Time is Ticking Down

Today we went to the Thai Immigration Bureau to request to extend our 30 day tourist visa for another 30 days. Unfortunately, we were denied. But, they did grant us a courtesy 7 day extension, for which we still had to pay the full $110 fee. So, that means that our visa now expires on Jan. 14th instead of the 7th. We've rescheduled our flight to leave on Jan. 10th. We've informed the USCIS of our situation. Now we just wait during the long New Year's Break, hoping and praying that after all of their relaxing and partying that they will be in a good mood and come back and work diligently on our case next week so that we can leave before our visas expire. We don't even want to think about what we'll need to do if they don't. Penny is such a gem. She seems happier than ever after having seen her parents crying over our helpless situation. Right now she is typing her first e-mail message ever in Thai. It's taking forever, but she's working hard and will not quit until she's got it just right. We actually purchased a Thai keyboard for her at a very cheap price and shipped it to the States. Hope we can get home soon for her to use it.

Ups & Downs

Well, here we are back at the internet cafe. What a day it's been! Actually, last night was not so great. Penny was getting sick and tired of who knows what. She also deliberately did something that we had asked her not to do. So, we banned her from the cell phone for the night. To top it off, her friend (a physcologist working at the girl's home) that she adores, didn't have time to speak with her on the phone. So, she went to sleep grumpy and not wanting to eat anything. In the morning we could barely get her out of bed and into the shower. Then we headed to the USCIS office (homeland security). We were told that the document that we had faxed to them last week was not enough. They needed an original one. So, we called the DSDW. We found out that the social worker that has been helping us is out of the office all week on vacation. However, they found Penny's file and the document. So, we took a taxi there and actually made it in record time. Our taxi driver waited for us and we hurried back to the USCIS office to turn it in. We felt confident that we'd get an interview. However, they told us we ought to just go back and wait for a call and they couldn't guarantee when it would come. After lunch and feeling down we thought, "Well, what can we lose by going back and hanging out there?" We were there until closing time at which point our CIS officer finally came to the desk and explained that although she is working on our case she cannot guarantee that we'll get a call anytime soon. So, in other words, it is unreasonable for us to expect that we'll be able to leave this Wednesday, as we had hoped. So, it'll be a long wait, as all of the US government offices will be closed starting this Wednesday for the New Year's break. But, we're hoping that we can get our interviews next week.

After hearing this crushing news Jay had to walk away from the counter as he started breaking down, crying. Later when Chandra was using our electronic translator to explain the situation to Penny, Chandra started crying, too. Up until that time Penny had been sulking and acting like she was very unhappy to be with us. But, after seeing both of us cry and coming to understand the situation she became her sweet self again and used the translator to tell me not to worry that she would wait, even if it is a long time.

Next we headed to the NW Airlines office to change our tickets to January 10th. Through a Thai woman translating we learned that Penny had been very impressed that her dad was crying over the situation. Tonight we took her out to eat her favorite Thai food and after that she actually put her head on Dad's shoulder and took his hand once on the escalator. More signs of bonding as a family. Maybe the Lord knew we needed this time in Thailand to be together and go through hardship to grow closer.

Tomorrow we need to go to the Thai Immigration Bureau so that Jay and I can get our visas extended as our 30 day visa is set to expire on Jan. 7th. Please get extended visas if you will be adopting from Thailand, even if your adoption coordinator tells you it's not necessary. It'll save you the hassle of having to extend it while you're here.

Thanks for all of your prayers! And thanks to Chris Arni for telling us about the Swiss Lodge swimming pool. We'll check it out!

Getting Settled Back in at the BCGH

Well, we are settling back in at the Bangkok Christian Guest House near the Sala Daeng station of the Sky Train in downtown Bangkok. Today even Penny seemed a little relieved to be back in a familiar setting. Although she missed the larger room that we had gotten used to at the Hotel Novetel. She told me in Thai and I understood her when she said, "Horng mai!" (No room!) But, I told her that it's okay because soon we'll go to America where we'll have plenty of room. Last night we went to see Madagascar 2. It was entirely in Thai with no English subtitles. She loved it! And after that she was the silliest we've even seen her. Boy, does this girl have a personality! She is absolutely hilarious. She was making us all laugh so hard. And she's even warming up gradually to Jay. In fact, today when getting off the escalator she was behind Jay and actually elected to reach out and grab his shoulders. So, I'd say we're definitely seeing some progress. Today she had another bonding experience with Chandra, as she got to ride on Mom's lap in the taxi, since we had to share the taxi back seat with our luggage. Dramamine has come in helpful with the long car rides through the crazy stop and go traffic of Bangkok. We're thankful that everything is cheaper at the BCGH. They don't have the pool, but do have other nice conveniences like free cold drinking water. We certainly take that for granted in the States. This morning we enjoyed a Christian worship service where Penny could sit with our Thai speaking missionary friends. Later we saw them again at the BCGH. I think Penny is feeling more relaxed as she's been able to get to know our brothers and sisters in Christ and seen them now in several settings. We also saw a sister in Christ from the hotel who is an Indonesian Dutch lady. It was so nice to listen to her praying to Jesus in Dutch. At the internet cafes Penny loves playing free games that I found for her. The site is called thaifreegame.com Some of the games are not as child-friendly as others. She loves playing all kinds of games and never gives up. She is such a happy, fun-loving, friendly, outgoing child. We are certainly blessed beyond measure. Can't wait for her to meet her grandparents and other friends in the States.

Hoping for a Miracle

Please pray with us that we will somehow finally be granted a speedy process for getting Penny's immigrant visa next week. We have only two business days in which we can get the paperwork processed as the US govt. offices will be closed starting Wednesday. On Christmas day we joined my missionary friends, the Fujiis, to go to Lumphini Park, where there was a huge gathering of Thai Christians reaching out and sharing the Christmas message through music, dance and testimonies and free food that was all gone by the time we got there. Our stomachs are gradually getting better after eating rather uncooked eggs at our last hotel. We've really enjoyed our hotel that we are presently staying at (Novetel Bangna). But, tomorrow we'll move back in closer to the center of the city so that we can get up early Monday morning to show up at the USCIS office to ask for our immigrant visa. The good news was that our Thai DSDW social worker did fax us the form that we think will satisfy the CIS officer. The CIS has also received our updated I-171-H. So, we think they should have everything they need by now. But, who knows with this one particular woman?! We hope and pray that she won't find one more thing she doesn't like with our file.

Yesterday we went to the Zoo. We were all feeling a little worn out at first with the heat and humidity. But, after the cooler indoor snake exhibit we began to feel a bit better. When we left we saw a number of political protesters dressed in red and yellow shirts, with masks, waving Thai flags as the zoo is right across the street from the Parliament and there is a planned rally there for tomorrow (Sunday). That was a bit unnerving and then two empty taxis turned us down (probably because they saw we were foreigners and were afraid to speak English to us?). But, the third guy didn't turn us away. He did a great job finding routes that weren't too backed up and even spoke a little English.

Today Penny tried swimming for the first time. She needed to use a life saver donut, as the water was too deep for her and I'm not a strong swimmer. But, even though the pool wasn't heated and she was freezing she really wanted to try. She is extremely persistent. She never gives up. That'll serve her well in the future. We're already feeling more like a family each day. And we're thankful that she makes friends easily. She had to say, "Bye!" to her Dutch friends this morning as they are heading to Pattaya and won't be back before we head back in to the Bangkok Christian Guest House. Our plan is to stay there so that we'll be close to the Embassy and hopefully get everything accomplished so that we can fly out on the 31st.

