Scenes from Vietnam

November 28 4:43 pm

We left Phan Thiet very early on Thursday morning to drive back to Ho Chi Minh City, which is about a 3.5 hour drive. The photo above is Evan playing with Grandma's buttons. He and Isabel did great on the drive. The other family with us got a crash course of Dora the Explorer and Diego the Animal Rescuer. But, before I tell you about our trip, let me tell you about my mommy time on Wednesday afternoon.

Grandma & Grandpa watched the kids (the kids ... I love saying that), and I had a 60 min massage, had my hair colored and cut, manicure, pedicure & a facial. You won't believe how much it all ended up being ... about $46.00. Unbelieveable !!!! I love Vietnam. If it wasn't for the 31 hours of travel, I'd come here all the time. Of course, the place I went wasn't Elizabeth Arden ... it was more like a barbar shop.

Anyhow, on the trip back, I took some pictures of homes along the road. The homes in the photos are the norm. I did see a some very nice and modern homes, but they were few and far in between. Many of the homes had mom & pop shops in the front and the back were their living areas. You can see in the last shot, there are people eating food in the front of the home. Dogs, chickens and cows are typical animals each family owns.

This morning my parents, Isabel, Evan and I walked around Ho Chi Minh City. We saw the Saigon Opera House, the Notre-Dame Basilica, and the Reunification Palace.

This is the Saigon Opera House. What I love the most about this photo is the guy on the moped with the pipes. This is actually a typical scene here. Yesterday, I saw a man with about 4 times more of a load of pipes. Anyhow, the opera house is an example of french colonial architecture in the city.

This is another typical scene ... families on a moped. I even saw women holding infants smaller than Evan and driving their mopeds with one hand.

The Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica was also built by the French colonist in the late 1800's. It is a beautiful building.

The Reunification Palace is a symbol of the fall of Siagon in the Vietnam War history. There are some famous photos of tanks coming through the front gates in 1975 to end the war.

Here's grandma and grandpa taking a break with my little son.

The Christmas decorations are coming our everywhere as the city prepares for the holiday. Our hotel has Christmas trees everywhere. Isabel knows what they represent, but Evan doesn't. He just likes the light.

My dad just came buy to tell me that Evan is hungrey so I need to go. Tomorrow I have some paper work to complete, and then the rest of the day is for shopping. I saw a Louis Vuitton shop around the corner and I want to check it out to see if the prices are better here. syke!

Phan Thiet, Vietnam

Wednesday, 11-26-08 12:00 noon

I don't have a lot of time to write today. So, I'll just comment on the photos. As you can see, the 3 of us are in 1 king bed. I get the top right corner ... they don't get who's paying the bills on this trip. There is a crib in the room, but we all sleep better when Evan's in the bed with us. I'll work on separate sleeping when we get home for both Isabel and Evan.

Evan is adjusting to us very well. He is eating, sleeping and doing his business with no issues. Those are all good signs. I do think he misses his caretaker because he is always looking at women who look like her. He watches them like a hawk to see if they are her.

This is a view from our hotel room. We have an ocean view at the Ocean Dunes Hotel in Phan Thiet, Vietnam. The hotel has everything we need onsite. Fortunately, we have one of the larger rooms so we can spread out.

This is the sunrise from our balcony. Every morning, the fishing boats are out and scattered along the horizon. The photo is nice, but it doesn't do justice to the real thing.

The fishing boats here are very colorful. This scene is what you see when you enter the town. They are all lined up along the little harbor and the people are working all around them.

The coast of Binh Thuan province is noted for the it's sand dunes. My parents and the other family we are with went early this morning to slide down the dunes. There are children waiting for the tourist to rent boards to slide down the dunes. You have to watch them because they are street smart. My father was taken for 100,000 dung, which is about $6.25, by a very smart little boy.

It's noon here and I have a 1:00 appointment for a massage - yeah!!!! Then we are going out to dinner this evening at a local seafood restaurant, which I have heard is excellent. Tomorrow morning, very early, we drive back to Ho Chi Minh City to have Evan's medical exam and apply for his passport. Then, we'll have Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to see the city. I'm looking forward for that.

Tomorrow is also Thanksgiving ... I don't think we'll find any turkey around here.

Change of plans ... the adoption is today

Monday, 11-24-08 7:50 PM

This morning, our group was planning to drive to the orphanage to spend a few hours with the babies and hoping our Giving and Receiveing Ceremony (G&R) could be scheduled for tomorrow. Well, the agency called us in the morning and said the G & R was scheduled for 3:30 this afternoon. The babies will arrive at the hotel around 2:30 and we will leave for the local government office around 3:15.

The babies and their caregivers arrive a little early so we were able to spend some additional time with them to get information on the babies. Evan's caregiver was clearly torn with the upcoming events. I think she thought I would be a good parent for him, but she had cared for him for 6+ months (since the day he was abandoned) and was bonded with him.

Evan's caretaker played with him before the ceremony. She wept many tears during the afternoon and even more when she said her final goodbye. With no doubt, she loved him. [Isabel took the picture above.]

We left to do the G&R on time. The ceremony was not in the formal government chamber because the room was in use. We held the ceremony in the office of one of the government officials. It was a little tight, but that didn't bother us. The ceremony was short but meaningful. It was the event when the adoption was signed and finalized. I was declared the new parent of Even and he was handed over to me.

The farewell of Evan's caregiver was emotional. My heart went out to her as she saw him drive away with Isabel and I. While I know she understood he would someday be adopted, handing him over to me was difficult. She blew kisses and waved goodbye as we pulled away.

