This is one of the most informative interviews that I’ve heard from Archangel Michael. He answers questions like will the Earth disappear from Third Dimensionality when we ascend? Will children and pets need preparation to ascend? Will our houses and apartments be the same? Will we arrive with all our powers instantly available to us?

He tells us that the passport to Ascension is love. In another place he gives the example of an African woman who knows nothing about Ascension or ascended masters, etc., but who is pure and assures us that she will ascend.

He says that Ascension is available to everyone. There is no exclusivity about Ascension. Very reassuring. Next week we’ll have Commander Ashtar, who we had earlier planned to have on today along with AAM. Thanks to Ellen for such a fast turnaround in transcription.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/inlight_radio/2012/08/07/an-hour-with-an-angel

An Hour with an Angel with Archangel Michael, August 6, 2012

Graham Dewyea: Hello, and welcome to An Hour with an Angel, with Linda Dillon, the channel for the Council of Love and author of The Great Awakening, and Steve Beckow, of the 2012 Scenario. I’m Graham Dewyea. Our guest today is Archangel Michael.

So, with that, I’ll pass it on to you, Steve.

Steve Beckow: Thank you, Graham. And welcome, Lord.

Archangel Michael: Greetings, I am Michael, warrior of peace, gentle archangel of love. Welcome. Welcome all. Welcome to this time of conversation, of reunion, of transition, of upgrades, of becoming. Welcome to this time that we have to share together.

Let us begin by reigniting yet again my bright flame of truth, the bright flame of blue, within each of your hearts, your throats, your crown, your mind and your being.

Yes, we know that you are learning patience, and this is one of the more difficult virtues and qualities for human beings because it is not in your nature, particularly at this time of transition, to be standing still. For there is not a single one of you who is listening to this tonight who wishes to be reminded to stand still and be the observer. So let us get to this and talk about it.

My beloved friend, where do you wish to start?

SB: Well, Lord, I thought what would be good today to look at, many people would like to know what’s going to be happening between now and Ascension on December 21^st, or whenever it’s to be. What can we expect to be occurring in our bodies, in our emotions, in our experience of life?

AAM: A great deal is already underway. And that is particularly true for those who are listening to this program who have decided, on a soul level, long before they even incarnated, that they would undergo Ascension with and by Gaia, the galactics and inter-galactics, and the human collective, the kingdoms.

So do not, first of all, dismiss what has already taken place. Yes, there are many — we would say, in fact, probably what you would view as the majority — who are not consciously aware of many of the shifts that are taking places within their bodies, within their minds, within their beingness. But nevertheless, that does not mean that the shift is not already well underway.

You know that this is not a short process, and that it has begun. We have often referred to the process of 25 years that the human collective has been involved in this undertaking, but let’s be very clear: for each of you who have decided, consciously and within your very core of your being, that you are undergoing Ascension, and that you are welcoming it eagerly and profoundly into your life, into your consciousness, into your being, this process began even before you chose it in reincarnation. So it has been going on and building your entire life.

Now, have you been positioned? Because I will not use the word ‘stuck’. In fact, I will not use that word in reference to this process any longer. And I invite all of you to throw away this word and to correct me if I use it again! But you ask, what changes can we expect? And I ask each of you to look at your hearts and your bodies, your environments and your situations.

Your clearest indicator of what is taking place within this Ascension process is your heart. It is the core of your being, knowing and deciding that you are choosing love, that you are more joyful, less restless, less impatient, and yet at the same time more eager to embrace the new adventure and to let go of the old third reality of duality, of polarity, of all the false paradigms that have been created by the third.

In your physical form, begin to feel yourself be reconstructed, and we would suggest not only in the external but from the inside out, because much of this is occurring with the activation of parts of your brain, of your glands, of your organs, of your bone marrow, of your subatomic fibers, of your DNA, of the shift from carbon to crystalline-based. So also pay attention to your physical form.

