The Razavi Family

Ro Turns 6!!!

2009-02-28T20:22:00.000-08:00

Believe it or not....we have already celebrated a Birthday!! On February 19th our Lil Man turned a big 6!!! He enjoyed us singing and blowing out the candles so much that we had to re-light the candles and do it all over a second time. :) :)

He received the "Special" hat and button that he is wearing, at school. It was hard to tell him the next day that he could not wear it again.....he was ready for an encore! Hee :)

This was truly a special day for all of us! So happy we did not have to miss any more birthdays!

Ro's First day of Kindergarten

2009-02-11T20:11:00.000-08:00

Ro's first day of Kindergarten went GREAT!!!
He got a little upset when he realized we were leaving...but we hung out in the hallway and he stopped crying just as fast as he started.

His counselor did not make any plans for the day so that she could sit and devote her whole morning to Ro and make sure that he was adjusting OK.
Yesterday (over the phone) I had given her a few key words in Vietnamese that I thought might be helpful for her and Ro's teacher to know.
Upon our arrival this morning in the main office....we noticed that the whole office had typed cheat sheets to talk to Ro and help him out. The teacher even taught the whole class how to say "It's OK" to Ro if they noticed he was distressed in any way.

We received a call mid morning letting us know how well he was doing. We were also told that there were two little girls in the class that stood by Ro and Miss Tila ready and willing to help in any way ...... Too cute!

The teacher also indicated that Ro was helping her with picking up and making sure his area was clean. :) She said he is quite a little helper.

Ro loved the songs when they were singing in the classroom.....he just lit up during this part of the day ......
He really seems to love music and singing (especially in the car). :) :)

The whole school did such a wonderful job preparing for Ro to start. They were so attentive to him and all his needs.
This certainly made today so much easier for Mom and Dad... :)

Guess who is a U.S. Citizen????

2009-02-08T09:35:00.000-08:00

Yup! You guessed it!! RO!!!!!!!

Yesterday in the mail we received Ro's Certificate of Citizenship!! Yeah!!

Ro has also been enrolled in Kindergarten and as soon as his school receives his immunization records from his pediatrician then he will start half day am classes.
Ro also got to tour his classroom and meet his teacher. He seemed very inquisitive of everything going on in the room...so that is a good sign.
We have also been trying to tell him in Vietnamese that he is starting school soon and he just points to himself (as if to ask... ME?) and when we say "Yes" then he starts to smile and nods his head YES.
Believe it or not....there is even another little boy from Vietnam that will be in his am class.I am not aware of the little boys background but the teacher just seemed to be very excited and she thinks the boys will benefit from eachother wonderfully.

Ro is doing really well. Friday was a great day...Ro said two sentences to us "I want to eat" and then later that evening said "I want to sleep". he had never said any of this before...only did sign language prior to this. So when he said this to us we were like... "What did you just say?" and then he would say it again. :) :)
Very...Very cute!

We are slowly but surely visiting all of our family and friends and coworkers and he is doing really well with meeting new people. He does not seem afraid at all...just happy and content. He tests the limits sometimes...but that is to be expected.

I hope everyone is doing well and we will continue to post more in the days to come.

Post to you later! :)

FINALLY.......AN UPDATE!!!!!!!!

2009-02-01T08:00:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone!!! Or the couple people that might still be logging on here periodically to see if I finally posted any pictures or updates....Well its about time....but better late than never. :)

We are home (as I am sure that you expected) and Ro is adjusting wonderfully. Way better than we ever anticipated. He is already understanding so much. He was afraid of Jada (our pomeranian) when we first got home....but that continues to get better as the days go on as well.

Since we have been home Ro has already experienced his first snow. He LOVED it and LOVED going sledding for the first time. He would sit at the top of the hill and count.... 1....2...3..... and then Chris would push him down to the bottom where Jada and I would be waiting for him. :)

I have posted a little slideshow below of some of the pics we have taken since we have been home. I hope you enjoy....we really have.... :)
I will continue to post now that we are home and getting more and more settled.
We have had quite a few requests to keep this going so as long as everyone is interested we will keep updating.

It is so nice to know that so many people from all over the country are following this and want to know how our Lil guy is adjusting.

Our family is complete and we are happy as can be...... :)

Enjoy the pics and we will keep them coming!!

2009-01-31T10:45:00.001-08:00

WE ARE COMING HOME!!!!

2009-01-12T16:07:00.000-08:00

Monday we had our Exit Interview at 2:00 and we received Ro's Visa by 5:00!!!!! We are finished now and we are coming home!!! The earliest they could get us on a flight was Wednesday morning.......That means with the time difference we should be arriving home Wednesday night around 11:00 pm

We can not believe we are actually going to be coming home. We are so excited. We were so happy when we finally had the last of all Ro's paperwork in our hot little hands....such a wonderful feeling.