Might go see a movie this afternoon. Just trying hard not to worry too much or get too homesick. It's hard knowing that we have so many things that we want to share with Penny but have to wait until we get home. Just thankful for together time right now.

I'll..be in Thailand...for Christmas!

Hi everyone, I bet you thought I was going to sing and say "I'll be home for Christmas." Well, unfortunately not. We are going to be in Penny's homeland for Christmas. We had some very downer kind of news yesterday in that suddenly the USCIS office in Bangkok said that the documents that were presented to us by the Thai DSDW as being certified evidence of her birth weren't sufficient. Because of that, we are stuck in Bangkok until at least December 31st. With the Christmas four-day holiday weekend we can't do anything until next Monday. We did get some good news this afternoon in that the Visa 37 Cable that was sent last Friday from the US was finally received. Also, we received a clarification document today as evidence towards why Penny doesn't have a birth certificate. We are hoping that this will be sufficient evidence and that we can fly home on December 31st. Unfortunately, the government offices will be taking a five-day weekend over New Year's and if we don't get Penny's Visa by December 30th, we won't be home until at the earliest, January 6th.

With the way things have been going here with our US Government processing, it is a very likely chance that I won't be back in time for the start of the second semester at Liberty Common School. With the stress of this, and a stomach bug that I caught and Chandra has caught, we have both been very weary, with me in the worst shape. I don't handle delays well and I've been experiencing some very difficult emotions over the past two days. However, in a book that I read three days ago, I discovered the Serenity Prayer, quite unexpectedly: "God Grant Me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, and the Wisdom to know the difference." I pray that will keep us smiling over the weekend. Penny shed some tears yesterday, as well, when it sunk in that she wouldn't be in Colorado for Christmas. However, she is doing better today and enjoyed playing with some kids from Holland at our hotel. Thank you for your prayers. We hope to be home before 2009!

Jay

Feeling Quite Helpless

Well, I wish I had some great news to tell you, but instead we're still waiting and wondering when we'll ever get to leave for home. Yesterday we waited all day and the only news we received was that for some reason the USCIS office in Bangkok did not receive the cable Visa 37 which was sent by the Denver CIS office to update the I-600A. So, again it felt like another wasted day with nothing much we could do in a hotel that hadn't turned out to be what had been advertised. Today (Tuesday)we're at a nicer hotel. There are pros and cons, like internet that works, but which is more expensive. We went into downtown Bangkok today to go to the USCIS office thinking by now they would have gotten the cable and we could soon get our interview. Instead we were told that they did not go over to the Embassy to get it yet and we had insufficient evidence for her birth certificate and that her parents and foster parents had relinquished rights. We weren't quite sure what to do so we called our social worker with the DSDW, assigned to us by WACAP, Khun Nuantip. She told us to go over to the Embassy and have them call her. By that time their offices were closed for lunch. So, we went out to the Sizzler for lunch, ourselves. We were all struggling. Jay about lost it with the woman at the DSDW. I had frantically played the helpless "farang" (foreigner) game in order to get a working phone to call Khun Nuantip. The heat, smells and noises of Bangkok are really starting to get to us. I haven't had much appetite and both Jay are having a few digestive issues. Our sweet little girl just officially became a woman over the weekend. Those that's made life interesting. But, thankfully, it occurred right when we staying at the friends' home where they could speak Thai and help explain everything to her. What an answer to prayer!

Back to Tuesday. After lunch we went to the Embassy Visa Consular area. We went to the wrong spot at first. They told us to go to windows 4 or 5 where they process immigrant visas. We had no appointment and there was no once showing up at either counter for a LONG time. So, finally I caught one man leaving the office and asked what we should do. He suggested I cut in line where the endless number of college students were applying for non-immigrant visas. I did this, explaining our situation, and the man did eventually get someone to come out to listen to us. The woman was a very kind Thai woman who spoke good English. While she said they don't normally deal with cases like ours, especially since we haven't been approved by the USCIS, yet, she would be willing to call Khun Nuantip, directly, to let her know what we are still lacking and to see if she could acquire the necessary documentation. We were literally the last people to leave the room at 3 p.m. Then we caught a taxi back to our hotel. It's tough to be stuck in rooms for hours on end, separated from our bags, where we stash our dictionaries/electronic translator, etc. We have no good way to communicate with our daughter who is just stuck there, bored and wondering what's going on. But, she's really hanging in there and not throwing any fits. She was so exhausted when we headed back to the hotel that she fell asleep with her head on my shoulder while still in the taxi. Since, she and Jay are napping, I thought I'd take the chance to come down to the business center to let everyone know about our latest news.

Right now all we can do is wait for Kun Nuantip to collect whatever documentation she can to try to satisfy the CIS. If she can't find it in her file, she'll need to go back to the Udon Thani Girls' Home for more. What's maddening is that the Embassy said that the form she gave us looked to them to be sufficient documentation certifying her birth. They have seen such forms before and not encountered this problem. So, please pray for all the right forms to come through and for our patience as we will need to reschedule our flights once more for who knows when will be good. After all, there is the Christmas break coming up for the US government. They'll be closed on both Thursday and Friday. And the following week everyone will be closed for New Years'. Meanwhile, we worry about the finances of being away from our jobs, unpaid. The only possible thing I can see in this is that perhaps the Lord really wants Penny to experience a Christian celebration of Christmas in Thailand first. We don't know His plan. Please pray for encouragement, hope, peace and health. Thanks a million!

Getting Lost & Losing Sleep, but not Hope

Well, I'm finally typing this message from a home computer rather than at an internet cafe. We have had the kind arms of the Fujii family opened up in hospitality to us. We were just craving relaxing in a peaceful home environment. I'm so thankful for my friends to open up their home to us today. It's such a restful oasis in contrast to the emotional roller coaster of last night and this morning. We moved to a new hotel close to the airport last night. When we had originally made our reservations, we had planned to stay at the Bangkok Christian Guest House a little longer and then move out closer to the aiport before we returned. But, after we cancelled our plans due to the airport closures we were not able to reschedule all of the days we had initially requested at the Guest House. And that was before we knew that our time in Bangkok would need to be extended. When you're just making a reservation over the internet and looking at photos you can't really imagine what it'll be like. The hotel is quaint with nice grounds out front. However, no one in the cafe really can understand our English and last night the cab driver they called for us really took us for a run. We were trying to meet up with some missionary friends for a Christmas party at their Abundant Life Center. However, we didn't have the exact address. Our cab driver spoke no English and we noticed he was taking us way too far, but his cell phone didn't work. So finally I said in a rather firm voice, "Toorasap!", which means "telephone", when I saw some pay phones. He got out and casually took his time chatting away to our friend, almost leaving my address book in the phone booth while the meter kept clicking away. What was only supposed to take 30 minutes ended up taking a little over an hour and cost almost double. Besides, he never did really find the place we wanted to go to. I was getting highly suspicious that the guy was out to rip off the foreigners when we got in the area and he was trying to ask us, "Where is it?" Duh! He had just gotten directions from our friend over the pay phone. So, just then Jay saw a sign with a cross and pointed to it. He dropped us off at the church, which was not actually our friends, but we felt safe to go inside and ask if we could use their cell phone. Fortunately, it was nearby to where we needed to go and our friend came and helped show the next taxi the way. Penny was seeming very withdrawn and down the last couple of days. She asked our friends when she'd be going back to Udon Thani. I just said, "Mai sahp ka." (I don't know.)

