Highlights from Hanoi

At some point during our stay I began writing down highlights of the trip so I could remember everything for Jordan's scrapbook. Some are funny, some serious, some lifechanging, and some just stuck in our mind for whatever reason.

• Driving to our hotel from the airpot. Even though it was dark, we could sense we were in another world


• Eating something orange and squishy at our first breakfast and having no idea what it was


• Our first taxi ride. Think no lanes, hundreds of scooters, no rules, lots of honking, making a left turn in front of oncoming traffic and you get the idea


• Noting a bicyclist carrying live pigs in a basket on our way to Vinh City


• 1st sight of Jordan at the orphanage. Obviously we will never forget it. He was wearing a red coat that was obviously a girl's coat, and it is going in my cedar chest.


• Observing how much the orphanage caregivers cared for Jordan. They had tears in their eyes as they said goodbye. Even the orphanage director was crying as he held Jordan one last time. It was a very emotional and wrenching departure, as Jordan was reaching for his caregiver and crying very hard


• 1st sight of Jordan's smile. It was a few days in coming, but well worth the wait. Jordan's smile can light up a room


• Jordan pulling the lamp over on himself and breaking it at the Dae Woo


• Johnathon emerging from the bathroom at the Kim Leim with the toilet seat over his arm


• Mr. Le telling me I would be very busy, very busy (the above two items proving his point)


• Our visit to the zoo. Mostly sad as we observed the condition of the animals, but amusing when a monkey grabbed a man's camera and climbed to the top of the cage to dismantle it


• 1st time Johnathon and Jordan actually played together. It was a very odd game; Johnathon yelled "no, no" and pointed his finger at Jordan and Jordan laughed and laughed


• Jordan biting my toe (very hard). I guess I need to watch my feet when he is crawling around


• Taxi ride with 3 screaming babies. This actually happened more then once. Not much to do but laugh. It did remind the taxi drivers to take the shortest route (something they often do NOT do)


• The squat toilets on the way to Vinh City


• Discovering our hotel had chocolate icecream. I ordered 2 scoops via room service and informed the family mommy was going to eat her icecream in peace


• Johnathon yelling in his sleep, "my toys, my toys." Losing your place as the only child in the family while in a foreign country and living in a hotel is quite a lot for a 2-yr-old to handle. This often was displayed in nightime behavior


• Walking John and Johnathon to the taxi to take them to the airport on November 5. A night I NEVER want to repeat.


• Finding a page of scribbles in the hotel Johnathon had drawn after he went home. I immediatly tucked it away. What a find, it was like gold


• Watching a lizard emerge from our hotel bathroom. I thought it was just that particular hotel (which we did not linger at), but this event repeated itself at a later date. In fact, in the perfect send off, when I was checking out of our last hotel there were 3 lizards climbing the wall behind the front desk


• Our taxi getting stuck while traveling down a narrow street in the old quarter. We ditched the taxi and walked


• Our trip to Halong bay


• Jordan spitting up all over me (which time? there were many)


• Hearing screams in the hall and suspecting we had just received the cal
  

There it is in a nutshell. We will never forget Oct/Nov of 2007!

Jordan and I are home and we are a family again!!!!!!!!

We are home!!!!!!!!!

I know many are wondering what happened to us. I have a lot of catching up to do, but thought I better post the best post of all - WE ARE HOME!!!! We got the call Wednesday morning, Nov. 14 to come to the embassy for our 2nd interview in order to receive our visas. There was screaming in the halls of our hotel, and it was happy screams. My flight left at 11:40pm thursday night and I was up the next 48 hours bringing Jordan home by myself. I would not advise anyone to travel around the world alone with an active 12 month old, but you do what you have to do. Thankfully he slept much of the trip. I plan to update the blog and I will just date the posts with the date they would go with, so stay tuned for more pics and posts. I am still sorting through pictures, but am taking advantage of being totally turned around and using my nights to work on that.

Pictures from Hanoi

Here are a few more pics. Somewhere I have more pictures of the countryside. Can't get my hand on them right now.

Not sure what is happening here.

