VERY NICE......

Okay Hank, I stole the thumbs up picture idea from ya! Sorry pal......
Anyway, some great news today! Our Child Dossier was approved by the MOJ! Now Holt will appear on our behalf, sign the committment papers, and then we will get approval from the People's Committee. These two steps usually take a month. If all goes well, we will get travel approval about the first of September and travel later in the month. At the same time, we are waiting for I-600 approval from the USCIS. That can take up to 60 working days (it was submitted July 14th), but it seems like for most Holt families, it is 30-45 days. That would put our I-600 approval between August 22 and September 16. Hopefully it will all come together in August and We'll have Emma Reese home by October! Thanks for all your prayers and support!

I-600 APPLICATION RECEIVED!!!

This morning we received an e-mail from USCIS in Ho Chi Minh City notifying us that our I-600 application (a very important step) has been received! Now the embassy staff will investigate Emma's case to verify that she is indeed an orphan. The time frame they give is 60 days, however it seems in most Holt adoptions it is around 45 days! That means we could possible be cleared for travel in early September! We are still waiting on Emma's dossier to be approved and should have word anyday! Looks like our goal of September travel is still most likely! Keep us in your prayers! Thanks!

EMMA' S ROOM

While we are anticipating approval of Emma's child dossier and our I-600 application to be submitted any day, we are very happy that her room is now ready for her arrival! Cathy loves to do crafts and has made many of the things in her room herself.

AUSTIN'S 20TH BD & 4TH OF JULY

Cathy and I celebrated the 4th

with both our families. In the

morning we went to the annual

4th of July parade in her home

town of Marlow, OK. This is the

13th consecutive year we have

attended together. We went with

Cathy's sister, brother-in-law, and

their two little ones, Judson and

Zoe. It was good to get to spend time with them as well as Cathy's mom and grandma. That evening we went to watch fireworks just north of my hometown EL Reno, OK with my family. We enjoyed hanging out with my mom, sister, and nieces. It was a fun 4th of July! On Sunday the 6th, we celebrated Austin's 20th birthday! We had Hideaway Pizza (famous in Oklahoma) and birthday cupcakes. Abby (Austin's sis) and Kelly (Abby's boyfriend) were there as well as Austin's girlfriend Jolene. We missed Candice (Austin's sis who is in Japan) but we know she was thinking of him. It was a small group, but we all enjoyed celebrating our son's 20th BD!

COZUMEL MEXICO

Here are a few family pics from our vacation to Cozumel. This should be about the last "Emmaless" vacation!

NEW PICTURES!

Well we are in Cozumel Mexico right now, but we were thrilled when we checked e-mail last night and saw the update from Holt. I will post some details later on, but for right no here are the new pics of our daughter!

FATHERS DAY 2008

Happy Fathers Day to all the dads out there and soon to be dads like me. In my mind I am sort of an "in between" dad. I have always tried to be a good step-father to Candice, Abby, and Austin, but I do understand that I can't replace their dad, nor do I want to try to. I am very happy that Abby & Austin got to spend Father's Day with their dad Tom and I am sure Candice is thinking about him from Japan. The kids have always treated me awesome and I love you guys very much!

I also want to give a special HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to my dad, Lanny Keller, and Cathy's dad Ed Wells! Also my brother Mike Keller and brother-in-law Woody Wilson. They are all great dads that I look up to.

Since we don't actually have Emma yet, that also contributes to my "in between" status. I don't actually feel like a dad just yet, but that will change soon. Cathy made me this awesome little book that I want to share with you. The pics aren't great, but I hope you can read the captions. It is very sweet and I will always treasure it! Enjoy!

MOJ DOSSIER APPROVAL!!!

Well we got the news we have been waiting for this morning, approval of our dossier (paperwork) by the Vietnamese Ministry of Justice. This is a very big step in the adoption process. Our time frame said the approval would happen about mid-June so we are two weeks ahead of schedule. Now Emma's paperwork at the orphanage is being sent to the MOJ where they will review and approve it. We anticipate this will take eight weeks, so we are saying August 1 (hopefully sooner). Hopefully this will bump our travel time frame up to early September. Thanks for all the prayers, keep them coming!

On a lighter note. Here is a video of our son Austin long boarding on our street with our Yellow Lab Dawson. It's how dawson gets his workout!

No New Pics, But Some Good News

We found out through Rebecca and Anthony that Emma has been placed with a foster family until we can bring her home. This is a positive thing as it will allow her to get the one on one care she needs and develop some skills that otherwise would be difficult to learn at the orphanage. The bad news is they were unable to take any photos because she was not there. The orphanage reassured them that the package we sent would get to her. We are getting ready to send her a doll and a few more pictures this week.

If you have not done so, please, please, please take a minute to contact your congressman and senator as requested in the previous blog. It is very simple and only takes a minute. If we can get a large group of unified people, it would make a huge impact. We are praying for MOJ approval any day. Thanks for all your support!

Nothing New This Week

Hello everyone. I know many of our friends and family check the blog regularly. Unfortunately there really hasn't been any new developments in the past week as far as the adoption goes. We are a tad frustrated that we have not received MOJ approval by now. Two other families who submitted their paperwork at the same time received approval over two weeks ago. It's just hard to be patient and understand why ours has not been approved. Last week we sent Emma a toy, outfit, and some pictures. We have purchased her a small doll and an Elmo. We are going to send the doll this week and the Elmo later on. We buy two of everything so when we get he home, the same toys she had in Binh Duong will be here. We have been told the toys we send her do not come with her when we bring her home.

School is out for Cathy and I. The busy pool season started for me on Saturday, although the preparations started over a month ago. It is an extremely stressful time for me as we now have 18 commercial pools and almost 100 part-time employees. Believe me summer is no break for this teacher! I want summer to go as fast as possible. One, to bring Emma home, and two for pool season to be over. Teaching 9th grade is much less stressful than running the pool company! I couldn't do it without our daughter Abby, she has taken a large role in the business. Also, Adria Smith, Eric Wright and Brian Beale have taken on supervisory positions with our company. All three of them are good friends and teach with us at PC North. They help us out alot and we couldn't do it without them.

Cathy has been working around the house. We have been going to the gym in the morning. Emma's room is slowly taking shape. Everyone asks if there is anything new, but unfortunately there is nothing as of today. We do think we'll get new pictures and an update at the end of June. There is a couple over there right now that picked up their son from Emma's orphanage. They graciously took a package to her from us. We are hoping they were able to take a few pictures of her while they were there. We are all just craving new pictures and information.

Well that's all for now. Please keep our family in your prayers. Candice has taken a job in Japan and is moving there June 3rd. Say a special prayer for her. Thank you for your love and support. Hopefully our next post will be about MOJ approval!

WE HAVE CHOSEN A MIDDLE NAME

Okay, we want to say thanks for everyone that voted in our middle name poll. We carefully considered all the names listed. We also looked at several Vietnamese names, but couldn't seem to find anything we really liked that went well with Emma. Cathy recently came up with a new name that wasn't on the poll and we both loved it! Her name will be EMMA REESE KELLER.

On another note, we hope to have some news soon regarding the approval of our dossier by the Vietnamese Ministry of Justice. Right now we anticipate travel in mid to late September. However if this approval comes in soon and our orphanage can quickly get their paperwork to the Vietnamese government, it could possibly shave some time off. We'll keep you updated.