After our escapade with the taxi we were pretty worn out and yet, I could not sleep. We had jets flying low over our hotel, besides tons of other noises outside. And Penny was feeling really insecure. She kept getting closer and closer to me constantly jabbing her elbows, knees and head into me. Needless, to say, I didn't sleep hardly a wink all night. I feel like I'm already on jet lag and I don't have an infant to deal with and have yet to fly over the ocean.

Then this morning we planned to meet friends for a church service that meets in a Novotel Hotel. I just remembered this friend saying it was near to the airport. So, we took a cab to the Novotel right next to the aiport. But, after we got there we discovered that there is another Novetel about 30 minutes away where the church service meets. We finally made it there just in time for the sermon. It was a bit hard to concentrate. But, it was neat to see that Penny was interested in reading a comic version of the New Testament that our missionary friends in Khon Khaen had given her during the service. It was her first time in a church service. But, she seemed open enough. We do hope and pray that she will open up her heart to know God as she has been raised in a very Buddhist enviornment.

This afternoon has been the most refreshing part of our stay in Bangkok. I've known the Fujii's since 1988. Leith had been our assistant pastor of the church I attended while in college in Chicago. In 1998 they felt the call to go as missionaries to Thailand. It's amazing to see their kids all grown up and they are just showering us with hospitality by letting us take naps in their quiet home, checking our e-mail, helping verbalize all kinds of things to Penny in Thai and as I type Carol is taking Penny on a little bike ride in their neighborhood. What a relief! Even though she is not an infant she has been practically stuck to me like glue and what a nice treat to actually get a little alone time and to see her smiling again because someone can speak her language.

Tomorrow we will hope to get our visa interview with the USCIS and then carry the packet across the street to the Embassy where we hope they will grant us an interview quickly. It might help that my mom had Senator John Thune's office calling and asking them to give us an interview as soon as possible. Our renewed I-171H should be waiting for them as it was cabled on Friday. So, thanks for your prayers.

The other good news about this whole crazy hotel ordeal is that we found that the Novotel in Bangna is actually very nice and not right by the noisy jets. So, we're now planning to stay there for Tuesday and Wednesday and hopefully will fly out on Christmas day. The missionaries we met last night kindly called the US NW Airlines Adoption Reservations Deask via Skype so that we could change our tickets, since the NW office in Bangkok was closed for the weekend. They said that it was no problem as it looks like the plane should be half empty. Quite different from when we came to Bangkok and all our flights were overbooked and we always ended up sitting in the back.

Annoyingly Major Delay!

It is time to pray for some Mountain-Moving!

Well, it figures that something had to go wrong. We found out late this afternoon, Friday, that our original I-171H, the document that states by the federal government that we are fit to adopt, is useless! Apparently, since we moved back in February to a new house, our original document needed to be completely amended and not just have an addendum attached. We, therefore, are at the mercy of something called a Visa 37 Cable to arrive from the Denver office of the USCIS showing our renewed I-171H to arrive at the Bangkok office sometime very soon. Thankfully, we happened to start the process of renewing our I-171H about two months ago, since we knew that the first one would expire on December 20th. However, we will now not be home until the earliest on December 25th, but most likely on December 26th. I found out that not only is the office in Bangkok closed on Thursday for Christmas, but it is also closed on Friday, December 26th. So, if we can't get our visa by the 24th for Penny, we will be staying through another weekend and won't be back until at the earliest Monday, December 29th.

Please pray for us. My emotions finally caught up with me today and the tears flowed. Thankfully, Penny is growing closer to us each day. We crossed a major hurdle with her on Wednesday after the DSDW interview. She seemed very quiet and nervous before that, but since then she has been perkier and happier. She is showing more affection towards me, even though that process has been slow. The Thai way isn't to show affection to the opposite sex parent as much. She has been glued to Chandra. However, we are seeing much improvement with her relationship to me. She likes to play card games with me and she still sees me as a protector.

We've been invited to a Christmas party by some missionary friends of Chandra that live in Bangkok. That should hopefully take our mind off of things. Please pray mightily that our Visa 37 cable will be sent by the Denver office on Friday so that it will arrive in time for Monday morning in Bangkok.

Jay

Sorry so little correspondence!

I'm sure you're all wondering why you haven't heard from us. We've been having a hard time to get to the internet cafe. Yesterday we spent most of the day holed up in our guest house as we were hoping to get a call from USCIS to set up an interview. It felt like a whole day wasted. We're getting nervous as our I-171-H is scheduled to expire on Saturday. So, we called our adoption coordinator for our Colorado Home Study and she said she finally got the State clearances and was going to run around and hand deliver things and ask the CIS agent in Colorado to expedite things in our case. Meanwhile, my mother in South Dakota contacted Senator Thune's office. She actually did the flowers for Seantor Thune's lawyer and so got through to them. They have put one woman in charge of contacting people in the US CIS and Embassy here in Bangkok asking them to speed up our case, given our situation with the possible expiration. Talk about living on the edge. I think God likes to come through with last minute surprises. We've noticed that ever since our DSDW board meeting was over on Wednesday that Penny seems more and more relaxed around us. I think she was feeling nervous about that meeting. We are so pleased with how happy she seems and how well she is bonding. Last night she crawled up into bed with me. She totally soaks in all of the cuddling that she's missed out on over all the years. She is still very much a little girl at heart. We love her so much!

Quick Update

Oh my! I only have 11 minutes to tell you about our day at this internet cafe. We had to get documents for her passport. On our way there she got motion sickness and managed to hold it in until we got there and then she totally lost her breakfast in the bathroom. We rode the skytrain several times. We also had to do a lot of walking to get some of the Thai documents to a translator. We were pretty hot and worn out after that. After getting her nanny at the orphanage to explain things to her over the phone last night we're already seeing some signs of improvement as far as her not running ahead of us and pushing her way in the line, interrupting, etc. Still wants to buy things, but not quite as pushy. It's almost 100 degrees warmer in Bangkok today than it is in Chandra's parents hometown in South Dakota and 90 degrees warmer than Fort Collins. What a shocker it's going to be on our sweetheart. We still pray for patience as she can be extremely impulsive. But, it is to be expected considering where she's just come from. It was so cute how today she wanted to get on the escalator all by herself. What a trooper she is! The poor girl fell out of bed last night after a nightmare, so she's now sleeping on a lower cot right next to Chandra's bed. We got in some good cuddle time after her frightening way of being awakened. Well, gotta go! Tomorrow we'll see if we can get her medical done for her visa with only having her birth certificate and not her passport yet. We might go to the Siam Marine World Aquariam (I don't know the real name.)

Sawadee ka!

This is Hello from Chandra! We are doing well, except when I panicked and thought I had lost my wallet. Thankfully, I found it pretty quickly. Definitely feeling a bit lost in downtown Bangkok. Everything is new for Penny. She has yet to learn social graces like waiting in line and not interrupting. One very rich looking woman in Bangkok gave us quite a look that communicated very well that she thought we had a rather insolent child. Oh, well! She'll learn. It's just going to take time to learn a whole lot. It's just going to take a lot of patience and love. It'll help once she learns English. Meanwhile I frantically searched through my phrasebook for expressions like, "We're just looking now." or "We'll think about it." We're trying hard to teach her to stay close to us because this has got to be one of the most crowded, crazy places I've ever been to in my life. It reminds me of a combination of Tokyo, Chicago and Udon Thani all wrapped up in one. It's 85 degrees here while it's supposed to go below 0 in Fort Collins tonight and snow. She's excited about snow at this point. We'll see what she thinks about it in a month or so. She's playing some free games on the internet right now. Everything is so new and fascinating for her since she's experienced so little in the orphanage. The problem is that she wants to experience all of it RIGHT NOW!!! Our favorite expression is "Ror!" (Wait!)