Now, there has been a lot said and a great deal of discussion about Ascension symptoms — cosmic flu, dizziness, depression troughs, crests of the wave — but it is also your body that is transforming, not only so that you can hold the higher frequencies, maintain the higher frequencies, but because you already are holding more energy, higher frequency, more love, more light than you ever have before.

Now, what does this mean in a physical way? First of all what it means is that if there are situations — mental, emotional, causal — on any level that are within your physical form — and they are — these will come to the surface for love, for release, for elimination. So do not be surprised if you think, “Well, I am doing my work, and I am being very diligent in my work, but this situation of asthma, of diabetes, seems to be in a flare-up phase, worse than ever.”

Or if you have an emotional difficulty or imbalance of depression or anxiety, that all of a sudden you are feeling more anxious than you have felt in years, this is because the situation, the imprint or the actual anchoring within your physicality, is coming to the surface.

Now, how is it coming to the surface, and how does this relate to Ascension? Well, I tell you, first of all the penetration of each of you during this time of transition by the Mother/Father/One, by your own guides, by your brothers and sisters of the stars, is not lessening, it is increasing, and it is increasing rapidly. So you are holding more energy. And as that is coming in, it is also acting as a cleanser, as a vacuum cleaner, as a slush for these things to come up and out.

But as this also occurs, as the healing takes place, what you are going to find is that you are going to feel more vibrant, younger — younger in the human sense of the word, for our sense of young and your sense is very different! But soon you will remember all of that.

You will look more vibrant, and therefore more youthful, can we say. You will feel that your body, your tissue, your skin, your bones, your flexibility, your organs, that all of you seems to be functioning more harmoniously, more effectively, more like who you really are. And so, pay attention to that. Pay attention to issues or qualities that you have been wanting to bring forth over a long period of time suddenly feeling like you are having a breakthrough.

I give you an example of weight. Many of you talk to me every day — you talk to all of us! — about losing a few pounds, or about gaining a few pounds. And what you will notice is the ease at which your body begins to adjust to what is the perfect construction for you, dear heart. So that is a physical situation that you can anticipate.

Now, the Ascension process is collective, and it is inclusive, and all are equally welcome. But because of where you are in the time-frame, some of you have jump-started; others of you are still in the resistant factor behind the fence, let alone not on the fence. So, of course, each of these processes — the mental, the physical, the emotional — is going to be progressing at the same time.

Now, let us talk about the mental. Another thing that you will notice, and that you can measure in yourself — because that is what you are really asking — each of your hearts, those of you who are listening, your hearts have been crying out and saying to me, “Lord, how do I know? How can I be sure?”

Another measure, my beloved ones, is to do with your mental acuity, including interest in things of the mental body (and, dear Steve, you have been experiencing this of late) memory, interest in mental maneuvers, and a dramatic jump — this is one of the quantum leaps that each of you will be taking — a quantum leap in what you would call mental acuity or sharpness.

So, let us talk first about the waning of interest. Now, you and the channel and your circle of my beloved InLight Radio have had some conversations that I share tonight with the listeners about not feeling as if you are being sent enough information, and then at other times feeling that you have no interest in consuming the volumes and volumes and volumes of information that is being fed to you.

You, collectively, are in a place, and have been all of this year and a good part of last year as well, and for some of you many years, where you are shifting from the electronic information age to the creator age. Now, this is not just a term for intellectual explanation, it is a term to identify the collective, and that includes each of you, sweet angels, of who you are.

So, what you are noticing in yourself, and how you can track your progress, is that your interest in information consumption is shifting. Now, that does not mean that you are not interested, curious and driven, to hear, to learn and to know the truth. In fact, this is becoming a burning passion. And that is why we begin each of our sessions together by igniting that flame and helping it burn more brightly until it truly is all consuming.

So you are becoming more discerning also in what you are wanting to consume as information, but your mental body also is rebalancing itself. Most of the human collective have lived, and do live, primarily in their mental quadrant, and they have done that for thousands of years. In your cultures — and it does not matter, east or west, north or south, unfortunately — the mind and the ego, the personality, have become paramount, king.

