 1 90% off. My two pair of shoes only cost $13. Chris ,however, paid the bulk of the cost.

We spent two sunny warm days on the beach and at the pool. I didn't get a huge tan but I got a good base tan to get me through the next month. I did not venture into the ocean due to the purple flag being out (meaning sea creatures aka jellyfish).

We drove back to cold temperatures and shorty there after snow and freezing rain. Not cool. I just want to say how great of a stress relieve it was to get away from the questions and daily life of waiting for an answer on this adoption. Thank you to my friends and I love you to my husband.

Time to help

Now is the time for everyone to help us and other families by calling or emailing your senators or state representatives to urge them to sign a letter to the Prime Minister of Vietnam regarding the future of intercountry adoptions from Vietnam. Ask them to contact Senator Landrieu's office to sign the letter. If you want to look up your senator or representative's number or email addresses here are the websites; http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov.

So Tuesday, January 6 and Wednesday, January 7 are the days we need to write and call. Only a few of each of the house and senate leaders have signed this letter. We need to to show how this could affect someone you know and love if the adoptions stop. Imagine all the children who may never have a chance for a forever family.

Thank you for your help. If we don't push them they won't know how important it is to us.