tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-492242540982894909Fri, 17 Feb 2012 03:54:18 +0000This used to be Our Vietnam Adoption Journey, but since Vietnam closed to U.S. adoptions on September 1, 2008, a title change seemed appropriate.http://mikkolaadoption.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Christine)Blogger37125http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/OurVietnamAdoptionJourneyhttp://feedburner.google.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-492242540982894909.post-3885635406369058996Mon, 15 Jun 2009 19:03:00 +00002009-06-15T14:13:16.513-05:00Court was ratified this morning, and she is now officially ours!!! We travel mid-July. Will post more specific dates when we get our flight schedule. Unfortunately, I just found out we can't post a picture (or other identifying info) until we sign for physical custody at the orphanage, so you'll have to wait until the end of July for those. It's been 2 years, 8 months, 1 week, and 1 day sincehttp://mikkolaadoption.blogspot.com/2009/06/shes-ours.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christine)5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-492242540982894909.post-4115637449581338729Wed, 03 Jun 2009 06:06:00 +00002009-06-03T01:16:31.896-05:00Well, Monday was our court date to make us Baby Sister's legal parents, but due to widespread power outages in Ethiopia, they were unable to get the paperwork they needed from the Ministry of Women's Affairs. Therefore, they were unable to ratify a court decision. Court is postponed for 18 days.It stinks, but it could be worse. We weren't rejected... it's only 18 days (not a month or more as Ihttp://mikkolaadoption.blogspot.com/2009/06/no-baby-quite-yet.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christine)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-492242540982894909.post-7671445172434681056Mon, 18 May 2009 01:27:00 +00002009-05-17T22:02:50.887-05:00ETHIOPIAWe had to send in our reservation and fee for the orphanage guest house, and include our travel plans with it, so we finally decided where we want to travel within Ethiopia when we make the trip. We feel it is important to see more of the country than just the capitol city, and figure it may be a long, long time before we get another chance to go, so we should make the most of this trip.http://mikkolaadoption.blogspot.com/2009/05/gonder-and-lalibela-and-hanoi.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christine)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-492242540982894909.post-3229326420003040882Wed, 22 Apr 2009 17:53:00 +00002009-04-22T13:03:55.612-05:00We got our court date! It's June 1st, and if all goes well, that will be the day we are officially Baby Sister's family! We should get our travel dates within a few days of the court hearing -- travel usually happens 4-6 weeks after court.Now if it would just stop raining so I can get her room painted before she comes...http://mikkolaadoption.blogspot.com/2009/04/june-1st.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christine)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-492242540982894909.post-7690652803980514947Thu, 02 Apr 2009 01:39:00 +00002009-04-01T20:52:15.802-05:00I always like to get the bad news first, so here it is: turns out our wait to travel is longer than we thought. I talked to the program director at our agency today, and it seems like maybe we got an old set of papers or something, because the wait between referral acceptance and our day in court is more like 3 months. On average, people are traveling 4 months after referral acceptance to bringhttp://mikkolaadoption.blogspot.com/2009/04/good-news-and-bad-news.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christine)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-492242540982894909.post-1449591350185791336Wed, 01 Apr 2009 02:31:00 +00002009-03-31T21:53:05.664-05:00I've been searching the internet for Amharic language courses, Ethiopian radio stations, videos, travelogues, etc. (Man, I love the World Wide Web!) Thought I'd share this music video I dig. The song is Dire Dawa by Adib Kadir. According to the info with the YouTube video, this is sung in the Harar language.http://mikkolaadoption.blogspot.com/2009/03/culture.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christine)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-492242540982894909.post-2269226279729016788Sat, 21 Mar 2009 05:59:00 +00002009-03-21T01:47:59.625-05:001. Officially accept the referral. We did this on Wednesday March 11.2. Send the adoption agency our Referral Acceptance Form, final fees payment, and a photo of our family that will be sent to the baby and shown to her every day. Done Monday March 16.3. In Ethiopia, our dossier is prepared for court and registered with the Ethiopian government.4. Our child's paperwork is gathered and http://mikkolaadoption.blogspot.com/2009/03/what-happens-now.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christine)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-492242540982894909.post-4951596201601950183Wed, 11 Mar 2009 02:55:00 +00002009-03-10T23:56:12.410-05:00She is a beautiful baby girl about 6 months old! I am in complete shock. I was not expecting it to happen so soon. I spent the rest of the day yesterday after the call alternating between grinning and crying.The agency wasn't able to get ahold of me, so they called John and told him at work, and then he called me. It took me about 5 minutes to believe it was true. Then we sat on the phone http://mikkolaadoption.blogspot.com/2009/03/we-got-our-referral.