Well....it's Finally happening

Well, it's finally happening. We leave in 2 days!! El*jah turned 11 on the 8th but we will be celebrating with him on the 16th. It has been one roller coaster of a ride but the tickets are purchased, hotel reserved, kids and dog set to be cared for be family, and Elliott, I, and JE leaving at 9:45 pm on Wednesday. We fly first to San Fransisco, then Taiwan, then on to Ban*gkok, arriving a mere 28 hours after our departure. We are so excited and nervous. Adoption, like birth, always comes with elation and anxiety. For us, a 11 year has multiplied those feelings. I'll catch you up the story as the days go by. Thank you so much for your prayers as you all walk us through this process.

"Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world." James 1:27

Reviving the old

I thought it was time to revive the old blog....maybe dress it up a bit if I can figure it out how to. I started this blog when we were waiting for the adoption of our daughter Olivia. That was 4 years ago and she has lit up life ever since. Now we find ourselves waiting again. This time for Elijah.....10 years old, waiting for his forever family just outside of Bang*kok, Tha*iland. This latest adventure started many years ago as we watched, prayed for, and waited for this young boy's family to find him. In Oct. 2009 we started to ask if we were supposed to be his family and the journey began. Now, a year and 1/2 later we wait for the Tha*i government to grant approvals needed to bring him home.....he has been born into our hearts. Pray for him, for us, and we'll see were the Lord takes us all!!

In the meantime, I'll try to catch up on the other bits of life....

We Made It..New Life in the frozen Tundra

We couldn't have asked for a better trip home!! We had to check out of our hotel room at 3:00 in the afternoon and since we didn't need to be at the airport until 9:30 we had the concierge hold our bags and we went out for last walk around town, dinner, and some last minute shopping. We returned to the hotel by 4:30 and just hung out in the lobby (there were a lot a seating area's). Our Holt SW came by and gave us Olivia's passport with US visa and had us sign a couple of documents that he had forgotten to have us sign earlier. After I had signed and set it on the table for Elliott to sign, I looked up and was talking to our SW and Olivia decided she would sign it, scribbling all over it. AAGGHH! At first we weren't sure what to do but then I remembered the business center at the hotel. I ran over with the document and asked if they could retype it for me (it was in Vietnamese) and for $5.00 (rediculous) we had a new fresh copy. We signed it and he was on his way. We were tired of waiting around and since it was a 40 minute drive to the airport we decided just to go early. So at 7:45 we headed out in a taxi to the airport. We got there and had to wait for an hour before the baggage check opened up but Olivia acted like a seasoned traveler. Sitting on top of our luggage on an airport cart we just waited for the counter to open up, then got our bags checked and headed through security to the gate. While we waited we talked to another American family who was heading home with their new infant son. They had been in VN for more then 3 weeks. The families that we traveled their with are still in VN and are still waiting for passports. We are the only family that we met on this trip that had things go so smoothly and going home in just 13 days. Praise God!! And thank you all for your prayers, I know that is what made all the difference!!

As soon as we got on the plane, Olivia sat in her seat, I put on her seatbelt, she smiled, put her head on my lap and fell asleep. She slept all the way to Souel!! We woke her when we landed and carried her off the pland. We had a 6 our lay-over in Souel and she just acted like a trooper the whole time, we feed her breakfast (she slept through the meal on the flight), went into the bathroom and "cleaned up...brushing our teeth and hair", and then just played around. We boarded our next flight and again she promptly fell asleep. This time she slept for about 1 hour(her normal nap), woke up and played and watched video's. She enjoyed getting meals and stayed awake like it was a normal day falling asleep again this time sleeping about 8 or so hours! Awesome. She was awake the last couple hours of our flight. We arrived in Chicago at 9:30 am and went through immigration and customs without a problem. Then things got a little crazy for a little bit. Seems that Korean Air hadn't checked our bags all the way through our Northwest flight home so we had to carry all our bags through 2 terminals to get to the Northwest counter (and no carts allowed on the airport train). There they rescanned our bags (hadn't they just been checked by customs?) and someone in Northwest flagged Olivia's ticket so when we went through security they made us step aside so they could search her.....can you imagine...a 4 year old!! She of course did NOT appreciate it and screamed through the whole thing. Now mind you......we had just gone through immigration and she was cleared there...again...AAGGHH!!! Needless to say she wasn't a happy camper any more. I did manage to take her into the bathroom and get her calmed down and cleaned up. I changed her into her "coming to America dress" and we boarded our last plane, she was started crying again but we got her settled down. I called my sister to tell her we were on our way and the pilot came on and said there was a problem with water leakage in the plane and we would have to unboard and take another flight an hour later. AAGGHH again! So we got off the plane, I went and sat down with a now crying little girl again while Elliott got our new boarding passes for our new flight. She fell asleep and slept through our hour wait, we preboarded and she continued to sleep all the way home. We woke her up to get off the plane. We were met at the airport by family and friends. Olivia smiled shyly at them but stayed calm. We we walked out to the cars and she was hit by the cold air she started to cry. By the time I strapped her into her first carseat she was a mess, wailing all the way home. Luckily we are only a 15 minute drive from the airport. She started repeating something over and over in Vietnamese that I didn't understand. Finally after 30 minutes or so I figured out she was saying something about Hoa (she best friend in the orphange). I started repeating Hoa's name so she would know that I knew she missed her and she started to settle down, I rocked her until she fell asleep. She slept for about 45 minutes and woke up happy. She was a bit shy at first but then took right to her big sisters. From then on it's been just wonderful. My friend Kelli had come up from Nebraska with her 2 little girls (adopted from China) and Olivia, Sam, Kelli's girls, and my big girls played the rest of the night. We put her to bed at about 9:30 and her sister Emily slept with her, she slept until 8:00 the next morning (miracle...no jet lag). She woke up happy again, ate scrabbled eggs with the other kids, and played again all day. The only this she didn't appreciate was having to take a nap!! Last night, our second night, again I didn't put her down until about 9:00, this time I layed with her until she fell asleep. She woke up once during the night, again I layed with her until she was back asleep and now at 8:00 am she is still asleep. THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR PRAYERS!!! It is that that has made this transition so smoothly!!!
GOD BLESS YOU ALL!!!

