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.