Three guesses...

I'll give you three guesses as to who wrote the online "Local yokel" responses to our recent letter to the editor. You know it wasn't an impartial, third party. No ordinary citizen loves the government that much and gets so personal and passionate about defending government officials. And whoever it was, they didn't even have the "balls" to sign it. Pretty pathetic. Pay attention to the first line of the person's response. Unless it's someone involved in the situation, or very close to them, how did this person know the form was unfamiliar to them? Having concern about something doesn't indicate unfamiliarity. This is obviously a coward who ignores any facts presented and just wants to make personal attacks.

5/28/08 Another hint. In today's response, Local yokel states, "First, I am NOT a local, state, or national elected or appointed official." It just so happens that the director and lawyer are both appointed positions, not elected. Once again, unless this is someone directly involved or close to them, why did they make a point of indicating they are not an "appointed" official? Your average, everyday citizen out there isn't going to even think about the difference or that these two men are appointed, so they wouldn't have included "appointed" in their response.

Check it out. Just click the link below and scroll down past the box where you can leave a comment. Then click on the "View All Comments" link. And don't hesitate to leave a supportive comment if you'd like.

http://www.emissourian.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19707425&brd=1409&pag=461&dept_id=544418

Thanks Bethany for your support.

New photos of Sarah looking at the photo album we sent her.

We received photos today of Sarah looking through the photo album we sent her with photos of her new family.

A Child's Right Campaign for Vietnam

The Joint Council On International Children's Services placed information on their website yesterday with details on their campaign to urge the Department of State to sign a new agreement with Vietnam before the old MOA expires September 1st.

Go to the JCICS website, http://www.jcics.org/Vietnam.htm , for more information on what you can do to help. We need everyone possible to contact their members of Congress and urge them to join the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Co-Chairs and sign their letter to Secretary Condoleezza Rice in support of the recommendations found in "A Child’s Right Campaign for Vietnam.”

The attorneys are sticking together.

Apparently, at least one local attorney didn't care for the recent article about us in the paper criticizing the county counselor.

The following is from the May 17-18, 2008, weekend edition of the Washington Missourian.

Defends Franklin County Counselor

To the Editor:
I read the article in the edition of May 10 with regard to the couple who complained of "ineptitude" on the part of the county counselor. Apparently he had doubts about the procedure to be followed which caused a delay in their adoption.

As anyone who has ever had a case against the county counselor knows, he is meticulous and detailed-minded in protecting the interests of his clients. That is what he is supposed to do. The fact that he may have had reservations about a procedure which delayed people getting what they wanted to have happen right now, does not mean that he was inept. On the contrary, he is an extremely capable, effective lawyer. I cannot sit still and hear his professional ability questioned over a matter like this.

Joseph Aubuchon
Attorney at Law

Here's the letter online: http://www.emissourian.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19701880&BRD=1409&PAG=461&dept_id=544418&rfi=6


Wow, what do you expect from a lawyer? He tries to deflect the attention away from his buddy and makes it sound like we simply weren't "getting what they wanted to have happen right now". As if we were just being impatient and had no reason at all to be upset, since Mr. Vincent simply had "doubts about the procedure".

No, Mr. Aubuchon, actually Mr. Vincent was overstepping his bounds and making a decision that wasn't his to make. There's a huge difference between having doubts about something that is within the scope of your powers as an attorney for a local county and having doubts about something that falls under the authority of the Federal Government.

Here's the letter I will submit in response to Mr. Aubuchon's letter.

To the Editor:

In response to a recent letter to the editor regarding the “ineptitude” of the county counselor, we would agree that a fellow attorney has every right to stick up for the counselor and his meticulousness and detailed-mindedness. But when you have absolutely no facts regarding the details of the case, it is unwarranted to state we were delayed in “getting what they wanted to have happen right now”.

We never asked for our paperwork to be completed immediately. We waited five days before we made our first phone call to the health dept. to check on the progress. We have been in contact with multiple families in different states, whose local health dept. completed this same paperwork in as little as an hour, and at most, in one to two days. Yet it took Franklin County two weeks to complete it.

The paperwork in question doesn’t require an attorney to review it. It simply required the director to verify our doctor. And our view of his “ineptitude” was not based on the time frame, but rather, the fact that the county’s role was not to determine if our daughter is eligible to apply for her waiver. That is the role of the Federal Government. Yet the county counselor delayed our paperwork because he questioned our daughter’s eligibility, and therefore, greatly overstepped his bounds by taking over the role of the Federal Government. Therefore, we cannot sit still and possibly allow another family to be treated like we were by a county attorney who feels he can make decisions for the Federal Government.
_________________________________________________________

Isn't it a shame that 99% of lawyers give the other 1% a bad name?







What is the oldest profession?

A physician, an engineer, and an attorney were discussing who among them belonged to the oldest of the three professions represented. The physician said, "Remember, on the sixth day God took a rib from Adam and fashioned Eve, making him the first surgeon. Therefore, medicine is the oldest profession." The engineer replied, "But, before that, God created the heavens and earth from chaos and confusion, and thus he was the first engineer. Therefore, engineering is an older profession than medicine." Then, the lawyer spoke up. "Yes," he said, "But who do you think created all of the chaos and confusion?"


Q: What's wrong with lawyer jokes?
A: Lawyers don't think they're funny and other people don't think they're jokes.

Our dossier has been logged in with the DIA.

We received an email yesterday informing us that our dossier had been logged in with the Dept. of International Adoption (DIA) in Hanoi on Monday, May 12. The next day, the DIA sent a letter to the local justice department asking them to prepare Sarah's paperwork. Then the local justice department will send a letter to the orphanage asking them to prepare Sarah's paperwork. So things are moving along.

The Papins posted their video with Sarah.

The Papin family posted a link to a video on Callahan's Chronicle showing Sarah several different times. We still haven't received photos of her looking at the photo album we sent her and we haven't heard that our dossier is logged in yet, so it was nice to get to see this video. Many thanks to the Papin family again for getting video of several families' children and posting it.

http://web.mac.com/jpapin/iWeb/Site/Blog/Blog.html

Newspaper prints article about our dealings with the health department.

We had written a letter to the editor about our recent trouble with the Franklin Co. Health Dept. and rather than running it as a letter to the editor, they incorporated it into a news article. Here's a link to the article.

http://www.emissourian.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19676874&BRD=1409&PAG=461&dept_id=33071&rfi=6

5/10/08 - The online version is the same as it appears in the Union print version of the Missourian and it's on page 3. This morning I spoke to my mother, who lives in Washington, and her version has it on the front page, below the fold, with the headline: County Officials Come Under Fire. I like that headline. ;-)


Here's an earlier blog post where I posted the entire letter I sent to the newspaper:

http://truongni.blogspot.com/2008/04/letter-to-editor.html

It gives the entire timeline of what we went through to get our paperwork completed by the director. The article is great but it doesn't give you the full story of our difficulties with these guys. The letter puts things in context as to why we were so upset.