Quick Sawadee-krup from Bangkok!

Sawadee-Krup (Hello from a man, in Thai) family and friends!

This is a quick update to let you know that we made it safely back to Bangkok from Udon Thani, Thailand at 12:30PM local time on Sunday, December 14th. We are at a mall in the heart of Bangkok and I'm writing from an internet cafe at 5:15PM Sunday afternoon. Bangkok is a happenin' place, even on Sundays. It reminds me of Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles combined!! We will be applying for Penny's passport on Monday and our meeting with the Thai Adoption Court will be on Wednesday. Then comes the hard part: dealing with the United States goverment at the Embassy and USCIS. They can often make it a long and difficult process to get the paperwork completed for the Visa for Penny. I pray that we will be out of Thailand on December 23rd.

Thank you to everyone for your kind messages. I'm sorry that I wasn't able to reply to everyone personally. We are doing well and having some nice bonding experiences. Our greatest difficulty is the language barrier, but we're all learning to persevere and be patient with each other. This is also an interesting time of a lot of "firsts" for Penny, such as eating at a buffet, and one that I didn't even anticipate: fear of escalators at the mall. However, our sweet girl was able to overcome that fear quickly and she ran to me from her mother's side so I could protect her from this strange moving staircase. Oh my! :-) We may not always be able to update every day, but we will try as often as possible. Bye for now!

Jay :-)

We are in awe!

Words can't describe the amazing experience we had in meeting our daughter for the first time today. We were both rather nervous, wondering how it would go, not knowing quite what to expect. But, as we drove up on the grounds, suddenly Jay shouted out, "There she is!" I turned and looked over my shoulder and sure enough, there she was jumping up and down in joy to see her Dad and Mom. She immediately came over and gave me a big hug and then over to Jay's side to do the same. She was not shy nor scared at all. They said she's been so excited that the night before she didn't want to eat dinner. This morning she (and her mama) were so excited that we both woke up around 5 a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep. When we saw her she was wearing the necklace that we sent her for her birthday back in June, which says, "Expect a miracle!" We certainly feel like we have a miracle child. She is way beyond what we ever could have dreamed of having in a daughter. She is loving, kind, affectionate, caring and thoughtful. There will certainly be challenges as her English and our Thai is extremely limited, but she seems so eager to try. We're getting better at attempting to babble in Thai, as well. She had been saying for some time that she really wanted to attend a festival in Udon Thani with her mom and dad. Thanks to God, for reopening the airports and making a miracle take place we were able to be there with her to help her dream come true. Everywhere we went she liked holding our hands and looking out for us. She has the most innocent, tender heart. I'm sure that God has been preparing her for knowing Him and His great love. Can't wait to introduce her to Jesus! We'll meet with a missionary family on Saturday who have adopted their daughter from the same orphanage. They'll help us with things like checking her head for lice and going shopping for things that she needs. We're so thankful for their help. They'll also bring her books in Thai that are bible story books. Tomorrow we will go to the orphanage to sign some paperwork. We'll get to visit Penny's school and perhaps take her out to an Orchid Farm. Tomorrow will be the first night that she'll stay overnight with us at the hotel. She seems so very excited and we couldn't be more thrilled. The Lord has definitely blessed us with a gem!

We've made it to Udon Thani, Thailand!

Hello friends and family!

Well, we made it to Udon Thani in Northern Thailand today, Tuesday, December 9th around noon. We pulled a 30-hour straight marathon of staying awake and transferring airports. Chandra and I each managed to take a short nap at Don Muang airport in Bangkok this morning, after transferring from Suvarnabhumi airport in Thailand around 3AM in a taxi speeding rather excessively down the toll road highway in Bangkok!

Udon Thani is definitely a cultural experience with roosters in cages along the main streets and many open air markets with a variety of cuisine cooking. Many people burn their trash in this country and the air is very dirty. I pray that we won't catch anything or have difficulty with respiratory issues. Our hotel is nice but nearly everyone only speaks Thai, which was very frustrating for me to handle, especially on major lack of sleep. We had a rough flight from Tokyo to Bangkok yesterday with moderate to severe turbulence that forced us to go way out of our way and fly directly over Manila, Philippines before heading directly west over Vietnam and Cambodia into Thailand. We are at the CATnet internet cafe sending this letter. The temperature is pleasant today, but it is expected to hover around the high 80's and 90 degrees in Bangkok over the next two weeks; Definitely a far cry from your snow and sub-freezing temperatures. We will have our first meeting with our daughter on Thursday, December 11th at 10AM local time; Fourteen hours ahead of Fort Collins. Take care. I look forward to seeing Colorado again soon!

Jay Regan, for Chandra and our soon-to-be daughter, Penny

Jay and Chandra Update from Tokyo!

Konnichiwa!

Hello everyone, from Tokyo! Chandra and I arrived safely on Friday evening, but in the worst landing I've ever been in; during an unusual December Japan thunderstorm! We saw Mt. Fuji today in crystal clear skies, along with beautiful Lake Ashinoko. We will be leaving at 7PM local time on Monday night for Bangkok. We arrive at 12:30AM on Tuesday morning. After a mostly sleepless night, we will leave the domestic airport in Bangkok around 9:30 on Tuesday morning for northern Thailand. I will try to update you again from Thailand in the next few days. Thank you for your prayers and good wishes. Take care!

Jay

Hello from Seattle!

I'm writing this entry from a Days Inn near the Sea-Tac airport in Seattle. We had an uneventful flight from Denver yesterday. Sorry, Mom, that I didn't call you, but we got in an hour late because they were de-icing our plane in Denver and with the time difference I thought you might be in bed. Today we'll have an 11 hour flight to Tokyo. My best friend in Ft. Collins, Tomoko, is from Japan. Her mom will meet us at the airport and we'll stay with Tomoko's parents our first night. Because we'll be crossing the International Date Line over the Pacific Ocean, we'll arrive on Friday afternoon in Japan even though we left on Thursday in the States. When we arrive at 4:30 p.m. our bodies will be feeling like it is 1:30 a.m. So, I'm sure we'll be messed up from jet lag. But, we'll try to force ourselves into the Japanese time frame as we have several friends to meet over just three days time. We were thankful to hear that the domestic airport in Bangkok is also scheduled to re-open today. That is the airport where there was a grenade launch that killed one of the political protesters. It's going to seem strange to travel through there just a week after all that took place there.

