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.

Introduction to Hanoi

We were fortunate to have two full days to recover before the long ride to the orphanage. We mainly spent this time sleeping and going to the market. I don't recall much else about these two days. The first time you ride a taxi you are immediately aware of the road. It is hard to ignore roads filled with scooters from one side to another. Of course there are cars too, but scooters or small motorcycles are the only transportation for many. There are no rules. Some roads do not have lanes. There seems to be no need because if there are lanes you just pick any lane to drive in, or drive between two lanes for that matter. The first time we took a taxi he had to make a left turn and he just headed out into a sea of scooters and cars coming our way. There really are no rules. They use a honking system that makes it very noisy. Basically you honk when you are coming up on someone to pass. There are hundreds of horns honking at once so I am not sure how you know which horn is directed at you. It seems to work, we always got where we were going. It is not uncommon to have a vehicle or scooter only 2-3 inches from your vehicle. John thought it looked like fun and wanted to rent a scooter. I told him he would last 5 seconds. I am wondering what the learning curve is like when a person first starts driving in Hanoi. Our first hotel was suitable, but not fancy. Our room was quite big, but lacked a few amenities. Eating has been a problem from the beginning but we kind of figured it would be.

We really are in Hanoi

Well, the best laid plans never seem to work. I have not been able to enter my blog on any of the hotel computers previously. I am now hopelessly behind and will try to catch up so stay tuned. My computer time is limited with a 12 month old and 2 yr old. Anyway, we did survive the 26 hour trip with Johnathon, 2 1/2. All I can say is it is LONG. We flew to Korea for Johnathon, but that extra 4-5 hours it takes to get to Vietnam about did us in. Johnathon did wonderful. I can't believe how well he did. It is like entering a different world when you get off the plane. Everything is so different, especially the driving. I'll save that for another post. I really do hope to catch up and post pictures soon so stay tuned. Of course by now we have Jordan and he is precious. He likes to get his way and gets very mad when he doesn't. The big news is he is WALKING! He really gets around. That is bad news in a hotel room. He gets in constant trouble. I will tell you more about Jordan and everything later. I have to run before Jordan wakes up.

We're Leaving on a Jetplane!!!!

Fortunately our jetplane will be a little fancier then the one pictured here. That is the creation of Johnathon (age 2) who was being way too quiet in his room one day. About the time I knew I must investigate he came out saying "mommy jetplane Jordan." This photo proves my 2-yr-old is already more mechanically minded then his mother. It also shows he has been thinking a lot about Jordan and we cannot wait until he meets his new brother. We leave at 9:53am (Friday) and arrive in Hanoi at 11:05pm Saturday. We will travel to Vinh City on Tuesday and the Giving and Receiving is scheduled for either Wednesday or Thursday. We are not quite sure when we will get Jordan at this point. My next post will be from Vietnam. Yipee!!!!

We have a travel date!!!!!!

I knew I was up at 1:30am for some reason. An email just came through telling us to book tickets. We will leave FRIDAY!!!!. 5 1/2 months since referral, but who is counting. I have much to do. We will celebrate Jordan's birthday in Vietnam. We also received word that the orphanage is ok after the latest typhoon that hit in the same province. We are very grateful.