Birthdays seem to be a time to reflect and take some time to think about the year that has most recently passed. As I approach my last year in my twenties, I am so ridiculously grateful that I have happy memories of this past year to wax poetic on. This time last year I was only a few weeks away from traveling to Viet Nam and meeting my daughter for the first time. I was an anxious, excited, nervous, busy, emotional mess. Today I feel just as busy, but much happier, much more grounded and full of so much pride and love for this family that we’ve created.

I feel incredibly... more

Today I just had to write about the incredibly sweet relationship Ella has with her Great Grandma, my maternal Grandmother. Ella’s main caregiver in her baby center was an older woman, and I think this has a lot to do with the fact that she quickly bonded with my Grandma soon after coming home. Now that we have temporarily moved in with my parents and Grandma, Ella’s relationships with all of them have flourished. But today is all about Ella and her Great Grandma and their adoration for each other.

Great Grandma’s not in the best of health. She has suffered through cancer... more

Since I’m on a Da Nang kick (read yesterday’s post here,) I wanted to offer a review of the documentary Daughter From Da Nang. I tuned in with incredibly great interest and anticipation while we were waiting for Ella’s travel date. I was hungry for absolutely anything that might help me feel closer to her and her birth country. I really am glad that I watched it; it was incredibly moving and emotional and left me with much to think about.

The documentary follows Heidi, a Vietnamese born, American raised woman who was born to a Vietnamese mother and American father during the war in Viet Nam.... more

When Viet Nam and the United States signed their bilateral adoption agreement, it was agreed upon that Viet Nam would issue an official fee statement documenting the fees that would be paid to the country of Viet Nam in an international adoption. Well, it’s been well over a year and we have yet to see that official statement from Viet Nam’s Department of International Adoption. This missing fee schedule is one of the things that have people in the adoption community worried that the bilateral agreement did little to positively affect international adoptions from Viet Nam.

Hopefully, things will soon change. According to the Joint Council... more

While doing my series of “Province 101” posts that cover basic information about Viet Nam’s provinces, I inadvertently passed on information about Da Nang that was incorrect. Luckily, I have a gracious reader who lives with her family in Da Nang (which isn't actually a province-it's its own city,) who helped me with some great, first hand information about the area. The “facts” that I had reported were taken from several travel and informational websites, so it just goes to prove that you can’t always trust everything that you find out there on the internet. ;)

Here is some... more

Welcome to the Viet Nam Adoption Blog Roll. Any blog authors who write blogs concerning adopting from Viet Nam are more than welcome to join us over here. There is so much for us all to learn from each other, and blogs are an excellent medium in which to share our lives, experiences, families and memories of Viet Nam. Families at all stages of the adoption process who have blogs are encouraged to join our blog roll.

I plan to keep this list going and will repost it as sites are added. If you would like to be added to the Viet Nam Adoption Blog Roll, please post your link in the comments section below or email me at rebeccah@adoptionblogs.com

If... more

Traditional baby books don’t really fit for our kids who were adopted internationally. There is a great deal of focus on “the day you were born” and many “firsts” that just don’t apply when children are adopted as infants or older.

I have found the best way to record Ella’s history is through making my own scrapbook. Granted, I am almost painfully behind, but at least I have ideas of what I would like to do whenever I can find some time! By creating your own baby book format, you can include the memories and milestones that make sense to your family.

Here... more

There’s a part of me that feels badly for families who run into trouble after they agree to work with an agency who is not licensed to conduct adoptions in Viet Nam. That part of me is shrinking by the minute. Now, I am mostly angry. Angry that some Prospective Adoptive Parents (PAPs) do not do their research, or (even worse,) they turn a blind eye and are swayed by promises of young babies, short wait times, and so on.

There is talk in the Viet Nam adoptive community about an adoption agency that has recently and abruptly shut its doors. Families that have received... more

I am incredibly fed up with how often I see people being referred to as “adopted sons” or “adopted daughters”. Every single time I read about someone’s “adopted” child, I cringe. Well, that’s not entirely true; whenever it occurs in an article that is in no way related to adoption and the fact that they were adopted has nothing at all to do with the story, I cringe. If it is adoption related and it makes sense that I know that a person was adopted; that’s ok.

Not too long ago I was pleased to read about Michelle Pfeiffer correcting writer Liz Smith when Smith referred to Pfeiffer’s daughter as her “adopted daughter” in an interview. Pfeiffer educated Smith by making it clear that she... more

Even before I had kids I liked the children’s cartoon show Arthur. Ok, maybe that’s a weird think to admit, but I really have liked the show for a long time. Since coming into the adoption world I learned that there was once an Arthur episode that included a statement about “real parents” that created a bit of an uproar in the adoptive parent community. Today, however, Arthur is redeeming itself with a two part show that celebrates adoption.

“Big Brother Binky, parts one and two” will follow Binky’s experiences... more