New Years Eve in Danang

Hello everyone!!

We left Ho Chi Minh City and are now enjoying the tranquility of Danang(China Beach). We will be staying here for New Years.There is supposed to be a Huge firework display on the beach this evening....we are looking forward to seeing this.

Danang is very beautiful. Very lush and green. It is rainy season right now so there are times when it just downpours but there are still plenty of opportunities to still sit on the beach and enjoy the scenery. The children do not mind....they are playing in the ocean anyway.... :)

The hotel literature indicated that this is one of six most luxurious beaches in the world.....we were unaware of this prior to arriving.....but we believe it after seeing it!

There are people from all over the world that came here to celebrate New Years. It is so cool to talk to everyone and find out where they are from.
Mom- There are more families here from Germany than any other country. :)

The only thing that would make this visit any better would be if Ro was already with us to experience all of this as well.

HAPPY NEW YEARS TO EVERYONE!!!

2008 AFF SUZUKI CUP CHAMPS

We arrived safely in Ho Chi Minh City this morning. Seeing everything here is so amazing. Scooters....scooters.....everywhere scooters. You look down the street and you just see a sea of helmets!

Right now it is approx 1:00am. We went to bed around 9:00 pm and then we woke up to experience the biggest celebration we have ever seen. Vietnam beat Thailand tonight to become the 2008 AFF Suzuki Cup Champions (Asian Soccer Champions).

We took plenty of video and pics. scooters everywhere flying their flags, beating pots and pans and chanting and cheering. We went down in the mix of things and little children were selling us flags and were so proud to say that Vietnam was #1.

We can not even express this celebration in words. We woke up thinking it was a huge New Year celebration and the people running the hotel explained what was really going on.

We were told that this celebration will continue to the morning hours.......

We love you all and will post again soon!!

Breakfast in Hong Kong

After 20 hours of flying we are now having breakfast in Hong Kong waiting for our flight to Ho Chi Minh City. We will be leaving in approx 1 1/2 hrs for our final destination.

We just wanted to let everyone know we are almost there.....we will post more when we arrive in Ho Chi Minh.

Leavin on a Jet Plane!

The travel arrangements have been made! We are leaving Friday, December 26th for Vietnam!
We will actually arrive in Ho Chi Minh City on Sunday the 28th. We will have a few days to adjust and get over our jet lag before it is time to meet and hold our son for the first time.

We will visit the orphanage and play with him for two or three days and then on the 6th we will actually pick him up from the orphanage and go straight to our GNR Ceremony where he will officially become our son(on paper). In our hearts he has already been our son.
We will make sure to update everyone on here every chance we get.....And post the much awaited pics of.....Us.... Finally..... with Ro in our arms!

WE ARE GOING TO VIETNAM!!

We received the e-mail this morning straight from Hanoi........
I had a strange feeling and checked my e-mail last night before I went to bed......Nothing...
Then I checked again this morning and there it was! Those wonderful words!!

Dear Mr./ Mrs. Razavi:
Greetings from the Hanoi Adoptions Unit at US Embassy Hanoi.
You are now authorized to travel to Vietnam to complete the adoption of Ro Van Nguyen.

We will know within a day or two exactly when we will be traveling and when our GNR ceremony is. My guess is we will be spending New Years in Vietnam!! What a way to start the year.....As a family.....

Thank you to everyone for all your love and support! We would not have been able to get through the last 1 1/2 yrs without it!

Officially waiting for Pre- Approval

We received notification that the Consulate received the DNA Test results on Monday 12/8/08. After receiving this great news, our program director sent a request to the Consulate to receive our Visa pre-approvals.
Hopefully within a week this will all transpire. Then we will be able to start making our travel arrangements.
During this time we have to send our passports off to be stamped for our visas (nerve-wrecking) and we will also receive our GNR Date (Giving & Receiving Ceremony where it all becomes official).
We will have to be in Vietnam 3 days prior to our G&R date.

We will keep you all posted as we hear more...........

The DNA Results are in!

We received an update yesterday that the Lab (in U.S.) had completed and sent the test results via FEDEX to the Consulate in Vietnam. Now we are just waiting for the Consulate to receive the results then our agency will request our pre-approval for travel.

Getting Closer!!!

DNA Testing

We were notified the end of October that DNA Testing was going to be required in order to establish the relationship between birth mom and prospective adoptive child. Just one more road block in our whole adoption process.

On November 21st we were notified that the DNA Testing was completed. We now wait for the results to be sent back to the Consulate......and then ultimately our pre-approval for travel.

We are certainly hoping that this is going to be a Christmas to remember forever!

Waiting For I-600 Pre-Approval

Here we are.....after a year and a half of paperwork and .....waaaiting....We are FINALLY in our last step of our adoption process. Right now we are currently waiting for our I-600 pre-approval from the consulate in Vietnam. As soon as we receive this e-mail we can start making our travel arrangements to start our journey to meet Lil Ro and bring him home and start sharing our lives together...as a family.

Please stay tuned for further updates. Once we get the word that it is time to travel we will start posting so that we are able to share our journey to Vietnam and into the arms of our son!