So, one of the things that is occurring is that your mental body is becoming more in harmony with who you really are. So, for those of you who have perhaps over-excited your mental body, you are finding that it is retreating somewhat and that your interest in things that your mental body was engaging in is taking not a full retirement, because that is not the purpose of this, but it is certainly taking a sabbatical.

And that will ebb and flow. It will ebb and flow like the tides, like the crests, like the troughs. And what is replacing that is that the rebalancing is taking place as you are tending to go not more into your emotional body — although some of you have need to rebalance that as well — but you are going more into your spiritual self, your beingness. And we ask you to allow that.

Now, part of that retreat sabbatical for your mental body is also what we would, in human language, call a dimming of some memories, or a dimming of your acuity. Some of you are feeling that you cannot retrieve information or memories — and they are related — as rapidly or as fluidly as you know you are capable of. And for some of you, dear hearts, it is causing a little bit of trepidation.

So, I am here this night to tell you, whatever you do, beloved ones, stop worrying. Give your fear to me, give it to your guides, give it to the universal Mother, but do not hang on to it. Some of your memories are being, can we say, dimmed, because they are of an emotional nature that no longer serves you. They don’t contribute to your wholeness, to the love, to your expansion; they are situations that you had obsessed about and picked at, like a scab on your skin, for years, and it is time to simply let go of.

But it is also to help you in this looking-forward and welcoming the new adventure. Now, after this little shift has taken place — and for some of you it is days, for some of you it is weeks, for some of you it is months — then what you are going to find is that you awaken one morning and you feel that bright mental clarity, brighter than you have ever felt before. As we say, the plan, the universal plan, the Mother’s plan, is not to eradicate the mental capacity. Quite the contrary, it is for you to be in complete harmony and balance with your spheres.

And so this will happen rather rapidly. You will feel like someone turned the light switch back on. But because you have gone through this period of reharmonization what you will find is that it is in balance, so you are not spending all your time in the mental body or in mental pursuits. What you are doing is then using it in harmony with your emotional sphere, your physical reality, not simply your body, but the reality of Gaia, to then begin to enter fully into your co-creative partnership with yourself, humanity, your star brothers and sisters, the kingdoms, and us.

So, it is emotional rebalancing, it is mental, it is physical. These are not happening independently, they are happening consecutively, but sometimes at the same time, simultaneously, as well. So it is not that you can say, “Now I am in the mental healing; now I am in the emotional; now I am physically regenerating.” So these are all interwoven, braided, and you will be experiencing this type even more than the Ascension symptoms, as you have been calling them. It is not that the Ascension symptoms are going away, it is simply that they are being overlaid by this larger process.

Now, you were asking me in terms of time-frames. When you know that that mental acuity has sharpened and your emotions feel more clear, more balanced, and your body is feeling vibrant and youthful, then you will also know you are at your point of full Ascension.

Now, we have said, some are going to come through that portal at the last minute, kicking and screaming. All are welcome. But there is a group of you who are already well underway, who have already been experiencing the very thing that I have been speaking of.

Now, before I open it to another question, I also want to say, you are still, some of you, experiencing the integration, and the intensity of that integration, of the love of the Mother/Father/One with the crests of great energy and clarity and the troughs. Now, go to the heart of One and that will help you even it out.

But do not think that that process is completed simply because we spoke about it earlier. This is a human misconception, and it is a misconception of your society. Because there is a belief system you are fed so quickly, and so much of the information, that you think, “Oh, I read that. Therefore it’s done.” That is not so. It is still underway. It is progressive. It is a process. It is not simply for you, who I am speaking to, just a moment in time.

Some of you have said to me, “Well, then, I am upset. Why have I decided that I have to go through this elongated process and experience when others will have the moment of simply turning the switch? I wish I had just chosen the moment of awakening.”

