We are Family!

It has been a few weeks now since we have been home. We had originally "planned" to lay low and keep things quiet and mellow when we got home. But again we learned that God sometimes finds amusement in the plans "we" make. Within the first two weeks of being home we hosted a dinner for 30 family members after Aunt B's funeral and had 12 straight days of different overnight house guests. The hectic schedule wasn't something we had "planned," but we wouldn't have traded the memories for the world. And we all came through it fine. God knew that not only we could handle it, he knew it was exactly what we needed.
We are settling in together as a family. We have had bumps along the way and things haven't always been easy, but we are family and families are rarely easy.
Someone recently asked me if we would be adopting any more children. My quick answer is NO, we are not "planning" on it. But, we will see what God has planned for our family.
Sarah has made six in our family and I can't imagine life without her. We are Family!

A Warm Welcome Home

We were so excited to come home. We missed our kiddos at home so much and couldn't wait to give them hugs. We also longed to introduce our family and friends to the newest addition of our family. But nothing could have prepared us for the outpouring of love and welcoming that we received as we stepped of the plane in Medford. The terminal was filled with our family and dozens of friends welcoming us home. We made a bee line to our kids and held them tight. My fears of Sarah rejecting her siblings ended when as I was hugging Tim, Sarah reached out for him to hold her. She also gave hugs and kisses to Marli and Sam. She made her rounds to all the family and friends giving a ready smile and lots of hugs. She knew that she was the center of attention and she loved it.
We stopped for lunch on the way home from the airport with Grandma and Grandpa and introduced her to Burger King. While she was a little too overwhelmed to eat very much, she really likes American French Fries.
We pulled up to the house to find a big welcome home banner and gifts for all the kids. Our house was clean and the fridge had been stocked. We have the greatest family and friends!
The kids couldn't wait to show Sarah her room. She squealed with delight at the sight of it. She loved her bed with the pretty pillows and stuffed animals, she loved her play kitchen and her bookshelf filled with books. Though I know she must have been overwhelmed with everything, she didn't show it. She lovingly allowed her siblings to shower her with all the hugs and kisses they had been saving up for over a year.

The long journey home

Our journey home started at 8:00 p.m. when we left the hotel for the hour long drive to the Hanoi airport. Our poor little girl was very confused when after her bath that evening she was dressed in sweats instead of her jammies and driven to the airport instead of being tucked into bed. When we arrived at the Hanoi airport we found thousands of people mulling around with very few flights scheduled to leave that evening. We later discovered that the majority of people were there to "send off" friends and loved ones. A far cry from the US where we are lucky if our ride drops us at the curb.

About an hour into our wait to check in, we noticed a vietnamese man walking back and forth in front of us with his son. We then noticed that when he walked by his friends were taking our picture with their cell phones. David knelt down and shook the little boy's hand and posed for a picture with him. Suddenly, cameras came out of nowhere and so did the children to have their pictures taken with us. We would like to think they thought we were celebrities, but they might have just wanted their pictures taken with the giant Americans. And we can't rule out the possiblitily that we were totally being made fun of and mocked. Nevertheless, it was an experience.

Sarah slept most of the flight from Hanoi to Seoul. :) Since we had such a long layover in Seoul we rented a room at the airport's transit hotel. (It was the only time in our lives we rented a hotel room by the hour.) It was money well spent. We were able to sleep for a few hours then have a shower before departing to LA.

It was a 10 hour flight from Seoul to LA, and our little Sarah only slept an hour of it. She wasn't being naughty, she was just awake. She enjoyed the personal entertainment system on the plane, where she watched one movie after another and some more than once.

Once we arrived in LA, we were amazed at how simple and quick the immigration process was. Of course it didn't hurt that we were the only ones in the immigration line. The U.S. immigration officer assigned to her case smiled as he read through her immigration documents. It turns out that he was adopted from south Vietnam when he was four years old from her same province. What a small world.

After taking short nap at our hotel we were met by Grandpa Mike and Betty. Sarah enjoyed meeting them and was totally facinated by her first "wrapped" present. It took her quite a while to realize that the pretty bag wasn't the gift. They then treated us to a wonderful "American" dinner of steak and potatoes at Claim Jumpers. It is good to be back in the USA!

