Time to Contact Your State Reps!

Holt has an EASY way to do i by clicking HERE. All the info is there. Please take the time out of your day to complete this and pass it along. The more voices the better! Have a great weekend!

Last Day To Send E-Mail For Congerssional Petition

Today is the last day to help support the Vietnam Children's Campaign. If you have not done so, we urge everyone to send e-mails TODAY! Every voice matters in this effort. Thank you all again!

UCICS is calling for a campaign by agencies, adoptive parents, prospective adoptive parents, advocates and all of those who have an interest in international adoption in Vietnam to join the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Co-Chairs and sign their letter to Secretary Condoleezza Rice in support of their recommendations for the continuation of adoptions in Vietnam. The focus on the campaign, one that we fully support and advocate for, is an end to corruption and not an end to a child’s right to a family.

You can read the JCICS recommendations in PDF format here and if you agree with these recommendations, send an email of support to this email address: advocate@jcics.org no later than May 30. This email will be included in a petition to Congress

Secondarily, on June 2-4, JCICS is requesting that everyone contact your Congressional Representatives and Senators and ask them to support A Child’s Right campaign. They are instructing as follows:
Call both of your U.S. Senators and your representative in the U.S. House of Representatives.

• You can find your Senators’ phone numbers and email address at http://www.senate.gov/
• You can find your Representatives’ phone numbers and email address at http://www.house.gov/

Include the following in your calls and emails.

“I/we urge the Senator/Congressperson to join the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Co-Chairs and sign their letter to Secretary Condoleezza Rice in support of the recommendations found in Joint Council’s A Child’s Right Campaign for Vietnam.”

• If they have not heard about the Campaign, ask them to contact the Congressional Coalition for Adoption Institute at 202-544-8500 or Joint Council on International Children’s Services at 703-535-8045.

• Send an email to everyone you called. The e-mail is important, but the phone call should be placed first.

Memorial Day

Toady is a day that is not about BBQs and having people over to celebrate. It is day to remember all those brave men and women who paid the ultimate price in defense of this wonderful nation, and fighting for those freedoms that we all so often take for granted. Fly your flag outside your home. So few houses do this anymore. After 9/11 it was hard NOT to see the Stars and Stripes at a house or office. Now it is a challenge! This Memorial Day I honor Lt. William Thomas "Tom" Costen, United States Navy and his partner Lt. Charlie Turner. Tom grew up in the house behind us in St. Louis. I remember playing wiffle ball with him and running behind the "bug man" smog truck on summer evenings after dinner. Not the smartest of ideas since it was a mosquito killing fog, but hey you were a kid and everyone else did it. Tom's father was also a great friend to the family as well as an Orthopedic Surgeon to a few of of us.

Tom and Charlie Turner were assigned to Attack Squadron 155 at Whidby Island, Washington. Their unit shipped out to the Middle East on board the USS RANGER when U.S. military buildup began there in January 1991. Tom and Charlie had been in the region only ten days when hostilities began and they were asked to fly combat missions on Iraqi military targets in the first wave of offensive strikes of the war the opening night of the Gulf War. Tom was the pilot of an FA6 Intruder, and Charlie his BN (bomdadier/navigator). Both failed to return from missions on the morning of Friday, January 18, 1991.

Later reports revealed that two emergency radio beeper signals were picked up indicating that both Tom and Charlie ejected safely from their aircraft. Both were returning to the USS Ranger after a bombing mission over Baghdad.

On January 20, both Tom and Charlie were officially listed as MIA by the Pentagon. It was not until almost two months after the end of Operation Desert Storm that the Iraqis handed over the remains of 14 United States soldiers. One of those was Tom.

Lt. William Thomas Costen

Lt. Charlie Turner

VA-155 Silver Foxes

We Are Asking For EVERYONE'S Help

Below is a campaign that is being spearheaded to help continue ethical adoptions in Viet Nam. At this point the deadline of 9/1/08 still looms and we are still needing a referral before that date. We ask that you please read the below information and follow each step.Copy and paste the below into e-mails and send to everyone in your e-mail address book. It may be the one thing that allows adoptions to continue. Please feel free to contact us at babybelz@charter.net with any questions. THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP!!

New adoptions from Vietnam to the U.S. will stop unless we act immediately.
The current Memorandum of Agreement (MOU) between Vietnam and the U.S. expires Sept 1, 2008. Unless a new agreement is in place before Sept 1, new adoptions from Vietnam to the U.S. will close.It took more than 2 years to negotiate the last MOU and we cannot let that happen again to the children in Vietnam.We urgently need your help. The Attached "Vietnam Child Rights Campaign" document provides detail of the issues and what you can do to ensure adoptions from Vietnam continue.Ask your Congressional Representatives to support immediate negotiations for a new adoption agreement between the US and Vietnam.Thank you for helping children in Vietnam to continue to find loving adoptive families in the U.S.


A Child’s Right Campaign for Vietnam

How You Can Help

1. Today, please read A Child’s Right Campaign for Vietnam at www.jcics.org.

2. Send an email in support of A Child’s Right Campaign for Vietnam to advocate@jcics.org.

a. Send your email no later than May 30th.
Your email will be included in a petition to Congress.

3. On June 2nd, 3rd, or 4th, please contact your Congressional Representatives and Senators and ask them to support A Child’s Right Campaign for Vietnam.

a. Call both of your U.S. Senators and your representative in the U.S. House of Representatives.
• You can find your Senators’ phone numbers and email address at www.senate.gov
• You can find your Representatives’ phone numbers and email address at www.house.gov

b. Include the following in your calls and emails.
• “I/we urge the Senator/Congressperson to join the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Co-Chairs and sign their letter to Secretary Condoleezza Rice in support of the recommendations found in Joint Council’s A Child’s Right Campaign for Vietnam.”
• If they have not heard about the Campaign, ask them to contact the Congressional Coalition for Adoption Institute at 202-544-8500 or Joint Council on International Children’s Services at 703-535-8045.

c. Send an email to everyone you called.
• The email is important, but the phone call should be placed first.