Dear hearts, this is your service. This is what you have said to the Mother/Father/One and to all — to the Council, to the Company of Heaven, to your star brothers and sisters: “I will go and I will prepare the way.” It is like planting the seed in the fields so that when springtime comes there is literally something to grow and thus to be harvested. It is what you do. And yes, it is because you are strong, you are leaders, you are showers of the way. But this has been your choice, not ours.

Does this answer your question, or even begin to answer your question, Steve?

SB: Oh, yes, it does, Lord. But I know that some people are wrestling with how to think about the whole question of Ascension, and I don’t just mean their own personal Ascension, but also the Ascension of Gaia. Some people think, I believe, that they’ll ascend, but they won’t move from this third-dimensional place. Some people think that they’ll — excuse me, I have to clear — that they’ll ascend and leave the third dimension altogether, just disappear from it, show up in the fifth. Some, of course you’ve said that some people will be coming back.

So, from the point of view of the observer, from the point of view of the people remaining in the third dimension, do the people who ascend early — presuming they don’t come back for a sec., just to talk about this, if we could — do they disappear from view in the third? And when Gaia herself ascends, does it disappear from view from the third? And if so, what happens to the people who were on the third and don’t go to the fifth?

Can you help us understand what would be seen in the process of Ascension, please?

AAM: The unusual and unique and beautiful qualities of this Ascension, of this wonderful unfoldment of the Ascension of Gaia and all upon her, is that you are maintaining a physical form. Now, that is why your physical bodies are changing, being adjusted — dare I say upgraded, or reclaimed? Because it is to have…. Gaia intends to still have a form of physicality.

So it is not that physicality is being abandoned. It is not. So, that is being maintained. It is not about one minute you are in your body and the next you have no body, that you are simply in a spiritual form. That is not it. Are you in a lighter form? Yes. But it is still a form of physicality.

SB: But it’s not on the third dimension, Lord, correct?

AAM: That is correct. You may think of Gaia as a very large body, as she is, but like you, she is also expanding and growing. And so for a brief period, the very edge of Gaia will brush the top of the third, which is an experience of physicality. Will it be anchored in the third realm, the third dimension? No.

But what you are doing — and I want to take time to explain this — is you are going to the higher realms, dimensions, but you are still remaining in the realm of the 12 dimensions and 12 planes within each of those dimensions. Now, by anchoring in the fifth through the seventh, what you have is the capacity to choose physicality, albeit it is not as dense as the old third reality, but it is not that the realm of what you think of as the physical simply disappears.

Now, does it alter? Yes, it does. Because in the fifth dimension there is no room for the qualities that the humans have developed and clung to. They simply don’t exist. So, what you are asking — and feel free to interrupt, dear heart, I will not take offense …

SB: Thank you.

AAM: … those who are in the third dimension right now can see you. It is almost like a mirroring effect: in the fifth dimension, you are able to reach down.… Think of it as if I operated right now in front of you. They see you, they experience you, but they are still having a third dimensional experience. But they will not be able to have that experience for much longer simply because Gaia is moving completely out of it. Therefore, to remain on Gaia, you are ascending, and you are ascending to a higher vibration. Yes, we know we often say different, but it is really a higher frequency, where you can access from that point the 12 realities.

Now, those who choose not to ascend, but they have made up a heart, mind, soul decision that they simply not even at the very last moment, that they do not choose to shift, then they will be in a different … they will be in a relocation package, let us put it that way, where they will continue to have a third dimensional experience, and to them it will feel as if nothing really changed.

Now, they will not be on Gaia, because Gaia is elsewhere, but they will be in a situation where they believe that they are on Gaia and that what they observe is still the same — until they work out what their choices are, or die. At which point they will return home. And in their review they will understand what happened, because there is no judgment of this. There is just the ardent offer and belief, because there is not a human being, or any creature, for that matter, who has incarnated at this time who did not do so with a conscious knowing of what was transpiring.

