Our International House of People: April 2007

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Baby Shower

Today was our baby shower. I know it is a little early but we didn't expect to have paperwork delays with birth ceritifcates and other stuff so my mom had planned the shower at the time of Lennah's referral on February 15. Anyway, I cannot express my gratitude to everyone how wonderful our shower was. We received more than we ever could have asked for and it was wonderful having our family and friends part of such a special moment. I know a lot of adoptive parents wait until after the arrival to have a shower but this is almost like a pregnancy so I figured we'd have one before she got here so we would have an idea of what we still need to buy before she arrives. I also am in awe over what a beautiful shower cake we had. My mom's dearest friend and pastors' wife out did herself with such a beautiful cake. I am sure most people say this but it was the most beautiful and unique cake we had ever seen. Thanks to all.

Friday, April 20, 2007

New pics

Today we received some new pictures of Lennah. She is more and more beautiful each time we see her. We are truly blessed that we get updated photos of our daughter so often.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

New pics and more

Today to my surprise we received new pictures of our baby girl. Of course we think she is getting more and more beautiful each time we see her. Our dossier arrived in TN without any difficulties so I finally feel like we have gotten somewhere in our journey to bringing her home. I was also surprised to find out that they are taking Lennah for some blood tests, most likely to check her levels to see if she is developing the hepatitis C or her numbers are going down. She was born with antibodies to the virus and it looked promising at the time of her referral that she would not get the disease so we are hoping that any new tests show that she is not going to get the illness. We have researched a lot about Hepatitis C and there is actually only a 5% chance that children born to mothers who have this disease actually get it, so we will just pray to see. We also do not fear if she does get it because many people live for years without any complications. Well that is all I have to report today.

Monday, April 9, 2007

Dossier

For all of you that have been waiting today we finally received our dossier back from the stork. It has been an emotional roller coaster waiting for these papers but they finally came. My husband was home today and took them to get photocopied and overnighted to CHI. Of course nothing goes as planned and some of the copies were cut off. My husband told the guy at the copy center to put it all on legal paper so nothing would get cut off. Well, the guy copied it short ways, needless to say about a 1/3 of the papers are only partial copies. But CHI is going to make us a copy so all will end well. I am just about in tears of happiness because we are now one step closer to bringing Lennah home. I am just praying that nothing goes wrong and she is home soon.

Friday, April 6, 2007

Worries

I am about ready to start freaking out. The stork said they mailed back my dossier yesterday. We had the return as express mail from the post office. Well now nothing is coming up in the tracking number. This is really starting to worry me. What if it is lost or something. This is crazy. You pay all this money for express mail to get a package back overnight and now it is not here and the tracking is not showing any information. AHHHH! If it is not one thing it is another. Pray that my dossier gets to me tomorrow.

Thursday, April 5, 2007

Just waiting

Well it will be 3 weeks tomorrow and no word yet from the stork. This is really getting to me because every day that we wait Lennah waits. I am hoping tomorrow my dossier is ready. We are getting to the point were it has been almost two months since we accepted her as our child and our papers are not even in Vietnam yet. I just want to get my baby home and having so many hold ups is not helping. I am just praying that we are one of the lucky ones to get a travel day quickly and that we have hit all our snags early on rather than later. Well, I guess I will have more once the dossier comes back. Everyone please pray that it is ready tomorrow.

Monday, April 2, 2007

The Rest of the the Family

Well hopefully Lennah loves animals because we have 3 dogs and 1 cat. Each have a distinct personality and so far they have all been good around children. Even Jesse who most call our crazy dog because he is hyper and craves attention from visitors. I am thinking Lennah will take a liking to Daisy our youngest and smallest dog. She joined our family in November 06' and has definately become a Paulsen. So in order from youngest o oldest we have Frankie (the cat and yes she is a girl), Jesse (our aussie), Nicky and Daisy (mini eskies)

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.