A correction

In the earlier entry I wrote that we still did not have any verification if we were still on for the DSDW board meeting on December 17th. Well, later in the morning we got an e-mail from Andrea saying that it had come. And she even had times for when we are to arrive at the Girls' Home in Udon Thani and when we should meet our social worker in Bangkok. During the day I was busy contacting lots of people, letting them know that our plans were back on. And I got a package in the mail from Chris Arni. So thoughtful of you, Chris! Chris gave me awesome, firsthand info. about the whole process in Bangkok. I also spent my afternoon reading through the mounds of info mailed to us by WACAP. I even called Andrea with some questions, but I think I'm starting to piece together what all this exciting adventure ahead entails. It will mean lots of running around to various government offices, to a hospital for Penny's exam, and a translator's office to get documents translated from Thai into English. It'll also involve lots more money! That's adoption for you, more and more paperwork and money. But, it will all be so worth it. It's more paperwork than what was involved with buying our house. But, Penny will be much more valuable than a house! Thanks to everyone for their prayers! As my Chinese friend from Hong Kong (living in Tokyo) said, "I have this feeling that God will make everything come together perfectly at the very last minute." You were right, Catherina! Isn't He amazing? Just last night we read the reopening of the airports could take days, weeks, perhaps even months. And this morning we awaken to news that they're reopening by Friday. Only God can orchestrate something that unbelievable!

Well, then again...

Here is the link to the news that we awakened to this Tuesday morning...http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20081202/tap-thailand-politics-protest-c8d5519_5.html It made us decide to just call everyone up and re-confirm all of our reservations. We're going to go ahead and step forward in faith moving ahead since hearing this good news that the airport is planning to reopen by Friday. We are planning to arrive in Bangkok on Tuesday. We don't even know, yet, if our board meeting is still on for December 17th or not. But, we'll just plan as if it is. And if they move it to January perhaps we'll spend more time in Japan or Udon Thani. That' a nice thought. Maybe we could spend more time getting to know Penny. We'll just see what the Lord's plan is. After all, He knows everything and is the one who really is in control. So, now I need to really scramble and organize all the adoption paperwork.

The bags are all packed and we're going nowhere!

Well, we did decide to cancel our reservations. Not an easy choice to make as our hearts are already flying overseas. But our heads told our hearts that we better listen to wise advise. Isn't it ironic that our church's theme for their Wed. night bible study series this month is called, "Life Interrupted"? On Sunday morning as I sat at the table trying to down some oatmeal a thought occurred to me. The Lord brought to my mind the message that was imprinted on the necklace that I sent Penny for her birthday back in June. It said, "Expect a Miracle". Never knew at that time how much we'd all need to be reminded of that. And then we went to church and it was a wonderful service with the songs and sermon and lighting of the first Advent candle, all with a message of HOPE. So, we are hanging on to hope that we will meet our daughter. It's just not going to happen in the timing that we had hoped for. But I'm reminded of the bible verse that says, "Man makes his plans, but the Lord directs his steps." So, it'll be interesting to see how He directs and leads through all of this.

On again, off again!

This has been a rather stressful Thanksgiving weekend, to say, the least. I've had some kind of stomach virus that lasted from Thanksgiving Day through Sunday. We keep checking the news and wondering whether or not we'll be able to go to Thailand. Fortunately, my stomach feels 100% better today. Today our adoption coordinator, Andrea, called from WACAP. She was highly recommending for us to please stay at home until we know more about the situation. She has been unable to get a hold of anyone working with the DSDW (that's the government board that deals with adoptions in Bangkok). She said that worries her and makes her wonder if they have shut down their offices due to all of the political protests.

It seems the situation is getting more and more tense. The pro-government supporters say they will surround the judicial building to prevent judges from meeting on Tuesday. The judges are planning to meet to propose some measures to vote on whether or not to dissolve the reigning political party, including the prime minister. The pro-government supporters say this amounts to a silent coup. The present prime minister appears to have no power, as the police are not enforcing the supposed states of emergency he declared twice at the airports. And the anti-government protesters have sent reinforcements into the airports where they say they will not leave until the present Prime Minister is out.

With now at least 300,000 foreigners stuck because the airport shutdown Andrea is afraid that the American Embassy is going to be a scene of utter chaos. She fears that even if the airports reopen it'll take some time for things to settle down. Seeing as how we need to do all of our legal work at the Embassy in downtown Bangkok she fears this would be extremely difficult and especially stressful on Penny, given there will already be a lot of newness to get used to in being adopted and moving overseas.

So, Jay and I will have to talk it over again tonight, but there's a good chance we'll need to stay at home for now. Fortunately, we purchased airline tickets through Northwest Airlines. They have extremely flexible adoption fares. Very helpful given this is a situation completely beyond anyone's control. But, we know that God is still in control. We don't always understand why He allows these things. We're praying that somehow people in Thailand will seek for Him in this tumultuous time where it seems that no one is in control there.

Answered Prayer for getting a WACAP family out of Thailand

I am posting info about a woman and her son who were able to miraculously leave Bangkok, but not without much trouble. Thanks to those of you who prayed for Chris and her son. Here is the story about their "escape"......

By the miraculous grace of God, we have made it to Seoul and are waiting on our next flight out. It took 3 hours by taxi from Bangkok to get to the army airport at Pattaya. Once there, Army guards were everywhere. As we got closer to the terminal, cars, trucks, buses, taxis, etcetera from all over Thailand were lining the road and swarms of people were walking with their luggage to try to get into the airport to get a flight. You had to get in line to even try to get in the one door that they were letting people through and there were literally THOUSANDs of people everywhere trying to get in. It was an absolute madhouse!!!!!!!!!!!!! Once in the door, you just had to try to get in another line to get through to the security area. It was so very crowded and HOT beyond imagination and people. There was hardly even room to stand and I had all our baggage and Endoo. I couldn't even begin to make it to the ticketing counter to check in any of our baggage so I had to carry it all. As we got closer to the door to get through to security, Endoo was crying and sweating and I was so very hot and had been without food for about 12 hours AND I began to feel like I was going to pass out. I must have looked horrible because several Iranian poeple around us began to call to each other to clear the way to let us through. One of the men took Endoo from me and began to make his way through the door to the security area and the Korean Air people saw what was going on and got us through the door and gave me a seat and brought us some water and food. They took our passports and went and got us checked in and got us boarding passes (which we should have gotten at the ticket counter, but didn't because we didn't know to go there and couldn't have gotten to it anyway!). Finally, we made it through security and started the wait again in another big boarding area room which was CRAMMED wall to wall with people ! Again, it was very hot and there wasn't even really a place to sit except your luggage. After a few hours, Endoo became very hot again and began to cry. First, a Korean lady held him. Then later, two different Korean men took turns holding him and fannning him. The one finally put him to sleep and then directed the Korean ladies to make him a little pallet on the floor with their coats and jackets. It was so precious! Our flight that was supposed to leave at 10:40P did not finally take off until about 3:30A!!! Thus, we didn't get into Seoul until 10:37A which resulted in us missing our flight to Atlanta. They are putting us on another one which will leave Seoul this evening at 6:05P, get in to Atlanta at 5:35P (due to the time difference), will leave Atlanta at 9:15P and will get in to Columbus at 10:51P.

Fighting the fear!

Hi everyone! This is Jay and I'm having an interesting time trying to figure out what to pack for our upcoming trip. I'm very excited to get the trip going and I can hardly wait to see our Penny for the first time!!

In the middle of all of this excitement is a strong to temptation to be afraid of what is going on currently in Thailand. I'm thankful all the more for our country and the peaceful freedom of speech that we enjoy. However, I keep wondering about all of the "what ifs." "What if" we have to wait longer in Japan before the airport opens in Thailand? "What if" we aren't back in time for the start of school in January? "What if" we get bumped ahead to a January 7th board meeting date in Thailand, instead of our December 17th date? "What if" I don't get back to school on time to start rehearsals for our Spring Musical?

