Another year gone!

Another year has come and gone! We'll this is my last entry I will be making here it is a little depressing to be honest. We are closing this chapter but another has opened witch we are so excited about! From now on you can find us at http://babyburbules.blogspot.com

We want to thank each and every one of you that have been keeping up with us! I will still be reading and keeping up with each and every one of you! You all will stay in my thoughts and prayers.  Wishing everyone a Happy New Year!!!!!

Just Wishing Everyone Merry Cristmas!!!

It has been along time since I last posted! So many things have happened but long story short, I have removed my family from the Vietnam program. It was an extremely painful decision that I had to make for my family. It took me a little while to regroup and decide just what direction we would go in. So we are now with Bethany Christan Services in their domestic program! We were accepted on Nov 29,2007! Know the waiting game begins all over again. This time it is very different we must wait for the birth Mother to pick us out! We could get a call tonight or 2 years from know. We are praying for a short wait! The nursery is almost done. I could not be any happier with the way it is turning out! I have all of the things we would need if we received the call!! I have had so much fun with Lindsey shopping for everything. She is getting so excited and loves helping me get everything ready for the baby! My new business could not be going any better!! I love having a home ran business, with no overhead and no employee's. This is exactly what I had been praying for, God is truly wonderful. In just over 2 months I have sold almost $20,000.00!!! No joke! This Skin Care line is truly amazing everyone absolutely loves all of our products. All of our products are Green! They are pure safe and beneficial. The baby products are the best on the market! I just received my own Web Site http://Rejuvenateyourbody.myarbonne.com . Please fill free to visit my site and if you have any questions regarding any of our products please contact me!! Rejuvenatewithmichelle@myarbonne.com . I hope that everyone is doing great and you all are having a merry Christmas! I have started my new Blog site and when it is up and running I will let you all know! You all are in my heart and prayers. I will continue to post here for a while.

Up And Running!!!

We received our I-171H it came in the mail on October 4TH my brothers B-DAY! I thought it would never get here. Yesterday we meet with our new Social worker Debbie. I am so thankful she is getting right on fixing this for us! She hopes to have our up- dated home study done by tomorrow. That would be just wonderful to be able to get everything in the mail by tomorrow! She works for the Bethany Christan Services and they do not presently have a VN program. This could be the first VN adoption she has ever done and is very excited about working with us. She told Lindsey we are now one of her families and we can just call her grandma!! How cute is that?

Yesterday Adam and I went to a new baby store in Germantown called Mango Baby!! I am so excited about starting the nursery it will be so much fun!! I fell in love with everything in that store. It was so funny I have had one crib picked out since day one and Adam had not seen it yet. So we walk into the store and he goes start to the crib I have been dieing to get for Jack! I know I need to get started.They said it will take 2 to 3 months to get in everything I am wanting!

My buisness is up and running and doing great! My hopes is that it will be doing so well I will not have to worry about how much time I take off of work when Jack gets home!!

What A GREAT WEEK!!!!

We received word today from Nashville today our I-600 was approved this morning!! That means our I-171H was put in today's mail!! I can send everything thing out to be certified hopefully on Monday then off to the VN Embassy! I am hopeful that we will have a referral around the beginning of the Year! With the hopes of travel in early spring!

So my little man should be born within the next couple of months. I pray for a safe delivery, that Jack is loved and taken care of until we are able to get to him. My heart breaks that I will not be there for our son in his beginning days. I thought the wait for our I-171H was miserable! I will not be able to get our travel invite fast enough!

A Start To A Good Week!

This weekend was wonderful! We had nothing on our plate this weekend so relaxing! Lindsey had her sweet little friend over to spend the night Saturday and they were angels. I believe they spent the whole night dancing to High School Musical! They had a blast!

Adam and I were lazy all day long watching football and eating what we like to call "Death By Cheese Dip"! It was so niece not having anything that we had to get done. I do not know the last time I allowed myself to totally veg out! It was very much need. I fill some what energized so I will be able to tackle everything that needs to get done today!

