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.