Nothing like a pack n play to keep them contained

Jordan with some of his loot from his 1st birthday

Shopping at the Big C. (I don't know why they call it that)

Last night in Hanoi

We arrived in Hanoi on October 13 (arrived 2 days early by choice) and had our second visa interview today, November 14. All but one of us are leaving tomorrow. Did we expect to stay this long? NO. Is international adoption always glitch free? NO. Is it worth it in the end? YES! We met many families who were in Hanoi longer then expected. Processing through the US embassy is rough right now and unfortunately we felt the effects of that. We received word about 8:30am that we were to go to the embassy today for our 2nd interview and there was screaming in the halls (happy screaming). For some of us, we received this wonderful news just when we thought we could take it no longer. It is hard being alone in a foreign country, cooped in a hotel room with an active 12 month old. Anyway, we decided to celebrate by ordering from Alfrescos (they deliver) one more time. This is a restaurant with Mexican and Italian choices and I recommend it to families looking for other food choices. The convenience of delivery cannot be overstated. Here is our "party." Oh yes, Mark went out and bought us cheesecake for the celebration.

Halong Bay

We decided to get out of the hotel and visit Halong bay today. It turned out to be a good decision. Halong Bay is one of the main tourist attractions in Vietnam and is a body of water filled with limestone mountains. There is a myth about the descending dragon that goes along with it, you can google to find out more. For $45 dollars we had our own private minivan, our own private boat, 4 hours on the bay, lunch, and admission to the caves. It was well worth it. Many of the hotels promote the overnight tours, but there is a day tour, which is more doable with new babies. We did not realize this at first. Here are a few pics:

The typical boat

Inside the caves

Hotel living

Here are a couple of pics of our "home." This is our room at the Dae Woo, one of the 7 hotels we stayed in. The rooms were all pretty much the same size so this is basically what it was. I considered tidying the room up before I took pictures, but decided to show the accurate view. Hotel living with a 1 and 2-yr-old is not on my top ten lists of things to do, but we got by. We will never complain about our house being too small again.

Yep, we are still here

Nothing new except we have been wanderers lately. We were not able to extend our room reservations at the Daewoo Hotel, so we had to move yesterday. We moved to hotel #5, but we did not stay more then one night. Let's just say we came, we saw, and we went. Sometimes these things happen when traveling overseas. It is peak season right now in Hanoi so finding a hotel is really difficult, but our agency helped us find better lodging and we are not in a very nice hotel. John and Johnathon leave in about 3 hours to go home. After much thought we decided Johnathon needed to go home. We have been here a little over 3 weeks now and that is about all a 2-yr-old can take. The other husbands and siblings left Friday night but John was not able to get a flight until today. I have tentative reservations to leave this coming Thursday night and am sure hoping I can do so. I am cautiously optimistic we will get our 2nd visa interview tomorrow or Wednesday. From now on my computer time will be with a 12 month old on my lap so I don't know how well I will be able to keep the blog up. I might have to finish when I get home. I don have some more pics to post later. Keep checking, I'll definately post when I am coming home.

What you do while you are waiting

Well, in our case we have taken to having neighborhood block parties in the hotel hallway. This is where everyone goes out into the hall and the adults talk and moan about when we are ever going to get out of here and the children run up and down the halls like wild banshees. We are sure the hotel would prefer we would find other forms of entertainment, but it seems to help.



On another note, yesterday Johnathon and Jordan were suddenly very quiet so I looked and this is what I saw. Fortunately I had my camera handy. I have no idea what they were doing, but they seemed to be getting along.




And yes, that is oreao cookie on Johnathon's face. Feeding your 2-yr-old oreos are the types of things that begin to occur when you are 2 plus weeks and counting living in a hotel.

Here is a picture of Johnathon and Mr Le, our agency's very hard working employee here in country.

We will shout it from the mountain tops when we learn our 2nd interview date so no need to worry that you missed it.

Waiting, waiting, waiting

Today begins the anxious wait for our 2nd visa interview. There is a chance it could be today so we are all hoping the phone will ring. Can you tell we want to go home? Meanwhile, here are a few pics of our journey:

The building across the street from our hotel in Vinh City:

Streets of Hanoi

Traffic of Hanoi, but it doesn't really show what it is really like. I have not been able to get a good picture.

House in Hanoi

Hopefully we will have some good news soon. Jordan is ready to come home!

Water Puppet Theatre

Today we went to the famous Water Puppet theatre. It is just as it sounds, puppets in water creating a story. The stories are based on Vietnamese culture and tradition. The music and narration is performed live and many of the intruments are unique, I am assuming native to Vietnamese culture. The narration was in Vietnamese so we didn't understand, but it was fun to watch. We had front row seats which was great although we were right next to the speakers. About half way through the show we saw a mouse run off the edge of the stage onto the speaker and disappear somewhere. I have to admit I had a hard time concentrating on the show after that, but I did my best. Jordan slept through the whole thing despite the loud noise. I have to say Jordan can sleep anytime, anywhere. We attempted to shop after the show but gave up. The markets are hard to negotiate with little ones and we were all tired. Here are a few pics.