I have also found a great way to make a lot of money right out of my home! I am going to a meeting this morning. I can not wait to be up and running! If this goes the way I believe it should go I would not have to work at all out side of the home and how great would that be for both Lindsey and Jack! The lady that I am signing under started saleing this last year and is already making any were from 5 to 10 thousand dollars a month! Also they have given her a company Car! I will let you all more about this later. However if any of you all looking to make great money out of your home email me and I will talk to you personally. Michelleburg@aol.com is my email . Or you all can just send me a shout out it you wish!

From "What A Hard Decison!" To "Thank YOU Jesus"

I am beginning to to get a little stressed out! Almost 9 weeks and still no sign of my I-171H. I am filling a little depressed about the whole situation. I am at a complete stand still until that paper is put in my hands! It can not be to much longer right? I am beginning to wonder if we have been lost! I emailed Mrs. Jackson yesterday at Alexanders office in Nashville I am hopeful she will have some news for me today! I have no idea how long it takes for her to get the info from CIS! Does anyone know how long it will take her to get back to me!

As you all know we decided to live CHI do to the long wait. So as if it is not enough CHI who told me from day one that if we used them for our home study if for some reason we decided to leave and go with another agency we would be able to use our home study that we paid for. Not to mention I was told by someone when I contacted them to let them know we were leaving Yes I was right that we could use my home study! So at the beginning of the week when I received an email stating NO I can not use my home study! No I will not be getting any refund for the money that I had paid for my home study!!! So I am thinking " WHAT"!!!!! They are out of there minds!!

The next day I am contacted by several families that have left CHI lately do to the long wait as well. However in each and everyone of there cases they were able to use there home study and were help in the transition to the other Agency. I really did not expect anything less for our family!

So they put me on a conference call and they tried to give me all kinds of excuses #1 We changed our policy months ago. Well if that is the case first off why did you tell me just last week I could use it. 2nd of all we should be grandfather in if they changed there policy after we signed on! Excuse #2 I have a hard time believing some one would have told you that you could use the home study with a other agency! Well that is funny considering I was told by you just last week I could use it. Excuse #3 in order to be in compliance with Hague we can not let you use it.

So the Bethany agency will be helping me get everything striated out! But what a pain! I was so very disappointed with the way CHI has acted towards my family it is just not right! Not to mention they should have stopped taking applications months ago for the VN program! over 22o on there waiting list and still growing! How is that ethical? I say GREEDY! No wonder they are able to afford the Fancy Web Site! Well I have vented and hopefully I will not have to ever give them a second thought!

It is really sad the last post was what a hard decision now I am thankful to Jesus that he got me out when he did. There is no Guilt about switching to W! There is nothing but joy, hope, pride,and excitement and the knowledge the W will be helping bring my baby Jack home to me sooner rather than later!

So please say some prayers for me! That all my hair does not fall completely out!!!

What A Hard Decision!!

Adam and I after sitting down and talking over our options for our family we have decided to leave CHI and go with another agency!! CHI has been absolutely wonderful with everything , this has nothing to do with them. When we started this journey as all of you now the wait was 9 to 12 months and now going to 24 months including some of the families already on the list, we'll that is just to long for us! In two in a half years I expect to have our son home and traveling back to Vietnam to get our baby girl!

We were approved by the new agency last week! I have begun getting my dossier together and look forward to having my referral by Christmas and traveling the end of February to the beginning of March! To think my baby boy could be born any day seems so surreal! My head is spinning from all the things I need to get done! If only my I-171-H would hurry and get here! That is all we really lack before I can send it of for the State seals! I would love to have my dossier to the Vietnam Embassy by the first week or two of October!

The minute I have my I-171-H in hand I will get a move on the nursery! I believe we have most everything already picked out so it will not be to hard. I hope with the holidays coming up and everything we have to get done hopefully the wait will not be to bad! I can say the wait for the I-171-H has been extremely difficult!

So even though the decision of moving to a new Agency was painful I believe it was the right one for us! We are now one step even closer to bringing a son home!!

Trying Not To Go Crazy!!!

Hello to every one! I am trying hard to be patience but it is so very hard. It has been 7 weeks today since Adam and I went and had out fingerprints taken, and still we do not have the I-171H in hand. All day long that is all I find my self thinking about. I pray today will be the day!

