A day of Firsts

This morning Hang brought her son over and we took off to the 'Children's Park' down in the south part of the city. The park has a beautiful lake as well as amusements for the kids. Dat had his first time in a ball pit.

First time on an airplane ride

First time on a baby roller-coaster, first time on a mini-ferris wheel, first time on a tram-train and first time in a bumper car. I think the bumber cars won the prize as the most fun of all as he wanted to stay on and managed to get Hang to agree to a second ride.

After we got back to the hotel, we went out to lunch at a new restarunt, then did a little bit of shopping before buying our favorite noodles and returning to the room for the afternoon. This has been our pattern and it seems to be working. After breakfast we do something, then eat lunch, maybe shop a bit more, then get noodles and return to the room. Aidan does his school work and we eat dinner when we get hungry, then bed. This way we don't spend all day in the room and we get back in before it gets really hot, but A gets his TV time in. It is also cheaper for poor mommy as meals, while not really expensive, have been costing me $20 to $30 a meal. We have got to have more than fried rice every meal and since we aren't eating in the sidewalk eateries it is more expensive than I thought it would be.

A lot of the trees around here have these huge bean pods and A is fascinated by them. He finally found a pod, and even though it was empty, is bringing it back for 'show and tell' at school.

And finally I will leave you with a picture of 'couch potates' wherein A is indulging in his love of cartoons and Dat is trying to make up for a lifetime lacking in TV cartoons.

Honeymoon is over

It took less than two days and the honeymoon is already over. Dat copies everything A does and A gets tired of it. It doesn't help that Dat doesn't understand when A tells him to leave something of his alone. Dat doesn't understand to be careful of stuff so he has managed to squash two of A' s paper airplanes. He didn't mean to do it, but he got carried away and landed on the plane when he jumped to catch it. A also gets upset when Dat doesn't do what he wants. He doesn't seem to understand that Dat doesn't understand what he says. When he is in the position of helping Dat, showing him something or hanging on to him when we cross a street (very dangerous thing here in Hanoi), he is a wonderful big brother. But then we get back to the room and A wants to lie down on the small couch but Dat wants to sit next to him, well, then A gets a bit miffed and pushes him away. Right now they are in the shower and A is helping Dat. Dat obviously has never showered, bathed yes, showered, no. It is very funny to watch. Dat keeps sitting down and squeals when the water is turned on.

We walked to the lake this morning and ate lunch at the Kangaroo cafe. On the way back, we got noodle cups for dinner. For some reason, I am not as adventurous with food here as I was in China, maybe because Chinese food is more familier to me and maybe because, this trip, I am here by myself, if I get sick, there is no one here to help with the boys. We have eaten with Hang a couple of times and the food is very good, but by ourselves we tend to go to a hotel around the corner that also caters to european and adoptive families. There are a couple of other resturants we have passed that I would like to try, but I have no interest in eating at any of the little sidewalk eateries that are all over.

We have seen a lot of beggers the last couple of days too. I feel sorry for them - people with arm and leg difference - in the states they would be whatever they wanted to be, but here they are reduced to being beggers. However, I know better than to give them anything. The guys selling lighters and wallets, the ladies selling pinapples and bananas, the guys with the cycle tours, the guys wanting to shine my shoes are really becomming annoying too, if I tell them 'No thank you' and keep walking, they will call out to Dat, I don't know what they say, but he turns around to talk to them and I have to keep my arm around him and push him on.

We've now been on all the streets that are labled as 'shopping streets' in the immediate vicinity of the hotel. They all seem to sell the same things. I haven't seen any different or unique items yet. I hope that where ever we go with Hang tomorrow and on the tour sunday we find some stuff I want to buy. Otherwise I'll get the Ao dias for the girls, a few Chinese dresses for a friend and a few of the neat jewelery boxes and be done with it. I was hoping to find a jade pendant in whatever animal was 2001, but haven't seen anything like that around. Pearls and some jade bracelets and ear rings, but no zodiac animal pendants. Seen a few cloisone bracelets but not a lot of variety. I was also hoping to find some stuff with dragons but haven't seen any of that either.

