Good news and bad news!

Hi friends and family!

First of all I want to say thanks for all the comments and emails. We look forward to having some comments and contact with all of you at home.

Well Wednesday (Tuesday night there) was our board meeting with the Department of Child Welfare. Things moved fairly quickly there, and we were very pleased that we were given permission from the board to officially adopt Petch. Then things sort of got frustrating...... Most of you know the struggles we have had adopting our son due to complications of proving his citizenship. It is an unusual case, and have already had struggles getting here. I won't go into all the details as they are difficult to understand even for us, but we have to complete an extra step in order to get approved for the adoption. Wednesday in the afternoon we had to go to the Bangkok/US immigration office to submit documents of our case and await their review of them -and hopefully will have adequate documentation and receive approval. Well they did not receive information from the US immigration office that they needed to fully begin review of our case. It was frustrating, and stressful as we did confirm that the information was sent to them- however for some reason they didn't have it! Lucky us, right?! It seems that whenever there is a bump we hit it!! We are hoping the missing paperwork will be resolved by tomorrow (Friday) and have had much assistance and support from Holt to get this resolved ASAP. We have a few more steps before we are complete with all the "clearances", and do not want any delays.

That said, today was Thursday and after a quick (and very hot) trip back to the Immigration office to give them our emails of the follow up on missing papers we took the day off!! :) We went to a mall, got Petch a red PSP and Joe got a skateboard. Then we ate at some great places, and headed back to the pool. We traveled by the sky train, and I want you all to know we did a lot better-we didn't look quite as unable as the last time! We are turning into City folk now!!

Petch is still full of smiles. He did say "mom" and "dad" on his own today!! HOORAY.... He also said "yes" and "no". Progress. He is swimming like Michael Phelps (or dad thinks so) after only 2 short days in the pool. He is amazing, of course.

We are planning to go to Phuket on saturday. We don't think that there will be any hold ups since the immigration office is going to need time to review our documents. WE found a really nice resort with a 2 bedroom villa that will give us some more space, and more childrens activities. Booking that has also come with its challenges due to our family size (I know they aren't even all here), and due to Petch's documents. Devan will take his paperwork to the Thai airway office tomorrow and hopefully they will let him pay!! :)

Hope you enjoyed the photos, not as many since there has been a lot of meetings and phone calls lately trying to arrange things for the next week.

Love to all,
Hollie, Devan, and the three musketeers (or stooges) whatever you prefer!!