No Molly YET?!

After being out for my dad's surgery yesterday, one of my little pumpkins ran up to meet me this morning and asked, "Mrs. Hines, was you gone 'cuz you was gonna get Molly?" No, I wish, Sweetie! Then, at lunch, another one of the kids noticed Mrs. Austin was gone (she's at a conference this weekend) and asked, "Mrs. Hines, where is Mrs. Austin? Did she go to get Molly for you?" So, Mrs. Austin, if could swing by Vietnam and pick Molly up for me that would be super! :-D

No, unfortunately there is no Molly yet. Still no word that our I600 has been filed, but I did hear that Vietnam has a holiday right now so maybe next week.

Dad update: Hopefully Dad will get moved to his own room tomorrow and I will FINALLY get to see him. So far, he's doing great! :-)

Surgery

Whew! Dad is FINALLY out of surgery. The surgery we expected to last 2 1/2 hours took almost 8. Then, the hospital staff brought us into a conference room. Of course we expected the worst, but he's doing well. It was a lot bigger job than the doctor expected due to his size, but he's recovering nicely now. Mom and I haven't eaten since VERY early this morning, so we're going to grab a bite to eat and hopefully Mom will get to see him soon. (Unfortunately, I have a nice little case of conjunctivitis and won't be able to see him for while.) Thank you guys SO much for all of your thoughts and prayers. Please continue to pray for Dad as he recovers.

Dad Update

Just wanted to let everyone know that my dad will be having bypass surgery tomorrow at 8AM so if you think about it in the morning, say a prayer for him.

Six Weeks

It's been six weeks since our referral and still no word on our I600 being filed. I'd be lying if I said that the current circumstances in Vietnam didn't add to my anxiety. It seems like things are getting more and more scary. There are news articles stating that Vietnam has said they will be ending adoptions July 1 in response to our government's press release last Friday. As of right now this is not official and we are waiting to hear more from our adoption agency. My heart breaks for all of the families--and especially the orphaned children-- whose futures are currently in limbo. It is a hard place to be, but we have to believe that God is in control.

These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.
--1 Peter 1:7 (NLT)

Sad News

All day today I've had kind of a sick feeling in my stomach about our adoption. I thought it was because I was so hoping to get our I600 receipt this week. But I think God was preparing me for what I was going to find out tonight. Adoptions between Vietnam and the United States will not continue after September 1, 2008. Since (God willing) we will be home long before September 1, this should not effect our adoption of Molly. However, this makes me very sad for the children currently waiting for families and the families currently waiting for children. One quote from the US Embassy website has given me hope that this will be a temporary situation:

"The United States is strongly committed to processing legitimate intercountry adoptions from Vietnam if possible. Our primary concern is to ensure that the children and families involved in the adoption process are protected from exploitation. The Government of Vietnam shares this concern. Both countries acknowledge that more needs to be done to address deficiencies in the current system."

My prayer is that those deficiencies will be addressed and that adoptions will resume at some point.

There have been several times through this year long adoption process when I've thought "what are we doing and why are we putting ourselves through this?" and I have to say that thought crossed my mind again tonight. All of the uncertainties are so scary and I get so tempted to throw in the towel. But one year ago, God called us to adopt and we chose to take a step of faith. Never did I expect the rollarcoaster ride we've been on, but I've learned a lot and God is still teaching me a lot--mostly about putting my hope in HIM. And on the other side of the world in Vietnam, there is a little girl who is waiting on us. THAT is the reason.

To read more, go to: http://vietnam.usembassy.gov/adoption_warning0408.html

Updates

First of all, we wanted to say thank you to everyone who has been thinking about and praying for my dad--he's really feeling much better. He got moved out of ICU last night and is now in his own room. He will be having double bypass surgery sometime next week. Right now the doctors want him to spend some time getting stronger. Saturday was really scary so we're all very thankful that he's doing so much better.

Also, today is Molly's 1/2 birthday! Our baby girl turned 6 months old today! I was hoping that I'd get our I600 receipt as a 1/2 birthday present for Molly, but no such luck today! Tomorrow will be 5 weeks since referral so we are smack in the middle of our 4-6 week estimated time frame for our I600 receipt--so hopefully very soon!

Long Day

I debated about whether or not to even post about my day because I would so much rather blog about happy things, but this is a good way to let everyone know what's going on and ask for prayer.

My dad had a massive heart attack this morning. He started having chest pains, called 911, was taken to CMC-Union, and then flown to CMC in Charlotte. His heart actually stopped three times through all of this. He's currently in the ICU at Carolina Heart Institute at CMC. He will be having some kind of procedure on Monday (either stints or bypass surgery) so he's not out of the woods yet, but he's doing SO much better. When we left tonight he seemed to be getting back to his old self. Please pray for my dad and for my mom who is feeling pretty stressed right now.

My dad is actually on the same floor that Zeke was on every time he was at CMC. The children's hospital has actually moved so the rooms are empty, but it was so hard to walk through there--it brings back a lot of memories. My dad was talking about Zeke a lot tonight. It's hard to be there and not think about Zeke--we all still miss him so much.

Thanks again for your prayers for Dad! :-)