Hotel is trying to get me to sign up for a two day, overnight trip to HaLong bay, but I'm not going to do it, we'll stick with the one day tour that I wanted to do. I need to call the SOS clinic and embassy on Monday to see if they will let me do the SOS stuff on Wednesday before I get Dat's passport and the timing just isn't going to fit with a two day trip.

Dat

Dat has been so well prepared for this adoption, it is amazing. He shows no concerns, no fear and no sadness about leaving the orphanage. I know that it may surface in a few days, but for now, he has adjusted amazingly well. He chatters to him self and us in Vietnamese and doesn't seem to care that we can't understand him. He plays by himself with the cars and track I brought him or plays with A. They are getting along very well.

It is raining today, and while I wanted to do some shopping, A doesn't want to get wet. He and I may have a showdown sooner or later but he isn't going to spend the entire time in the hotel room watching TV. I have cut him a lot of slack because of jet-lag, but he has caught up pretty well now.

I made reservations for us to have a tour of Hanoi and some of the temples and museums on Sunday and we will do Ha Long Bay a little later in the week. Saturday we are meeting up with Hang and her little boy who is Dat's age to go to a children's park.

Pictures - as requested

DatDat above and Dat and Aidan below.

Street corner near the hotel Cemetary on the way to Thai Binh

View from hotel window

Another view from hotel window with roof top clothes line or wash line

Aidan holding a woman't baskets and wearing her hat. She grabbed me and put the pole on my shoulder and the hat on my head and asked if I wanted my phot taken. I said OK so she took one then put the stuff on Aidan. Then she got upset when we didn't buy her pinapples.

Day 3 - slightly anticlamatic but Dat is mine

I have Dat now and he is officially mine. The boys are now tossing a tennis ball around as they try out all the toys I got for them to play with.

We got up later than yesterday, I slept until 5 and A slept until about 7. Breakfast then waiting for Hang to arrive around 12. She arrived and we walked down the alley to meet her. In the car and drive for 2+ hours. Got to the adoption place, and there was adorable Dat waiting for us. They had me sit in a particular chair then sign what felt like 2 dozen papers. Then the adoption official had me promise to love him, take care of him, treat him as I would a biological child, send the reports and bring him back one day to visit. They introduced themselves again and asked if I wanted to say anything. Caught cold, all I could think to say was something along the lines of 'Thank you for letting me have him and for taking care of him until I could get here". Then they took pictures and we left. I don't think the whole thing took 30 minutes. Back in the car for another 2 hour drive back to Hanoi. Of course, I didn't get any pictures as I was busy signing papers but Hang said they would send me copies of the ones they took.

Decided not to go to the orphanage as Dat was totally ready to leave with us. He has been beautifully prepared for being adopted and was ready to move on. Hang talked with the orphanage director and they felt he would be confused by going back. I felt sure I could beg copies of the pictures Emily took at the orphanage when they were there last month (please, please Emily) so I didn't object.

Got back to the city just in time for rush hour, I thought people in China drove crazy, here you have motor bikes competing with cars and a few bicycles and of course - pedestrians tossed in for good measure. If their side of the road is too slow, they will drive on the wrong side. Dear Heavens. Hang took us to a great restaurant for dinner, then back to the hotel. Dat is playing with each toy for a few minutes, then moving on to the next. A is watching TV and I don't think Dat has seen much TV before, he is totally captivated by Tom and Jerry. A is sitting in the bed watching and Dat is on the floor. I don't know how I am going to tell him to get ready for bed. A sleeps in gym shorts and I didn't get Dat any pj's as I didn't know whether he would use them or not.

We'll meet Hang at 8:30 tomorrow morning to apply for his passport, then we are free until next Thursday. Hang seems to think that we can get his passport, do the medical and the Visa interview all the same day which means will be able to get his visa and make our flight (Please God - I need prayers that we can make this happen, I really don't want to stay here over an extra weekend.