The next morning we were surprised when we went to the LA airport and ran into our good friends Louis and Marelise and their girls on their way home from Hawaii. Turns out, we were all on the same flight home to Medford.

After being such a trooper on our long international flights, Sarah was restless on this short flight to Medford. It was almost like she knew the excitement that awaited at home.

We are coming home!!!!!

Great news! After an hour at the Korean Air office this morning we ALL have confirmed flights home. Sarah's reservation had indeed been paid and was changable by us afterall. We just had to be there in person to get it taken care of. We were able to get on the 1:05 a.m. flight tommorow, so we will be checking out of the hotel about 8:30 tonight to head to the airport. We are thrilled! We get into Los Angeles too late on Tuesday to clear customs and get home at a decent time, so we are spending the night and hope to have dinner with Grandpa Mike and Betty.
We are scheduled to arrive into Medford at 11:45 a.m. on Wednesday. Please continue to keep us in your prayers for safe travels and smooth flight connections.

We are coming home! Yeah!!!!!!

Pho with a fork?

Today was a quiet day in Hanoi. Although, it doesn't seem like a Sunday without our weekly Sunday rituals: A stop through the drive-thru at O'Java for coffees and donuts on the way to church (because we didn't get up early enough to have breakfast at home) Then to church, followed by meeting mom and dad for lunch at Burger King.

We instead had to go on a hunt for more cell phone minutes only to find that the mobile networks around town were down. We got desparate to call the kids at home and wish Marli a Happy Birthday before she went to bed, so we put our US sim card back in to make the call. I hate so see the cingular bill when we get home, but it was money well spent.

We then went to the Horizon Hotel for their Sunday brunch. The food was good but not what you might expect for Sunday Brunch. David and I agreed, the best part of the meal was the Pho (pronounced Fuh) It is a rice noodle soup, with various spices, broth and in this case chicken. I have to say that I am a Pho slob. Something about using chopsticks for soup made for a messy shirt and table cloth on my side. David, on the other hand, opted for eating his Pho with a fork. I am sure that we were the amusement for the waitstaff today. Once Sarah saw the chopsticks, she got excited and began using them. (For a child that supposedly had delayed motorskills, she can work chopsticks like a pro!) Her favorite part of the meal was the chocolate fondue fountain. As you can see from the pictures, she really "got into" her food.

Tomorrow, we are planning on heading out early to go to the Korean Air office. We had a disheartening evening yesterday, when trying to confirm flights home. We discovered that while we have confirmed tickets, Sarah's is only a reservation. On the phone to the Korean air offices in Korea and LA, they said her ticket had not yet been paid for by our travel agent and they are the only ones who can confirm it. Since our travel agent is on the West Coast and is not in the office on the weekend, that is not likely to happen. So, are plan is to camp out at their office until we all get confirmed flights home.

Happy Birthday Marelise!

Today was a very difficult day to be half a world away from our family. First of all, as the title of this entry suggests, we are not there to wish our darling daughter Marelise a Happy 10th Birthday! So, Happy Birthday Sweetie! We wish we could be there to say it in person! Thanks to Aunt Judy and Grandma Hope and Grandpa Hank for making it a special day for you! We will have to give you your birthday spankings when we get home. :)

We also got and e-mail from our travel agent that the flights out of Hanoi on Tuesday morning are oversold and we will not be able to get home as early as we had hoped. We haven't, however, completely given up hope. We may take a taxi to the airport tomorrow to see if something might have opened up.

Finally, we received very sad news this morning from home. David's Aunt Brenda passed away yesterday. Are heart's ache that we didn't get to say goodbye, and we feel badly that we are not home to help with things. We know you are in a better place now Aunt B, but we will miss you dearly.

Picture explainations:

Sarah having a bad hair day

Sarah eating an oreo cookie the "right way" (Mom showed her how to break them open and lick the frosting off first.)

A clean bill of health and more good news!

We woke early to have Sarah's health screeing for her immigration paperwork. She had a thorough exam and was given a clean bill of health. She was such a good girl during her appointment. She was in good spirits even through the long wait. She does have an issue with her hip joint allignment, but we will have to wait to talk to our pediatrician at home to determine what, if anything the treatment will be.

