10.11.07
Eli Update...
Even though we have posted many pictures since we have been home, I realize that I have not posted anything to this blog since we were in Vietnam two months ago. I thought that what I would do is give a quick run down of what our little Eli is up to now that he has been home for two months.
-He turns 1 in just 2 weeks!
-He is walking/running- no more crawling for this little boy
-He adores his big sister
-He has 9 teeth (4 on the top, 4 on the bottom, 1 molar, plus 3 molars in the works)
-He still does not like to sleep at night (last night he only woke up 10-15 times!!!)
-He is down to one nap during the day (who wants to sleep when you can play)
-He loves to talk on the phone and gets really mad if you are talking on the phone and don't let him have his time to talk too
-Speaking of talking, yes, he does! He says Mama, Dada, KayKey (Katie), NighNigh (night night), Hi and Yeah plus he signs "Please" and "All Done". I am beginning to think that kids who hear a tonal language like Vietnamese first in life, have an easier time grasping language because they hear the different inflections better. Just a guess
-He is done with baby food (and has been for almost a month). If it is not what we are eating and has any resembleance to baby food, he does not want it. Everything just goes on his tray and he goes to town.
-He likes to eat!
-He is starting to drink out of a sippy cup and only takes a bottle 3 or so times a day
-He loves being outside
-He will take an American binky (thanks Lisa for finding them!) and actually doesn't like his Vietnamese binky as much now
-He has had one hair cut already but really needs another before his 1st birthday
-He hates shoes (except the soft leather ones he has been wearing since Vietnam)
-He is now wearing 12-18 month clothing
-He is also now wearing cloth diapers which work great (thanks for the encouragement Niki and thanks Eri for picking up the diaper covers in Japan)
-He is a snuggler, especially with Mommy when he hasn't slept well or isn't feeling good.
All in all, Eli has adjusted very well to life as a Lockwood and we are blessed to have him in our family.

8.10.07
Baby food!!!
Yeah, tonight we found jars of baby food at the little grocery store that we discovered a few days ago. It is actually in a little mall and is much more western than any "grocery store" we have been to yet, since most are just little street vendors with a few select items. We got Eli some prunes, apricots, sweet potatoes, and mangos along with some more rice cereal and some teething biscuits. We had one very happy boy tonight. The cereal that they give to babies in both Vietnam and Kazakhstan is much different than the cereals we give to babies in the US. By just adding water to the powder, it is a yummy treat that Kevin has enjoyed with both of our kids :-) I know it probably has more sugar in it than I would like to be giving him, but it is all that there is here and I would rather have a little boy with a full tummy than an empty one. When we got done feeding him tonight, it was the first time that he indicated that he was finished eating (except with a bottle) since we have had him. Luckily, we now have all the supplies to keep his belly full till we can get home and transition him to American food.

Eli was also happy tonight because his tummy finally wasn't hurting him. We had given him some dragon fruit this morning (it is the only fruit that I could find that would mash up to a consistency that he would eat) and it finally helped him out in the poop department. We probably won't be giving him much more dragon fruit to eat but it is great to know that it works even better than prunes :-)

We are all still trying to figure out our flights home and waiting to see when we will actually get our embassy appointments. Since this is high travel time in most Asian countries, the flights home are very packed and difficult to get tickets on. Les and Sarah have a flight booked on the 18th and are trying to get on one sooner than that. Laura is working on going home this weekend to be with her family and Diane is working on finding flights for Wednesday or Thursday. We have been working all day to find some way to get home too and so far we are confirmed on a flight out of Hong Kong on Wednesday, but we don't have our flights to Hong Kong figured out and we don't even know for sure that we will have Eli's Visa in time to get on that flight. Right now Eri's dad is working from the Japan United office to try to help us figure out our flights too. Thanks Yoshi. We will keep praying and we will let everyone know once something is confirmed. Thank you everyone for your encouragement and prayers during this time.

7.31.07
Fun as a family of four!
The past two days have been the most incredible experience we have had since we were in Kazakhstan 2 years ago. Being in Vietnam and receiving Eli into our family has been fun, scary, overwhelming, exciting, nerve racking, happy, sad, stimulating and it has been a huge blessing to all of us.

