The power went out in the hotel yesterday for half the day. We still had lights but no air and the elevator wasn't working. The weather hasn't been too bad here and it has rained for the last few days, but as soon as that air stops blowing, You feel it! Here is a pic of the power line outside our hotel. How they ever figure out which line goes where, I will never know. They are all just a jumbled mess.

There are bikes everywhere and the men will just sprawl across them and sleep.

Chicken anyone?

There are now 8 families here with babies, the oldest being a 1 year old. We have overrun the place. My sister and I are shopping til we drop and fall in bed at night. Christopher is such a good baby and puts up with us dragging him all over the city . He loves his Aunt Cathy and she is teaching us both lots of songs. Rubber Ducky is one of his favorites and we sing it all day long. Much better than me singing Madonna to him when I run out of songs. We have 2 more days here and are making the most of them, but are so ready to come home. We are dreading the airport journey and are hoping the time passes quickly. We will arrive home this weekend and cannot wait to see our loved ones faces!

Another shopping day

I love to get some kisses!

Another shopping day in Vietnam! Lots of walking today. We went to a local market here that was overwhelming, but we didn't buy a thing. We were quite the attraction though and were surrounded by friendly Vietnamese women just wanting to touch Christopher and see him. They are very supportive of adoption and love to see the babies. Everywhere we go, the people are happy and smiling at us and telling us how beautiful he is and asking about him.

I love snuggle time after my baths!

Sorry for the lack of posts. It seems that I have caught Christopher's bug and now can really sympathize with his apparent misery of the last week. After several nights of limited sleep and q 2 hour feedings, it was all I could do to get thru the day. We went through a 2 day rough patch of Christopher refusing feeding anything over 1 - 1 1/2 ounce but we have now seen the light. Last night he ate and kept down 5 oz and slept for 4 hours, then ate 4 oz and slept for another 4 hours. This is huge. We have turned a corner He is off antibiotics and obviously feels better. He has more smiles and laughter and is beginning to really snuggle in. We have seen a complete turn around and are so grateful to God for Christopher. He is a fighter and such a sweet little boy.

Yesterday was a big day! We got our final US approval and we are officially a family! It was an unexpected phone call to rush to the Embassy for our 2nd INS interview. We sped over in a taxi and expect to get Christopher's visa tonight at our celebration dinner.

However, we will be in Vietnam until the end of the month. There are no available return flights so we will just explore and enjoy our time in our son's birth country. There is plenty of shopping to do and sites to see.

I got an aromatheraphy a massage (75 min), manicure and pedicure the other day. All for the low price of $24.00. The massage was great! She painted my toes first and put a flower on EACH toe nail. When it got time to do my fingernails, I asked for no flower. Well, guess what I got? A flower on each fingernail. I like to call them, hooker nails. Notice them in the above photo.

One of our favorite places to eat.

My Aunt Cathy

Random photos

Catholic Cathedral 1 block from hotel. We were going to go to mass on Sunday, but the entire day, I thought it was Saturday. Jet lag sux.

Local Bride sweating her butt off at museum photo shoot

Hoan Kiem Lake--->

Party of 5! The traffic here is crazy. There are NO rules and you drive whereever there is space. Horns honk every second, literally. There is almost always 2-3 people on the motorbikes or they are carrying something. We saw one carrying a flat screen TV. Crossing the street is very scary. You just have to go for it and pray you don't get hit.

shopping day-Monday

Love those toes!

Last night Christopher rolled over for the first time for us. Unfortunately, it was at 1:30 in the morning and he couldn't get back over so we all were woken up. But, what a great moment. I just had to sneak a picture before helping him out. I am sure he really appreciated it. LOL!

We call this the grandpa pant look!

Today was a shopping day for us. You can get so many things for little to nothing $ wise here. We already have filled a suitcase with all our great finds. I am having velvet and silk coats made for him and his cousin which were $14 each. I also have been using my hotsling, which he loves, and am going to have her make me some extra's. The people here are so talented, it is simply amazing. She is having the jackets completed in 2 days and the hotslings will be done in 1-2 days also.

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for Christopher's health. We have been having eating issues and he is not taking as much as the other babies here are. But today was a better day and he is very alert and active. One day at a time. He gives us many grins and loves to be kissed. He is very ticklish, especially under the chin.

I wish that I could read the comments while we are here but please keep posting them. To whomever left the directions to video store - My sis forwarded it to me, Thank you!

Friday

Friday, we went to the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology. We were hoping it was air conditioned but no such luck. It was very interesting and had many exhibits of the different tribes. We were unsure what village that Christopher was from and one of the girls working at the shop asked us. We showed her some of our paperwork that had his town on it and she told us he was Tay. It was nice to be able to identify his specific ethnic group and see the exhibits about the Tay.

Christopher does not do well in the heat and looked just plain miserable at the museum. His body temperature rises + he is not 100% yet. We are trying to stick to a/c or very short ventures out for him. We have 2 more days of antibiotics and hope they do the trick for him. After we got home, we put him in a nice luke warm bath to cool him off which helped. He loves a bath!