More good news followed. It turns out that the squeaky wheel does get the grease. I guess I was squeaky enough because he got our visa appointment moved up to today. (You should have seen the surprised look Truan had when, with all my excitment I hugged him when he told me the good news.) The interview went well and we will should have her visa in hand on Monday afternoon! Yeah!!!! We contacted the travel agent and are waiting to hear of our earliest departure possibility.

Picure explainations: Sarah and I are all dressed up for our visa interview at the Embassy

The gecko was on the wall of the restaurant (The Green Tangerine) we went to last night. He entertained us while we ate. It was a beautiful french restarant with a gorgeous garden terrace. Sarah loved her dinner fish fingers and rice (the fish version of chicken fingers) And, well, Dave and I ordered room service when we got back to the hotel. What can we say, the service was good and the atmosphere was charming and we should have eaten off the kids menu. Live and Learn.

We have a Passport!

We are happy to announce that we received Sarah's passport today. After first arriving at the wrong location we finally found where we were supposed to be. Instead of getting to 40A Hang Bai street, we went to 48 Hang Bai street. They sound pretty close in English, even closer if your getting directions from someone with a vietnamese accent. The good news, is we got it!

This morning we toured the Ho Chi Mihn museum and mauseluem, and saw the one pillar pagoda again. Since Dave missed our city tour, Sarah and I decided to give him our own tour. We did the condensed version today. We did in 25 minutes what took us an hour and a half with the guide. I gave Dave as much history as I could remember and made up the rest. :)

We hit a milestone today when we went to the Ministry of Police to pick up Sarah's passport. A friend of Truan's, a young vietnamese woman came up to Sarah and outstretched her arms to pick her up and muttered something to her in vietnamese. Sarah, for the first time, held on tightly to me and was reluctant to go to her. She gave in and went to the woman, then she pointed to Dave and I and said we were her momma and daddy and then she quickly wanted to come back to us. :)

A little info about the pictures: Sarah with the big American Breakfast. (Yes, she pretty much ate it all) The Koi fish that Sarah and Dave are playing with or taunting, were in Ho Chi Mihn's giant Koi pond. (If you clap your hands hard they will come to the surface for food) Finally, the red flower that Sarah is pointing to is the Phuong flower that she was originally named after. (They are not supposed to be in season now, but we were fortunate to see one.)

Sarah also got her first tummy zurbert. She laughed and laughed! All in all, it was a good day here in Vietnam.

One step closer to coming home

During our daily call to our kiddos at home, we noticed that we had a missed call from yesterday. It was our Holt guide and since we couldn't retrieve the voicemail we called him back. It turns out we received our initial visa approval yesterday. He indicated that we will go get her passport tomorrow, get her physical on Friday and have our exit interview on Monday. If that is the case, we should get final approval next Tuesday and be able to head home on Wednesday. We asked if there is anyway we can speed things up and get her passport and physical done tommorrow and have our exit interview Friday and speed things up by a day. He said he would try but didn't get back to us. We will continue to push on him tomorrow. I think with him, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. And if it means we can get home even a day earlier, we can be squeaky!

We had a pretty quiet day other than that. We went for a long walk at lunch time today and witnessed the Vietnam school lunch program up close and personal. The children are let out at noon and there are dozens of street venders lined up outside the school gates with makeshift, sidewalk kitchens, offering anything from fried duck to icecream and of course the staple of the vietnamese diet Pho. (A broth based rice noodle soup with a variety of meats.)

The picture of Dave and Sarah represents Dave's version of an English lesson. Something about a booger I think. If only he could use his forces for good. By the way, Dave says I should give his two sense worth. He say he is really tired of Vietnam, Troung our Holt guide is an idiot, and he is really ready to come home. (editted for blog purposes ) I think he's just mad cause we had a jerk for a cab driver for going to dinner that drove us around in circles until our cab ride totalled 100,000.00 dong. Okay, that is really only a little more that $6.00 US. But is was the principal of the matter.

The highlight of our day was on the cab ride back to the hotel. Our sweet girl serronaded us with a beautiful song in vietnamse. We so wished we knew what she was singing about and wished we had the video camera with us to record her beautiful song. Maybe we will get an encore tomorrow.

A day on the town!