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christine)5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-492242540982894909.post-3262014645824310502Fri, 05 Dec 2008 22:30:00 +00002008-12-05T17:34:45.836-06:00I just received notice that our dossier was sent to Ethiopia today! Oh, it has been a long time since I've let myself get this excited!! I am SOOOO doing the Happy Dance right now! :)According to the email from our agency, we are now "officially waiting to be matched." It's about a 6 month wait for a referral. My insides feel like all my Irish ancestors are doing a jig with me. :) **http://mikkolaadoption.blogspot.com/2008/12/doing-happy-dance.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christine)6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-492242540982894909.post-787948414958748920Thu, 04 Dec 2008 03:40:00 +00002008-12-03T22:07:28.452-06:00On Monday (two days ago) we got a postcard from the carrier service in Washington D.C. letting us know that our documents had gone through the authentication process and were being sent back to our agency. So we're another step closer to having our dossier sent overseas and starting The Big Wait for a referral. :)http://mikkolaadoption.blogspot.com/2008/12/waiting-to-wait.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christine)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-492242540982894909.post-6701577951379882683Wed, 19 Nov 2008 04:23:00 +00002008-11-18T22:41:11.742-06:00Last Saturday we got our Immigration approval in the mail. Whoohoo!!! So we planned to get all our documents notarized on Monday at John's office and then mail out the docs that needed state certification. Well, Sunday night we started thinking that the Secretary of State office was just up the road in Concord (50 minutes away) and since I had nothing else to do after J got out of school...So,http://mikkolaadoption.blogspot.com/2008/11/its-done.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christine)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-492242540982894909.post-9143053463727779960Thu, 30 Oct 2008 05:29:00 +00002008-10-30T01:59:10.724-05:00Name that tune! :)Today was some day. I went to the dentist because my jaw hurts so bad when I chew that I've been living on SlimFast, broth, and peanut butter on a spoon for two days. Anyone surprised that the cause is that I've been clenching my teeth for the last couple months? (It's not just the adoption stuff -- there's some other drama going on with people very close to me.) But the http://mikkolaadoption.blogspot.com/2008/10/gray-skies-are-gonna-clear-up.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christine)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-492242540982894909.post-5607376539253713870Sat, 18 Oct 2008 01:44:00 +00002008-10-17T21:54:58.200-05:00ETHIOPIAWell, here I was getting excited because I have everything ready to go, just waiting on the home study to send in our USCIS I-600A application. I checked in 10 days ago with the social worker who said it was sent to the placement agency on October 2nd for review, so I called the placement agency and the woman there said she had just emailed it back to our social worker. Whoohoo! I http://mikkolaadoption.blogspot.com/2008/10/i-shoulda-known.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christine)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-492242540982894909.post-7969090013374161518Tue, 16 Sep 2008 17:22:00 +00002008-09-16T13:42:39.225-05:00Hello, hello! It's been awhile, eh? So, so much has happened.I will begin with why I have been MIA for so long. I'm a fairly practical person, and I tend to accept change well, but this whole close down suddenly hit me much harder than I expected it to. I was feeling nothing good; it was pretty much down to bitterness, resentment, jealousy, and/or self-pity, with the intermittent relief of http://mikkolaadoption.blogspot.com/2008/09/were-baaaaaaack.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christine)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-492242540982894909.post-5778013407448779198Thu, 01 May 2008 02:09:00 +00002008-04-30T21:33:26.508-05:00Ok, so how badly does this suck right now? Oh, so, so badly! For those who haven't seen CNN or Yahoo News lately, Vietnam has announced that they will stop logging in dossiers from the U.S. on July 1 and anyone who does not have an official referral by Sept. 1 will have their dossier returned to them and will not be allowed to complete their adoption.Our dossier has been logged in since last http://mikkolaadoption.blogspot.com/2008/04/hold-your-breathe-no-wait-dont.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christine)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-492242540982894909.post-7898420290190804944Tue, 29 Jan 2008 06:30:00 +00002008-01-29T01:09:54.025-06:00The Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the U.S. and Vietnam allows U.S. citizens to adopt from Vietnam. There are provisions in the agreement that each country was required to meet, and unfortunately, not all have been met. This agreement is set to expire September 1, 2008, and the U.S. Department of State has indicated that they will not renew the agreement because of the commitments that http://mikkolaadoption.blogspot.com/2008/01/memorandum-of-agreement.