After having Eli Thanh for a full day, we are getting to know him more and he is starting to bond with all three of us very quickly. He slept very well last night, in spite of the fact that he is very congested and the fact that we did not have a crib for him so we had to have a make-shift bed for him. Katie is doing well with him and really can't wait till he is ready to play with her. She is always bringing him toys and trying to hold his hands or feet. Even though this whole trip has been a bit overwhelming for Katie, she has done so great and has traveled like a champ. She has figured out that it is OK to just fall asleep if she is tired and thus has fallen asleep in the car, at dinner, on the airplane, and while just playing in the room. We are so glad that we brought her with us and just can't imagine how empty it would have felt if we had left her at home. Granted, there are very hard moments with her when she has melt-downs (but I have had a few of those moments myself so I can't blame her), but overall she has done a tremendous job and we are so proud of her.

Some fun things that we have learned about Eli in the past 2 days...
-He is a daddy's boy
-He is extremely observant and watches everything that is happening
-He has HUGE hands and feet (little legs and arms but big hands and feet)
-He has long fingers and toes (they look a lot like Katie's)
-He has one freckle on his left shoulder
-He likes his binky (and not the ones we brought from home so he will have a pink binky until we can get to a store and find some other colors :-)
-He sleeps with his eyes half open (like most of the Hoff family)
-He is ready for a hair cut (at least around the ears)
-He can sit up and crawl (although he hasn't crawled since we picked him up)
-He has Mongolian spots (like most Asian babies)
-He sweats up a storm
-He loves holding onto a washcloth and loves on it like Katie loves on her Blankie
-He loves playing Peek-a-boo and he gave us his first smiles while playing it today
-He love the Baby Wrap that Niki made us (Thanks Niki)
-We are think that he has never had solid foods until today when he had rice cereal
-He has the greatest tongue and loves to lick stuff and kind of smack his lips by sticking it out and licking his upper lip
-We are all so in love with him and can't wait to bring him home to meet all of his wonderful family and friends.

7.29.07
Morning in Saigon...
We woke up this morning and had breakfast at the hotel. After eating, the other couple we're traveling with (Les and Sarah) and the single mom (Diane) happened to be coming to breakfast, so we all got to meet for the first time. In addition, our coordinator, Madame Chau, was with them. This gave us the chance to get a first hand report of what would be happening. Although we were surprised that we wouldn't be back to Saigon after today (except for our 10 hour layover on the way home), we were really excited to hear that we will be taking Eli home tonight! (We're still holding our breath because it's hard to know if something may have gotten lost in translation...but we're pretty sure that's what is happening.)
In a few hours, we'll be flying up to Da Nang where we will go to Eli's orphanage and meet him eye to eye for the first time! We can't wait to see his cute little face and hold him in our arms. We are praying that the immediate transition from the orphanage to our arms isn't terribly rough on him. If you think about it, please help us pray today; the meeting should take place between 3 and 5am PST. (Now we know many of you will still be in bed at that point, so when you wake up you can help us pray, especially since that will be near our bed time here.)

7.28.07
We're in Vietnam...
After traveling for 26 hrs., we finally made it to Vietnam! The journey was fairly uneventful (praise God!) and Katie did great the whole way. One thing that really helped was a half-empty plane on the way to Hong Kong. As a result we were able to take the bulkhead section (eventually, we had it all to ourselves...five seats across!). Upon arriving in Vietnam, we easily went through customs and found the driver for our hotel. The whole process reminded us of the night we flew in the Almaty, Kazakhstan during Katie's adoption, only this time we were less nervous.
For tonight, the adoption agency booked us in the Novatel Hotel in Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) and it's beautiful! We hope that tomorrow morning, we will meet the other couple and single mom who are also traveling to Da Nang with us. Our flight leaves in the afternoon, but than again, we're 14 hrs. ahead of the west coast so you can do the math.
Look for more updates tomorrow! For now we're going to get some much needed sleep.

1.22.07
WE GOT A REFERRAL!!!
Today at 12:48, we got the call from our agency that they had a referral ready for us! We were so excited to finally know the initial details (especially the sex). Since you might be anxious to know the details as well, here they are:

We know you all want to see a picture, but we don't have one yet. Tomorrow we'll go to the adoption agency and get all the details with the picture and full referral (don't worry, we'll post the picture as soon as we get it!). For now, you can click here and view a zoomable satellite image of Da Nang, Vietnam. Stay tuned for more information in the coming days!

1.12.07
When we started the process of adopting from Vietnam, our thought was "Wow, this is so much easier and so much faster than Kaz." We are now realizing that it might have been easier in the beginning (most due to the fact that we understand the process a little better and know how to get the paperwork done a little easier now) but now it is getting a little more difficult.

