Weekend Whirlwind

Native to Ohio?

Trip to Trader's World- Saturday July 21,2007
Saturday we ventured over to Trader's World which is a HUGE flea market that is very unique. You can find nearly anything at Trader's World-- case in point, the large plastic giraffes.


Later on Saturday, Mom and Roger stopped by with a WONDERFUL gift for our baby, their grandchild-to-be. We LOVED this high chair the minute we saw it and were THRILLED to receive it. Michael and Roger wasted no time and put it together. YAY!! Thanks again Mom and Roger!

Saturday evening we decided to go to the festival held in Middletown, Ohio-- the OHIO Challenge. The event is focused on a hot air balloon races and features several related attractions. We attended the balloon glow which was AMAZING! We simply stood and watched as the balloons were inflated while they were tethered to the ground. After the HUGE balloons were filled with air, they were illuminated by their flame, creating a BEAUTIFUL glow. Truly incredible.





Sunday, July 22nd-- A day at the Auction. Today Michael and Janie went shopping for new treasures at an auction held at a local gift/antique store that was no longer in business. The items went for AMAZING prices. A few of our favorite 'finds' are pictured above. We just love the solid brass Viking ship and 3-D wall art. Also purchased was the bumper pool table, outdoor tree decorations, a HUGE rattan basket, several vases, and 2 paintings. A very nice ending to a VERY nice weekend!!

Poll: Is this a "Man Purse"?

You probably noticed the picture of me with the diaper bag in our last post. There's a little story behind how we purchased it that I'll share in a moment. But, here's the question - is this a cool non-descript bag (that just happens to hold diapers and other baby paraphenalia) or is it just a shameless man purse? Please vote now in the comments section!

Here are close ups to help you make your decision:







Ok, now the story....


We start at our local Babies R Us looking at a whole shelf of bags. The goal is to find a bag suitable to both J and I. Her goal: hold all the necessary stuff. My goal: look cool (and hold all the stuff).


Like two trial lawyers picking a jury, we both exercise our preemptive strikes - out goes backpacks, "Baby Sack", Eddie Bauer, and some brand with little bottles all over it! What we are left with are a bunch of black bags that either a) are too small upon further inspection or b) look like large purses. This is where I remark that I don't want a "man purse" to carry around.


Striking out at the Baby bazaar, we head to our local Target. The selection here is much more our style and we find a bag we can both agree on. After adjusting the straps to an acceptable guy-level, I am walking around with it over my shoulder. I can handle this. I'm ready to say yes when, out of nowhere, come the dreaded words... "... man purse..."!!


No, it wasn't the voice of God. But, for some unknown reason, at just that point, two men walked by and uttered that phrase. Were they referring to me? I'll never know... given the days experience all we could do was laugh.

What a Weekend!!

Well, after shopping for MORE baby stuff (bottles, carrier,etc) on Friday night we decided to get ORGANIZED!! So, we got out all the toys to see what we have bought versus what we still need. From this, it appears as though we are SET with regards to toys. YIKES!! How many toys does this child HAVE?! The diaper bag also got taken out and packed with a few items(see our lovely model) showing it off?!

Saturday we spent most of the day around the house just relaxing. On Saturday night we met the adoption group for dinner at Emilie's house. Emilie made reservations at a WONDERFUL Italian restaurant in Oxford (Paesano's) and we had a delicious meal. We had a great time and after we returned to Emilie's house for dessert. Here is the picture from Emilie's house of our group.

Front Row: Bob, Leslie, and Emilie

Back Row: Dana, and (of course) Janie and Michael

Sunday we went over to Dana's house for some SWIMMING!! The water was warm and the weather cooperated for our outing although the sky looked a bit threatening. We splashed around in the pool for over two hours.What a perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon in the summer! Here is our lovely host (and belated birthday girl) with her furry baby, Molly.

The weekend ended on a productive note. After swimming, we went shopping (AGAIN!) and bought these adorable lights for little Baby _____'s room. We hung them over the closet.Michael worked hard getting each dragonfly to be angled perfectly according to Janie's directions. We are very pleased with the end result!! They are a perfect night light and add a really special touch to the nursery.

Orphanage Gifts? Check!!

Today we decided to take care of another item on our to-do list. Janie and Leslie decided to shop for gifts for the children who live in the orphanage where our babies currently reside. Leslie knew of a great local place to go shopping for small toys, school supplies, etc and plans were made to GO SHOPPING!! We each came away with a TON of stuff and had a great time looking at all of the fun possibilities. Should we take this?! How about that?! Would kids in Vietnam 'get' the uses of Silly Putty? Would they understand Tic Tac Toe? How well does glitter glue hold up in terms of translation? (We decided NOT to buy the glitter glue!!) We came away with a lot of great finds and the owner of the shop managed to snap a picture of us and one of our 'finds'. Enjoy!!

Welcome to our New Blog!

If you're reading this, thank you for making the switch with us. And, you're probably wondering why....

To provide some much needed background, our family (along with 3 (now several others) decided to leave our first agency in the beginning of April. We left due to the fact that the agency was having some real issues in terms of getting referrals and we knew this would not be in our best interests to wait around with them for a (seemingly) infinite period of time. After doing some much needed research, several truths came to light regarding the real possibility that this agency would likely continue to have problems delivering referrals for the families in its Vietnam program. These truths were confirmed by the head of our agency. Our agency was actively touting a program that was in its infancy and taking on WAY more families than it could provide referrals in any reasonable length of time.

To elaborate, from the time we joined the agency in mid- June 2006 and the time we decided to leave, April 4, 2007– we saw a TOTAL of less than 10 families bring their children home with our agency. During the same time, our agency had amassed a list that has well over 100 waiting families (150 families from some informal/conservative estimates that we have gathered). The agency had not seen a referral since late January 2007 and had not moved up the ‘list’ since. We were stuck at approximately #13, WAITING and we were getting upset. And according to the agency, we were one of the ‘lucky’ ones as we were at the beginning of the list for a baby girl.

To us, this was NOT a ‘lucky’ place to be. So, we decided to look around a bit. Coincidentally, most of our group (later to become some very close friends) was set to meet on Saturday for dinner as we periodically had done during our wait. We all discussed our growing dissatisfaction and felt a bit better getting all of this off our chests. Independently, we continued to gather research on our various options. We met again on Tuesday of that week for dinner and decided to apply to our new agency. We were all accepted as a group and our dossiers were subsequently transferred to the new agency.

Fast forward to today—
Since joining our new agency, there have been 13 referrals (10 last Monday, July 2nd alone). The first three of these 13 referrals are currently being picked up in Vietnam as I write this. Their G&R (Giving and Receiving) ceremony took place without a hitch on Monday (the 9th) and the families will be headed to Hanoi shortly to complete the rest of the adoption process. The other 10 families with referrals just got their travel dates (yesterday) are set to travel in late July and early-mid August.

Where does that leave us?!

NEXT!!!

That’s right– our group of 5 (4 original families and one more (very special) refugee family from our former agency) adopting families is NEXT in line for a referral. That’s right- NEXT!!! We are VERY pleased with this news and are told that our referrals will likely come VERY shortly. After referral, our time to travel is also anticipated to be very short.
We fully expect this to be the case!

Thanks again for following our journey!!
-The Gustins