Reflections Of Our Son...............

Now that I can think half way decently, I have thought often today about Zane and the man he will become.
I remember sitting in the airport in Hong Kong the other night and just observing all the vietnamese young boys and men and wondered to myself if Zane would look like any of them in years to come.
I wonder what kind of man will he become. Will he be studious like Kyleigh & Kaitlyn, will he be care free like Brent and love cooking and cars. Will he be serious like Chloe. I hope he is alittle bit of each of them.
Most of all I hope he is an honorable man that loves the Lord with all his heart and puts Him first in everything he does.......................
I also want him to be proud of the beautiful country he came from and it's people!

Toto We Aren't In Kansas Anymore...........

Not in South Carolina either!
We are in Ho Chi Minh City and honestly if it wasn't for my children at home and my friends I would probably just stay and live here. Anything not to get back on those planes. I thought I loved flying and the flying didn't bother me, it was the 36 hours of flying that got the best of me. Brooke & Chris would not have been proud.
Chloe would say "Mommy you don't look so good". Mommy didn't feel good either. All flights were filled to capacity and very cramped. I hate cramped. Felt like I had the flu yesterday but today is much better. Our facilitator was smart to give us 2 days to rest before traveling on.
He has really taken wonderful care of us and we haven't even met him in person yet.
He booked us this beautiful hotel that is clean, comfortable, and has free buffet breakfast for the 3 of us for $40 per night. It is also 3 doors down from the Big C which is a small mall with grocery store that we have walked too.
For all my friends that have adopted from Guatemala, you know all the noise, traffic, and crazy driving, well multiply that by 10 and you have HCMC.
But like Guatemala the people here are so gracious. They are treating Chloe like a little princess though and I told her not to get use to it because it isn't like this at home. They love her hair and they smile and shake their heads yes to her everywhere she goes. At the restuarant they wait on her hand & foot, but not us, just the little princess.
At the Big C today a little girl kept wanting to rub up against Daniel, and her mother kept trying to get her to stop and the woman kept telling her to tell him hello. He looks like a giant here, it is too funny I only the other hand fit in better at 5 foot tall.
I will tell you that we did the one thing we wasn't suppose to do and that is after we got to our hotel yesterday and we had no a/c and after 2 days of flying, we took cold showers and went to bed. Woke up at midnight and couldn't go back to sleep.
Daniel finally figured out how to turn the air on at 2 am though and life was good.
I teased him because 15 minutes after we got here he fried his fan using one of the converters we brought. He was standing in a chair trying to get the air on, sweat running down that bald head of his and I just started laughing.
He is the one that said he wants to stay at the guest house next door to the baby home so we could keep Zane with us the whole time before we actually have our G & R.
I asked him did he still want to do that and he gave me the evil I and said we need to talk T into getting them to let Zane go to a motel with A/C.
Tomorrow he picks us up at 8:30 am (Sat) and we begin our trek to Zane.
We will spend the night in Can Tho and leave out Sunday morning for the baby home.
In just 2 days we will be holding Zane for the 1st time.
GOD IS SO GOOD!!!!!!!

A Very Tired Chloe & Daddy In Hong Kong Airport

Greetings from HONG KONG

After 2 days of flying we have finally made it to Hong Kong. We will board our last plane in about 30 minutes and arrive in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. It is Thursday here so in just 3 days I will meet my son for the first time.
I just want to praise Him for giving us Zane.
I have to admit that I have never been so exhausted in my whole life.
Both flights were filled to capacity and very cramped. The flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong was the longest 15 1/2 hours I have ever endured, but every time I tried to think of my aching back and hips I just reminded myself of what's at the end of this journey. Zane Alexander Duoc Blackwell, praise the Lord.
I also learned that Chloe is a much better traveler than her Mommy. The 6 hour flight from Charlotte to San Francisco she worked puzzles and colored the whole time.
She slept during the entire layover and then the 15 1/2 hour flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong she rotated between sleeping and watching movies. I on the other hand have only had about 1 1/2 hours sleep since Monday night when I slept about 3 hours. I think I am too excited about just how close we are to having Zane, 3 more days, wow.
Please continue to keep us in your prayers and please remember my friends the Myers.
We had planned our pick up trips together and I will never understand why they aren't with us now, but have to trust God to have a much better plan. I am praying they are traveling by the time we get Zane home. Also remember a sweet boy, D who should have been home a long time ago, but is still there. We thought we would definitely be traveling with his family and just found out last week that we were traveling alone. Please pray God brings D home soon.
My next post will be from HCMC. PRAISE THE LORD!