Thank you to everone for all your love and support along the way. We really can not express how much it has meant to us. It also made us feel much closer to home when we got to log on in the evenings and read everyones posts.

WE ARE BRINGING OUR LITTLE MAN HOME!!!! :) :)

Water Puppet Show- Hanoi

2009-01-11T06:12:00.000-08:00

Trip to the Zoo

2009-01-10T20:28:00.000-08:00

Hello from Hanoi

2009-01-10T17:06:00.000-08:00

Below you will find some pics from our Saturday afternoon in Hanoi. We spent Saturday afternoon walking around Hoan Kiem Lake and just enjoying the scenery. Ro enjoyed a little ice cream as we walked....
It is alot colder in Hanoi due to the fact that we are much farther North now. We were not prepared for it to be as chilly as it really is....But it was a welcome change from the heat and humidity that we experienced in the other provinces.

We found out yesterday that we for sure have our exit interview to complete Ro's Visa on Monday. We will either have the visa in hand Monday late afternoon or Tuesday morning. Once we have the Visa we will then call and change our flights to start our journey home to see/ meet everyone.

Enjoy the pics and we will try to get more posted from our trip to the zoo on Friday in Ho Chi Minh before we departed for Hanoi.

Hope everyone is doing well!!! We will post more later!!

Hoan Kiem Lake- Hanoi

2009-01-10T17:03:00.000-08:00

Last leg of our Journey

2009-01-08T01:00:00.000-08:00

Yesterday at Ro's medical exam (medical visa for approval to travel) they indicated that he needed to have some blood drawn....This was HORRIBLE!! The little guy looked at me like "You are not going to let them do this to me....Are you??!!"
Then when they started to draw the blood he yanked his little arm away....causing lots of bleeding. He was crying and screaming and my new mommy heart was breaking.:(

He made it through this and came out like a champ. He is something else. I think everyday we get to know more about him and his personality the more we are amazed.

It is like monkey see, monkey do with Chris and Ro. It is so funny to watch.
Chris puts on his hat....Ro puts on his hat...
Chris takes off his hat to fan himself when he is hot and Ro has to also take his hat off.
When we are in a restaurant or area where it is appropriate to take your hat off...Ro will take his hat off and point to Chris' to remind him he must do the same.

He is such a little gentleman. The other morning he was washing a dish in the sink after he used it. This is what I mean by amazing us.......The little things that we can't believe he knows to do already.

Yesterday we completed and Received Ro's passport and tomorrow we head for Hanoi to complete the last leg of this journey. We are hoping by Monday everything will be complete for us to start working on our flight arrangements and start heading home. We are looking so forward to getting back and work on getting Ro all settled in to life at home. We have already bonded so much that it is hard for us to even imagine life without him already.

Its official!!! We are parents!!!

2009-01-06T00:53:00.000-08:00

This was part of our ceremony today. Handing over Ro's official documents.

Signing the many documents today at the ceremony. We are so very happy !!!

This was at our G&R Ceremony today when they were officially handing Ro over to us and we officially became his parents.(Camera is still around his neck). :)

There is now another member of the Razavi/Bauer family!!!!!!!

This is our Lil Official photographer for Rolling Stone Magazine! :)

Professional Photgrapher in the making...........

Blowing Kisses good-bye after our first visit

So happy to finally meet our Lil Guy!! Still in shock that we are finally here!!!!

Working on putting the puzzles together

A picture is worth a thousand words!!!

We Finally are getting some pics posted as promised. Today it became official and we are proud parents of a 5 yr old little boy! Ro is already our pride and joy and we would have went around the world a million times to have a chance just to meet him. After our ceremony we had a 4 hr car ride back to Ho Ch Minh City. He did wonderfully the whole time. We stopped along the way and had some lunch. This was our first meal together as a family.....It was the best ever!

Tomorrow I go with three other new mommies and go visit the doctor for a check up. Chris goes with the other fathers to work on Ro's passport and get our tickets to Hanoi to complete the last leg of our journey.

We will try to post more later and get some more pics. Did not have much time but wanted to get something out here for everyone to see.

Thank you so much for all of your love and support. We love you all!!! We will let you know when we will be returning home!

Our Second Visit with our Lil Ro......

2009-01-04T23:13:00.000-08:00

Today we went to visit Ro again......and it went even better than the first visit. When we walked in he looked excited and happy to see us. He was still in his bed as were all the other children (9:00 am). When we went over to his bed we noticed that his favorite cars and puzzles were in his bed with him. He must have wanted to keep them right by him.