Got him into the gym shorts without any problem, a little pantomime and he changed. He seems to be a very bright little boy albeit a little overwhelmed by all the new stuff. Luckily I didn't bring much. The matchbox cars and track are a BIG hit.

Oh, on another note, the kid has quite an arm, he was easily tossing darts clear across the room which A couldn't do consistently. There may be baseball in this guys future.

Now A is teaching him to jump from bed to bed. I forsee hospital visits in the future too.

Day 2 - Later

Met Hang at 11:30 and she took us to buy shirts for two adoption officials. I told her to chose as I ad no clue what was appropriate so she did. Then we walked to a restaurant called Pho 24 for lunch. It was good but needed a little salt. A scarfed his down. Then a taxi back to the hotel, where we we arranged to meet with Hang tomorrow for the trip to Thai Binh and the GR. After we found that our stuff had been moved to our new room - this one huge and has two beds - yay, we went back out and walked to the toy street. Most of the things we saw weren't worth the money. Stuffed animals and cheap plastic toys. A had decided he wanted a carved dagger we saw yesterday but couldn't find today. But then we went the other way yesterday and had to turn around and go back. I figure it must have been the other way, but A didn't want to walk any more so we came back to the hotel. We are supposed to meet a couple of other adoptive families here for dinner, but I don't know if A is going to make it. He s laying on the couch watchng TV and his eyes are drooping. We are supposed to eat lunch before meeting Hang tomorrow and I'm not sure how to do it. If se comes around 11:30 - 12:00 like she said, it will be too close to breakfast for either A or I to be very hungry. I think I'm going to see if I can get some noodles we can cook here in the room.

Hang said that after the G&R tomorrow, we will take Dat to get his passport Thursday am which means that we will get the passport next Thursday. Apparently we can't do the SOS clinic until we have his passport, which makes no sense to me, becuse if we have to wait to do that until late Thursday, we can't go to get his Visa until Friday which means that I probably wont have it until the next day which means Monday. I really don't know what to do, don't know if the hotel will have room for us for three more nights - I really want to make my Friday midnight flight out.

Another downer is that neither A's DS or the DVD player will re-charge in the room. I even got a transformer from the front desk and it doesn't work. I'm not real surprized about the DVD as I don't think that charger is the right one (universal my a**) but it works OK at home. I haven't tried either of the camera battery chargers but they should work, I know mine did in China so there is no reason it wouldn't work here.

Also haven't been able to upload pictures. The USB disk reader I use at home wasn't recognized on the computer in the other room and I haven't tried it on this one. Figure that out later.

Day 2 - very early

It is 4:30 am here and A is wide awake. I was hoping for a few more hours sleep, but no luck - once he is awake, he starts bouncing. Heard from Hang yesterday, she called several times before we connected (right after we left for an early dinner, while I was in the shower and finally I got the phone) We are meeing today around 11 to discuss the G&R and whether or not I need to buy more gifts and anything else I need to know. Afterwards we hope to meet with a lady I met on the internet and a couple of World Child families who are staying at a nearby hotel. G& R will be tomorrow as orphanage director is traveling and won't be back until then.

Day 1

We are in the Hanoi elegance 4 as the 3 was full and couldn't accomodate us for two weeks. The 4 insisted that they only had one of their 'Family Suites' with two beds available as I had first requested a smaller room with two beds. When we got here, they put us in a 'Junior Suite' with one king size bed. I asked and was told that the larger room wasn't available and I should ask this morning. This morning I was told that someone had requested the larger room last night before we arrived so they put us in the smaller room. I said it was ok until I got Dat, but I would need a larger room with two beds then. They were going to move us today, told us that the room was ready for us to move right after breakfast. Then I heard three women talking to the manager requesting a bigger room for two nights - I knew right away what would happen, sure enough, the room that was ready for us before breakfast disappeared and wouldn't be available until tomorrow. This room is fine for just Aidan and I, but will be too small when we get Dat. I don't want to cause a scene, but will need the larger room tomorrow, hopefully they will come through.