Now, have many forgotten? Yes. But they are being given — consciously, subconsciously, consciously, unconsciously — they are begin given ample opportunity to remember, and if not remember, to simply say, “Well, this makes sense. I think I will do this. My heart, it calls to me.”

Now, the other piece of that, and this is where you who have done so much diligent and beautiful, beautiful preparation, you say, “Well, if they have not done any preparation and they are not conscious of what is taking place, then how are they prepared?” These changes are still happening, subtly, in the entire populace. The Mother and Father did not say, “We will simply beam to this sector of believers or conscious beings.” No, every being on the planet is being touched. The passport, the ticket, the entry point for Ascension is love. It always has been. That is what it is about. It is a return to love.

So, if a being, if a woman in the plains of Africa, who has never seen a TV or visited the 2012 Scenario, who has never heard of the Council of Love, who does not know the archangels but who carries love inside her core, who loves Gaia and her family, who treasures the sunset and who speaks to the ancient ones, who is the embodiment of love, of course she will ascend. Because the purity is there.

So, that is the true tipping point, not only collectively, but individually. It is the feeling and the embodiment, not just the words, the empty words that we hear so often, the empty promises. So many human beings have forgotten the deep, true meaning of promise or oath or commitment. But if you embody love, then you are ready to go.

Can I make it more simple than that?

SB: No, I don’t think you could. People are continuing to try to visualize what will happen with Ascension. And so one other area of discussion is, well, will I wake up on — so to speak — on December 22^nd and find myself in my same apartment? And I can say for myself [laugh], I hope I get new digs! But will I wake up in the same apartment, in the same house? What will it look like? What will have changed? What will remain the same?

AAM: You will have changed. Your perception will have changed. Your heart and your ability to see and perceive will have changed. Your ability to finally accept yourself as full co-creator and creator will have changed.

So it is not that the Earth as you know it, be it your apartment or your home, has shifted, but your perception of it immediately has shifted. And as soon as you wake up, walk outside! Because you will have a perception of Gaia that is bright and clear and shiny and expansive beyond anything you can conceive of now.

Now, what will happen? Yes, you will get new digs, dear heart. And the reason being that you will look around and say, “This is not what I choose. This is not how I wish to live.” And so will, using the playfulness of the creation codes, you will immediately begin to align subatomic energy, molecular codes into something that is completely fitting.

The fifth reality is far more flexible. You think of the third dimension as very fixed, and it has been, because it became solidified because of the false beliefs. But it is not so elsewhere. And so you may create yourself a Taj Mahal on the 23^rd of December, and January 1^st you may say, “This is far too much. I’m lonely,” and rearrange the molecules to a house in the Cotswolds. But it will be in physicality.

And it will be in the unity with your brethren, with your brothers and sisters of the stars, humanity, to bring forward and create communities, not just structures, for that is almost secondary. But let us suggest, the structures that are going to be created are incredibly more beautiful than the mundane structures you have at the moment. Yes, there are some beautiful examples of fifth dimensional architecture already, cities of light already on your planet. But by and large it is very pedestrian.

So, we are not trying to create a situation where we are saying you will wake up and you will think that you are either psychotic, hallucinating or that you have lost everything you ever cared about. No, that is not the case. But you will wake up with a full awareness that it is a new day.

And it is blissful. It is joyful. For you who are the wayshowers, there is a feeling, and it is a feeling, a mental tug of war sometimes, that you are caught betwixt and between. This is not your imagination! You are. Because you are setting the matrix. You are leading the way. You have yourself literally in various dimensions. And being born in a third dimensional reality, you are not used to it.

But I must say, by and large, you are doing spectacularly in adjusting. And your co-creation — and yes, let us also speak to that for one moment. Right now, dear wayshowers, your co-creations and your creations have been focused primarily on preparing the human collective for what lies ahead, for the shift, for Ascension, for the return of the Mother’s plan.