We're heading home!!

Once an orphan now a Beloved Daughter!!

Ha Thi Nien becomes.......







Olivia Kathleen Nien Brubaker!







OK so it only turns out to be one day early....but one day is one day! We have a flight out tomorrow night, yeah!!! Today we had our visa interview with the US Embassy and all went well. The woman who interviewed us was very interested in the story of her as she said it was highly unusual that anyone in her birth family was at all found but she received an all clear for her citizenship. Tomorrow at 4 pm we pick up Olivia's passport with her USA Visa in it, fly out tomorrow night and as soon as we land in Chicago she becomes a US citizen!!! YEAH!!!

Thanks for all your prayers....keep them up through our flights (3 total....27 hours of travel). We'll let our family know the details of our arrival and would love to see anyone who wants to meet us at the airport. Please understand that Olivia will probably not get out of my arms but she seems to love an audience for her antics so all are welcome.

Right now we are listening to fire crackers going off outside our window as people are already starting to celebrate TET. The town is getting more crowded and our hotel manager seemed happy when we said we would be leaving tomorrow. His response was, "thank you for staying with us, we enjoyed having you. We could now use your room for new guests!".....what exactly does that mean???? Actually all the hotel staff has been wonderful, very helpful, and very kind. I would recommend this hotel to any adoptive families ( I'm afraid it is expensive.....at least now with TET approaching, but quiet and as I said before, their help with Olivia has been incrediable... translating, helping us figure out what to feed her, providing us with extra bottled water, the hotel doctor, the list goes on and on).

So on to the next chapter of our lives.....and Olivia to another new beginning. We have learned a great deal through this process and I'm sure that God is not done revealing himself to us through this little girl. If your heart has ever stirred toward the orphans of this world we'd love to talk to you......a child in need of the love of a family is waiting...

Days 11 and 12 in HA NOI and Pretty Pink Fingers

Sunday(28JAN) afternoon, after Olivia-Nien, awoke from a nap we took a walk along West Lake and visited the oldest Buddhist temple(Tran Quoc) in Ha Noi. Unfortunately, Elliott was not able to enter the temple proper, because he was wearing shorts, which would have been considered disrespectful. After that, we continued our stroll along the lake, on an absolutely beautiful day-- sunshine, lite breeze, California weather!!-- as we stopped to watch some fly fishermen we were approached by two ladies, one of whom smiled broadly and inquired if we were Americans. Becky quickly chimed in that we were and that we were here adopting our newest daughter. The two ladies, Joy(group leader) and Deedee, were with a large group of 10-12 couples from So. California touring Vietnam for three weeks. We chatted for awhile, exchanging experiences thus far and then parted, but before they left they invited us to join them for an ice cream(the great ice breaker!) social the group was having later that evening. We(Becky) quickly accepted. As we walked and talked folks would generally stare at us inquisitively, especially at Olivia-Nien, something you get use to. Near the end of our turn around point we came upon a family that appeared to be adopting and Becky inquired if they were, and they were, for the second time. Their first was four years old like Nien. The parents were Ann and Malcolm, and a friend Colin, from Ireland. On hearing Ireland, we quickly inquired if they knew of another couple from Ireland here in Vietnam adopting, Frank and Kathryn. They did, having flown over with them. We asked if they had heard from them, or talked with them since Saturday, when they had taken their new baby to a hospital. They hadn't. We were a little bit concerned with no one hearing anything from them, but just figured--no news, is good news--and left it at that. We conversed a bit more, then parted, and walked a little further before making our turn around. By this time 4:45 we were all getting a little famished and dry of throat(especially Elliott) we decided to have an early dinner and take a break. We stopped at a little place along the lake which we hadn't eaten at before, were invited in by a couple of young waitresses, who promptly waited on us(we were the only patrons in the place--actually a floating dock, with tables and umbrellas), made suggestions of what we might like--fried soft shell crabs, Mongolian lamb, sweet potato buds with garlic, steamed rice, and noodles with vegetables, and a Tiger beer and whisked off with our order. If anyone has ever watched Iron Chef America on the Food Network that is the kind of meal we ended up having. What a feast!! Best meal we've had, worth the whole darn trip.