We stayed with him by his bed for a little bit and then he grabbed his toys and brought them to the floor so that we could all play together. I was taking some pics of him playing then handed him the camera to take a picture.....we showed him how and he quickly became an instant professional photographer. He hung the case around his neck and we wrapped the camera strap around his arm and he went to town snapping shots of everyone and everything in site (all while he was wearing my sunglasses, so cute). He was laughing and running around and showing everyone all the pictures he had taken. I think he forgot all about the puzzles....... Hee :)

He let us hold him alot.....he laid in our laps.......he wanted to give us rides on his toy scooter.....and when they set up the table for lunch he patted the seats next to him for us to sit down and join him. I don't think it gets a whole lot better than that. Especially for only our second time meeting him.

He is so sweet and soft spoken...but yet he also definately lets you know what he wants and doesn't want. I do not think there will be much guess work involved in that..... :)

When they were sitting down for lunch together (The caretakers and older children) this was when we decided it would be a good time to say our good-byes until tomorrow.

Tomorrow morning we will leave @ 6:30 am for the center and pick up Ro. Then we will head to our ceremony where he will officially become our son. After the ceremony he will leave with us and officially become part of our Razavi family.

We are so happy and feel so blessed....It is too hard to even put into words.....

We will keep posting for the remainder of our trip. The following days will just be loaded with appointments getting all Ro's paperwork together for his journey home.

We love getting on here and seeing everyones posts......Thank you so much for sharing in this joyous time with us!

Love you all!! We will post again soon...... :)

We FINALLY met our son....and it was so special...

2009-01-03T22:32:00.000-08:00

We finally got to meet Ro and it was so wonderful to hold him in our arms! The first meeting went way better than we ever anticipated! When we first arrived and walked in within a couple of seconds he came around the corner to greet us. He is such a little thing....so much smaller than he looks in all the pictures that we have seen. And if it is even possible he is even sweeter in person.
When he came out to meet us he was very shy and reserved. He came up to both Chris and me and said "hello" and gave us both a kiss on each side of our faces. Then we decided to pass out all the treats and toys that were being donated so that all the children could play. This broke the tension and you could tell he felt a little more at ease.
I also want to take the time to let all of you that donated little toys/ books/ and puzzles to the orphanage how much they LOVED everything. Thank you again so much!
Our Lil Ro in particular passed up all the toys and went straight for the soft sided puzzles. He sat there the whole time with Chris playing with these. Chris went through each of the three puzzles once with him and after that he almost had them memorized. Chris would tell him when to "turn" the pieces to fit and he understood. He would do all three puzzles and then do them all over again. He always wanted all three completed at the same time. He sat in my lap while he was working on the puzzles as well. He let me give him some of my drink through the straw and let me know when he wanted some more. He seemed to be very happy and content that this was all for him....and that this was HIS turn to get the attention. :)
After this, we picked him up and held him for a little while and we have an adorable pic of him kissing Chris' cheek....It was so precious. It was like he was really holding on and did not want Chris to let him go.
When it was time to leave he walked us to the door and we blew kisses and he was blowing us kisses back.
I really do not think this meeting could have gone any better and it really exceeded all of our expectations.

Unfortunately our laptop battery is dead and the adapters that they gave us at the hotel do dot work for the laptop....so we are unable to post pics at this time. It will probably be a couple of more days.

Tomorrow (Monday) we go back to the Vinh Long Center and have a second visit with Ro. Then on Tuesday we will pick him up and go straight to our official ceremony. Once the ceremony has been completed we will head back to Ho Chi Minh City. This is when we will probably have all the necessary resources we need to get the pics posted for all of you to see.

We will post again tomorrow after we have our second visit with Ro...... :)

Love you all!!!

Tomorrow is finally the day!

2009-01-02T05:08:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone!!

We are now back in Ho Chi Minh City. We arrived this afternoon. Tomorrow morning they are picking us up at 8:00 am and we are off to the Vinh Long Center to meet Ro for the first time!!
I can not believe the day has finally arrived!!

We are very excited and anxious. We were told today that he knows we are on our way.......
We will definately post as soon as we can and let everyone know how the big day went.
and of course......we will also try to post some much awaited pics for everyone.

We are so happy that you are all following our journey with us.......
Thank you for all the well wishes....we appreciate all your love and support. This means the world to us.

Stay tuned.....we will post more as soon as we are able to tomorrow!

New Years Eve in Danang

2008-12-30T11:08:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-28T10:31:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-27T15:35:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-12-19T06:25:00.000-08:00

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!!

2008-12-16T07:06:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-09T10:25:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-12-05T12:52:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-25T16:59:00.000-08:00

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

2008-09-14T17:19:00.000-07:00

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!