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!

A day of meetings!

Today was a day of meetings. We left the hotel to apply for Sarah's Vietnamese passport. Our Holt guide was unable to accompany us, but told us to meet him there at 9:00a.m. We gave the taxi driver the address and he seemed to drop us off in the middle of nowhere and pointed us down a long seedy looking alley. Hesitantly we walked down the alley and tried to show a few locals the address we were looking for and they all pointed us down the alley into a shabby looking building. We went in and it seemed to be a passport issuing agency but there were no signs in English and our guide was MIA. Finally we saw James and Adreanna the couple who are adopting the little boy named Vu. We were reassured in seeing them that we were in the right place. But no Holt Guide! Finally at 9:30 Trung our Holt guide arrived and began going through the passport paperwork. He had assured us yesterday that he had all the paperwork we needed to we need not bring any. Thankfully we did bring it, because he was missing some crucial pieces. Meanwhile, Sarah needs to De Dia! (potty) in a bad way. The bathroom was about the worst I have ever seen. Needless to say I held her several feet above the toilet so that neither of us would have to touch anything. (There is not enough hand sanitizer in the world for that place.)YUCK!

After that fun adventure, we came back to the hotel to wash up, relax and kick back for a while. Then later we had to meet Trung again at the U.S. Embassy. (We made bets to how late he would be for this appointment.) But, fortunatly he arrived shortly after we did. The U.S. Embassy was not what we expected. It was just an office in a run down office building. The visa interview was not what we had expected. either. We were sent to a small office where we were seperated from the interviewer by a plate glass window and a small pass through to give the needed documents through. The interview went well and again we were thankful that we didn't listen to our Holt guide and we brough along with us our copies of all the documentation. As it turned out, they were missing some crucial pieces we needed to process her immigration visa.

We had asked several people for food recommendations and were unsuccessful at getting our requests made known. So when we got back to the hotel we surfed the internet and found a few good recommendations. One of the places was a buffet in a nice hotel across town. We were hungry so we headed out for an early dinner. Unfortunatly for us we arrived an hour and a half before they opened. So, we went for a long walk. Along the way we saw the most unusual cafe. (There is a picture of Dave and Sarah standing outside there.) No, we didn't eat there! They were serving dog. (In the tank you will see the poor pickeled pooch!)

As it turned out we had a lovely dinner at the hotel's buffet. They were serving mexican food tonight. It was no Mazatlan Grill, but was just what we wanted. (No dog!) As usual, Sarah made friends with all the waitstaff. She has a cunning way of charming them with her cute smile and then gets them to bring her a variety of foods that we haven't ordered for her. I wonder if she is saying in Vietnamese " Help! Save me from my dumb Amercian parents that can't get me what I want!" It is a difficult dissadvantage to be the only ones that don't know what your child wants. But, we are making steps (baby steps) at getting to know our little one.

Pictures

I had trouble attaching pictures to the last entry.

Sarah and dad enjoy having a drink together. We discovered at dinner last night with Hung that she likes strawberry flavored milk. (she told him that in vietnamese, when we tried to give her plain milk.)We found some in the market in the hotel. She also has enjoyed playing with her airplane.

Safely in Hanoi

God is Good! His goodness and mercy are amazing. After a not so good night sleep, (Sarah had several night terrors and crying episodes) we were prepared for the worst today. However, things have gone very smoothly. We had to wake up early to take a taxi to the airport. (Rush hour traffic in Saigon is truly a sight to see.) Once we got to the airport we were a little surprized at the difference in the domestic terminal versus the international one we flew into Saturday night. (It makes the greyhound bus station look like the Ritz.) We had an interesting flight. We had just started taxiing when Sarah announced De Dia! I am sure the spelling is incorrect but that means I have to go potty NOW! When I told her she would have to wait until the seatbelt sign went off, she wailed and announced more loudly DE DIA!!! Finally, several minutes later I was able to take her. She is amazing! She was able to hold it all that time without an accident. Midway through the flight she fell asleep across our laps and all was good except for the poor woman directly behind us who vomitted for at least a half an hour. Those of you who know me well, know that is the one bodily function I just can't handle. It may have been that or the unidentfiable entree they insisted on giving us, but nevertheless, I felt ill.
When we finally arrived in Hanoi we took a taxi to the hotel. That was an adventure. The driver got the address incorrect and took us to a very seedy part of town. We were relieved when he finally got us to the right hotel. It is a pleasant place to stay. It has two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a living space. Sarah has enjoyed having the freedom to run around from room to room.
Her disposition today is much better than yesterday. She has been happy most of the day. She has enjoyed playing with the airplane that Sam and Marli got her and the dolls that Tim got her. She has also intently looked at her photo album of the family. She had her first chicken nugget and seemed to like it. But mostly she liked the french fries. Yes, Heather, we will have to get her and Simon together for a french fry date.
Yes, Bella Sarah has been wearing your sandals. And although she isn't fond of wearing shoes, she tolerates your sandals best of all.
The weather here is warm but has rained very steady since we arrived. Looking at the forcast, it looks as though it will be much of the same for at least the next week.
Tomorrow we go to apply for Sarah's passport and have our interview for her immigration visa at the U.S. consulate office.

