A special gift for Sarah from her brother.

Sarah's big brother took a trip to Build-A-Bear today and made a special bear that he will give Sarah when we finally travel to Vietnam. When you build your own bear, they usually have the "builder" place a heart inside, but when Isaac told them about Sarah, they let mom and Isaac each place a heart inside Sarah's bear, making it a little more special. Isaac also built his own Harley Bear.

Movin' along again, hopefully.

Our agency's employee in Vietnam paid the required fee at the U.S. consulate today, so we are hoping things will move along. I've emailed the adoption unit again to verify they are going to start processing our paperwork, but I'm not holding my breath waiting for a reply since they didn't feel it was important to let us know our paperwork had been placed on hold in the first place.

DELAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Excuse me while I wrap my head in duct tape to prevent it from exploding. This is always a necessary requirement when I'm talking about the government.

When I made yesterday's post, I never imagined another government agency would give our local government a run for their money, but..... Especially this line, "A minute amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction that would normally take less than a second to take from four days to four years to complete."

I didn't think anyone could top the feelings I have for government inefficiency and bureaucrats but USCIS in Vietnam has managed to do it. The officer in charge over there told our agency's program director in July that they have no way of accepting payments any longer and a fee we have to pay could be paid at the US embassy during our VISA appointment.

I contacted our program director yesterday after another family received very quick approval of their I-600. I then emailed the U.S. adoption unit in Vietnam. They responded that since the fee wasn't paid, our paperwork had been put on hold.

Of course they didn't say when it was put on hold, they didn't say if they were ever going to notify us it had been put on hold so we could pay it, they simply said it was on hold until they receive the fee. So we are definitely looking at WEEKS more of waiting.

As Gina said a couple months ago, TODAY SUCKS!!!!!!


Late entry:
The day improved somewhat with the arrival of some new photos of Sarah. The little boy sneaking into the photo sure is a cutey.

Scientists discover new element.

My sister-in-law sent me an email today with the following information. I thought it was very appropriate because of the local government isodopes we have dealt with here in Franklin, Co., Missouri. If you're not familiar with our local isodopes, check out the links in the right column titled, "Article and letters about how Franklin County officials tried to block our adoption".


NEWSFLASH:

Research has led to the discovery of the heaviest element yet known to science. The new element, Governmentium (Gv), has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons, and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.

These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons. Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert; however, it can be detected, because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A minute amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction that would normally take less than a second to take from four days to four years to complete.

Governmentium has a normal half-life of 2-6 years. It does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places. In fact, Governmentium's mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganization will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes. This characteristic of moron promotion leads some scientists to believe that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach critical concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as critical morass.

When catalyzed with money, Governmentium becomes Administratium, an element that radiates just as much energy as Governmentium since it has half as many peons but twice as many morons.

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On a very happy note, another family with our agency who live about 50 miles from us and are adopting brothers from the same orphanage Sarah lives in, received their I-600 approval today. That means they will be traveling very soon. We are so happy for them and can't wait to eventually meet their sons. You can check out their blog in our list in the right column, Five in the Hive .

Garden shots.

I took some updated photos of the garden this evening. It's been a month since the last ones I posted. It always amazes me how fast plants grow, just like our children. We've been getting plenty of bell peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers and green beans from the garden. The corn is getting close to maturity and several cantaloupes will be ready soon. The pumpkins will be ready for Halloween.

If you check out the blog link on the right side under "Families Currently Traveling", River's parents should have arrived in Vietnam this evening, Friday morning in Vietnam. They will be holding River in their arms for the first time later in the day. He lives at the same orphanage as Sarah.

Thirty days and the plants are in.

It's been 30 working days since our I-600 was acknowledged by the USCIS and still no word on a travel date. We're all going to get our immunizations on Wednesday so we'll have that out of the way. Hopefully we'll hear something very soon.

I was able to get all the plants in the new bed yesterday afternoon, after getting the landscaping fabric down last weekend. Now I need to finish mulching and get the bricks in properly. Next spring I'll add some annuals to the bed and maybe some more perennials once I see how full all of these get.

Back from the beach!

Sarah is back and we received new photos today. :-)