News surrounding Vietnam and the MOU

Hello friends and family,
I hope you all are having a great weekend thus far. I thought I’d do our weekly update while flying home to Indianapolis from Orlando. I just finished up my National Meeting today. Brandon came to town with me and while I was in meetings, Brandon stayed with my mom and dad and enjoyed some R&R, golfing and lots of time enjoying the summer Olympic games. So on to our updates…

RUSSIA UPDATE:
There hasn’t been much movement that I’m aware of in our Russia program in the way of referrals lately. We are about number 11 on the list for a baby girl (from what I can tell). Where I was optimistic that we would receive a referral in 2-5 months originally; I now believe it may be up to another 4 months. Of course in the grand scheme of our elephant gestational period, this is a drop in the bucket. Maybe God is just telling us, “not yet”. So we continue to wait (now 2 days short of 2 months- and as Brandon would say…”who’s counting? ;-)” The very visible new concern that is in our minds is of course the hostility between Georgia and Russia. We haven’t been told that this will influence our adoption to Russia but we know to well that all things can affect International adoption; this being a very real issue at present.

VIETNAM:
So Vietnam on the other hand is much like the Indianapolis 500 these days! WOW! Every time I turn around there is another referral for another family. There have been 30+ referrals this year since Jan 08 and two more this week for baby girls (which means we move down to #34 on the list). It’s SO amazing and such a blessing to see the program pick up and children being placed in loving homes at a much faster pace!! On a very sad note, we have to acknowledge that one of the orphanages that FTIA works in within the Province of Bac Lieu has had some very tough events as of recently. 10 children had been hospitalized with fever and pneumonia. One baby girl that was referred to one of the FTIA families passed away a week ago. It is absolutely HEART WRENCHING to think about what that family must have experienced! Please keep them and all of these families in process in your prayers. The sooner these babies can come home, the better off they will be. It has been reported by our agency that some of the babies who were hospitalized are getting better which is a HUGE praise!!!

As everyone who has been following along on our blog knows…There has been much discussion between both the U.S. government and the Vietnamese government over the last several months surround a new MOU being signed. Though much progress has been made and continues to actively be made…We were informed yesterday that referrals from Vietnam will cease right now. The MOU will not be resigned by Sept 2nd but there is hope that a new agreement will be reached this fall. We will continue to hope and pray that a new agreement can and will be signed as quickly as possible so that adoptions may continue!! Please pray for all of the officials involved in this process, for the children of Vietnam and all waiting families. It will be a rough time for many as this program comes to a halt for now.

Everyone have an absolutely wonderful week!!!!

PS- I was attempting to be creative and did a, critter slide show (just WAIT till we have kids if you think this is bad ;-) The baby robin we raised is on their! If the slide show is not running or stops mid way through just click the small "X" in the upper right corner and it will start again.

Also, you can tell I was getting frisky with the blog this week (hehe :) I added music that reminds us of our little ones out there somewhere on the other side of the world, in Gods care.

Hugs and love,
Robin and Brandon

Just shy of 6 weeks and counting...

FINALLY, the beach pictures from our 4th of July week at the beach :) Better late than never....

Dad showing little Chris the art of eating crab

Brian and Kristen take swim

Jilly-Bean making breakfast for the troops

UM, Male bonding???????
Will, Brandon and Brian

Aren't we cute!! (Mom and Dad)

Jilly-Bean and Will-ster

Can you believe it took all of us to reel this one in??? (win-wink ;-)


A night out for seafood with the men

(Dad, Will, Brian and Brandon)

My CUTE, tan hubby lounging after a day at the beach


Brandon, Dad and Jilly enjoying a day at the pool

Hello everyone! I hope you all are continuing to enjoy your summer. We have been trying to enjoy every little bit of time we have together as we realize that soon there will be 3 of us and then not too long after, 4! Brandon's work continues to keep him busy as does mine. We are getting ready to take a trip back to Orlando again this coming Thursday night. I have my National Sales Meeting on the 11th and we are both flying in a few days early for a visit. We're looking forward to another visit with family!!!

On the adoption front...We continue to wait for "the call" and everyday that passes we feel like we are one day closer to Miss Hadley. The other night before we went to bed I said to Brandon; "Can you believe we've been waiting 39 days!??" He chuckled and said, "And 31 minutes" :) But who's counting??? ;-) Nightly we watch the adoption specials on Discovery Health called "Adoption Stories" (If you haven't seen them they are truly heart WARMING even if you are not an adoptive parent!). We tape them during the day and watch them as a break in the evening before we go to bed. I think there has been maybe one that I have not cried during. Even "B" get's a little glassy eyed while watching them. More and more everyday the conviction we have been given to adopt children grows and grow

RUSSIA UPDATE:

Not much new to share on the Russia front. We are approx #9-13 (ish) for our referral of Hadley. We know it could be any day but we also realize based on how things have slowed down in Russia that it could be up to 5 more months. We will definitely keep you all posted!!

VIETNAM UPDATE:
Vietnam continues to be ON FIRE with many-many referrals. Last week there were 6 referrals (3 boys and 3 girls). This week there were 3 more referrals (3 boys). I'm not sure if you all remember but we were in the 70's on the Vietnam list back in Dec/January 08 and we found out the other day that we are now #36 waiting for a girl!!!! The time is flying! The only potential issue is if the new MOU is not signed on or right around Sept 1st. There seems to be many positive things going on around the MOU but nothing truly solidified yet. We ask for your continued prayers for the children of Vietnam and for the MOU to be resigned in time for adoptions to continue between the U.S. and Vietnam. If the MOU is not signed it "appears" that may be where our process in Vietnam will be put on an indefinate hold (along with many other families).

Some days are tougher than others but we continue to rely on the strength and faith that the Lord gives us SO abundantly!!! How we could do this without HIM; I will never know.

2 CORINTHIANS 4:16-18

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles achieveing for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen but what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

HORSE SHOW PICTURES

Boomer and Kelsey taking a rest before entering the arena

Claudia doing some last minute grooming before show time! :)

I LOVE my boy...He's so handsome!!!