Hello from Vietnam!

We have arrived! After a very long day (days) of traveling we have arrived in Vietnam! All of our flights were on time, we made all our connections and and got all of our luggage. Praise God! Our hotel is nice and the food is great. We even got massages at the hotel today. We each had a one hour massage for a total cost of $34.00.

We met up with Hung and his 5 year old daughter Vy. Hung gave us a great tour of Saigon which included shopping and a visit to the War Remnants museum. This mueum was previously called the American atrocities against Vietnam museum. It was a very difficult thing to see.

We exhanged our money for the Vietnanese Dong. And since the U.S. dollar = 16,083 Dong. We are feeling pretty rich. We are also feeling like a novelty. People have been amazed at David's heigth. At 6'1" he may be an average sized American man, but here, he is more like Goliath that David. They have also been facinated by my blond hair.

Tomorrow is the big day. We leave in the morning to travel to Bien Hoa (about an hours drive) to the orphange where we will meet Sarah. Please keep us in your prayers.

Also, please excuse any typos or misspelled words. The blogspot website is in Vietnamese so I can't figure out where the spell check is.

Saying Our Goodbyes!

Definitely one of the hardest parts of this adventure was having to say goodbye to our kiddos at home. After many many hugs and kisses we tucked them in at Grandmas house and went home to try to sleep. We were able to sleep some but left bright and early to go to the airport.

We are now all checked into and waiting for our flight to LA. Good News! Our bags were all okay on the weight limit (one by only a few ounces) but no last minute shifting of stuff. (I can keep all the shoes I packed!)

Tim, Marli and Sam: We love you and miss you already!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good News! Great News! Awesome News!

Our good news arrived last Friday September 14th with the quarterly update from Vietnam. We got great new pictures of Sarah, accompanied by the good news of a much better health update. She had not needed I/V fluids this quarter, she appeared to be eating a little better and she had gain a pound and a half. We were thrilled! What a great start to the weekend.

Our great News was that on Saturday, my dear friend Dena hosted a "not quite a baby shower" shower in Sarah's honor. It was great fun! Thank you all that attended and thank you Dena for a wonderful day!

Our Awesome news came at 8:30 a.m. on Monday morning September 17th. Holt called to let us know we had Travel Approval. It arrived exactly a month from our providencial approval. (Finally we were on the short end of the average wait time.) All along we had been told we could expect 3 weeks notice from our travel approval until we were expected to be there. That was not the case for us. We were told we needed to be in Vietnam by September 30th and that we would have the official giving and receiving adoption ceremony on Monday October 1st. (If you are doing the math that is less than two weeks notice.) We are thrilled! We are finally coming Sarah!

A year ago today!

Today September 3rd marks the one year anniversary that we were told that Sarah would be ours. We really had anticipated that she would have been home with us by now. Our comfort is that we know that God has been in control of every aspect of this process. We are still praying that His perfect timing will be done and hoping that "His" timing is on the early end of the averages.

Happy Day!!!

Friday August 17th was a very happy day in the Martin household. I was on the phone with my good friend Marelise lamenting to her that we still had heard nothing about Sarah's dossier approval and the other line beeped indicating I had another call. Marelise and I had played phone tag several times in the last week and I was reluctant to click over. Long story short, it was Robin with Holt calling to let me know Sarah's dossier was approved in Dong Nai. We now only wait for Travel approval. Travel approval for Dong Nai has taken anywhere from 1-2 months. We are praying for God's perfect timing and are really hoping that "His" timing is on the earlier end of the average wait times. On a side note, we were able to pick up our new car today too. (Exciting news that paled in comparison to our Dossier approval!)