On the short drive back to the hotel, Evan fell asleep. He did not fuss or cry. When I layed him down, he opened his eyes for a moment, and then rolled himself onto his belly and went back to sleep. I hope that is a good sign that he is able to fall asleep by himself.

After he woke up, he recognized that I wasn't his caregiver and she wasn't around. He let his emotions all out - I'm sure it was a mix of fear, confusion, loss and others. He cried for a good half hour before he settled down. Then for a few hours he played with a teething toy I brought for him.

He and Isabel are now both asleep and grandma is with them as I update the blog. Tomorrow is an off day for us so I'm going to try and get out and see Vietnam outside of the hotel.

Meeting Evan

Sunday 11-23-08 11:03 pm

Here he is ... our little guy. We met him this afternoon at the Ham Tan orphanage after a 3.5 hour drive from Ho Chi Minh City. All went well between he, Isabel and I. We were able to be with him for about 1.5 hours. He is a very nice boy and I can't wait to have him full time, which should be starting Wednesday.

When we arrived, he was just finishing he bottle, so he was ready to go to sleep. But, he stayed awake for us a little while before he took a short nap. He and Isabel interacted very well immediately. She wanted to take him home right away. I'll remind her of that when he is going after her toys in a few months.

The room the babies are in is simple and clean. Considering this is a tropical environment, it does show some wear, just like you would see in Florida. There is no air conditioning and the room is warm ... I would say 80 - 85 degrees. The nannies have fans running, but for a pampered American, I was sweating a lot. The babies didn't seem to mind.

Evan was a little fussy right before he took his nap, otherwise, he was very pleasant. He is able to roll and is trying to crawl. His crawling attempts only result in him going backwards so he rolls to grap toys and see things that interest him. He is the oldest infant in the orphanage and was 6 months last Friday.

Below are a few more pictures from our meeting. We will go back to the orphange tomorrow to visit for a few hours.

Isabel has fallen asleep on my lap so it's time to go to bed. We still haven't adjusted to the time change completely. Isabel is feeling much better and has been such a good girl during the trip. I am so blessed!!

More tomorrow ....

Good thing mommy thought to bring a toy.

Evan's crib ... note the straw mat - no mattress - he's going to love his crib at home!

Isabel took this pic of us ... nice job.

Ho Chi Minh day 1

Saturday, Nov 22 2:43 PM

So far, we haven't done much but try to re-coup from our trip. During the trip Isabel came down with a fever about 8 hours into our day. That made for a very long day for her. She was pretty miserable. Fortunately, I had brought along some Motrin and was able to make her a little more comfortable. Today, she still has a fever, but at least she is able to take a nap in a bed. She seems to be getting better.

We took a few pictures from the hotel room and my parents went out around noon to walk around. They said it was 88 degrees and humid. The hotel is located in District 1, which is where many of the tourist stay. The traffic is crazy with all the motor bikes and mopeds dodging in and out of the cars and trucks. Our taxi driver from the airport actually did the same thing with a van. If someone wasn't going through a light fast enough, he'd make his own lane to pass them ... a few time with oncoming traffic coming towards us. .

If Isabel is feeling a little better after her nap, she and I may venture out. Otherwise, we're going to stay close to the hotel. I want her to try to get over this bug as much as possible by tomorrow. We leave at 8:00 AM to drive 3 hours to the orphanage. That's when we meet Evan aka Nguyen Minh Hien. It's very exciting for all of us.

We arrived ... 31 hours later

We'll we're here we're exhausted and we look nasty. No pics for now. I can't wait to take a shower and lay down in a bed. Tomorrow is our day to re-coup from our trip. If we feel like it, we'll go out to see the city.

By the way, if you see any misspellings, it's because the spell check is based on Vietnamese and not English so it's not going to do any good for me.

We're on our way

Finally, we are on our way. It seemed like to took forever for me to get everything ready and packed for us to leave, but I got it done. I've stuffed two weeks of living for Isabel, Evan and myself into 2 checked bags and 1 carry-on.

Grandma and grandpa arrived around 7:00 pm last evening and helped me get the house ready for the time we are gone. They will be going with us and are looking forward to spending time with Isabel and their new grandson.

Isabel is sleeping now and will get a rude awakening at 4:45 AM when I wake her up to get dressed and leave. The taxi will pick us up at 5:15, and then we are off. It's going to be a long day for us all. From the time we leave the house until the time we get to the hotel, we will have traveled about 30 hours.

Quoting from our recent presidential candidates, "my friends", "yes, we can", we will succeed in this test of endurance. Okay, the lack of sleep and the early hour is getting to me ... time to log off. You'll hear from us next when we are on the other side of the world.

Tickets purchases & Visas issued

Only a 4 more days until we depart. I still have lots to get done before we leave so the mad rush is on. But, fortunately, the big tasks are done. I made the final arrangements with the adoption agency, our tickets have been purchased and the Vietnam visas have been issued.

We'll depart on 11/20 morning from the US and will arrive in Ho Chi Minh City on 11/21 in the evening. There are 3 flights, 2 layovers and a 24+ hours of travel. The longest segment will be from Atlanta to Seoul - 13 hours.

I can't say I'm looking forward to the flights, but I will definitely be prepared to entertain Isabel during the flights. We will have crayons, coloring books, DVDs, new toys, snacks, and books. Plus, according to the USA Today, our airline has one of the better in-flight entertainment systems. The movies they will be showing are: Hancock, The Forbidden City, Swing Vote, and Speed Racer. I haven't seen any of them so watching them will kill some time.

Once we arrive in Vietnam, we'll spend a day adjusting to the time before we meet Evan. Depending on how we feel, we may do a little sight seeing in Ho Chi Minh City. Otherwise, we probably do a little shopping for the things we didn't want to pack and things to take to the orphanage.