Christopher has to know what is going on around him. He is scooping out the Martinez Family and their baby Nicholas.

Multi-tasking. The fruit here is wonderful, just don't eat the skins. Daily, I have been having wonderful fruit smoothies. You can get them at most restaurants and they have a variety of choices. Every day, the hotel brings us a plate of fruit that we quickly devour. We are not sure what we are eating but it is still very good.

Shoes we purchased at the museum shop, they are a little big!

Me, pitch a fit? Never happens!

GT HAT

For My Papa

What do you do when a baby spits his entire bottle on you, ALL over you? Jump in the shower with him, of course!


This has been a once a day occurence here. Between the antibiotic, gas drops, tylenol, eating and pitching a fit when being given all the above ~ Spit Happens!

Today was our 1st INS interview, it went very well and was not all that bad. It was over and done with in a little over an hour with 3 families being interviewed. Because of staffing, our papers will be sent to Ho Chi Minh on Monday, instead of Friday. We have the weekend free and need to figure out what exactly we are going to do.

Random photos from the last few days.

We at at Al Fresco's tonight. Dean had the ribs and I had the beef quesdillas. Very western & very good. It was a little pricey but we enjoyed it. Our dinners has mostly been $10 for the 2 of us. But tonight, we had an appetizer of nachos, fruit smoothies and dinner for the 2 of us was around $30. We walked to the Catholic Cathedral after dinner and are planning to go back tomorrow and explore that area more. Christopher & Dean after walking the streets of Hanoi. Notice the sweat stains on both.

1st night

Last night Christopher was up about every 3-4 hours. When sleeping, he is a very good sleeper and sometimes I think he sleeps too much. He has been running a low grade temp and seems very uncomfortable & unconsolable at times. He has been through alot. Yesterday, he was thrust into our arms (complete strangers). He was taken from all that was familiar to him; sights, sounds, smells, touch, everything is new and scary to him. Who are these people kissing me on the face and neck and whispering in a strange language in my ear? For all that he has been through - he seems as if he is doing well and coping through the unknown. He really is a sweet baby and coo's to himself and is still always playing with those hands. He has 2 bottom teeth, and 2 top teeth, 1 on top is just now popping through. When we got him, he had little to no muscle tone especially in his arms. We have seen a difference in just 1 day of being with him. He can hold his head up and does that well. He is not pushing up yet when we have him on his tummy. But he is improving every day.We took him to the SOS clinic today and they diagnosed him with an Upper Respiratory infection. He has started to pull at his ears some and has an occasional cough. He weighed 14 lbs and was 26 inches long. He absolutely HATES all medicines and hated the doctor touching him today and assessing him. He can go from 0-60 with one drop of Tylenol on his tongue, it really is crazy to watch the personality change so quickly. He definetely has spunk. Tomorrow, we have our first INS interview with the US govt. Dean applied for Christopher's passport today and it should be ready sometime next week. We wish that we would have brought some movies or something, it is easy to get stir crazy in the hotel. You can only take so much of the outside heat and street peddlers, so you have to stay inside. We are hoping to do some sight seeing this weekend.
Blogger won't let me post photos, so more pics tomorrow

Gotcha day!

We have waited a long time to write that word, Gotcha! I am just going to start posting pics cause I know that is what everyone wants anyway. The caretaker brought Christopher out first and it was quite unexpected when she breezed into the room holding him. He was very calm and just taking it all in. I will have to right in more detail when it is not 3 am. Tomorrow, we go to SOS clinic for eye infection, wheezing, fever, body rash that is all for now. We are so in love with him! He has a great little personality and calms very easily.

Being held by me for first time
After G&R ceremony, he was changed into clothes that we brought for him.
The long van ride home. Christopher slept most of the way home.


Chillin'

My beautiful face after spitting up nearly all my dinner on Dad!

Crib!

So wonderful to get a crib in the room today and also so odd. We have waited so long for this day and to have it upon us feels so strange. We are gathering our baby supplies & orphanage items for the trip tomorrow morning. We are leaving at 5:30 am and will probably be back some time in the afternoon. I am going to try to take lots of pics and video and hopefully the jet lag will be gone by then. Today we bought some formula & wash cloths. We walked to a big indoor mall and didn't buy a thing. It is cheaper on the streets. We have actually not done much shopping at all yet - this jet lag thing is hard. We are off to shop and have some dinner. We had breakfast in the hotel this morning, it was pretty good. But I think something made me sick from it - could it be the fried spring rolls? Everything else I had was western (eggs). We had lunch at Little Hanoi today and it was very good. They have mostly a western menu with a few VN items. Dean had a cheeseburger and I had some spagetti Pomadora. We will be going back. It was filled with tourists, which is a good sign for the tummy.

Tomorrow is Christopher DAY!!!! We are so happy!

Window with a view

This is the view outside our window. It is amazing to see all the people. I can't even differentiate which house is which, let alone how many people live in each. Today, we are off to explore.

The Hong Ngoc