So your creations have been in writing, in blogging, in music, in building community, in healing, in teaching, in getting rid of the old ways of human behavior, in entering into new paradigms of communication and understanding, extending your heart, your physical self, your mental and emotional selves to each other in the sharing of information. Because I do not wish to say that information is not important. Truth is incredibly important. So your creations have been focused mostly on this band of helping adjust the vibrations, of helping the collective deal with this new frequency.

So when you turn to me and you say, “Michael, you say that I am in the fifth and I am anchoring in the new, but I am still having trouble with my health, with paying my bills, with my apartment,” I say to you, dear heart, yes. Because of the core of generosity in your hearts, that rather than tending to the physical needs, your creation is in tending to the collective, in breaking and releasing and eliminating with us — but in physical reality — the old paradigms.

And for this, our gratitude is enormous. And we want you to know of our deep appreciation and of our commitment to this partnership, because this is genuine. This is true partnership. You do not worry about hanging new drapes when your son is having a nervous breakdown, when your wife is having a heart attack. You attend to what is necessary and what is of greatest importance. And that, as wayshowers, is exactly what you are doing.

We know as human beings who have inhabited this plane of the third dimension that you cannot help but think in physical terms. And no matter how many times we say, “It will be all right, and release it,” we also know that those are your reference points. We understand that. And that is why in the mental phase of the clearing and harmonization is that some of those attachments are being dimmed, not eradicated, dimmed, rebalanced.

When you step outside and the trees start singing to you, you will understand.

SB: And the grass, and the water?

AAM: Yes! And when the water invites you to come, not just to have a swim or a dip, but to join with it in relationship, that you are adding your energy field to theirs, it is a completely different experience, not only of physicality, but of emotion, of connection, of being in community. That is the shift.

And to do, to have that experience, it is unbridled joy. That is why we keep harping on joy.

SB: I think people are not aware of that, Lord. I think what they miss in thinking about the fifth dimension is just the extent of the bliss and the way that that bliss makes everything better. It improves everything.

AAM: It is true, it does improve everything. But one of the key components of the improvement is the awakened awareness of the humans. Now, Gaia has moved substantially, and even before that movement the water talked to the trees and the sand. The flowers talked to the plants and the frogs. There has been far more harmony in nature, in the kingdoms and Gaia, than the humans have been fully aware of.

So, yes. Will it be easier? Yes. For example, you talk a great deal about financial stresses. When you are in your co-creation, when you can bring forth and remember how to weave molecules and codes, then the sense that became so dominant in your third dimensional reality of need, of course which related to greed and control and lack, that is gone.

Now it is hard for you to even conceive of need being gone, to simply eat because you feel like it, because you want to have the experience, because you are joined in nature so that there is an exchange, and so you are also more conscious about what you would eat, about what you would share and what you would take.

So, we understand that you all tend to think in terms of solid physicality, but dear hearts you have a saying, and it is of truth, the best is yet to come!

SB: All right, Lord. Perhaps let me intervene there. First of all I need to say, apologies to Ashtar, we’ll definitely have him on next week. And then let me list the questions I have left, Lord, and you can choose to answer them as you wish in the, I think, about four minutes that remain to us.

One is, I think people would like to be reassured about what will be seen to happen, and what will happen to their children and pets. Will they just automatically go with them? That’s the first question.

The second question is I think they want to know what an observer looking at Earth on December 21^st would see. Would they see the Earth just disappear? Or will it explode into a million pieces? What will an observer see?

And the third question is, will our arrival in the fifth mean that we have all our powers instantaneously, or will there be a learning, a growing process that will take place?

And the last question is, will we arrive on the — and of course I guess it will differ for various people, but — will the mass of the population arrive on the lower fifth dimension, the first plane or sub-plane of the fifth dimension? And will their experience on that lower fifth dimensional plane be different from the experience of somebody on the higher fifth dimension?

And those are my questions, Lord.

AAM: I will answer your last question first, and the answer is yes. Of course there is an expansion process, and that will be an opening. But it — let me be clear: It is an opening, it is not a struggle. It is a flowering, and it is a joyous flowering.

