There are times that I am absolutely amazed by the innocent eyes through which Ella sees the world. We have been taking her to a local park with a swimming creek lately and she absolutely loves it. It is here that I have witnessed the sheer innocence and joy that she inherently approaches life with.

First, she readily and happily makes friends. Every child who crosses her path is a potential friend. I’ve caught her with a painted on smile scanning the crowd and trying to catch a certain little person’s eye. As soon... more

Viet Nam Adoptive Family Interviews : An Introduction

How did you choose an agency to work with/what was important to you when making your decision?

The Engelbrecht Family - Strong recommendations from past families. Easy to talk to and availability

Christina - The agency decision was extremely important to us after what we experienced in Cambodia. We were caught in the “pipeline”... more

In our final provincial lesson for the week, I am going to share the information I have gathered about Lang Son. I will be continuing this series as a means to educate parents about their child’s province. Please keep an eye out for future posts and if you need information on a province that I haven’t covered yet sooner, just let me know and I’ll get that information posted for you.

Lang Son is located in North Viet Nam and enjoys a cool, temperate climate.

Lang Son boasts an impressive highway and railroad system... more

Viet Nam Adoptive Family Interviews : An Introduction

When you decided to adopt, what was it that drew you to Viet Nam?

The Engelbrecht Family - The openness of the program- age/marriage length

Christina - We originally wanted to wait for Cambodia to re-open, so that R~ would have a sibling who shared her birth heritage. But after waiting 3 years we decided we couldn’t put off adopting... more

Today’s provincial lesson is all about the province of Da Nang. Doing these posts about individual provinces has taught me a great deal about Viet Nam. I already loved my daughter’s birth country, but writing these posts has helped me appreciate it even more. Viet Nam is a country rich in culture and history and full of amazing people.

Da Nang is located in Central Viet Nam and is made up of varying types of terrain

As one of Viet Nam’s major cities, it is a large economic and industrial force. Da Nang ranks third economically... more

I am really excited to share this series of interviews with you! Over the past couple of months I have been working on interviewing four families who have all recently completed a Vietnamese adoption. When would be prospective adoptive parents (PAPs) come to me with questions about adopting from Viet Nam and agencies, I always encourage them to speak with families who have recently adopted to get their first hand perspectives. It is my hope that these interviews will help PAPs learn more about adopting from Viet Nam and give adoptive parents some... more

In my previous posts this week, I have covered the Vietnamese provinces of Bac Giang and Ha Tinh. Today's post is all about the province of Bac Ninh. Learning about our child's place of birth and adoption can be very rewarding for us as parents, but even more so for our kids. By taking an interest in your child's province you are showing them that you respect and are interested in their first months or years of life, before they came home and you'll be able to share all that you've learned with them.

Bac Ninh is in North Viet... more

In an ongoing effort to help parents learn more about their child's province, I'm devoting separate posts to individual provinces. If you can arrange it so you can spend some time in your child's province while you are in Viet Nam, you'll come home with amazing experiences that you will be able to share with them when they're older. And if you're already home like me, it can still be nostalgic and informative to learn all you can about where your child spent their early days.

Ha Tinh is located in North Central Viet Nam and is... more

In an effort to help families stay healthy in Viet Nam I recently posted about which vaccinations are recommended for Americans traveling to Viet Nam. Today I am going to touch on which medications you may wish to bring with you when you travel. I will admit that my husband and I got prescriptions for and brought along with us every medication that my agency suggested. We used one once or twice (a tube of antibiotic ointment,) and donated the rest to our agency. But I definitely think it’s better to be safe than sorry.

I remember being worried that our doctor would have a problem writing prescriptions for our baby who was still in Viet Nam and they would not be able to examine before... more

Before we traveled to Viet Nam to adopt Ella I assumed that my husband and I were going to be required to get certain vaccinations. This wasn’t the case as Viet Nam does not require any vaccinations, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does recommend some for traveling to Viet Nam.

It is very important to see a doctor at least a month and a half prior to departing so the vaccines that you choose to get (if any) will... more