We adopted Evan Binh Minh from Bac Ninh, Vietnam on June 17th, 2010 at the age of 6 months. Like most orphans, he was listless and quiet. But within only a month with 2 parents, his development was rapid, and he changed dramatically. Just look:

Here’s a link to the video if you want to share it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W04FnjG5TZA

This is a great example of the importance of children having a proper family care for them.

Over a relentless 5 year process trying to adopt an infant, I’ve learned that politicians, institutions, and even non profit organizations like Unicef around the world feel that it’s best children stay left abandoned in orphanages or foster care in their own countries rather than be adopted internationally.
That is no kind of life, and I think children deserve better!

But the diseased world we live in has much higher priorities right now than children… things like the stock market, military, and politics.

We recently took an incredible journey to one of the most beautiful parts of Vietnam, Ha Long Bay while we’re waiting for citizenship paperwork to be completed for the recent adoption of our boy Evan Binh Minh. It’s around the middle of the Vietnam and China ocean, where the red A is below:

We had a fantastic 2 day cruise on the excellent Indochina Sails. Their boats are very classic, in between a Chinese junk ship, and an classic wood Galleon ship. It was really incredible, kind of like being in a Pirates of the Caribbean or Lord of the Rings movie! It was our first cruise and we really enjoyed it, very luxurious, but cheaper than a hotel!
The bay is between Vietnam and China, and has hundreds of islands, caves, and exciting wonders, with lots of local fishing boats.

.

Part of the tour of the bay included swimming in the warm, very salty ocean on a beach off one of the islands. It was Evan’s first time in the ocean, he was mesmerized!
Then, we were taking to a floating fishing village subsidized by the Vietnam government. Everything on water, including floating stores that came up to our boat with their wares, latched right beside us as we were travelling, and a floating school! It was truly unreal how these people live where they work. You can see all of this in the photos below:

Finally, we went to a cave called surprise cave that was a massive underground cavern inside one of the island mountains! There were even live bats inside that we saw hanging around, and since we were the first visitors to the cave in the morning, we got to see them in their natural habitat flying around the back of the cave! Evan was asleep and suddenly woke up inside this cave, I wonder what he thought? He seemed quite fascinated.

We wished it was longer and will definitely be back for a longer tour, as there is so much to see in this beautiful place, the photos give a tiny glimpse of what you see when your there. I highly recommend you visit this part of the world… Fascinating!

It’s fathers day, and I’m please to celebrate for the first time as a father to a beautiful 6 month old baby boy, Evan Binh Minh!

Evan first visit w Jarome

We just adopted him on the 17th of June from Bac Ninh, Vietnam. We’ve been waiting a long time for this, over 5 years, and I haven’t mentioned much about it because we’ve had so many failed attempts but we are very excited that this is now finally happening.
It’s such a joy to be with him and spend time and bond with him! This whole experience is been truly surreal and very exciting. He is a very precious boy.

Evan Binh Minh Sleeping - can't get over how adorable he is when sleeping!

Now we are submitting paperwork for the next 2 to 3 weeks to get his Canadian citizenship, passport and visa. While waiting for the paperwork we hope to visit some of Evan’s beautiful home country and go on some adventures together here.

Thanks for all your prayers, kind words of encouragement and support! It’s not over yet, so keep it coming. Would love to share more photos and internet we have, but internet here is very poor and unpredictable.

Evan first adventure with Felisha

We’re supposed to be at the airport right now for a 2am flight to Vietnam to adopt our boy Evan, but I’m here writing this blog instead.
Guess the only thing you can be sure of when you embark on the adoption roller coaster is that you can never be sure of anything!

The group adopting from the orphanage before us is still there, waiting for their paperwork which has been delayed now for weeks.
Unless they get what they need completed and come home, we can’t go.
Even once that happens, we don’t know when we’ll go as new plans have to be made around Christmas and New Years holidays.

This will give me a much needed break, as I try to be patient and wait for those with the authority to do so let little Evan and the other waiting babies have a permanent family.
Until then, he’ll be waiting in the Orphanage in, Vietnam.