Children and pets: Unless you have a pet that is absolutely determined to go with its owner and remain in the third, which is highly unlikely, all the animal kingdom is going.

Children are innocent and pure, even those who have been abused and hurt. There is a sweetness and a love. Children are going. So don’t worry about them.

SB: And with their parents, at the same time?

AAM: Yes, that is correct. This is an exercise of love. And you could not separate families, because it would be heart-breaking!

SB: So it’s …

AAM: So, yes.

SB: … it’s not necessary for the mother to tuck her child into bed, or … they’ll just go when we all go, and there’s nothing that needs to be done. Is that correct?

AAM: That is correct.

SB: All right. Okay. What will we see — well, first of all, when we arrive on the lower fifth dimension, will we have all the powers that we need instantaneously, or will there be a learning process? And what would we see …

AAM: There will be a bit of a learning process, because you can think of it as an adjustment process. But it is not lengthy, it is not arduous, it is not hard. And the level of expansion that you will immediately experience is so tremendous that you won’t be saying, “Give me more, give me more!”

You will after a day or so. Well,, a day of what you think of now as your time or your days. But, so, do not worry about it. Yes, you will have an expansion of abilities. Because — do not forget what we tell you! — each of you, beloved listeners, brought all your abilities into this life. You didn’t leave anything at home. So those will all be activated.

For some of you, all of a sudden you will be so creative in music and in arts. For others, finally, you will be explaining quantum physics of the stars. So it will be an opening. But is there room for growth? Dear heart, the universe is infinite, and so are you.

[music up]

And Stephen Cook’s explanation of the light penetrating Gaia, the expansion of light, is a very good image to hold.

Go in love and go in peace. Farewell.

SB: Thank you very much, Lord.

[end]

This is the link to Stephen Cook’s explanation:http://the2012scenario.com/2012/07/definitions-visions-and-meanings/

More on Ascension in a particularly valuable message here

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Sheldan Nidle – Preparing for Disclosure, 20 Years On – The Light Agenda – Tonight

SaLuSa: August 8, 2012

DANANG, Vietnam (AP) — Vo Duoc fights back tears while sharing the news that broke his heart: A few days ago he received test results confirming he and 11 family members have elevated levels of dioxin lingering in their blood.

The family lives in a two-story house near a former U.S. military base in Danang where the defoliant Agent Orange was stored during the Vietnam War, which ended nearly four decades ago. Duoc, 58, sells steel for a living and has diabetes, while his wife battles breast cancer and their daughter has remained childless after suffering repeated miscarriages. For years, Duoc thought the ailments were unrelated, but after seeing the blood tests he now suspects his family unwittingly ingested dioxin from Agent Orange-contaminated fish, vegetables and well water.

Dioxin, a persistent chemical linked to cancer, birth defects and other disabilities, has seeped into Vietnam's soils and watersheds, creating a lasting war legacy that remains a thorny issue between the former foes. Washington has been slow to respond, but on Thursday the U.S. for the first time will begin cleaning up dioxin from Agent Orange that was stored at the former military base, now part of Danang's airport.

"It's better late than never that the U.S. government is cleaning up the environment for our children," Duoc said in Danang, surrounded by family members sitting on plastic stools. "They have to do as much as possible and as quickly as possible."

The $43 million project begins as Vietnam and the U.S. forge closer ties to boost trade and counter China's rising influence in the disputed South China Sea.

Although the countries' economic and military ties are blossoming, progress on addressing the dioxin legacy has been slow. Washington still disputes a claim by Hanoi that between 3 million to 4 million Vietnamese were affected by toxic chemicals sprayed by U.S. planes during the war to eliminate jungle cover for guerrilla fighters, arguing that the actual number is far lower and other environmental factors are to blame for the health issues.

That position irks Vietnamese, who say the United States maintains a double standard in acknowledging the consequences of Agent Orange.

The U.S. has given billions of dollars in disability payments to American servicemen who developed illnesses associated with dioxin after exposure to the defoliant during the Vietnam War.