3 MORE DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The count down is on.
I can't hardly beleive in just 3 days we will be boarding a plane headed to Zane.
Our airline tickets arrived yesterday, so we are set to go.
It almost seems unreal. In 8 more days I will hold my son for the first time.
I will get to kiss that sweet head and smell his wonderful baby smell.
I will get to finally meet the little boy that has captured the hearts of all those mommy & daddy's that have went before us.
I can't wait!
I will be updating this blog as often as we have internet and I will be adding pictures to flickr at the top of this blog.
Keep us in your prayers!

PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not only did we get our name affidavit today but we also got an email from our facilitator telling us we need to be in Vietnam by Thursday.
We will leave on Tuesday, arrive in HCMC on Thursday, rest on Friday, he will take us to Can Tho on Saturday, spend the night in Can Tho leave for the floating market on Sunday, finish at the floating market and be taken to the Baby Home on Sunday 11/2/08.
We will meet Zane and play with all the babies. Our G & R Ceremony should be sometime that following week Mon. 11/3-Thursday 11/6/08.
Praise The Lord Zane is coming home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Still Don't Have My Authenticated Name Affidavit!

The courier service that I hired to pick up my name affidavit from the Embassy of VietNam and overnight back to me found out yesterday that the reason it still isn't ready is the Consul is out of the office until Tuesday morning.

The Consul has to sign it and then it will be ready for her to pick up. She is going back Tuesday afternoon, please pray that it is ready on Tuesday and she overnights it back to me. We are running out of time and I can't leave for VietNam without that document.

PRAY, PRAY, PRAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

10 DAYS............WHAT?????????????

I got an email from our facilitator yesterday and he said not to send him my authenticated name affidavit but to bring it when we come to VietNam and he thinks that will be in 10 days. This sounds wonderful, but the only problem is I still don't have an authenticated name affidavit to take with me yet.
According the the Embassy's website it could take a week to authenticate a document.
Yesterday was Columbus Day holiday and it also takes 2 days to get express mail back.
Please pray that my document gets back to me sooner than expected.
Please pray we get that document before we get our travel call.
I am so excited to finally be getting this close but worrying over that name affidavit getting back to me has stressed me out so badly I have developed a migraine. Please pray specifically for this.
Also, please pray that our friends; the Myers gets their police investigation sent to Hanoi so that they can be waiting on their Decision of Adoption.
We had always thought that the Myers would be our travel partners and it makes me sad to think that they will not be coming to VietNam with us. Please pray for this family!

AHH....THIS IS A KILLER

I have been tracking my name affadavit, and it left Sec. of State for Washington Wednesday even though I paid for next day delivery it didn't get to the Embassy of Vietnam in Washington until 11:31 am today. I called the Embassy to plead my case asking them to process it as soon as possible (keep in mind I paid the expediting fee) and she told me it would take 2 business days and Monday is a holiday so Tuesday would be the best she could do. Could or would? How hard is it to authenticate 1 document. I begged and pleaded with her and she finally told me to call her back today at 5 pm. I said, "are you are going to still be there at 5 pm, what time does the embassy close?" She said call close to 5 pm, I knew she was putting me off and she did. I started calling at 4:10 pm all the way up to 5:30 pm and all I got was a recording that she "was not available and no room in box to leave message".
AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
I could scream!
So now best case scenerio would be she sends it out on Tuesday, I get it on Thursday, P sends it to our facilitator Thursday afternoon 10/16, he receives it Tuesday 10/21, has it translated by Wednesday 10/22 and then takes it to the province on Thursday 10/23 to turn into the province leader. Weeks lost, I am just sick over this, just sick! And how do I know he will even sign our letter of invitation once he gets my authenticated name affadavit. I knew 10 days to 2 weeks was too good to be true. AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhh

