Today I am off to get Binh a passport. Tomorrow we will head to the clinic to get Binh his final checkup and then take a flight to Hanoi in the afternoon. We are looking forward to a room with space for Binh and Ava to play. We are told our reservation in Hanoi will also have a pool. That should be fun. I realized that I did not include a good shot of Binh, so here is one of many. Char has some good ones on metaphase. On another note, the staff let us take pictures of all the babies in Binh’s room and the room adjacent so we did. I would say there were about 15 total. There is method to the madness here. More on that later…
We have been in the Tan May Dinh Hotel for a couple of days now. The Hotel is rather new and has modern amenities, the best of which is WiFi and a PC in the room. Most of the staff can speak a substantial amount of English. I wish we had learned more Vietnamese before we left. There is a incredible amount of construction going on in Ho Chi Minh. It feels like most cities in Southeast Asia but seems to be growing a little faster. The locals have been very friendly and love Ava’s blond hair and blue eyes.
I have herd many talk about the inherent differences between boys and girls and our early experience with Binh confirms this. Binh is very physical. Ava has always liked soft things that she can rub on her face but not Binh. When we hand him a soft toy and a hard plastic one he always chooses the one that will make the most noise when he bangs it on something. You really have to hold on to him or he will twist his way out of your arms in a hurry. We have a friends with little boys that all did the same things. It still surprises you when you are use to a girl.
Well, here is a video of Ava and Binh playing for the first time. The are getting along just fine. More to come…
Yesterday our lives changed again. There is so much to say and little time. We were gone most of the day yesterday and spent the evening getting closer to Binh. He is perfect. The nannies took good care of him. We got good rest last night and are enjoying the first full day as a new family. Because Char’s site actually gets more traffic than mine, I will leave three of my favorite pics and write more in the next couple of days. We have a couple of videos to post but our connectivity is a little temperamental so I will try one tomorrow. Thanks for your prayers. We are really enjoying our time in Vietnam. If you have specific questions, simply leave them as comments and one of us will answer them tomorrow.
We arrived on time and made it through immigration and customs relatively quickly. I guess the slowest moving process was baggage claim, not really a bad problem as long as your luggage arrives. Ava was a real trooper. We were told that our hotel would send us a driver so we waited for about 30 minutes but never saw the guy. So, we negotiated a taxi fair and were on our way. We paid roughly $15 for the trip, which was a little much but we got there. About an hour after we checked in and got settled, I went down to ask a question and the desk clerk asked me to sign a $40 bill for my trip from the airport. She explained that I needed to pay regardless of weather I used it. It was actually the desk manager that sent the van instructing her to get me to pay. The clerk’s English was pretty good and she got stuck between me and the aggressive desk manager. I think that the driver must have gotten side tracked or something and showed up late because after about 10 minutes of waiting, we were the only pale folks standing outside the airport. If he was actually there, he would have seen us. In the end, the general manager or his representative called and said we would not have to pay. The whole experience seemed a little odd and I’m not sure I would have wanted to spend $40 for the ride anyway.
I woke to beeps from a sea of 125cc motorcycles at about 6am local. We got around and had breakfast at the hotel and then headed out to the Zoo. Zoos in other countries are cool in the fact that you can get closer to the animals. Some might call it less safe but if you don’t act stupidly then I think you can have a better experience. We got some great pictures of Ava feeding the elephants! I can’t see that happening at a state-side zoo.
If all goes well, we should be posting pics of the G-n-R tomorrow!
We are packed and ready for a trip that will change our lives! This weeks video features the most wonderful person I know, my DW. While I have been trying to juggle research and paying the bills, my DW has done so much in the adoption process. In addition to the things she had to do in this rather ardous process, she managed to find over 50 articles of clothing for the orphans and manged to legally pay less than a dollar for each. She always has her eyes open for bargains and always thinking of someone besides herself. Lucky for me it is usually me, Ava or Binh. I had the silly idea of having her step though our luggage with a little explanation of what we are taking and why, followed by a little farewell. Next Tuesday should feature our son! We are so excited!
Happy Easter! This particular Easter will always be special as we celebrate an answer to our prayers. Things are moving so fast. Yesterday we got our tickets delivered. When I looked in the envelope and saw four sets of tickets, I was reminded of the reality that our family will grow in less than a week. What a blessing! This was Ava’s first Easter where she could enjoy an Easter basket and understands the idea of hiding things.
Ava woke at 5am this morning and Char turned toward me and said, “I really don’t want to get up yet.” For some strange reason I was actually awake this time and volunteered to get up with her thinking I could rock her a bit and squeeze in another hour of sleep. Ava was not going back to sleep so we got up and came downstairs. Char and I use Comcast mail and I can check her email but have not done so in the last 6 months. For some reason I did this morning. When the inbox page popped up there was “1 unread message.” There it was! What we have been waiting for. Oh the joy of waking her up to tell her. I entered the room calmly and said “Char you have an unread message.” I had not opened it but did see who it was from. I have never opened her emails and this one was hers to open for sure. Char groaned back at me and said that it was probably the same old advertisement email she gets most mornings. I simply said, “you want to get up and check your email.” Then we shared a great moment of joy together. Son, we’re coming to get you!
We got some good news today. USCIS has approved more I-600s in the last couple of days. Some have been waiting longer than us and some less. I am very happy and excited for those families! Bias aside, the fact that there is movement with Vietnam adoptions is a great sign that our time is that much closer. We are on our marks and set with suitcases…
For something completely unrelated: Ava is eating “on her own” now, which means that half goes in her mouth and the rest is distributed between her highchair and whatever she was wearing. The mystery up to the point was, How does her highchair stay so clean? Well, we have a highchair surfer. Just one of the many services a large GSD can perform.
This was a slow video week so I was forced to post a less flattering video of myself from last weekend in RI. She really enjoys swimming. It is important to note that the water was just a hair above freezing… really. However, our New England born girl seems to be an immediate candidate for the Polar Bear Club. There was a hot tub about 10 feet away at the other end of the pool and she in insisted on going back and forth between the “ha tub” and “cold pool.” After about three trips of that I felt like I was in some sort of thermal shock. Yeah, she’s less that 2 years old and already making me feel wimpy… guess I better get used to it. Hopefully we will be able to post on I-600 progress soon.
This blog was originally to chronicle our family’s experiences with adoption from a man’s point of view but the last week or so have strayed from that original purpose. The reason, it’s hard. It is much easier to talk about our biological daughter as she grows. They say that you don’t have to divide your heart when a new child enters your family because it multiplies. That poses a unique problem for adoptive parents. You get an exponential increase in heart capacity but little more than a picture or two to put in it. Add to it, the pain of thinking about your child’s current living conditions, the uncertainty of the process, and the helplessness that goes along with having no control. All that space in your heart where your new child’s first words and steps feel so empty. I guess you fill the empty places in your heart with what you have. Tonight as I read Ava her bedtime story she insisted that I put her bear in my other arm. I felt my eyes water, that’s where my boy is supposed to be.
