Our International House of People: February 2007

Thursday, February 15, 2007

To catch everyone up

I guess I need to catch everyone up on our adoption journey so far. Well, Keith and I started the process of adopting in March of 2006. It was a long awaited road that we had known we had wanted to travel. Many could say that we were predestined to adopt because I had always known that fertility might be an issue one day and I had wanted to adopt ever since I had begun to watch adoption stories on tv. My heart was set on adopting a baby girl from China but we were both under 30 and that meant a wait. We figured we would wait. However, our situation changed and we found the finances to adopt sooner rather than wait. At that point we figured we would look into a different country and wait on a Chinese adoption. We contacted Childrens hope international and they steered us towards Vietnam. It was a program that had just reopened. Everything sounded great and we began our journey. March 06 we applied, completed our homestudy in May, got fingerprinted with BCIS in June 06, received BCIS approval on Sept 4, 06, and began the long wait. The Vietnam program was growing quickly and a long wait had sprouted up. We had no preference to gender because we just wanted a baby. We were even willing to open up to a minor special needs adoption. Months had went by and we were slowly creeping up the list. In November we came close to accepting the referral of another child however, we were unsure of an insurance issue regarding his health and decided not to procee. Needless to say that he is now with a great family and received the medical care he needed. He was destined to be someone else's child. A few more months had passed and a baby girl appeared on the waiting child list with our agency. I knew the minute I had seen her she was destined to be our daughter. Her medical needs only consisted of an antibody from Hep C. Many people think that this is the highly communicable version of Hep, it is not. It is only from blood to blood. Her medicals showed that her chances are good for not actually acquiring the disease and either way we were prepared if she did have it because there are many people out there with this disease that live normal lives. We talked to a doctor and quickly accepted her referral. Thus, began our journey to Lennah Abigail Paulsen.

History of Ethiopia

Ethiopia is one of the oldest known cradles of civilization known to man. Christianity was brought to the Kingdom of Axum around the 4th century AD and later in the 7th century Islam was introduced. Foreign missionaries were introduced to the region around the 1630's. Because of these unwelcomed guest Ethiopia did not welcome foreign Christians and Europeans into their lands. Its isolationism may have saved the country from 19th century colonialism. In 1936 Italian facists entered the region and forced its emperor into isolation but was later returned when the British and the French defeated the Italians. Civil unrest would lead to the demise of the aging emperor and in 1974 a socialist sort of government was named. The country went through a period of red terror that was funded by the Soviets and Cuba. This lead to the implementation of a communist government being installed in the late 1970's, early 1980's. In 1989 the country went through a period of famine that also lead to a change in governments. Finally, in 1994 the country would declare its independence and later hold free elections.

History of Vietnam

For about two thousand years Vietnam was ruled by China, following this period it would become independent for the next almost thousand years. In the 1800's it would be colonized by the French. The early 20th century would bring about visions of an independent republic. In 1945 Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam independent and renamed it the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. By 1947 a full-scale war would break out between the French and the Viet Minh (Ho CHi Minh's followers). China also began to aid the Viet Minh at this time due to its own communist revolution. July, 1954 the Geneva Accords would be sign paving the road to France leaving Vietnam; however, it would partition Vietnam into 2 independent states seperated by the 17th parallel. The South was helped by the United States, while the North would be dominated by the Viet Minh. By 1963 the South's government was very unstable. 1965 President Lyndon Johnson would send troops into Vietnam. The North would lead a massive attack in 1968 destroying much of the South. In 1969, Ho Chi Minh died but his forces remained in tact. By the early 1970's many Americans viewed the war as unwinnable and would prove unsuccessful at containing communism. January 1973 the Paris Peace Accords were signed ending the United States role in the war. In 1975 Saigon would fall to the North Vietnamese and in July of 1976 the two parts were reunified into the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The war was disastrous for the Vietnamese people leaving an estimated 1 million to become boat people, 1 million imprisioned, and more than 100,000 killed. Today, Vietnam still has a communist form of government and although they are a developing nation many people remain extremely poor.

Friday, February 23, 2007

Pictures of Lennah from February 23

Thursday, February 15, 2007

To catch everyone up

Ho Chi Minh City

Addis Ababa

Hohhot City

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