We had a great Labor Day weekend my sister-in-law and brother-in-law were able to come to Memphis. Gina and I spent most of the time by the pool and of course we were able to get some shopping in! The weekend went by way to fast I am already looking forward to our next visit with them! Lindsey turned 12 on Sept 5th!!! She is growing into a beautiful young lady! For her B-Day we had a sleep over with about 10 girls. I know when you hear that you must think nightmare!!! Surprisingly it was not bad at all, they are all such well behaved girls. When my husband and I went to sleep around 11 we just knew we would be woken up all night! So you can imagine my surprise when we woke up the next morning at 9 and we had a great night sleep!!

My mom's home is almost done! They should be back in with in 2 weeks!!! It is hard to believe it has been almost a year since there house had burned down. There house is absolutely beautiful, they have done a great job picking out everything.

We'll hopefully I will have good news soon to report on the adoption front! I fill like we are just stuck in limbo right now and I can say not much fun!!!!!!

We Are Back Home!!!

We are back in our home and I have to say everything looks absoulutly beautiful!! The time went by so quickly. Our Contractor was amazing, he would work with his crew from 7 in the morning until around 8 at night. There were two days they were here until 1 and 2 in the morning!!! He promised that they would have us back in by the weekend, and I thought he was crazy! If any one around the Memphis area that needs work done around there home let me know Adam and I highly recommend him.

Now that John is done with the inside we have decided to let him work on some things for us on the outside! I have to say it has been very nice having this project to keep me busy. It has been 2 weeks today since we took our fingerprints and the time as flown by! I am hoping to have the I-171H in hand very soon! I find my self running to the mail box every day. I want so badly to be on the waiting list. We are so excited about going though this wonderful process. The wait I know will be difficult, but when it is all said and done and we are holding Jack in our arms I know all will be forgotten!

Reliving A Nightmare!!!

When you see a waterfall you think of beauty. Well when it is in your house and running down your walls it is not so beautiful. For those of you that do not know our home last year on April Fools day flooded. We had to move out and live with my dad and step-mom for 5 months. We had a great time while staying with them but we were glad to be back in our home! We moved back in and then within 3 months decided to move. When we finally got settled in we had my moms B-Day party. That night we received a call from my mom that their home was on fire!! Everyone was able to get out with out injury. So we have been living with them now for about 10 months. Their home will be completed in about 3 weeks! So what happens? On Wednesday I woke up too water damage from the air conditioner in the attic, it had a clogged drain pipe. This means I had to have a pod delivered to our home so we can store some of the furniture in there and our sun porch. All four bedrooms up and our family room will have to be emptied. It is almost as bad as moving. What a nightmare!!!

On the other hand you can think of this as a blessing. We had already planed on in the spring putting in hardwood floors, painting the baby's room, and smoothing out our ceilings. Now all of it is being done and my insurance will be paying for it ! So I guess we should be thinking our lucky stars. It will only take a week and it will be well worth the inconvenience! I have to say this is our third thing that has gone really wrong in the past year and half. So, is this the end of it? I am ready to have our lives back to normal. If there is such a thing.

These things we are having done this week are my projects I was going to take on while waiting for Jack! I am sure though I will be able to find many more projects to do around the house to keep me busy until we bring him home.

One Step Closer!

Today we are one step closer to bringing our baby home! Adam, Lindsey, and I were at CIS right at 10:00 this morning witch was when they start taking appointments for the finger prints. I can not get over how quickly we were able to get in and out it was so easy! We were in there for only 15 minutes. I am so excited before we know it we will be on the list. I guess for the next few weeks I will be running to the mail box!

This is a picture of Adam, my sister-in-law Gina, myself, and Adam's brother Andy. This was taken at the restaurant that we had Adams Aunt Laurie's 50th surprise birthday party! We all had a great time. Laurie had no idea, she was surprised to see that we had driven all the way from Memphis up to the Lake house up in Pennsylvania. We are not able to make it up as much as we would like to see his family. Gina and Andy are coming down in September for Lindsey's Birthday over Labor Day weekend. I am hoping to be on the waiting list by then. What a celebration we will have. I believe Adam and I will be able to go to CIS next week to have our finger prints taken. All of the waiting is so difficult but it will be well worth all of the wait!

