UPDATE DAY!! WOOOOOHOOOO!!

HAPPY FRIDAY!!! We just got our quarterly update from Holt and WOW! Another tear jerking moment opening up the pictures and there she is holding our picture! We see that she has some of the items we sent her like the Animals book and some of the clothes (the jeans and a few of the onesies)! She has grown 2" and gained just about 2 pounds since early May. She is also almost walking on her own. Things she is able to do? CRAWL OUT OF HER CRIB! She listens intently to conversations around her. She starts to understand the meaning of “Khong” and “dung” (means: “no” and “stop”). She says “khong ma” to refuse to do something when requested. We also see she likes bright colored toys and enjoys her bath time. Also see that she is sleeping soundly at night and goes to bed easily (we shall see about that). At the end of the update is is nice to see "formally assigned to the Belz in Jun. 2008". So enjoy all the photos! A GREAT start to our weekend! WE LOVE YOU SOPHIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HOLDING OUR PIC!

STANDING ON HER OWN!

Those big beautiful eyes!

With her foster mother sporting the jeans we sent!

Sophie's Bed

Thank you Grandma and Grandad Smith...

What is Going On Around The Belz House?

One royal mess! Basically everything downstairs minus the kitchen bathroom and my "man cave" are totally destroyed living on sub-floors until the guys come to install our wood floors next Monday. Upstairs, Sophie's room is in the works, furniture is arriving and we are getting ready to do some chair rails and paint. We did the gift shopping and have all that ready to go in one of the other 3 bedrooms upstairs.

We have our parents-in-progress classes next weekend, and then off to Tulsa for a shower the following weekend. Good Lord I am looking at the calendar and there are not many weekends left! I have this guy feeling we will be in Viet Nam come
late October now instead of November. With adoptions now closed, the amount of incoming paperwork will be less and hope to have it all completed soon! Regardless, there is a ton of things to get finished before we bring our little princess home and life as DINKs (Dual income no kids) comes to a halt. Which we are so excited to begin a new chapter in our lives with Sophie. Hoping to have news from Holt on Sophie's dossier approval this week :-)

I-600 Received!

CIS E-mail came in early this morning that they have our I-600. So from the date on the letter of August 29th, they estimate around 60 business days to verify Sophie's orphan status. Other families have seen around 45. This will be the final approval that we receive (comes after Sophie's dossier approval and People's Committee approval) before our travels! A GOOD day today! Countdown is now underway.

Also a little, kind of childish thing we can have fun with is to "change the number on the ice box" game! Each day closer to CIS approval we add a digit! Wow, are we desperate for things to do or what?

A Sad Day Has Passed

A sad day for all families in the Viet Nam program. The September 1 deadline has now passed with no new agreement between the US and Viet Nam. We are sad for the children that are now caught in the middle of this and for those families that are in process without being matched with a child. We were praying that something would come out but it looks as if it is not going to be so. Not yet. We will continue to pray for those families that look towards new programs or sit and wait to see if new agreements can be agreed upon with the best interest of the children in mind. We know of a few fellow Holt families that are without a referral and please know we are thinking about you all and praying that this will work its way out.
On our front, we are good, with the DIA affirming that we have been formally matched with our little angel Sophie. So we continue forward. Hoping to see an e-mail each morning from the USCIS in Viet Nam that they are in receipt of our I-600 and the process begins, or that Sophie's dossier has been approved. In the meantime we have a disaster of a house on our hands. Everything on the first floor is ready for the new floors. We also purchased Sophie's crib this weekend-THANKS TO TRICIA'S PARENTS!!!!THANKS GRANDMA AND GRANDAD SMITH!We will post pix here soon. As with life, we change courses and and decided on a different furniture color than white. Stay tuned..........News at 11!

~ Sophie's Pop