Today we ventured out on the town. This morning we checked out the Hanoi Hilton (infamous prison during the Vietnam war.) It was grusome! It was first used towards the end of the 19th century by the French to imprison Vietnamase patriots and revolutionary fighters. Then, during the Vietnam war it was used to imprison American pilots whose aircraft were shot down over Hanoi. It was interesting and bothersom to see the Vietnamese communist take on both of those wars. While showing the discusting torture chambers, they talked about how humanly the American soldiers were treated. They showed pictures of them playing ping-pong and cooking. While we were there we saw Sen. John McCains flight suit and pictures of him during his detainment there. It was a sobering tour but provided an interesting history lesson.

Later in the afternoon we went for a long walk around the lake. We saw, what we think is a Vietnamese soap opera being filmed and a street vending woman took a liking to Dave. She put her rice hat on his head and her load on his shoulder and wanted me to take a picture of them together. We feel like quite the novelty here.

The highlight of our day had to be our dinner. We ate at Bobby Chinns Restaurant. Dave had Filet Mignion and Mashed potatoes. I had grilled Salmon and mashed potatoes. We ordered Sarah some mac and cheese, but no. She like my salmon. So, being the sacrificial mother that I am, I shared my meal with her. For dessert we had hot chocolate lava cake and icecream. Yes, I shared that too. Our daughter is developing quite the palate for good food. The restroom was pretty cool too. (I have never gone to the restroom with a toilet that has rose petals in it. ) Sarah thought that was pretty cool too. (A far cry from some of the other water closets we have encountered here.)

pictures

Again the photos did not upload with the blog, so here they are. Sarah eating her first icecream (Those pics are for you Sam) And Sarah talking with Grandma and Grandpa and her siblings at home.

Monday Monday

Our morning began like most others here in Vietnam , with breakfast at Highlands coffee. Sarah again ate a huge breakfast followed by snacks shortly after. With eating like she is, I will bet she is up to an "average" weight soon. (Well, at least maybe she'll gain enough weight to keep her pants up.)
After breakfast we attempted the not so simple task of getting money from our account at home. We were told that travelers checks and visa were not readily accepted here so we brought some cash with the anticipation of having to get more during our trip. Turns out the bank we finally ended up at does take travelers checks and that would have been a whole lot easier and cheaper. But, after about a hour and a half, stops at two different banks , showing multiple pieces of id and 3 separate tellers windows, we finally ended up with cash (dong) in hand. We really miss Premier West Bank! :)
One possitive side to our quest for cash, was that we spotted a mall on the way to the second bank. Later this afternoon we stopped back by there for some shopping. It wasn't your typical mall and the food court was just plain nasty but, we were able to buy some interesting souveniers. We also met up at the coffee shop with a family we had met from the hotel. They are traveling with their two young sons and have two babies that they are adopting. They are going on week four here. We hope for their sakes that their visas are approved soon and they are able to go home. They were a wealth of information. In addition to providing us a list of good restaurants they had gone to they also shared with us that our hotel is actually on the site of the infamous Hanoi Hilton from the Vietnam war. So those of you that jokingly asked if we would be staying at the Hanoi Hilton during our trip, the answer is yes. Apparently, the Sommerset Grand Hanoi Hotel and towers is on the original grounds of the Hanoi Hilton (prison of the Vietnam war.) Two-thirds of the prison were torn down to build our hotel and the remaining third is still very much intact and open for tours. We plan to check that out tomorrow.
Sarah continues to bond with us and us to her. She has a great since of humor and will do almost anything to get a laugh out of you. She has had a few more episodes of crying, grief and calling out the name of her foster mom. But they are becoming fewer and she seems to find comfort in us. She is also loving her daily talks with Big brothers Tim and Sam and big sister Marli, and Grandma and Grandpa at home. (That Vietnamese sim card was money well spent.)

Back to the land of the living

While Dave is not ready to run any races, he is definately back to the land of the living. Thank you Doctor Jeff for the antibiotics. Dave was a new man after 24 hours on them. We laid pretty low today and just hung out with each other. We are just amazed that our tiny little girl, who had only gained 2 1/2 pounds in the last year and was noted as having a poor appetite has eaten all day long. It helped that we figured out that "ban" means snack or cookie. This morning she had a bottle of pedisure, a big bowl of cheerios (we smuggled here in the suitcase) 2 scrambled eggs, 2 pieces of french toast and 2 pads of butter. (Yes, Heather, I had remembered what you said about Simon so although Dave and I almost gagged as she ate it, we weren't too worried.)