The puppeteers taking a bow.

Look, a smile!!!!

Jordan is really settling in. He follows us all around and gets right in when John and Johnathon are playing. He laughes and squeals a lot. He attempts to play with Johnathon, but unfortunately that often means pulling Johnathon's hair. Not a good way to win big brother over. We think he feels a part of the family now. We are hoping the transition to our house will not set him back too much. It will be more overwhelming then the hotel room, but at least he will still be with us.

A day at the zoo

Today we visited the zoo that is along the lake we can see outside our hotel window. It looks nice from our window. Close up you realize the lake is filthy and the zoo is quite sad. They had quite a few animals, but the conditions were not the best. Johnathon is too young to notice so he enjoyed it. The alligator was his favorite. We saw a cage with monkeys and several small babies. I saw something move that I that was an awfully small baby monkey when I realized it was a rat. It turns out many of the cages had complimentary rats, which I might add, do not necessarily stay in the cages. One monkey cage provided the entertainment of the day when a monkey grabbed the camera out of a man's hand. He then climbed to the top of the cage and took the back off the camera and started chewing. A zookeeper finally came and retrieved the camera, but I don't know if it will ever work again. There were also kiddy rides but there was no way I would get on one. They all appeared to be very rickety. As we were leaving the zoo I commented to John that everything we do here seems to make us appreciate all the more all that we have in the US. We finished the day out with a swim. Jordan seemed to really like the water and would have jumped right in if we had let him. Here are a few pics:


If you look close, you can see the camera.

Another day of waiting

Nothing on the agenda today except we are going to attempt the market again with another family. Tomorrow we pick up the babies passports in the morning and take them for their visa physicals in the afternoon. Then we are just waiting for our 2nd visa interview. It could be as early as Monday. After that interview it is 24 hours until we get the babies visas and then we are out of here. We are hoping for Monday, but more likely the middle of the week. Here are a few more pictures

Johnathon with some of his new trucks he got at the market.


Picture from the market area in old quarter Hanoi.


We thought this store looked like a steamboat.

Our little cutie.

Johnathon never seems too pleased to have brother play with him. We think he is slowly warming up to the idea. Jordan is full of smiles but I cannot capture them on camera. He doesn't seem to like the camera and gets real serious when I point it at him.

Out and about in Hanoi

Well, Jordan is settling in pretty good now. The last two days we have seen smiles and heard babbling. He is also going to John now and even holds out his hands to be picked up. This makes John happy as it was just a couple of days ago that Jordan would turn his back to John and stand in the corner of the pack n play if he saw John coming to get him. Jordan and Johnathon are getting along a little better. We really see Jordan trying to interact with Johnathon. It depends on Johnathon's mood what happens from there. I was very pleased to see him share a brand new truck with Jordan this afternoon. We hit the market of old quarter Hanoi. Quite the experience. It is kind of hard with small children because it is very busy and you can't always walk on the sidewalk. You are also contantly approached by merchants trying to get you to buy their goods. We were doing well and enjoying ourselves when Jordan spit up all over both him and I. There was nothing to do but get a taxi and go home. Johnathon hit the bonanza though because we bought him a truck set with all different kinds of trucks. He is one happy camper right now. Did you notice I referred to the hotel as home. Not sure what that means, but I guess we are settling in. We have found a place to eat with Italian and Mexican food and it is GOOD. They even deliver to the hotel. We are feeling better about our food situation now. We are just skipping lunch. It is too hard trying to find food three times a day. We snack for lunch and eat an early supper. The breakfast buffet is good (and free) so that helps. There is a market called the "Big C" that is nearby and we make a trip there about every other day. It seems we are always out of something, mainly water. A word to families waiting to travel. It is hard to find soy based formula and I would bring several cans with you in case your baby does not do good on the milk based. Jordan and one other baby in our group was not doing good on the formula. We switched to soy based and have seen good results. I had just brought one small can so we were really needing to find some. One of the ladies in our group found a store that sells it, but I have no idea where it is. John is alone with the two boys so I better go. We are all going to go to the water puppet theatre soon. We are looking forward to that. I know I need to post more pics of the country, just need some time. Here are a couple of pics.

This is the view out our hotel window and yes, the pool belongs to our hotel. I know, it is rough. We haven't really been in it yet. Well, Johnathon went in with his clothes on the other day.

Another view outside our hotel window. As you can see there is a lake and they have paddle boats you can rent. We hope to do that soon.

Johnathon has made a friend on this trip. Aren't they cute!!!!!

Brothers!