Our Journey to Date.

9 months ago today we began our adoption process. Here is a little montage of those months....

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

What A Day It Was

The most beautiful day of the Spring so far, and with 42 strong, Team Sarcoma walked for "life" and to celebrate my wonderful wife and the battles she has fought through. Of course we had the best looking shirts of any team, and I dare to say the largest by 2 or 3. We did have the youngest at 12 weeks, Miss Olivia Walker! After the walk, we had a great party at our house with food, fun, washers and a friendly wiffle ball tourney. Thank you to all of our family and wonderful friends who made this day something very special to the Tricia and myself. We are blessed to have you all in our lives and the generosity you all showed was humbling to say the least. We will be posting at a later date, thanking those that made financial contributions to Tricia's fund raising efforts. She alone raised over $2300 for the Wellness Community of St. Louis. Below are some of the pictures of the day. Enjoy!

Team Sarcoma 2008

Signs of Support

She is a hero to everyone!

Trish and nephew Mason

Us with Spicy...

Team Shirts

The Sea of Orange Is OFF!!

Our Hero! We love you TBelz!

Even Total Strangers Celebrate Tricia

It never ceases to amaze us. People we do not event know have heard or read about Tricia and her amazing victories with Leiomyosarcoma and honor her for it. A friend of my oldest sister in NJ was in a run a few weeks ago and wore Tricia's name on the back of his shirt.

We are approaching the final days until the Cancer Survivorship Walk here in St. Louis. Team Sarcoma has a total of 32 walking. Tricia's total fund raising on her own have totalled almost $2,000 which is 2/3 of the total team goal! We thank all of those who have donated, either online or by sending us donations. There is still time too! We are able to accept donations until May 28th. Every dollar donated helps those living with cancer and their families. At the top of the blog is the CHIP IN button. Just click away. We will post pictures of the team and the events either Saturday night or Sunday.

On the adoption front, all is still quiet. We are awaiting more news from Holt on the status of affairs between the VN . We know that they are advocating that ALL families that have dossiers in by 7/1/08 be allowed to finalize their adoption even if there is no referral by the MOU expiration date on 9/1/08. We though, remain optimistic that we will have a referral by 9/1. As soon as we have news that is allowed for public distribution we will let everyone know!

~Hank

WALKING AGAIN IN CELEBRATION OF TRICIA

It is time for the 10th Annual Cancer Survivorship Walk. As you may or may not know, 4 1/2 years ago, Tricia was diagnosed with Leiomyosarcoma of the broad ligament. There are many different types of sarcomas but the most important fact to understand is that less than 1% of those diagnosed with cancer will be diagnosed with a type of sarcoma. Tricia is the 12th, yes 12th, person to have ever been diagnosed with Broad Ligament Leiomyosarcoma and her doctors consider her a miracle. Another fact, 75% of people diagnosed with sarcoma, have a recurrence in two years - this year Tricia was 4 years cancer free!
On Saturday, May 17th, TEAM SARCOMA walks for Tricia, at Creve Couer Lake. Last year, we were a team of over 30 people strong and raised over $1,500 for The Wellness Community so that they can continue to help the cancer community of St. Louis as well as family and friends of those living with or who have lost their life to the monster. This year we are hoping for a team of 50 and to raise $3,000.
If you would like to help us raise money for TEAM SARCOMA, you can click the CHIP IN button at the top of the post OR if you'd like to register to join the walk and Team Sarcoma, you can visit The Wellness Community online at http://www.wellnesscommunitystl.org/ for a printable version of their pledge form.

Our Hero

Team Sarcoma 2007

The Longest Week

Most weeks go by very quickly. This one on the other hand has seemed to move in reverse and stop then move slowly forward. We are waiting on clarification on the news released from the DIA (Department of International Adoptions) earlier this week. News that can shed factual light on exactly what is going to happen with Vietnamese adoptions. We are in limbo at this point with Holt being in contact with us Monday, and we wait a new communication today.
Factual news reports are hard to come by. Most have conflicting information, as the writers have no clue what they are talking about. From these stories, a dark cloud looms over the process and ASPs (Adoption Service Providers) which is totally false. As always, the media makes it look like all agencies working in country are to blame which is just not the case. There are agencies like ours (Holt) that play by the rules and do not participate in any of the alleged activities which have surfaced in the report released one week ago today.
We feel blessed to be where we are and with the good people at Holt working so hard to get us information in a timely manner. They truly have their families in mind and are doing everything in their power to communicate with both sides in order to seek clarity.
Two scenarios have surfaced over the past week:

1) All adoptions will stop on July 1, 2008. Which means that in order to continue in the process PAPs will have to have dossier in country and receive a referral by this date.

2) Viet Nam will accept applications (dossiers) until July 1, 2008. Those PAPs that have a referral and matched with a child before the MOU expiration date of September 1, 2008 will be allowed to continue.

We HOPE and PRAY that it is the later of the two. There are other pieces of information that are available but we have been asked not to share these with the general community, as talks are on-going at this point between our folks at Holt and involved parties.
So for now we turn up the patience knob again. Thanks for all the prayers from family, friends and fellow Holt families. They are all needed and appreciated. We hope you all have a wonderful weekend! That dreaded team from the North side of Chicago is in town for a three game set...GO CARDS!!!!!!!!