Still haven't heard from Hang so I don't know if our G&R is tomorrow or what is going on. I emailed her a few minutes ago and hope to hear something soon. Now that I am here, I am getting a bit impatient, and I HATE not having a clue what is happening when. Don't really need exact times, but would like to know that the G&R is this day, etc.

Aidan and I went out for a walk this morning. It is hot and humid so we didn't get far before mr energizer bunny started flagging and wanted to come back to the hotel. We are munching on the fruit tray that is in the room for lunch and will go out to eat a bit later - hopefully it will have cooled off a bit by then. I'm sure that jet-lag is playing a part in mr energizer bunnys' lack of energy. I feel a bit tired myself. Of course, I also think that the power going out during our breakfast so we had to climb 8 flights of steps to get to our room and walk back down again before we went for our walk didn't help much.

Vietnam reminds me so much of China; same type of architecture, same type of small stores jammed full of stuff; same gardens/wash lines/small animal enclosures on the roof tops; same crush of people. We had to keep stepping off the side walk and into the street to walk as the sidewalks were full of motor bikes parked. Not nearly as many bicycles here as China but lots more motor cycles. Do not like the people who try to sell you stuff - the ones with trays who follow you around asking you to buy. They just do NOT take no for an answer. I'll have to ask Hang what the Vietnamese term for NO is. Found some stores with BEAUTIFUL Ao Dais, Aidan found a couple of t-shirts with dragons, found some puzzle boxes in animal shapes that would do as good gifts for the girls and their friends if not too expensive. Didn't price anything, just looking today but did find a few things that I'll probably buy. Did find some Chinese style dresses that I'll check out for a friend whose girls have outgrown all she got in China. A lot of the 'stuff' is very similar to what you find in China also.

It is funny to see people's reaction to my long-haird son. Every body thinks he is a girl and does a double take when I tell them 'boy'.

Well, think I'll go read a while and hope to hear from Hang.

K and A - they keep trying to push pink things on me for my daughters.

Midnight in Vietnam

We are here, tired but here. It is midnight local time - don't know what time it is Dallas time. Heading for bed and will see what hapens tomorrow. We were supposed to get a family suite, but they put us in the junior suite, it is a bit smaller and has only one bed. OK for tonight, but when we get Dat, I had wanted the bigger suite.

Good night - more tomorrow.

Leavin' on a Jet Plane

Bags are packed, we're ready to go, hope we haven't forgotten anything important. Dogs are in the kennel; old, old cat is boarding at the vet; C is with the family who will be taking care of her; K is with her best friend's family. A and I are taking care of a few last minute things before we hit the sack. I've got a couple of bills to pay and emails to send, then I'm gone.

Next post - Vietnam

Countdown Begins

6 days from now, A and I will be sitting in the airport waiting to board the plane to Vietnam. I am starting to get butterflies and nerves. We started packing yesterday and got most of the boy's stuff packed. I decided to take two large (but not huge) suitcases, one small pilot's bag as a carry-on and A has his backpack and I will have a tote. One suitcase has all the boy's stuff and it isn't crammed, full, but not crammed so there should be room if we buy stuff in Vietnam. My case is almost empty, but it won't take me long to finish packing. Got some clothes for Dat, toys for the boys to play with, books for A to read, picked up a couple of DS games for the airplane, but they have been opened and played with already (lol). A's task today is to find all the games so we can pack them to take. Got a new cord for the DVD player so that can be charged and packed, got some snacks for the plane and some 'comfort food' for my picky eater so there will be something for him to eat if he doesn't like Vietnamese food. Girls are good to go, they will pack later in the week, K will be coming home every couple of days to clean litter boxes and make sure the cats have water and food. Old cat will be going to vet to be boarded as he needs meds every day and special food, dogs are set to go to the kennel. Bills are paid or scheduled. Can't find my plug adapters so I may have to buy new ones and I want to get a 2 gig memory card for my camera - i have been using a 521 mbyte card for years so I think it is time to upgrade.