A new day a new beginning

Today was full of lots of emotions. Sarah had several times today where she grieved for her foster mother and showed her anxiety to be a part of her new life with us. But through her sadness it was reassuring that she clung onto us.

We are all finding it frustrating to not be able to fully communicate with each other. We have gotten the important phrases down like potty, eat, sleep. But there are definatly times when she gets frustrated that we just don't understand what she is saying.

We went out to the market today and she enjoyed shopping. What can I say, a girl after my own heart. (Marli, I think she is going to like going to the mall with us.)

Tonight we had dinner with Hung, Cuc and Vy. It was so nice to have Hung around to translate what she was saying. He also worked with her to teach her the English words.

Tomorrow morning we fly to Hanoi to process her Visa paperwork.

The Big Day!

We just awoke from our first night with Sarah. The last 24 hours seem very surreal. We left the hotel at a little after 7:00 a.m. yestesterday morning and drove to the town of Bien Hoa with the other Holt family that is here. They are a nice couple from D.C. adopting their first child, a boy named Vu. Driving into the town/village of Bien Hoa from Ho Chi Mihn was like driving from a bustling city into a very very poor village. We arrived at the orphange and were cheerfully greeted by the Holt representative Tuan, the orphange director, the social worker and lots of the orphange staff. We passed out our gifts and were told both children were arriving soon with their foster families. Sarah arrived first. Her foster mom kissed her and walked her over to us and introduced us as Ba and Ma. She approahed us hessitantly but eventually let me pick her up, while keeping a close eye on her foster mom. She then went to David a looked at him intently. Then without prompting kissed him.

We then went down to the section of the orphange where the little children stay. There were a lot of little babie and quite a few toddlers. There was also an older boy with a severely cleft lip and palet. He took to both of and really like having his picture taken and then looking at himself in the camera. We were able to see the children of the other Holt families we had connected with on-line. We gave them hugs and took their pictures.

We then got to spend time with Sarah's foster mother and father and little sister. We asked her foster mom lots of questions about her schedule, likes and dislikes. We could tell she really loved Sarah. Then it was time to say goodbye. Her foster mom held her for a moment and and kissed her. Then she muttered something to the director in Vietnamese and the director took Sarah to another room and the foster family quickly left on their motorbike (all three of them on one bike a very common thing here to see whole familie riding on one motorbike no helmets).

Sarah cried a bit when she realized they were gone but stopped when we showed her, her new doll.

We then went to the Department of Justice for the formal giving and recieving ceremony. It consisted of waiting a long time in a crowded hot building then signing a few papers and then we were on our way. The other couple James and Adrianna had a much harder time with Vu. He cried a lot.

When we got back to the hotel we took her to the room and gave her a nice warm bath. We could tell she wasn't used to a bath in a tub like this. We then dressed her in a pretty new dress and went for lunch. She was very popular with all the waitresses. She talked to all of them and even told one in Vietnamese that we were her mom and dad. I was so thankful to the waitress for translating that. She also told one of them she was 4 instead of three then laughed. That is something big brother Sam would do. She ate a lot for a little girl whose not supposed to have an appetite. Although she ate very slowly, so maybe that was interpreted as not having much of an appetite. We then went back to the room and all had a nap.

After our nap we went out on the town. We bought her two pairs of shoes, a bottle and the formula they said she was used to. Bye the way the two pairs of shoes cost less than $10.00 at a fancy department store.

Then we had dinner. She had rice (com) and fruit. Then she had some of my hamburger and lots of my fries. Yes, Katie you were right she loves french fries.

Then we went back to the room and got ready for bed. She crawled up in her bed and we said prayers. ( this was something new for her) We all crashed. It had been a long emotional day for all of us.

This morning I woke up about 6:30 and peaked over at her. She was wide a awake but laying very still not saying a word. I wonder what she is thinking. We scooped her up and put her in bed with us for some snuggle time. Things went remarkable well for a first day and night. She is wonderful! We are so blessed! Praise God!