(Elliott wrote the above but is already tired of typing (pecking really) so I'm taking over.

We went back to the hotel and rested for a little while before joining our American tour group friends for ice-cream. I'm not sure if Olivia had strawberry ice-cream before but she loved it and boy did she ham it up for all people there. Making silly faces at everyone.

Monday started out the same as many days with Olivia refusing to walk. I have to say I was getting tired of it so I refused to leave the room with her until she walked at least down the hall to the elevator and made her stand beside me as we rode the elevator to the bottom floor. She was very, very unhappy with me and cried the whole time. When the elevator doors opened I picked her up and she immediately stopped......controlling huh? We had breakfast and returned to our room. She wanted to go out again and I kept saying NO CARRY, NIEN WALK. Finally she shook her head. She understood!!! We opened the door and she grabbed my hand and out we walked. She has been happy to walk ever since!!!!! VICTORY!!!!! There have been a few times when we were on a very busy street or when she is tired when I still carry her (normal for 4 year olds) so my arms are getting a break....YEAH!! Later that morning we went over to our Irish friends, Frank and Kathrine's hotel to see if everything was going on OK with them and their new baby. We were dismayed to find out that they had not been back to their hotel since Sat. morning. We went down the street to the local hospital but no one spoke English and we couldn't find out anything. We left them a note at their hotel and said a prayer for them and their safety.

We had her physical for her Visa in the afternoon. We went to the international SOS clinic for this and it was busy at the time we were there. Several couples with little babies that looked like they all had some kind of rash. Much to our happy surprise we found our friends, Frank and Kathrine there!! It seems that their baby daughter had pneumonia and they had been there with her since Sat. She had had an IV antibiotic and was doing much better and was being released that afternoon. Praise the Lord!!! It is funny how you barely know someone but can connect so quickly with them. We plan on spending as much time as possible together for the remainder of our time (as Frank says, until we wear out each others welcome!)

Olivia's visit went very well and they gave her a clean bill of health with the exception of a possible slight turn of the left foot. It certainly doesn't slow her down as she runs, climbs, skips, and jumps perfectly well. We had to wait around for the doctors report and then our SW took it and all her other documents to the US Embassy. They did not give us an appointment until Wednesday afternoon (bummer) as they want to check further into the situation with her birth father. That means we won't get her visa until either Thursday or Friday. We'll keep you posted on our return.

Last night we met another American couple (we met on the plane) for dinner and did not get home until after 9:00. Way after Olivia's bedtime so today we have just hung out at our hotel for some R&R. I did take Olivia into the hotel salon and had her fingernails painted for the first time. She is thrilled with them and keeps looking at them. She did tell the gal that painted them that she was worried about sucking her thumb with the pretty pink on them. We'll see if she tries it or not at bedtime.

God Bless you all......we really miss you. Keep up the prayers!

Beautiful Day

OK....I just wrote out a long entry and before I published it, it disappeared.....AAAGGHH!

I'll try to recap. It is a gorgeous 73 degree day and the sun is out for the first time since we arrived. Olivia is down for a nap so I thought I'd catch you up on our goings on.

Elliott and I decided to try and change attachment tactics. Whenever we are in the room Elliott is now in charge of all of Olivia's care. Hopefully this will help her to see her Dad is a pretty nice guy! She still insists that I carry her whenever we are out and about and if I try to put her down she has a complete tantrum. Very hard to deal with when people are already watching you carefully anyway. So I carry her......

Yesterday we went to a wholesale market. Very, very busy and crowded. People think nothing of pushing you out of the way if you are where they want to be. Even if you are in the middle of something. Needless to say, we didn't stay long. I was able to purchase some beautiful silk to make Olivia something with when she is older. We also went to see the Temple of the Giant Tortoise on a lake in the middle of the city. It was really neat to walk through the temple. People had left money as a sign of worship. We just walked through quietly.....I wish we could have told them about the one true God. We had lunch in a restaurant where they had the steepest stairs I've ever seen. It was quite the feat to carry Nien up those stairs but I made it, up and down! We had a great fish dish that Olivia loved.

Today we took a public bus out to a province in the country to see what it was like where Olivia was actually born. We couldn't go all the way to where she was born as it would have been disrespectful to the people there and also we would have tried to get approval from the local authorities to do it and we didn't want to try that. Once out of Hanoi the air cleared up remarkably. Hanoi is very smoggy, the countryside was sweet and clear. Amazing difference. If I lived here I would definitely prefer the countryside! After that we took a taxi to see the hospital that cared for Olivia for the first 5 months of her life until she was sent to the orphanage. It was very different from US hospitals in that much of the administration work was done outside the building. There was a huge sign that showed the immunizations for children, one was Japanese Encephalitis. Now that one we don't have!!

Now that Olivia is stirring I think we are going to take a walk around the lake and see another temple and the botanical gardens near us.