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.