Chinese Zodiac Quilt

Well, I've bought all the fabric I need for the sashing, border, and backing of the quilt. Now it's time to sew it. I just love all the squares that I received from my 100 Good Wishes Quilt Group. My mom is going to help me sew it all together. Wish us luck! Neither of us has ever sewn a quilt before... This quilt is going to be her carry around quilt. Later, I'll be working on her twin-sized one. Gotta start one at a time...

We may have a long wait, but at least we don't have to deal with this...

Vietnam to halt American adoptions after damning US report
By Chris Brummitt, Associated Press Writer

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — Vietnam, where growing numbers of Americans have turned to adopt a baby, announced Monday it would stop processing new adoption applications from U.S. citizens from July following allegations of baby-selling, corruption and fraud.

The abrupt cutoff cast a cloud of uncertainty over pending adoptions in the Southeast Asian country, which have surged in the face of tightened restrictions in China, Guatemala and elsewhere.

The announcement came days after The Associated Press published details of a U.S. Embassy report that outlined rampant abuses, including hospitals selling infants whose mothers could not pay their bills, brokers scouring villages for babies and a grandmother who gave away her grandchild without telling the child's mother.

"It is tragic for children that the U.S. government has not been able to find ways to work with the Vietnamese government to prevent adoption abuses while at the same time processing legitimate adoptions," said Tom Atwood, president of the Washington-based National Council for Adoption, a research and advocacy organization.

"Many hundreds, perhaps thousands, of children will not have families as a result of this failure of leadership."

U.S. adoptions have boomed in Vietnam, with Americans — including actress Angelina Jolie — adopting more than 1,200 Vietnamese children over the 18 months ending in March. In 2007, adoptions quadrupled from a year earlier.

In its nine-page report, the U.S. Embassy said some American adoption agencies paid orphanage officials as much as $10,000 per referral, while others took them on shopping sprees and junkets to the United States in return for a flow of babies.

It said questions arose after routine investigations turned up widespread inconsistencies in adoption paperwork. There was also a suspicious surge in the number of babies listed as abandoned, making it impossible to confirm the children were genuine orphans or that their parents had knowingly put them up for adoption, as required by U.S. law.

Vu Duc Long, director of Vietnam's International Adoption Agency, called the U.S. allegations "groundless." On Monday, he said Vietnam was scrapping a bilateral agreement with the United States that sought to regulate the adoption system.

"They (the Americans) can say whatever they want, but we are not going to renew it," Long said.

In a letter to the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi, Vietnam said it would stop taking adoption applications from American families after July 1. Adoption arrangements with other countries were unaffected.

The State Department said Vietnam's government would allow adoptions to be completed in pending cases where prospective parents had been matched with a child and received an official referral before Sept. 1.

After that date, it said any dossier that had not received a referral will be closed and returned to the adoption agency. It said given the time it takes to process a claim, any adoption initiated now would be unsuccessful.

The U.S. Embassy said it respected Hanoi's decision, but was confident of the accuracy of the report.

"The government of Vietnam has made their own decision, but we believe that our report speaks for itself," said spokeswoman Angela Aggeler.

It was not immediately clear how many U.S. couples were affected by the decision.

Linda Brownlee, executive director of a Washington-based international adoption agency, said the decision would mean that 20 families on its waiting list who will not be able to be matched with children in time.

"Now their dossiers will be returned to them," said Brownlee of The Adoption Center, one of more than 40 U.S. agencies that arrange adoptions of Vietnamese children.

She said the embassy report did not cover positive aspects of adoptions in the country.

"They didn't say how many visas they had approved with no problem," she said. "I know many agencies who have done great work there and that doesn't get reported."

Keith Wallace, CEO of Families Thru International Adoption, agreed. "The (abuse) cases reported by the embassy ... are such a very small fraction" of U.S. adoptions in Vietnam, he said. "It is wrong to imply that Vietnamese adoptions are corrupt through and through."

Vietnam suspended all adoptions with foreign countries in 2003 over concerns about corruption. U.S. adoptions resumed in 2005 under a bilateral agreement intended to ensure they were above board. It was due for renewal on Sept. 1.

Vietnam is only the latest country where U.S. adoptions have been halted or severely restricted.

Suspected fraud and other irregularities have cast a cloud over the nearly 3,000 pending U.S. adoptions from Guatemala, the second-largest source of U.S. adopted children after China. Under State Department pressure, Guatemala is allowing those to go through, but would-be parents were warned last year not to initiate new adoptions.