BAD NEWS........................

And I am devastated right now. My heart is broken as I try to write down what has happened.
Instead of the province leader signing our letter of invitation he requested a notarized, verified, authenticated name affadavit. That's right in some documents he saw where my maiden name was also included in my signature and now he wants a name affadavit. I am so upset right now I don't know how much more I can take.
A name affadavit isn't even required for the Vietnam dossier like it is in Guatemala, our adoption has already been approved by DIA, US Embassy and the Justice Department in the province. Why now would he ask for this. All he was suppose to do was sign the letter of invitation, and now we have wasted weeks. Instead of traveling this weekend, I have been running around like crazy trying to get his document notarized, sent to the Secretary of State. Once it leaves there it has to go to the Embassy of Vietnam for authentication, they will send it back to me and then our agency director will have to send it to our Vietnam facilitator and he will have to have it translated before he will be able to take it to the province.
Doesn't look like Zane will be coming home anytime soon. This is so unbeleivable that if it wasn't happening to me I wouldn't even believe it myself............

Yep! It's A Poundcake

My friend April knows that when I get depressed and I mean really depressed so depressed that I have a hard time pulling myself out of it that I bake and bake and bake. It starts out with a poundcake and if that doesn't make me feel better then I move on to baking something else.
Well today friends it was a POUNDCAKE. That's right as I type this I can smell the delicious aroma of a poundcake coming from my oven.
I AM DEPRESSED, very depressed today. I shouldn't be but I am. I long to hold Zane so badly that my arms ache, my heart aches to see his sweet face in person and I am sad, sad and empty.
If you are reading this please pray for me. I am sad to know that now that the Band's are home there are no more pictures of Zane until we get there. I am depressed thinking how long we could actually wait for our Letter of Invitation. The other family that is waiting on their Letter of Invitation has been waiting over a month now. So even though I want to think positive when our facilitator says, in 10days to 2 weeks, all those old doubts start resurfacing and I think that no one else that has adopted from our province has actually been able to complete their adoptions during the required timeframe. Thus I start worrying.
Okay enough whining, please do keep us in your prayers and please pray that we get our Letter of Invitation signed this very week.
Off to eat a peice of POUNDCAKE!

Zane says goodbye to the Band's

I am sure my baby boy was a bit sad on September 29th. That was the day of Jayden Hau Walker Band's Giving & Receiving Ceremony, therefore it was the last day for him to get to see Jayden and his new parents. From all the reports that I am hearing, Master Zane fell hopelessly in love with this American couple that came all the way from a little town called Pacolet to VietNam to get Jayden and take him home.
As you see by the pictures below, Zane was waiting on them at the door. Even that makes me sad thinking about it.
But hopefully it will only be a couple more weeks before his mommy,daddy,Kaitlyn, and Chloe will be coming for him.
Please pray this happens soon!

YIKES!!!!!!! 10 DAYS TO 2 WEEKS

I talked to Angie this morning and she said they are finished in HCMC and will be flying to Hanoi tomorrow. They are leaving VietNam on Saturday. Praise the Lord Jayden will be home in just a few days.
She also told me that our facilitator told Norman that our paperwork is finshed and we should have our invitation in 10 days to 2 weeks.
I am just praising the Lord for this news and praying fervantly and we indeed travel in 2 weeks.
Please Lord let it be within 2 weeks.