Before Christmas, we were asked all the time about our referral and it didn't bother us at all. We knew that it would be very difficult to have a picture of our child and have to go through Christmas without being able to comfort them or give them their heart's desire. Now that the holidays are over, the wait is suddenly much harder. There are not very many distractions in our life now that we are done with the holidays so not knowing when we are getting the call is very hard.

Just two days ago, I got a call. "Hi, Sarah, this is Rachel from Heartsent." Those words stopped my heart. You see, Rachel at Heartsent is who "THE CALL" will come from when they have a referral for us. Unfortunately, it was not the call I was hoping for, it was actually one that I didn't really want to get. She told me that things are changing in Vietnam and that she didn't know how it was going to affect us but that we would have to fill out some additional forms and send them back to her as soon as possible.

It is kind of hard to explain what the difference in the process is now but I will try to do it in as few words as possible. Currently in Vietnam, the government would send a child's information to an agency that was licensed for that orphanage and the agency would match the child to a set of parents. Then, the child's info and the parent's dossier would be sent back to Vietnam to go through the government and then the parents would be issued a G&R date. As of Monday, Jan 15th, the parent's dossier will need to be sent to Vietnam first, it will need to be logged into the government's list and then the government will match a child to a set of parents. Then it would proceed as before and a G&R date will be issued.

Unfortunately for us, our dossier is not yet in Vietnam because we were waiting for our referral to be sent to IAAP. We do not yet know what this means for us or for our wait times, but as soon as we know, we post what we do know. Luckily, this is not a surprise to God :-) He has known which child that He had picked out for our family since the beginning of time. He knew the changes that were going to happen and He is in COMPLETE control! Please just pray for us that we will be patient as we wait. One really cool thing is that we got an email from IAAP that said that we are currently #4 on the wait list but that 2 of the families ahead of us are waiting for older children so we are technically now #2 in line for a baby! YEAH!!!

12.9.06
Best laid plans of mice and men...

It had been my intention to write more about our adoption on this site on a regular basis, but as you can see, that hasn't happened yet. These past two months have completely flown by and I haven't taken the time to update this site for a while. Over Thanksgiving weekend and the weekend following, we held two boutiques that featured all sorts of beautiful items that were hand made by many wonderful friends, family and local businesses. These two boutiques blessed us more than words can possibly describe. We were overwhelmed by the support of everyone who helped out and who came by to shop. Thank you! Over these two weekends we were able to raise almost everything that we were still in need of to complete this current adoption. God is so good to us!

Just after we finished the boutiques, we received word from Heartsent that our placement agency, IAAP, had told them that we were #4 on the waiting list and that we should hopefully receive our referral within the next two months! We were very excited. That means that as soon as the beginning of February, we could have our child's picture in our hands and we would hopefully travel within three months or so after that. Our prayer right now is that our wait time between referral and travel would be as short as possible. It will be so hard to have a picture of our child and not be able to hold him/her in our arms. But, that is part of the process in Vietnam and we know that our child is waiting in Vietnam for us, so might be what we have to go through. We are just praying that it will be in God's perfect time for us to get to Vietnam.

11.30.06
Our boutique made it in the newspaper! Actually, the main story in the paper is about our adoption (they wanted a public interest story), but they also put in a piece about the boutique. (Click here to see the stories and images of the pages) The fun part about it all is that the editor let us write the articles; it's the first time we've ever been "published". =D

10.17.06
The question that we have been asked the most recently is "What is the time frame of your adoption?" So far, this adoption has been moving along at a quick pace but it is now that it will slow down (quite possibly for a long time). The adoption process in Vietnam is a little different than Kazakhstan. In Kaz, our dossier had to be translated, then shipped over to Kaz where we waited for a Letter of Invitation from the Ministry of Education. For Vietnam, our dossier will stay at IAAP (our placement agency) until they receive referral information for a child who matches what we have said that we would like (it will take between 0-6 months for this to happen). Once we accept our referral, our dossier will be shipped to Vietnam, along with our child's paperwork where it will take between 2-4 months for the government to issue us our G&R date. After that point, we will finally be able to travel to Vietnam to meet our child and bring him/her home. So, from this point in the adoption process, we could be traveling in as little as three months (if we received a referral today) and in as much as eleven months. We are just praying that whenever it happens, that God will move it along at His perfect speed and that our child will be the child that He picked out for us from the very beginning.

In this "BLOG", I will be using some adoption terminology and abbreviations. I will try to list what they are here so that I am not leaving anyone in the dark. (I will add more as I learn more or think of more)