Our documents have arrived safely

Well, the UPS site has confirmed that our 3 updated documents have arrived at the Vietnam Embassy in Washington. So I figure it will take them about 10 days to review, attach the seals and send onto our agency. However I will still check the tracking numbers each day. Because THATS HOW I AM!

Chemical Safe Child products?

I never realized that the sippy cups we were using were leaching toxic chemicals into our child's drinks. I mean come-on! I am smart enough to know not to microwave plastic bottles or sippy-cups, and I never reheat food on plastic, or for that fact even cover my food in the microwave with plastic wrap. But last winter the news first stared reporting that cancer causing chemicals in cheaper plastic would transfer into the liquid. The news said the grades of plastic, I only remember that a #2 on the bottom of the cups were acceptable. So you guessed it, the same night I threw away about 80% of our cups, and these were the major player names, Playtex, Gerber ect.. So we are basically down to two cups! That's right, I know our kids should really be done with them, but man they are so handy. I also still love getting cozy with the kids and rock them while they are drinking. So my new mission is to find a product that I trust and feel good about using. My mind is thinking about Glass baby bottles and toxic-free sippy cups. I am currently reading the website Nuturepure.com they have some pretty good products and the information makes sense to me. **Here is a news article below. Let me know what you think.

Watchdog Group Sounds Alarm About Plastic Baby BottlesTuesday, February 27, 2007 | 5:51 PMBy Denise DadorFebruary 27, 2007 -- Environment California's top five baby bottle offenders are the clear, hard plastic ones sold by Gerber, Playtex, AVENT, Dr. Brown's and Evenflo.
"Every one of those five brands of baby bottle leached a toxic chemical called Bisphenol A into the liquids inside the bottle," Lara Tabor, of Environment California, said.
The group used independent labs and found the chemical Bisphenol A leached more into liquids whenever a bottle was heated or washed with harsh detergents.
"Bisphenol A has been linked to cancer, obesity, diabetes and a lot of other serious problems," Tabor said.
Story continues belowAdvertisementThe group also claims excessive exposure to Bisphenol A can lead to hyperactivity, impaired learning and impaired immune function.
"Well it's pretty troubling to think that you'd be giving your baby toxic chemicals," Arthur Egeli, a father, said.
Bottle makers maintain all their plastics are FDA approved and recognized as safe for food contact.
"Philips AVENT bottles are manufactured using polycarbonate plastic ... manufacturers of consumer products and medical devices choose to use polycarbonate because it prevents cracking, shattering and other hazards that can lead to injuries," the company said in a statement.
"Gerber's manufacturing practices comply with the regulations established by the FDA and it believes these products are safe for us as intended," Gerber Products Company said in a statement.
And Platex says "many scientific studies have provided evidence that the potential exposure to BPA from sources such as plastic food contact containers is minimal and poses no known risk to human health."
Besides baby bottles, Bisphenol A can be found in a wide variety of consumer products including eye glasses, reusable water bottles and microwaveable food containers. However, Environment California says baby products should be the first to be regulated.
And while some parents agree - "I think that's the role of the state to regulate such things and I hope they would do something like that," Melinda Pearson, a mother, said.
Some parents say they're not worried.
"I really haven't seen any effects, any negative side effects from all the mothers that I have known who have used these bottles," Leann Alexander, a mother, said.

Short break ...but not really!

We just came home from a wonderful visit with friends that traveled to China in our same group. We see each other maybe 2 or 3 times a year. It was nice just getting away, don't get me wrong still tons of work and returning home is still work. You should know the cycle. If anything my head was somewhat cleared of constant "email" panic and needing to read and search for any news. I did cave in on Monday night about 11pm, huge mistake, got myself all worked up over a "rumor posts" that I did not have any control over anyway. But I should known better. Anyway that post took my sleep away, took my attention way from the good time I was having and panicked me. I was quite surprised when my CHI rep returned a reply to my email, I would of been happy with a next day reply. It did easy some of my worries. All I can say is, anyone that is currently doing a Vietnam adoption "you deserve tons of credit!" This entire experience has torn at every nerve, made me guess our choices and really grounded us down. Some days the feeling is so defeated, we are considering ourselves the lucky ones, we have hung in there (so far) and look forward to our weekly updates. But it's like holding our breath each week waiting for someone to say, its all over. I will post a few photos from our trip.

No More Baby Seat!

What does Brown deliver for You?

Each time I hear that commercial I think "yes they deliver adoption documents, referral photos, Visas and passports". Would that not be a cool commercial. I am sure many of you have seen the surprised drivers getting hugged, photographed and totally caught off guard by moms running to the truck even before he the driver gets his feet to the driveway. Well today we ran to meet the UPS driver in our driveway, he delivered our brand new car seats. I can't wait to see them installed and the old ones out.