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christine)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-492242540982894909.post-5083952215320098098Wed, 23 Jan 2008 22:15:00 +00002008-09-16T13:48:50.208-05:00Two more referrals were made last week, which means SEVEN families have received referrals in the month of January! I can't hardly believe it, after how slow (and non-existent for awhile) referrals were last year. February will likely be slower due to Tet celebrations (Feb. 6-11), but the coordinators expect referrals to continue to be steady in the coming months.Additional news from FTIA is http://mikkolaadoption.blogspot.com/2008/01/huge-month-for-ftia-vietnam.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christine)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-492242540982894909.post-7675846401648935450Thu, 10 Jan 2008 18:00:00 +00002008-09-16T13:50:17.192-05:00First, I've got some referral news. On January 2 FTIA Vietnam referred FOUR babies! Three boys and one girl! What a great start to the new year!Now, to the cute part: one of my fellow FTIA PAPs (Prospective Adoptive Parent) posted a link to a website with THE CUTEST little handmade dresses at unbelievable prices! I believe this is a fund raiser done by another adoptive parent, and she has http://mikkolaadoption.blogspot.com/2008/01/soooooooooo-cute.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christine)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-492242540982894909.post-6268202531739791407Sun, 16 Dec 2007 04:48:00 +00002007-12-15T22:55:20.085-06:00Hi all,Just a quick update. Another referral was made this week... a baby boy. According to our agency's weekly email, 7 families have received referrals and 10 more are waiting for the official referral notice from Vietnam. Things are finally moving! Due to some changes in the way paperwork is being processed by USCIS, the wait from referral to travel is longer now, but it should shorten thehttp://mikkolaadoption.blogspot.com/2007/12/referrals.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christine)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-492242540982894909.post-5748535913141021501Thu, 06 Dec 2007 05:17:00 +00002008-09-16T13:54:27.407-05:00Wow! I can't believe it's been over 2 months since I posted. It's been such a whirlwind. We've been living in a Residence Inn hotel for the past 7 weeks. Not exactly ideal when you have two wee ones. A case in point: E overflowed the two toilets 5 times in a 12 hour period that began around 11:30 p.m. early in our stay. John finally used rope left over from their Halloween cowboy costumes http://mikkolaadoption.blogspot.com/2007/12/our-new-home.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christine)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-492242540982894909.post-7189081042934113471Sat, 22 Sep 2007 06:54:00 +00002007-09-22T02:30:36.078-05:00Big happenings here in the Mikkola household! John accepted a new job today at Brookstone. He'll be working two more weeks at Sears Holdings, then have one week off, then he'll work for one week in a local Brookstone store before finally starting his new job at the Brookstone headquarters in Merrimack, New Hampshire. Yep, that's right! We're moving to New Hampshire! This all seemed to happenhttp://mikkolaadoption.blogspot.com/2007/09/news.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christine)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-492242540982894909.post-1614243244134740200Sat, 22 Sep 2007 05:24:00 +00002007-09-22T01:52:37.908-05:00Oh, I'm so bad. Kathryn tagged me about 6 weeks ago, and Andrea almost 3 weeks ago. I just haven't been on, but I'll do my Blogger Duty now. :)I've just been tagged by Kathryn!5 things I was doing 10 years ago:1. Unbeknownst to me, I was getting ready to meet my husband (John and I met on Nov. 8, 1997).2. I was working for a classic car insurance company.3. I had just moved into a townhouse I http://mikkolaadoption.blogspot.com/2007/09/tag-im-it-twice.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christine)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-492242540982894909.post-5814486214403364235Thu, 09 Aug 2007 08:04:00 +00002007-08-09T12:22:11.719-05:00Hey! I finally figured out how to add Subscription to our blog. That means if you sign up for it, you will receive an email whenever I add a new post. Nice, eh? On the right you'll see a green box that includes our family picture. Just below the green box is a blue one that says, "Subscribe to Our Vietnam Adoption Journey by Email." Click on that link and you'll be directed to a form from http://mikkolaadoption.blogspot.com/2007/08/subscribe.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christine)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-492242540982894909.post-7461021534373851155Thu, 26 Jul 2007 07:52:00 +00002008-12-09T22:36:31.180-06:00Well, well, the tide seems to be turning, at least a little. My police report made it to Rachel at FTIA this morning, just in time for her to hand carry it to Vietnam. I pleaded with the consulate in my cover letter to rush it out and mail it by Tuesday (they received it Monday), but I didn't really expect it to happen! So a big cosmic THANK YOU to the people at the consulate for helping me out http://mikkolaadoption.blogspot.com/2007/07/its-miracle.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Christine)2