Why Are We Going to Vietnam?

This journey actually began when we adopted Zachary from Vietnam in 1999. During that trip and the subsequent trip in 2001 to adopt Sean we saw very young children working on the streets selling postcards and souvenirs to support their families instead of attending school. We also realized that the orphanages lacked the proper funding to adequately care for all of the children living there and that many were being turned out to live on the streets at a young age. I have wanted to go back ever since then to do volunteer work to help the children of Vietnam and to give something back to the country where our children were born.

I found out about the Catalyst Foundation's Aid Expedition while attending a Vietnamese Culture Camp organized by the Catalyst Foundation. They do humanitarian work for Vietnamese children all year round, but every 2 years they organize a humanitarian aid expedition for anyone that is interested in participating. Their focus is on helping children who are at risk of being exploited by child traffickers.

Originally I was planning to go on this trip by myself. It fell at a very opportune time since the kids are both in school full time, I'm still a stay-at-home mom, and Lee is on a job assignment where he is working from home until the end of March so it will be easy for him to take care of the before and after school responsibilities with the kids.

I applied to go on the trip in January 2007 and was planning on going by myself. Zachary became interested in the trip this past summer and decided he wanted to go as well. So he will be joining me on his first trip back to Vietnam on what is sure to be the most exciting adventure of his life so far!