All of these questions, of course, are musings of a tired music teacher that needs an end to the two-year "gestation" period of waiting for our adopted daughter to come home. I've cried a lot lately and I don't even know why sometimes. Most of all, when this craziness in Thailand is all over and we have our sweet girl home, will she feel a part of the Regan family? I pray that I will somehow be able to show even a microcosm of the love that our Lord has for us, and especially me, when I have natural human doubts and questions about why things are the way they are.

Feeling Very Blessed

Last night we went to church and were very moved as God's Holy Spirit encouraged us, spoke to us and reminded us of how very blessed we are. The scripture that really made us both choke up was Phil. 4:6 and 7 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Besides all the wonderful ways in which He spoke to our hearts through the songs and the message, we were also overwhelmed by the love of one family who gave us beautiful clothes which had been their daughter's. Now I actually have clothes to put in Penny's closet and suitcase. I also got a phone call from my cousin. She has been putting together scrapbooks for Penny and buying her clothes. I just don't have the words to say about all of the generous kindness of so many friends and family members. We have such happy memories from the wonderful party we had on Sunday. Several friends came to help us celebrate. They came to bring gifts and help decorate our humble Christmas tree. One co-worker, who is a dear sister-in-Christ, not only generously gave us a card and monetary gift, but she had her friend make us a beautiful hanging quilt of Mt. Fuji, which I hung in Penny's room over her bed. We feel very blessed, indeed. Praying that we'll be able to pass those blessings on to Penny soon.

Why all the unrest?

Many of you might be wondering what in the world is happening in Thailand. I think the following link to an article from BBC should help explain a lot of the reasons for the civil unrest. What is interesting is that our daughter is from the Isaan area of Udon Thani that they mention in the article. For so many years these people have been crushed down and forgotten. It sounds like they finally are trying to have a voice. I just hope that we can get Penny out of there before the whole country unravels. I pray that it will not lead to civil war. Here's the link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7716033.stm

Is someone testing us?

It seems like there have been a number of tests and challenges popping up suddenly right after hearing our good news on Friday that we can travel to get our daughter. First of all, the day of our party we discovered wasps pushing their way through a crack of our fireplace insert. Jay managed to kill 14 before covering the crack with tape. Then on Monday morning and this morning we found water in our basement. Now I just went on Yahoo to check my mail and I found a news story about how the Bangkok airport is partially shut down since the political protesters have moved away from the government offices and now expanded their protests to around the airport. So far they are allowing flights to land but not allowing any outgoing flights. I just had an e-mail this morning from another family who has been delayed in leaving Thailand. Finally, they were getting everything straightened out and set to fly out on Wednesday. It seems that a test is being thrown at them, too. Please, please, please, if you believe in the power of prayer will you pray for a resolution to this situation so that the children needing homes will not be prevented from leaving Thailand. And pray that there will not be violence in Thailand. We are scheduled to leave next Wednesday. We just purchased our tickets last night. We have most of our hotel reservations made as well. Praying that we'll still be able to bring Penny home for Christmas. Here is a link to that news story. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081125/ap_on_re_as/as_thailand_political_unrest

THE DATE IS CONFIRMED!!!

Happy, Happy Friday Everyone!! This is Jay and I received an e-mail this morning that our court date to adopt Penny has been confirmed for December 17th in Thailand! We are planning on leaving on December 3rd and will stay in Tokyo a few days before heading to Bangkok. I'm so thrilled I can't even begin to come up with words to say how I feel about becoming a father in less than four weeks. I guess the tears of joy that I've had today speak volumes. What a great way to start the weekend, and what a Thanksgiving and Christmas we will have!! Hallelujah!!!!! :-)

Upcoming Christmas Party/Adoption Shower

Some friends had talked of how we ought to have a shower. So, one day I got this great notion that we could combine it with a little Christmas decorating party. After all, we're really hoping that we might be able to bring Penny home before Christmas. If that ends up being the case, we'll hardly have time to decorate for her. So, I decided to invite some friends and co-workers over to help us decorate. We had a very humble, modest little tree that I got for free through freecycle-dot-com. But, we can't wait to share it with Penny, whenever she arrives. Looking forward to our little party. I'll definitely need to do some cleaning and baking on Saturday. It's not easy working full-time. But, I can't imagine how stir crazy I'd be going right now if I wasn't.

Can't Wait to Meet you!

I can't wait to meet my future daughter. I was just re-reading the description of her personality we received with her "referral" on September 12th. It says, "She is a cheerful and good tempered child who is talkative." (Sounds a lot like me when I was a kid. ) "She is a curious child who usually asks when she wonders." (She'll surely have a lot of wondering to do when she gets here.) "She is an active child who does not have any behavior problems." ( We hope and pray that this won't change.) "She is generous and shares something with her friends." (So proud of her!) "She gets along well with her roommates and classmates." (Perhaps she'll want a sibling in the future?!) "She likes to show off." (Uh-oh! Watch out!) "She is responsible for her duty and public belongings." (Thank you for raising our daughter to be so conscientious!) "She follows rules of the institution and school." (As teachers, we love to hear this.) About her physical development it says: "Generally, she is a healthy girl who does not have any chronic or contagious diseases. She is quite slim. She can help herself in doing daily life activities and eat many kinds of food." (Sounds like she might be a good helper. Can't wait to cook all kinds of food with her!)

I just really smiled this morning when I read this again. She sounds like such a wonderful young lady. I can't wait to meet her and tell her that we think of her constantly. We really miss you, Penny! We pray from the bottom of our hearts that we get to hug you soon!!

Still waiting to become JC Penny

Kids are so funny! They come up with the greatest stuff. The other day my college friend, Hisano, called to ask the latest news. She said she had been praying for Jay and Chandra adopting Penny. Afterwards, her son came up to her and asked, "What were you praying about JC Penny for?" Ha! That's great! Can you believe it fits with our initials! Well, we are yet to become a family. The latest news is that they did NOT present our case at this last board meeting, as we were told they would. Thus, we wait again for another two weeks. Still really hoping for a December court date in Bangkok! Praying that we can bring Penny home by Christmas!

Proud of Penny's Cousin

Our niece Linnea is exactly 10 years older than Penny. They actually share the same birthday, just ten years apart. We're so proud of her as she recently got commissioned as an Air Force Nurse. She has worked so hard and had to go through many tests and jump so many hurdles, but never given up. Her husband, who is in the Navy swore her in for her commissioning which was held here on the campus of CSU. Here are a few photos.

Promised Photos of Penny's Room

Little Reminders that Things are Getting Closer

Well, I finally finished painting Penny's bedroom. I'll post pictures after we get the new blinds hung. I think I'll wait on curtains. After all, she might like to help pick them out.

We got an e-mail from WACAP saying that the social worker in charge of our case in Bangkok did receive our updated info that the DSDW were requesting. She's planning to present it at their meeting on November 5th. That means that we'll most likely receive our travel dates the week of November 9th.

Another blogger friend brought up the question of whether or not we would need to apply for an extended tourist visa if the processing time for the I-600 has been slowed down. Good question! I'm going to try to research that one and figure it out.

Meanwhile, the other thing I did this morning, while sitting at the computer, was to start a "baby" registry on Amazon.com I always feel kind of silly making a list of things I want, just like for our wedding. But, some people ask and genuinely want a list. So, I did it just in case.

Meanwhile, I got this idea that maybe I should combine the idea of a shower with a little early Christmas decorating party. I'm thinking of inviting friends to an open house during which they can help us decorate our Christmas tree. I just managed to get a practically new tree for free through free cycle dot com. We could have some goodies with Christmas music playing and if they want to bring a gift they could leave it under the tree.