By contrast, adoptions from Ethiopia are on the increase, growing 71 percent to 1,255 last year. "Ethiopia has become a country where, because of the transparency of the system, many are adopting," said Wallace.

In the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, American adoptive parents have become a common sight in the city's hotels.

On Monday, J.B. Sikes, of Anselmo, Neb., cradled his newly adopted son Binyam.

"It was my desire that my family represent what the Kingdom of God looks like, and that's all different colors," the 39-year-old corn farmer said.

Adopting in Ethiopia, which cost about $30,000, was less expensive and restrictive than in the United States, said Sikes, who has two other biological children.

"We started out wanting to adopt domestically, but we found we were the last one on everyone's list, because we have other children," he said.

They may look cute, but...

This little rabbit and his many little furry friends had a harsh winter (and I'd like to make them suffer further...). When the snow finally melted, I was amazed to find much of our landscaping destroyed. They had eaten around the bark of some of my bushes and plants - which I was told by our neighborhood garden shop - are not going to make it due to the extensive damage. I spent about 5 hours yesterday cleaning up and have at least that to go. Next, I am going to have to figure out what to replace the damaged goods with. NOT FUN!! Today was another round of gardening and still more to go...

Here is the little critter and the damage that he/they did...
As Elmer Fudd once said to Bugs Bunny: "kill the rabbit... kill the rabbit..."

Her first Chinese Dress

A HUGE Thank You to Heather and Dustin for bringing us back this dress for our daughter from China. It is so beautiful. I can't wait to see her in it!

Proud Cousin

My cousin and his wife just had a new baby boy - their second boy. I just went to see him the other day and he is just too cute. Here he is at a lovely 8 days old.

Please, No More Rain!

Well, we had over 2 inches of non-stop rain yesterday and more on the way today and tomorrow. Tonight, the rain may turn to snow. We'll have to wait and see. YUCK!! Robert took this photo this morning of the flood plane behind our house. We even had ducks swimming by... I think they enjoyed it more than we did. Let's pray for a dry basement!

Only 5 days worth of matches this month

Well, as usual, it's my monthly bad news post... only 5 days worth of referrals were matched this month. The CCAA has matched families with Log-In dates of January 5 - 9, 2006. I don't think anything else needs to be said. BUMMER!!

We have 186 days worth of matches to go. If you do the math (which I don't want to) we have way too many more months to go.

Journey to our Daughter

Well, since our wait seems to be ever extending, I've found myself to be waxing more poetic these days. Today I just sat down and wrote this poem. You may want to have some Kleenex handy...

Journey to our Daughter

Our journey began with doctors.
Infertility - they tried to figure out why.
I would never have my own child,
I felt like I would die.

But then I heard a whisper
That was oh so far away.
Will my husband hear it?
Would we decide today?

Our journey didn’t end here.
We still had much to learn.
We wanted to be a family
And for this, we would yearn.

But then we heard that whisper
That was oh so far away.
Our child is out there somewhere.
We’re waiting for that day.

Our journey continues further
To find out where to go.
We discussed our many options -
China is how our family would grow.

Our journey isn’t over -
We’ve been waiting for over a year.
Our daughter is still out there.
Her cries we still can’t hear.

But then we heard that whisper
That was oh so far away.
Our child is out there somewhere.
We’re waiting for that day.

Our journey will take us to our daughter.
We’ll look into her eyes.
We’ll finally be a family.
I think we’re going to cry.

Snowy Update!

Well, it's official ... we broke the 100" mark for snow for the year. We are now officially at 100.4" of snow and more on the way on Wednesday evening through Friday. When will it end?!

Last night's snowfall were the big sticky flakes - looks beautiful, but makes for near white-out conditions. This is a picture Robert took off our back porch.

What happened to Spring??

Happy Spring everyone! We thought we'd do it a bit different in Wisconsin - i.e. about 10 inches of snow are expected for today! Yes, snow..... I thought Spring meant pastel colors and tulips and daffodils, but I was wrong! We've already broken the record snowfall amounts for the year, so I guess someone wants to make sure that this record is REALLY going last for a very long time!

I took this photo this morning, so we actually have even more snow than what's shown. What's scary is that we were first beginning to see some grass on our lawn and now it's gone again! One of these days...


So, while we're freezing our tootsies off, my parents left this morning for Costa Rica. Now why couldn't I have joined them?!