Introducing Jaidyn Oanh Bolton

Hey everyone, the internet has been down the past day or so here so I haven't been able to post the most important post of them all. Wednesday morning we loaded up in van for the province of Phu Tho. We went to a government building that was basically like a ghost town, went to a room where they had a large sign and the babies waiting for us. We then signed a few papers and somewhere in there the official declared the babies ours. A couple of us gave a short speech and then the official decided we had run out of time and congratulated us. So Jaidyn is now officially ours! She's adjusting really well to us. She's generally really happy, is a SOUND sleeper, and hasn't seemed to have any problem taking to Heather and I at all. We're doing all the fun new parent things of trying to figure out how much formula to give her, figuring out the tricks to make her drink enough, and lots more. Heather has lots of experience with babies and kids anyway so it hasn't been too bad. We think Jaidyn's going to be a daddy's girl though. She likes hanging out with me. I don't think she's seen and played with many men, so maybe I'm just an entertaining side show. Regardless it's fun anyway. :)

Anyways, next step is to start getting her a US Passport and Visa to enter the United States. Thank you all so much for all your prayers and support. Your prayers have been heard, even if it didn't come as soon as we'd hoped, we're thankful to God and trust his timing was and is still good.

Here's some pictures from a fun first day. Woo hoo!

Ceremony tomorrow...

Earlier today we found out that the ceremony is definitely going to be tomorrow (Wednesday). We will be leaving to Phu Tho at 8:45 tomorrow morning to have the ceremony. It's about a 2 and half hour drive out there. Anyways, so we'll let you guys know how it goes!

Woo Hoo!

Bump in the road gone.

So another family, Heather and I got into a taxi and went to the french hospital this morning to go for the new checkup that the province needed. We had talked about just getting an updated document from our doctor, but then it would have to be translated into Vietnamese and then notarized, which would take another two days.

So we went and found out the obvious, were both perfectly healthy and can raise a baby.

Fortunately the hospital had someone there who could translate the documents and we were able to fax the documents to the province by 11:30. There's still a chance the ceremony could happen this afternoon, but we'll see. God showed up to move this hurdle.

Thanks for your prayers, hopefully my next post will be pictures of our ceremony.

Bump in the road...

Ok, so we're in our hotel room and get a phone call from our contact asking if we have a copy of a current medical report (which was in our dossier). We don't have an extra copy, which turns out not to be the issue. Our contact comes to the room to talk to us and says that the province would like to see a medical report that is more up to date. The one we submitted is 11 months old. The strange irony of it is that it would have been fine had we have traveled back in March or April back when we were supposed to.

Anyways, the fix is that we get to make a trip to the French Hospital tomorrow morning and go for a physical exam. We're both really excited about that (feel the sarcasm). We're hoping it doesn't delay the ceremony date, but have a feeling it will :-/

One of the other families who have been in the same boat have to go too.

We're both really frustrated. Your prayers are still needed more than ever.

More pictures of Vietnam culture

Hey everyone,

I've taken quite a few pictures so far and I've uploaded several to my flickr account.

You can view a bunch here.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vervecreations/sets/72157600005404869/

Meeting Jaidyn

Well, we just got back from Phu Tho about an hour ago. We finally to got to meet Jaidyn and she's beautiful. We got to the orphanage this afternoon, but had to wait a few minutes. There was a doctor there giving monthly check-ups to the kids. Once they were done they brought all the parents their babies to see and play with. Jaidyn was kind of unsure of it all and chose to quietly take it all in, then she fell asleep on Heather the rest of the time. She had a long afternoon. We ended up getting to spend around 30-45 minutes with her. The giving-receiving ceremony may or may not be tomorrow. It's just dependent on a couple of factors, but it should for sure be happening within the next few days.

Anyways, here's some photos from the afternoon. Enjoy!

Couple of pics

Ok, thought I'd give you everyone a few scenic pics from the first day


From our hotel window. Pretty isn't it.


Structure from Thong Nhat Park just down the road from our hotel.


Same park by the lake.


Bridge in the park.


We'll post more later. We get to visit the orphange this afternoon. One of the other families put it well, feels like getting ready to meet a celebrity.