It's kind of hard to balance the fun stuff with all of the legal stuff, besides work and just daily living. Today the goal is to rake leaves in our huge yard surrounded by tons of 30 yr. old cottonwood trees. I'm feeling the stresses of impending parenthood without the physical symptoms. The only physical symptoms I'm having are those of a body of a parent to a teen as I'm getting older and creakier. Almost 40 now! Well, I'm so thankful I'm not adopting an infant or toddler. My joints ache just thinking about it.

Good News & Bad about the Legal Stuff

The good news is that the USCIS (homeland security) office in Bangkok responded to my e-mail inquiry right away. And they told me that they have our I-600A (approval to receive the I-600) and our latest fingerprints. Yeah! But, at the end of the message they said to note that it is presently taking 14-30 days to process the I-600. The I-600, as far as I understand it is the approval to issue our daughter an immigrant visa. You see, she will be entering the US with a Thai passport, not a US passport. So, homeland security has to give her an orphan immigrant visa to allow her to enter the US. Our adoption coordinator is trying to get to the bottom of why the processing is suddenly taking so long. There are two WACAP families in Bangkok right now who are being held up by this delay. It's surely quite a hassle to have to let their employers know that they'll be gone for who knows how much longer, besides the financial burden of changing their airline tickets and getting longer hotel reservations (if they can). WACAP is working hard at trying to speak to all of the government officials they can to see why things can't be expedited. I'm contacting our state representatives, as well, to see if there is anything they can do about this matter. But, Andrea said that some other agencies were reporting that those with all of their paperwork in have been getting their I-600 processed in a timely manner. So, since this, again, is something that will be beyond our control we'll trust that God will cause things to move in His timing.

I-600A and I-171H

I don't know about you but I have a hard time remembering what all of the different documents with the random letters and numbers mean. After all, it's been so long since we filled out all the paper work for them. But, we did find out that our I-171H is scheduled to expire on December 20th. That needs to be up-to-date in order to be able to file the I-600 A while we are in Thailand. We also found out that Washington D.C. has been slow at forwarding the I-600 A approvals to the embassy in Bangkok. Another couple adopting just before us said they had to e-mail the US Embassy in Bangkok three times before they finally got a response back that they did not have their latest finger prints, which is necessary for the I-600 A approval even though they got their fingerprints done in March and it shows they were sent to CIS (Homeland Security) in September. So, now we're starting to e-mail our Colorado agency as well as our placement agency and the embassy to try and make sure that we have all of the necessary paperwork in Bangkok by the time we travel there. If we don't, then we'll be stuck there until it all arrives. So, we'll need a very flexible ticket just in case the worst case scenario happens. Let's all hope and pray that all of the slow government agents get a move-on things.

Blowing Away

Well, we're not quite sure when we'll get to blow away to Thailand, but we feel like we've been blowing away here in windy Colorado. We've had strong, cold winds lately. In fact, so strong one evening that our sunshade umbrella on our patio was lifted right out of the table and went up over the roof. It sailed along the whole distance of our house, bounced off the roof and managed to land, wedged between the roof and a tree. So, we ought to have fun this weekend trying to get it down. The college-aged neighbor offered that he could climb the tree and get it down. I think we'll try first by reaching from the roof. We needed to get up there anyway, to blow the leaves off. Now we'll have a little added excitement to our boring task.

We did get one phone call in regards to our adoption. It wasn't quite the one we were hoping for, but it's one step closer to our daughter. The day after the Wed. board meeting in Bangkok we got a call from Andrea telling us that the DSDW needs us to update our info stating our net worth. Since it had been a year and a half since we first filled that out and things have changed since then, in particular, we bought a house, they just need to make sure we still seem to be financially stable. It's really understandable, given all the news of recent about the shaky American economy and people not being able to pay off their mortgages. It's good that they are being thorough and want to make sure that these Thai kids will be well taken care of. So, we updated it and e-mailed it back to Andrea. Hopefully, she'll be able to pass it on to the DSDW quickly and they will soon decide that we can travel there to get Penny.

We're really hoping and praying that we'll be able to bring her home by Christmas. What's neat is that I just found out that I should be able to get an almost brand-new Christmas tree for free. I put a wanted ad on Freecycle dot com and got a quick response by someone wanting to get rid of a tree that they've only used twice. So, we're planning to take a look at it tomorrow. My mom promised to pass down the handmade Christmas tree skirt that she made for us when we were kids. If we do end up traveling in December we may need to decorate for Christmas in November.

Connecting People to Jesus

We're very honored to join a new church, today, which is celebrating 20 years of connecting people to Jesus. We've been attending Redeemer Lutheran since Easter. We have found it to be a very warm, loving group of people who truly love Jesus and love to share Him with others. We hope this will be just the nurturing place to help our daughter meet Jesus, personally, too. What's cool was that they did a little write-up in the bulletin about each of the sixty some new members in the bulletin. A couple sitting in front of us read this and came up to welcome us and meet us afterwards. Turns out they adopted their son from Kazakhstan. We have now met at least two adoptive families from the church. And we hear there are several more. So, I got this inspiration to start a new yahoo group specifically for people from our church whose lives have been touched through adoption. So, I'm hoping this will be the start of something special with new ways to connect with other adoptive families in our own community.

This weekend I've been continuing to working on the ongoing painting project in Penny's bedroom. I'll let you know when it's done. Jay is out blowing leaves. Yesterday we visited a woman who is a music teacher to preschoolers and who has also gone on a mission trip to Japan. We enjoyed some yummy Japanese food prepared by a mutual friend, Tomoko. She made "okonomiyaki". Yum! Even my husband seemed to like if although he's sometimes hesitant to try exotic foods.

Another highlight of the weekend for me was having the opportunity to share about my faith with my hair dresser. I was getting my hair cut/colored. Somehow we got on the subject of religious faith. This woman explained that while she was not religious, she considered herself "spiritual" and she thought all religions are good because all truths are the same. I had to share with her that I politely must disagree. I explained using an illustration that I think God gave me on the spot. I told her that just as her instructor had made the first cut for my haircut and she needed to follow it to make the haircut turn out right, so there is one truth. Her teacher called it an "A-line". I said that I believe there is one "A-line" for truth. It is the measure by which we can measure all things in life. If it matches up to this one ultimate truth, we know it is from God and can be trusted. It wouldn't work if there were several different lines or different truths. I'm not sure she got the logic of my point. But, I was thankful for our very civil discussion and a wonderful opportunity to plant a little seed of the truth about Jesus into this woma's heart. For, as I told her, I have investigated the bible and have found that Jesus stands up to the test and proven Himself to be this one truth. May we all seek to know Him deeper!