We’ve been on quite a roller coaster ride over the last 4 years in our attempt to adopt a baby. Things have not gone so well, but recently, we were proposed a baby from Vietnam. We debated whether or not to go through the pain of completing huge amounts of paperwork and preparations, not knowing if anything would come out of it, but thought we should take advantage of this opportunity and give it one more try.

We were told to expect the process to complete next year some time in Feb or March, but got the news last week that the baby is ready and we need to go to Vietnam on Dec 7th, 2009 to receive! We’re extremely excited and frantically making preparations that couples often have 9 months to do in one month (we didn’t feel able to prepare properly in the past not knowing what would happen with our previous attempts at adopting from Canada, China, and Korea…)

He is a boy and his name is Ut, but we will also give him the Western name Evan. He will be four months old when we get him and we expect to stay in Hanoi, Vietnam for at least 3 weeks to complete legal and immigration paperwork once we receive him.

At this point, any number of things could happen to change this adoption or prevent it from happening, and until the baby is back home in Canada, it is in no way official. So please keep us in your prayers.

More info to follow, just check back here soon.

Today, on the inauguration of Baha’i Rights Day, most people are posting about the persecution of Baha’is in Iran. But persecution of Baha’is is certainly not limited to Iran.

Over a month ago, I posted about how we were facing discrimination in adopting a Korean baby due to our being members of the Baha’i faith.

Despite a personal visit to the Government run agency in Korea by the top administration of the Baha’i faith in Korea, which revealed significant ignorance of the faith, the agency returned our dossier (all our application papers and funds) last week and sent our local agency a letter claiming the refusal of the adoption.
The fact that they have returned all our application papers last week and have made a final decision so quickly shows they are no longer willing to discuss this case, and it is now officially closed, as nothing can be done without those papers.

This not only affects our adoption, and any Korean Baha’is that may want to adopt in that country, but people of many other faiths adopting from other countries as well. The fact that the limited resources of the international Baha’i community are focused on the possible execution of 7 Baha’is arrested in Iran for their beliefs makes our case insignificant at the moment.

All I want to see is some justice in this case, especially considering that the agency could have informed us 6 months before, and not proposed a child to us if they had issues with our beleifs. The failure on their part to do this would no doubt guarantee successful results if pursued legally.

However we live in a world where injustice prevails and is the standard. Here we are, trying to adopt a baby from 4 different countries for over 5 years now, and despite being ideal candidates and fulfilling all legal, health, psychological, financial, and social requirements one needs to adopt, nationalism of countries and the lack of value for children in our society has left us unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, Mothers abort babies every day, have children that they don’t want, and abuse them at will with little consequences.

If anything, our world has little respect for children, and is becoming more complacent and less tolerant of others beliefs than ever. The only recourse is to spread information of this case, and others far and wide so that people of faith are aware and can show the world that this is actually NOT acceptable, and we won’t be complacent when discriminated against.

Recently, after 4 years of trying internationally, we were ecstatic to receive a proposal to adopt a baby boy from Korea in April.
We were shocked to hear yesterday that the government adoption agency in Korea, Social Welfare Society, has suddenly refused our adoption based on our membership to the Baha’i faith. The adoption would have completed sometime in August.

I never thought we would have to deal with discrimination based on our beliefs, which is unacceptable for many reasons, one being that in the long list of requirements to adopt from Korea, there was no mention of any religious restrictions. In addition, if there were concerns, these could have been brought up early in the process after Korea received our initial information rather than now, near the completion, after we have received detailed information on the baby and made significant time, financial, and emotional investment.
Add to this the fact that Baha’is are not only one of the most gentle and agreeable and nonthreatening people on the planet, but also have a deep respect and high regard for children and their education and upbringing.

Our agency says this is the most shocking thing they’ve encountered in their many years pioneering international adoption.

We are already in touch with the highest Baha’i administration in Korea. Rest assured, we will be taking steps to see justice is done.