In 2004, a group of Vietnamese citizens filed suit in a U.S. court against companies that produced the chemical, but the case was dismissed and the Supreme Court declined to take it up.

Until a few years ago, Washington took a defensive position whenever Agent Orange was raised because no one had determined how much dioxin remained in Vietnam's soil and watersheds, and the U.S. worried about potential liabilities, said Susan Hammond, director of the War Legacies Project, a U.S. nonprofit organization that mainly focuses on the Agent Orange legacy from the Vietnam War.

"There was a lot of the blame game going on, and it led nowhere," Hammond said by telephone from Vermont. "But now at least progress is being made."

Over the past five years, Congress has appropriated about $49 million for environmental remediation and about $11 million to help people living with disabilities in Vietnam regardless of cause. Experts have identified three former U.S. air bases — in Danang in central Vietnam and the southern locations of Bien Hoa and Phu Cat — as hotspots where Agent Orange was mixed, stored and loaded onto planes.

The U.S. military dumped some 20 million gallons (75 million liters) of Agent Orange and other herbicides on about a quarter of former South Vietnam between 1962 and 1971.

The defoliant decimated about 5 million acres (2 million hectares) of forest — roughly the size of Massachusetts — and another 500,000 acres (202,000 hectares) of crops.

The war ended on April 30, 1975, when northern Communist forces seized control of Saigon, the U.S.-backed former capital of South Vietnam. The country was then reunified under a one-party Communist government. Following years of poverty and isolation, Vietnam shook hands with the U.S. in 1995 and normalized diplomatic relations.

Since then, the relationship has flourished and the two countries have become important trading partners. Military ties have also strengthened, with Vietnam looking to the U.S. amid rising tensions with China in the disputed South China Sea, which is believed to be rich in oil and gas reserves and is crossed by vital shipping lanes.

Although Washington remains a vocal critic of Vietnam's human rights record, it also views the country as a key ally in its push to re-engage militarily in the Asia-Pacific region. The U.S. says maintaining peace and freedom of navigation in the sea is in its national interest.

The Agent Orange issue has continued to blight the U.S.-Vietnam relationship because dioxin can linger in soils and at the bottom of lakes and rivers for generations, entering the food supply through the fat of fish and other animals.

Vietnam's Ministry of Defense and the U.S. now plan to excavate 73,000 cubic meters (2.5 million cubic feet) of soil from the airport and heat it to a high temperature in storage tanks until the dioxin is removed. The project is expected to be completed in four years.

Walter Isaacson, CEO of the Washington-based Aspen Institute, said Thursday's start "marks the coming together of our two countries to achieve a practical solution to dioxin contamination."

His organization coordinates the U.S-Vietnam Dialogue Group on Agent Orange/Dioxin, which connects prominent American and Vietnamese scientists, health experts and former officials.

The group in May said that $450 million is needed to clean up dioxin hot spots, provide services to people with disabilities, and repair damaged landscapes across Vietnam over the next five years.

The U.S. is rolling out a $9 million project to address disabilities in Vietnam through 2015, but it continues to dispute Vietnam's claim that dioxin has caused health problems there. It remains unclear whether the U.S. will clean up all of Vietnam's dioxin, and how much it will allocate in the long term for people who claim to be Agent Orange victims.

A national action plan that Vietnam's government released in June lays out goals for dealing with Agent Orange, but does not give a price tag.

Every penny counts for Nguyen Thi Hien, who directs three rehabilitation and vocational training centers for 150 children and young adults with disabilities in Danang on a budget of roughly 100 million dong ($5,000) per month.

The children, busy drawing and making plastic flowers that are sold to raise funds, suffer from a range of physical and mental ailments that Hien says are linked to dioxin.

Vo Duoc, the steel salesman, will travel to the capital, Hanoi, next month to receive treatment for his diabetes. But he says he's more concerned about what will happen to his six grandchildren, who haven't yet been tested for dioxin.