One more Thai language resource

It seemed by the response to my last blog entry that several people are interested in finding out more about tools that can help them with learning Thai. I'll recommend one more helpful source. It is an electronic dictionary that actually speaks the words so you can hear how to pronounce them. We found one that wasn't going to really break the bank. (It also helps when the future grandparents offer to buy it as your Christmas gift). It turns out that we really like this one. We think it's going to be a great help for Penny when she gets here. And as a bonus it not only translates English and Thai, but Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Indonesian and Malay as well. Our model number was the Vocal 610-SEA It is made by Oxford University Press. Hope this is helpful, especially to those of you adopting an older child from Thailand. For more info go to www.LanguageTeacher.com

Preparing to Communicate

While we are waiting I've ordered a couple of books, which I hope will help with our communication with our daughter. One is the Oxford Picture Dictionary. I loved using this way back in the late 80's/ early 90's when I was teaching ESL. Well, the latest editions are much better and they come in various bilingual editions, including English and Thai! I think Penpohn will love to take this with her when she is studying English in school. I think her teacher will love that she'll have that as well as an electronic dictionary that even says the words! For ourselves, I ordered Thai for Beginners by Benjawan Poomsan Becker. It does seem to be more practical with the beginning conversation lessons than our Pimseleur's Thai CD series. Although, the thing I like about those CD's is all of the repetition. It's really helping me understand grammatical structure as well as pronunciation. Thankfully, Penpohn will be able to teach us, as well. If, that is, we're not too old of dogs to teach us new language tricks. I'm sure she'll be the faster learner. I guess all this waiting gives us more time to brush up on our English and Thai.

Since we haven't heard anything, we're guessing that perhaps our acceptance letter will be reviewed at the next DSDW board meeting, which is a week away. So, perhaps after then we'll be able to know some travel date possibilities. We're guessing it'll be December. The other good news was that the last time we checked the airline tickets for December went down in price by about half! Yeah! I guess the recession is good for something.

No news.... :(

We were sure hoping that we'd get a call by the end of the week telling us that the DSDW (Thailand Dept. of Social Development & Welfare) had reviewed our acceptance letter at their recent board meeting on Wednesday and stamped their final seal of approval on it. But, alas, again, we just WAIT. No matter how long you do this it's still not much easier. We also heard that at the same time there was, yet, again, more protests and political unrest happening in Bangkok. Between all of the adoption unknowns and all of the depressing news over the economy, etc. we are feeling rather burnt out and not even wanting to listen to the news at all. I'm just very thankful that we have jobs. It's not always easy to be a preschool teacher, especially on a day like today when I had a splitting headache all day long. But, I'm trying to count my blessings and be extra mindful of the moment-by-moment joys, like when one of my three year olds just suddenly hugs me and says, "I love you, Ms. Chandra!"

Life Books

This morning as I added more new pages to our own custom-made Life Book that I’ve created for our daughter and the thought dawned on me, “It might be helpful for other adoptive parents out there to let them know that I could design a Life Book for them!” And then I got to thinking, “Hey! This could be a new, fun innovative way to raise some more funds to help defray our upcoming travel costs!” How about that? You can call it a crazy notion, a moment of inspiration or an attempt at creating a business plan. Nonetheless, I have personally e-mailed all of the people that are in my address and connected with adoption in some way or another to let them know. If you know of anyone who might be interested please tell them to e-mail me. japaneseartist@me.com The plan is to charge $20 if you want just the template of the book saved on a disk and mailed to you. For an extra $5 I’ll actually print it out and put it together in a binder to mail it to you. I hope it will assist many families in saving the precious memories and history of their own unique children.

For Those Adopting an Older Child

You'll find lots of very helpful info from the following website...
http://bringingbackbaby.typepad.com/being_schooled_by_the_old/

The family writing this blog adopted a 12 yr. old in December 2006. That was right when we started our adoption process. I've been a faithful reader of their blogs. It's been so neat to watch their daughter grow up and figure out who she is. We should be able to get our own 13 year old daughter just two years after we started the journey.

Bountiful Harvest

Wish Penny could be here to enjoy our bountiful Fall harvest. Although many of my veggies suffered from our hailstorm, like the corn and the cucumbers, there are still many that thrived. We've picked between 4-10 zuchinni almost on a daily basis until our recent cooling trend. I had just enough cukes to make my favorite Grandma Lindwurm's sweet pickle recipe. We had several eggplants, a few ears of corn. The peas finished earlier. We picked one watermelon too early and four other tiny ones. We have dozens of carrots and ten pumpkins. You'll also notice plenty of vine weed growing amongst the pumpkin patch.

Planting Bulbs

My fingers are sore as I type this message. That's because I planted a total of 55 bulbs in our backyard today. I can't wait until they all bloom come Spring. The exciting thing is that Penny will be able to enjoy them, too! I bet by that time she'll be really tired of Colorado winters. For her first winter in America we probably won't take her to visit her grandparents in South Dakota. That would be cruel and unjust punishment for a girl who has lived in the tropics for her whole life. We'll let her adjust gradually or take her to South Dakota in the summer time. We will have to travel to one of four major U.S. cities where Thai consulates are located in order to get the final approval from the Thai government that we can adopt her. That'll come six months after she comes home. This morning I started working on creating a Homecoming Announcement postcard. It'll be fun to send those out once we actually know our travel dates. We're hoping to find out soon after the next Thai board meeting on October 8th. We'll keep you posted.

More Hoops to Jump Through

Well, we've jumped through one more hoop getting us closer to picking up our daughter. We signed all kinds of legal documents and sent them in to WACAP. It reminded us of all the paperwork we had to sign in order to buy our house. We mailed these along with a photo album for Penny to them by UPS. Today the Thai adoption board (DSDW) was meeting. So, we were hoping that they would review our acceptance letter and give us the final approval to adopt Penny and a travel date soon afterwards. But, as it turned out our adoption coordinator heard that the social worker who is to present our case is out on vacation until the end of the month. So, most likely ours will be presented at the next board meeting on October 8th. We're still hoping that we might get a court date in November or early December. I'm sure our bosses would like to know the dates soon. On Sunday I bought one more thing for Penny. I got her a winter coat. It was in really good condition, although I bought it at a second-hand shop. I hope my daughter won't mind that I buy almost all of our clothes at Savers. I can't believe the bargains I get for some really nice stuff there. Jay even got some very nice dress slacks there for work that cost around under $6 a piece. And today I heard about a group for foster and adoptive parents in northern Colorado that helps out with food discounts and has a clothing bank where families can share their donated clothes. Sounds encouraging as many of you adoptive parents probably know how tight money can be when you have to pay so many fees to bring your child home. But, it will all be worth it. We're just trusting God to provide. Above are pics of our package we just sent off, the winter coat and Penny's dresser which someone gave us and I repainted and put new knobs on.

Getting Ready for Penny

Today I've had the nesting instinct taking over. I'm really determined to get this house ready for our daughter. Even though we moved into this house in February there were still some unpacked boxes and rooms left to be painted. Today I decided to tackle the boxes. I did a lot of reorganizing and cleaning up. I also finally hung up pictures in my art room. There's still some organizing to do, but it's getting a lot better. I also bought bulbs so that Penny will be able to enjoy tulips and daffodils popping up in the Spring. I plan to plant those next weekend. Jay had a man come and aerate our lawn and went outside and sawed off some dead branches off of our ash tree in the front yard. I also wrote a letter to tell our daughter that we've officially been invited to adopt her and how much we love her. I put her new pictures that arrived with the referral packet in a frame in the living room. We're readying documents and a photo album to send in to WACAP. The photo album will be sent on to Penny to help prepare her for our arrival. A while back I sadly bought school supplies for my daughter who had not arrived in time for the start of school. But, now I had fun pulling these things out and looking at them, again, trying to envision the backpack really being on Penny's back. I've included photos of the school supplies and our photo album we're sending her. I also included a photo of two necklaces that are sitting out on Penny's dresser. They were both given to me by my grandmothers. One of them has little tooth marks on it from me having chewed on it when I was a three-year-old. I hope these little momentos will help her feel connected to our family history.