So, I think I am well on my way to be ready, however, it never ceases to amaze me how different this adoption is from my earlier ones. I don't know how much is the difference between China and Vietnamese adoption and how much is agency oddities but I do not know how much money I will need to have for Dat's passport, Visa or medical for the Visa. I don't know if this money needs to be in American dollars or Vietnamese money. I don't know if I am supposed to buy stuff here for orphanage donations/gifts to nannies or buy it over there. I don't know how many people I am supposed to buy for either. I know none of this is earth-shaking, but it would be nice to know what I am supposed to do. It seems odd to buy gifts for the nannies in country, I was told that the Chinese nannies always wanted American stuff. I will probably pick up a few toiletry gift bags to take just in case. This is going to be "adoption on a budget", more-so than any of the others were so it would be so nice to know what I am expected to take and how much I need.

Step Two

So I emailed the Vietnam rep about changing the G&R date, her response was 'that's fine let me know as soon as you have travel dates' so I started talking to travel agents. I was just going to use the agency agent, but several had recommended another so I called him. I was interested in a flight on Korean Air that go from Dallas to Seoul to Hanoi - one stop. He didn't recommend Korean and was trying to get me to go with EVA, but EVA is more expensive - more comfortable but more expensive and we'd have to go to LA or SF to pick up the overseas flight. A is not the best traveller, basically because he still struggles to read (dyslexia) and it is difficult for him to sit still for hours on an airplane. I absolutely hate LAX and don't think SF is much better so the thought of flying there, then facing another long flight, then another just didn't appeal. Since money is tight, spending extra for a longer flight didn't appeal either. So I tossed it around and around and around then tried to figure out why the agency agent was quoting me a cheaper price for the Korean Air flight than the other agent was. Never really did figure it out, but went with the agency agent. Someone later told me that agents will make deals with certain airlines - they get paid no matter which airline you pick but the airlines they have deals with will pay them more for steering customers to that airline. And sometimes they will give the agent a discount on tickets if they steer a lot of customer. Whatever, I have tickets for a lower price than I anticipated, yeah, i won't have a lot of legroom, but will be able to lift the arm rest between A's and my seat and spread out a bit.

Got the girls settled - arrangements made, need to register C in a after-school place for the two weeks as the family who is watching her have their girls there. Dogs have a reservation at a doggy B&B so they will be fine. This place watched our previous dogs for 3 months when we moved here so I know they are good. K will be able to stop by the house every couple of days to clean litter boxes and feed cats so they will be fine in the house, we have the feeders that hold several days of food so they don't need to be fed every day.

Got D a backpack and of course one for A, got a couple pairs of pants and matching T-shirts for the boys as well as a few games for them to play. Need some comfort food for A to take in case he doesn't like Vietnamese food (not really concerned about this but want some noodles and stuff in case we just don't feel like going out one day).

It is coming along and I probaly will be ready to travel when the time comes.

MY TURN NOW

Got a call the night before last. Agency called - Vietnam rep had emailed and said province wanted me there for the G&R on the 12th of Feb. I said they've got to be kidding - as much as I want to go get this child, I couldn't leave on two days notice, don't have my Visa, kids have to be shipped out, dogs set up in kennel, tickets bought etc. Requested a delay until the 24th or 25th. They agreed. So now I am making list upon list of things I have to do, shopping for airline tickets and finding a hotel.
looks like I will be leaving on the 20th or 21st and returning on the 8th or 9th. Too much to do between now and then.
Visas, Tickets; hotel reservations; DS games for A for plane; new power cord for DVD player for A for plane (puppies chewed last one); small backpack with toys for S; couple of outfits for S; talk to A's teacher for school work for him to take; legal guardianship for the girls so the people they are staying with can take them to the Dr's if necessary; what do the schools need so friends can pick up girls etc while I am gone.

So many things to take care of

So little time . . . . .