After breakfast we went to the pool. It was hot and humid here and not raining but the pool water was freezing. That did not deter Sarah. She loved playing in the water and splashing mom.

After naptime we went downstairs and had an icecream. We could tell this was her first experience with an icecream cone and her first icecream headache. We then went for a long walk. It amazes us the truly unique and sometimes discusting sights and smells here. We walked by several older Vietnamese women with little "food and drink" stands on the street. They prepare the food on the sidewalk and brew the drinks in makeshift fire pits. As tempting as it looked (not) we opted for dinner in the nice hotel buffet down the street. We also saw a man getting the lice picked out of his hair on the sidewalk.

Sarah has made a lot of friends here. She is beloved by the waitstaff at both the restaurants we go to and by our housekeeper. (okay, maybe I will miss having a housekeeper come in everyday and clean and do the dishes,) Today our housekeeper brought Sarah a helium balloon. She had clearly never seen anything like it. She played with it for hours. She also played I'll let it go and you grab it, for hours. She defianately has a sense of humor. (A much needed trait to be a Martin.)

pictures of Hanoi

I couldn't get the pictures to upload the first time, so here goes again.

The girls hit the town.

We awoke this morning to the first sunshine we have seen in Vietnam. A perfect day for our city tour. The only problem is that Dave is sick. (Fever, stomach issues, head, throat, you name it it hurts) It was a humid 75 degrees in our room and Dave is huddled up in his polar fleece jacket. Please pray that Dave gets well soon and that Sarah and I don't catch this. It will be a miracle if we two stay healthy. We definately regret sharing a bottle of water with him yesterday.
It was too late to cancel our tour again, so since we were paying for it Sarah and I hit the town together. We had a great guide named Kenny that took lots of picture for us and we (sorta kinda) could understand him. We saw several temples and pagodas. One of the pagodas was the One pillar pagoda. It was cool and as the name suggests it stnd on only one pillar. We also went to the Mausulim of Ho Chi Mihn. (Considered to be a revered leader among the Vietnamese people) We also walked the grounds of his presidential palace. This was also the site of Sarah's biggest meltdown so far. She had missed her nap, it was hot and she was MAD! After an almost one hour meltdown she finally fell asleep as we began the walking tour around the grounds. (20lbs feel sreally heavy when she is asleep and it is hot.) After her nap she awoke a different person. God must have known I couldn't take much more. We then went to the famous water puppet show. Sarah really liked this. Who knows, maybe we will drag Dave back here when he is feeling better. We declined the guide's offer to take us to a traditional vietnamese restaurant for dinner and instead went back to the hotel and had pizza and chicken nuggets. Good ole American comfort food.

Rainy Day in Hanoi

To say that it rains here is an understatement to say the least. I am sure that the down pours we had here today were a direct result of the typhoon that has hit the central coast near Danang. That said, I think we are fortunate to "just" have a lot of rain. Because it rained so hard we reschedualed our sightseeing trip until tomorrow and had a quiet day in the hotel.

We all slept in this morning and then found a great spot for breakfast. It closely resembled a starbucks, except in addition to great coffees, they also had full breakfast fare. Sarah liked it too. We stayed there for an hour because she ate and ate and ate. She had a glass of juice, an order of scrambled eggs, several pieces of french bread and two pads of butter (okay, I know it's not healthly but she could use a little fat).

Later, we went to the hotels playroom. She was able to run and play and it was fun to see her interact with other children. She seemed to hit it off with a Japanese boy. They talked up a storm together and the differences in their languages did not seem to bother either of them or hamper their play.

After a nap for Sarah and Dave, we went for a short walk until the rain started again. Then it was more like a mad dash back to the hotel.

We ate an authentic vietnamese dinner at the hotel buffet. We stuck to the items we could clearly identify and steered clear of the more exotic foods (sea cucumber, fish with all its parts still intact, and all of the raw meats.) Next time I will be careful of sauces that "look" like soysauce. I got a hold of one that was VERY hot!

It was a very good day! We continued to bond with our little girl and are beginning to understand each other. She has also learned a few English words and signs. (Mommy Daddy, light, more, hot, sit, dog, cat, etc.) Progress is good!