We are currently waiting for our 3 documents to return from the Sec of State, they should be here VIA- UPS tomorrow by 10:30, at least that's what I am told. (I have the tracking numbers memorized.) If so, I have the Money Order and cover letter and address ready to send right back out to the Vietnam Embassy. If I can get this out Friday, it will be at the Embassy first thing Mon am, I love Monday deliveries, I feel it saves an entire work week of processing and waiting. We can not afford "The Ast Stork" so we will chance our luck a second time. I will include a pre-paid envelope for the Embassy to forward directly to my agency, why pay to get it sent back to me yet again?

Hello My Name is:

Boy what a personal choice, naming your child. In most cases you choose your child's name because its one you have been thinking about for years, you place your hopes, dreams and family honor in naming your kids. An even more complicated decision when naming an adopted child. Do you keep the their birth name? Did the birth family name the baby? Was it an orphanage name? (like baby #24 with mark on face) & yes some are named this way. What does the name translate to? Is it easy to pronounce? Will they be picked on in school? Will the name give them success in later years? Imagine if Oprah's name was Mable. Would she still be successful? Will it be a name easy to pronounce in the business world? Look good on a business card or will people struggle pronouncing it? Or all together just not say it in fear of saying it wrong.

In both of our prior adoptions we totally changed the names. Our daughters Chinese name did not translate to anything that gave honor to her. So we had a family member (whom is Chinese) help us pick a new Chinese name. Her new middle name is Mei Fei (May-Fay)which means beautiful and intelligent. A Chinese name keeps her link to her heritage. Our sons name translated also very plain and nothing special. His new Chinese name is En-Lai (in-lie) which is after a great ruler in China : Chu-En-Lai, he was very good to the Chinese people. So our son has a name after a great leader. He should be very proud of this later in life.

Now onto the American names. While I love trendy names and have fallen in love with many. I still have the opinion that naming your child, specially and adopted child ; the name should place your child on the family tree with a family name that links them there. This also announces to the child that they are included in our family history and demonstrates this to other family members. Our daughter was named after my middle name, which is also the name of another family member whom is also Chinese. Her American middle name is my husbands middle name. Our daughter truly loves hearing about how she was named after each of us. Our sons first name is my husbands name,and a version of his fathers Spanish name. His middle American name is after my deceased father.

Now for our 3rd and probably last child (you never know) he will also have a family name. It will be James, my grandpa was a James, my father was a James and my brother is a James. My brother had first dibs on using James, but he used it as a middle name for his middle child. So we will claim it as a first name for our 3rd child! His middle American name will be Carmen after my husbands late mother. We were saving this name for a girl, thinking that our current son would be a daughter but China surprised us! (there was 2 boys out of 59 babies referred that month). A great suprise for thinking we were expecting a girl. I had to sit down. Well anyway I hope this post has given you food for thought. Got to go check all my chat rooms. Peace for now.

Well I did it! Finally

We visited family this past Easter and my Sister in Law who is the "Official Car Seat Family Inspector" OCSFI, put us on notice that our daughter has outgrown her car seat. Her head is over the top of the back seat and shoulder strap a little cutting, our son starting to hunch with the straps on the highest setting. Where does the time go? We paid dearly on the existing ones, figure it out, two cars, four car seats, Two Kids. (Most would say why 4? just move them from car to car. Believe me once they are in, they stay in. If installed properly it should take an act of GOD to move them.) I sort of knew we needed upgrading but kept on waiting for that extra chunk of money that was always due to me. So this am, got online and researched some. Kinda knew what I wanted, I remember seeing a very sad YouTube video about a mom who regretted not having a proper car seat, so that stuck in my head for years. I will post it later. Our first set was the Triumphs highly rated still today, holds up to 60lbs. Great for rear facing. We got a good 3yrs out of them. Our new baby will still use them. The new ones BRITAX REGENT will hold age one yr at least 22 lbs and up to 80lbs. Yes 80lbs! Only forward facing. I will pledge to keep my children in a 5point harness as long as there is a seat to hold them. So we should get good use from these. I purchased them at bestbuybaby.com free ground shipping and no tax. So I pretty much got two seats for the price of 1.5. That's how it makes sense in my head. I urge all families waiting to research car seats, don't just buy one because its cute or has little ladybugs on them, you will regret it later when you have to make the purchase all over again. *Pink one was $249, Camel one was $229 from Bestbuybaby.com

http://youtube.com/watch?v=azgBhZfcqaQ To view copy link to your address bar for this extrememly informative video on "The Importance of a 5 Point Harness" I urge you to view this before you purchase anything.