Bac Lieu Orphans

I've been following a few blogs of people in the U.S. who still are awaiting approval to travel to pick up their babies in Vietnam after over a year of being matched. There are still a handful of children, all over two years old now, who are stuck and cannot be united with their families. Needless to say these families are losing their minds. I know at least one family had to walk away because of the uncertainty. I can't imagine how painful it must have been to come to the conclusion that they would never actually have a life with the child they had been matched with, a fear that I barely allowed to enter my mind while we were waiting and waiting, but was there nonetheless. It's hard to know whether the "blame" rests in the hands of the VN government or ours, or a combination of the two. All I know is that, with an unlucky turn of fate, this could have been us, one of these children could have been Beatrice. The future of these children, should they remain in Vietnam, is grim. The adoptive parents have decided to do what they can and take turns volunteering over there, trying to stimulate the children in different ways, nourish them, and expose them to English as they cling to the hope that things will be resolved. Amazing people. They may never bring their children home, but they are trying desperately to better the lives of these children, the children that they love and consider their own. I watched the video below and, while the province, orphanage, and adoption agency are all different, so much was familiar to me...the sounds, the courtyard, the linoleum....I am so, so, so grateful and, in Vietnamese terms, so very very "lucky."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QELsGAoianQ