A Day At Cedar Point

This is a picture of Adam and Lindsey at Cedar Point on his Birthday! They had a blast on all of the roller coasters. Get aload of that roller coaster behind them. Adam said Lindsey was a trouper and road on every one of them except for two because he knew there was no way in the world I would ever allow her to go on them. The two of them are already talking about going back next year when we go up to see Andy and Gina.

Happy Birthaday Adam!

Today is Adam's Birthday. Adam, Andy Adams brother, and there father Dave took Lindsey to Cedar point today. They were at the gate when opened. They have been riding roller coasters all day. Gina and I just received a call from Lindsey they are on the way home. I am a little disappointed that I am not going to be able to see Adam on his birthday. We will stay awake in till they get home in about 2 hours. We have had a wonderful time with all of his family. Gina and I have done a lot of shopping and had a very much needed relaxing time at the Spa today. I am not looking forward to our long drive home tomorrow it will take us about 11 hours to get back to Memphis, however we are looking forward to getting back home to our Mr. Wrigley our little puppy! We hope when we get back home that we will have news that we will be able to go and get our finger prints on next Tuesday. Keep your fingers crossed will have good news!

What A Beautiful Day!

Today has been the first day in a long time that we have been able to sit back and just relax! We were able to sit out side and enjoy our pool with our family and friends. I was surprised how fast Adam and I were able to get all of our paper together and on Friday we were able to have our last home visit and now we are just waiting to go get our finger prints. Adam, Lindsey and I are getting ready to go visit his family in Ohio at the end of the week. He and his brother Andy are taking Lindsey to Cedar Point to ride the roller coasters. While they are there, my sister-in-law Gina and I are going to the Spa! We can not wait to see everyone. I am hoping if we stay busy, time will go by faster and before we know it, we will be on our way to bringing our baby boy home!

Where It All Began!

Adam and I were married in June of 2000. I can truly say that I am so very blessed to have such a wonderful caring husband. He is also the best dad to my daughter Lindsey who is 11. Even though he is not her biological father he is her dad is every sense of the word. Lindsey says all of the time that we were so lucky to have found our Adam. Two Years ago we decided that it was time to begin trying to give Lindsey a little brother or sister. After a year of trying I went to a specialist and he put me on a fertility drug. I tried two different types of drugs with no luck .My specialist told us we had unexplained infertility. I was upset but knew we had other options. We were getting ready to take Lindsey to Disney World so we were going there just to relax and have fun with Lindsey and not thank about all the disappointments we had have over the last 2 years. We were having a great time in Disney when an amazing thing happened. Every time we turned around there was a beautiful family next to us that had adopted the cutest children from Asia. I always knew that adopting was one of our options. I also knew that if we did I would want to go to Asia. The words had never come out of my mouth and when it did it just felt right. Lindsey and Adam both smiled and thought it would be wonderful. Adam told me that as soon as we got back home to Memphis we should begin looking into the different agencies and programs. Back at home; I do not believe I took the time to unpack before I was diving into all the information I could get my hands on. After finding about the over abundance of infant boys that needed a loving home we knew that Vietnam was for us. I knew that it was so important that we picked an Agency that we could truly count on to help us through this long process of bringing our little boy home. I know I sent for at least a dozen or so packets and CHI was the only one to pick up the phone to see if they could help in any way. I already had a friend who had used them and told us how wonderful CHI was for there family. It spoke volumes to me that they took the time to follow up. On May 6, 2007 we decided to use CHI and by May 10th I had mailed our application to the Nashville office. We had heard from our Social Worker and had our initial appointment set up for May 20, 2007. After meeting with our Social Worker we began trying to get everything together as fast as we could. It only took us about two weeks it get all of our paper work together. The autobiographies took us a little longer than I thought it would. We finally got those together and now we do not know how long it will be for our passports to come in. I pray that does not hold us up. We made our appointment with our Social Worker for our interviews and today was the day; July 1, 2007. Adam, Lindsey, and I were so excited. Our appointment with Melissa was for 12:00. She was here for about four hours. I do not know if it could have gone any smoother. Today has been a long and exciting day for all of us. We are one small step closer to bringing our baby boy home. I am looking forward to this wonderful journey that we have ahead of us. So far all has gone so smoothly. I pray it continues.