Well, I believe there will be an adjustment period in our household. Johnathon alternates between being sweet to his little brother and well, let's just say being not so sweet. It is hard at the ripe old age of 2 to be usurped from the position of only child. We have high hopes Johnathon and Jordan will one day be great buddies, but I guess for now we will just settle for tolerance at best. Johnathon just turned 2 1/2 and Jordan will turn 1 on November 2.

Neither appears to pleased at the new arrangement.

I call this the "open mouth" shot.

Yes, did you notice? Jordan is standing and WALKING. He gets around very well and we dare not take our eyes off him for a minute or he will be into trouble. We were told Jordan is very acitve and was always getting into trouble at the orphanage. He also gets mad when he doesn't get his way. So far that summary is very accurate. I will have to get some better pics. We are just now starting to get a few smiles from Jordan. I am starting to see little improvements in his adjustment each day. More later, I better go rescue John who has been holding down the fort.

The Giving and Receiving Ceremony

Some have asked just what the Giving and Receiving ceremony is and if it is a legal or cultural ceremony. I guess I would say both. At the ceremony there is a lot of preliminary paperwork that is signed. Since we had four families that took quite a while. Finally an official says a few words. Some were translated and some were not, so I am not quite sure what he said. Then the baby is given to an official how then hands him (or her) to the parents. At this point the adoption is complete and the baby is legally yours. Our G & R was originally scheduled for 11am, but was postponed until 4pm. Now I should have known we would be there awhile after the way everything had gone so far, but I guess I wasn't thinking. Fortunately I did pack one jar of baby food just in case. Good thing because we were there until 6pm or later. Jordan was not pleased at the delay in his supper and cried the whole time he was being handed off to us. Here is the room where the ceremony took place.

Jordan and Johnathon with one of the orphanage caregivers.

Signing papers

Now he is officially ours!

Off to the orphanage

Tuesday morning we left for the orphanage. We left between 9-9:30am, which was a late start according to plans. The orphanage is about a 6 hour drive from Hanoi. The highways are just as interesting to travel on as the streets of downtown Hanoi. Basically you take away some of the scooters and add more busses and trucks. Then add bicycles (which may be carrying such things as live pigs in a basket), oxen, water buffalo, etc. and drive faster, still with no rules. It is like 6 hours of a game of chicken. I believe the best thing to do is close your eyes, but I wanted to see the countryside so I didn't. There were a couple of times that I ducked. I have to give credit to the drivers, I don't know how they do it. There is a lot of swerving and braking along the way. I was surprised I didn't get car sick. The countryside is green with many rice crops along the way. There are plenty of palm trees and farm fields. There were also mountains, which I guess I didn't expect. It was an interesting ride. Johnathon just looked out the window the first half of the trip. We stopped to eat along the way and I had a noodle dish that was pretty good. Here we are enjoying lunch and anticipating receiving our babies.

The orphanage is in the hills. It is hard to describe the anticipation as you are driving the last few kilometers to the orphanage where your baby is waiting. The entire orphanage was out to greet us and gave each family a bouquet of flowers.

Finally we caught sight of our babies and held them in our arms. It was kind of mass confusion. Jordan did not want to go. He cried and held on to his caregiver for dear life. It was so sad. Kind of a bitter sweet moment for me.

Five and 1/2 months of waiting and I finally hold Jordan. I am afraid he wasn't as excited as I was. We were all escorted to a small room where the director of the orphanage said a few words. Then everyone was talking at once. Jordan began crying hard and a caregiver took him from me. We have a family in our group who are Vietnamese and they were trying to translate for us so we could find out our baby's schedules. Time was very limited and there was such a commotion it was very hard. All I found out about eating was that Jordan still takes a nightime bottle (just what every mom wants to hear). I did learn he takes a 2-hour nap in both the morning and afternoon. We soon had to get back in the vans to head for Vinh City, another hour away. Jordan cried again as I pulled him away from a caregiver. She was crying and the director of the orphanage had tears in his eyes. He took Jordan and held him one last time. I will say this - the babies were truly loved at this orhanage. What they lacked in facilities and supplies they made up for in love. I know Jordan was well cared for. I was in tears as we left because it was so hard to see Jordan suffer and I realized the heartache these wonderful caregivers felt as they gave up the babies. Jordan cried so hard he spit up all over. We still had an hour to drive, but cleaned up as best we could. Fortunately he soon settled down and fell to sleep. I was worried we would be in for a rough night, but he went to sleep at the hotel pretty quickly and only woke about 4 times. I was able to get him to sleep pretty fast each time, so the night was bearable. Wednesday will be the Giving and Receiving ceremony.