Working on our RFE response

Today we are working on our response to our RFE! Our attorney is submitting it but we want to make sure we add as much as possible too. Halle-Grace is teething but is a trooper! She is still loving life and SO are we! Please pray for our response to be what it needs to be and to show that we have shown our best effort to locate birth parents with the mulitiple ads, etc.

We will type later...lots to do to get this VERY important document finished so we can bring Halle-Grace home!

The Devines in Vietnam!

**Below are photos of Halle-Grace with her nannies at TQ (aka...angels)***

GREAT NEWS and of course more great photos.

Yesterday was so busy/crazy I didn't do much of anything and didn't have access to blog. We have officially moved 4 times and are NOW settled in an apartment for the rest of our stay! We are staying at the Somerset Hoa Binh Hanoi. It is VERY nice and too darn expensive! But that is just the way it goes!! OH WELL, I have to sell LOTS of Synvisc when I go back to work! I think Halle-Grace can increase my sales? What do you think? She is so cute!

SO, the GREAT news!!! As you know 40+ families with children in TQ received a RFE on July 19th asking us (the adoptive parents) to prove our children are, in fact, orphans. The ads completed their run-time on Aug. 31st...NO one came forward! We adopted Halle-Grace on September 1st! The first family to submit their rebuttal HAS RECEIVED AN APPROVAL!!!! Jason woke me up the other morning about 2am with the GREAT news! Here's the thing, we all received the "same letter word for word"...so you are probably thinking SUBMIT YOUR REBUTTAL!!! We wanted to wait on the ads to complete their run-time. Michael Valverde with USCIS sent all families an email telling us we could use copies of the affidavits vs. waiting til mid-September to submit originals! PLEASE GET ON YOUR KNEES AND PRAY! I am so serious! I know prayer works and all of the families need to bring their children home! IT IS TIME!!!

I will have Jason type about the "apartment hunting experience, Shannon & Halle-Grace lost in a taxi in Hanoi" and so on

THE DEVINES IN VIETNAM!!!

Judy *GRANNY*, give Gabby some extra love for us!

Watch our for HURRICANE HANNA...I read on Yahoo news it is coming for the Carolinas!

INTRODUCING...Princess Halle-Grace Khanh Devine

Somebody is a HAM, the "life of the party", loves to have her picture taken...and is already spoiled!!! You would NEVER believe this child left an orphanage 72 hours ago! It's amazing! She is saying DA DA...what is up with that?? Mama is the one who is going to live in her birth country until her leave is over...and she gets a visa! HATS OFF TO MY MANAGER, KANE ROGERS & GENZYME for being so supportive!!!
Today we are getting Halle-Grace's Vietnamese passport (could not do that yesterday). She just took her second dose of antibiotics and is feeling SO much better. No more smelly nose! WE FOUND AN APARTMENT....when you are waiting on a visa it is much less expensive to stay in an apartment that will rent by the month, etc. vs. a hotel room AND the hotel room is cramping wild woman's "new princess style"! She knows she is princess now!

We love you all!

Shannon, Jason & Halle Grace (keep praying for her US visa so you can meet her)!

Just another day in Paradise...Halle-Grace land!

WOW! Halle-Grace is just so darn adorable! I know I have said this 100 times but she is the BEST BABY! She is so funny and last night she entertained the restaurant while we had dinner at a restaurant at Hoan Kiem Lake. BOY, it was busy...at least 10,000 motor bikes again! It's amazing they sit 3-4 on a motor bike and little kids just hang on for the ride! We had dinner with another CAS family who adopted their son, James from the Da Nang province (Kaitlyn's province...WE LOVE KAITLIN! Sherri, I know you read here so I will tell you now...the baby back pack is the BEST, the toys...Halle-Grace loves and everything you told me has come in so handy. I can't thank you enough. I know what Kaitlyn she will say when we ask her "where was Halle-Grace born?" She is too cute!)

So while we are having dinner with George, Mary and James this older Vietnamese lady took about 5 photos of me! It made me feel weird! I know it's not because I was looking nice...none of my hair products work here, my hairdryer barely, my curling iron or straightening iron..NOT! And it is SO hot, there is no reason to have make-up running off your face so that part was bad too! Maybe she is doing a documentary on how Americans should not look in a foreign country! Jason said it was OK that he is doing the same thing. I said what do you mean, his answer, "taking pictures of everything that is strange looking/out of the ordinary...such as the sea of motor bikes..." Well that made me feel good...NOT!

So, back to the most important thing...HALLE-GRACE! She's amazing!!! Have I said that yet? Yesterday she had a BIG day. We had a bath in the sink. She is so tiny that it was too big for her. She loved her bath and was amazed with it! I am not sure if they took baths at the orphanage. Don't get me wrong the babies are clean but it is probably more of a process such as a pan and a wash cloth type of deal, but maybe she was just excited to be in the sink too. She splashed around and her daddy doesn't want nudie photos so I had to cover her privates up! HE IS NOT RIGHT!!! Speaking of the "little ham" she went with her daddy to the super market in the Baby Bjourn and she LOVED it (Thank you Lori this has been a handy dandy). She talked to everyone and Jason said they need to leave 30 min. early next time because everyone stops and says "beautiful" and clicks at her. They make a clicking sound to the children.

She is still sleeping like a wild woman but is so peaceful when she does so. I am getting ready to call Miss Hannah who has tried to call many times. She wants to talk to Halle-Grace so bad! She told me that she sleeps like her and acts like her too. She is not enjoying being called "Hurrican Hanna". Hunter tells me he is enjoying middle-school. He is playing football for the first time this year and loves it...but he is still going to play basketball at Carolina (Tarheels that is!!!)

More later on our tiny miracle.

Love,

Shannon, Jason & Halle-Grace

She is PERFECT!

SHE IS THE PERFECT BABY!!! She is funny, laughs A LOT! Is a SHOW OFF in the restaurant and wants ALL eyes on her! I have no idea where she got the idea of "being a ham"....no comments! LOL!

She found the mirror and loves it! She sleeps just like her mom....all over the bed! She also found Vietnamese cartoons on TV and yelled at them forever!!! Everyone loves on her when we are out! They all say "BIG EYES"! She is just amazing!!! I can't begin to describe God has revealed HIS perfect plan! She is our baby and He has always known exactly when & where!!!

More blogging & photos later...she is napping with her daddy!

More adoption day pics...then it's bedtime

Bedtime for mom...Halle-Grace has been sleeping since 9pm...its 12:30am now! More tomorrow. She is OUR TINY MIRACLE!!!

ADOPTION DAY!!!

WHAT A DAY!!! I promise to type all details tomorrow. You can see from the last photo who is already asleep back in Hanoi! She is precious, beautiful, amazing and the BEST baby! She is so happy and laughs a lot. Check back tomorrow for more photos