Greetings from the capitol city of Hanoi

Greetings from Hanoi. It has been an adventurous day to say the least! We got up this morning had breakfast, waited in the lobby for Avery's au doi to be delivered, and payed for our GNR expenses. Then, we spent a few hours relaxing in our room before checking out of the Rex and departing for the airport.

We got to the airport and through security with about 40 minutes to spare. at 1:30ish, our flight was called and we moved in to a holding area. As the clouds moved in we wondered what the weather was going to do. Naturally, it began to pour down rain and our flight was delayed slightly. We left HCMC at about 2:30 and dropped about 40 feet from the air on the landing strip in Hanoi. BAM! The landed was the worst landing that any of us have ever encountered. Thank the Lord that all of the parents were holding their babies tightly. The pilot came on over the intercom and apologized for the rough landing but they had a pilot in training - glad we knew this after the flight! Avery was so good the entire trip (she slept most of it).

We quickly gathered our luggage and made our way through the airport. We loaded a large bus and headed to our hotel. That was an experience as well. On the way to our hotel we hit a lady on her motor bike. Her high heel went flying into the traffic and knocked her bike over. Keep in mind, the driver did not stop to check on her even with all of us yelling at him! Next, we got to the hotel and the driver pulls into the wrong drive way and preceds to try and turn a corner that was clearly made for a small car. He decides to back the bus back out into the traffic (lots of traffic) and side swipes a traffic sign and misses a couple on a motor bike by 2 inches. We kissed the ground when we arrived! Thank God we were in a large bus or who knows what might have happened!

Hanoi is really a pretty city. Between the airport and downtown, it is all agriculture. Cows standing along side the road and TONS of rice fields. Harvesting rice is such manual labor. It is back breaking work, not to mention probably terrible for the knees. I did find that many of the cemetaries or mausoleum were located within the rice fields. It is so strange! Once you get into the downtown area it is similar to that of NYC. Tons of motor bikes and cars with honking horns and people everywhere!

Our hotel is really nice. This location is the best that we have been in since arriving in VN. It is an apartment type setup. We have 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, a kitchen, dining area and living room. For those families who have yet to travel - you will love this hotel!

Tomorrow, we plan to do some shopping and spend some time resting!

More shopping and traditional Vietnamese dinner

Today we did more shopping at a few little boutiques, the Saigon Tax Center and the Saigon Center. We took Avery to a tailor shop to have a traditional Vietnamese outfit made for her baptism. Of course, while we were there we bought several other outfits for her to have as she grows. She did not like it when the ladies at the shop tried to take her measurements. She just wanted me to hold her - this is a good sign - the bonding process has begun! The baptismal au doi will be delivered tomorrow morning at 9am.

While Aunt Donna, Avery and I shopped, Scott went with the Minh, the other dads and Erin to pick up passports.

After all of our shopping, we had lunch at the Paradise Coffee House which is attached to the Rex Hotel. I finally found Macaroni and Cheese (the noodle type). It was really good but had LOTS of garlic!

Tonight, we met all of the Dillon staff at a local Vietnamese restaurant for a traditional meal. The atmosphere was fantastic! Apparenlty, this restaurant is famous for throwing clay pots. You must be thinking, throwing clay pots? Well, the clay pots are thrown to get the rice out. The pot is too hot to remove the rice any other way. We ate shrimp spring rolls, tomato based broth soup with vegetables and pork over rice, fried tofu and pork, watermelon, pineapple and hot tea.

Tomorrow, Scott has to meet Minh in the lobby at 9am to finalize a few more documents and then we leave for the airport at 12:00 for a 2:00 flight to Hanoi. We are scheduled to have our exit interview at 3 something on Monday. With that being said, we should be able to pick up Avery's VISA on Tuesday and we are free to head back to the states. At this point we aren't sure if we will try to get a flight out on Tuesday night or just wait until Wednesday morning. We will post more details as they become available.

June 27th and 28th

The past few days have been very eventful. Yesterday, Scott went down to the immigration office to file the necessary paperwork to begin Avery's passport. On the way back, the van tire went flat and they had to walk back about 3 blocks in the sweltering heat! Upon his return, all the families loaded up their babies and we walked a few blocks to get passport photos. We went with Jessica and Ken over to the Saigon Tax Center for some shopping, fed the babies and went to dinner in the coffee lounge at our hotel. We all had grilled ham and cheese sandwiches. They were interesting but tasted really good! Avery and Beckett were a mess yesterday. They were overly tired and VERY crabby!

Upon our return from dinner, we fed Avery a bottle, gave her a bath and laid her down. We all were exhausted from returning to HCMC the night before so late that we all went to bed at 7:00pm. All but Aunt Donna, housekeeping came twice - once to turn down the beds and the second, to deliver our laundry. Apparently, Minh tried to come by as well but we didn't hear him. Avery slept until 2:30am. She woke up, had a bottle, laid around until 3:30 and went back to bed until our 6am wake up call.

At 8:00am we met 4 of the 5 families in the lobby of the hotel for medical check ups. We went to a clinic that appeared to only be doing medical check ups for VISAS. The doctor told Avery that she was a lucky little girl and that she would do well with her new family. He did say that she was small and needed to gain some weight (we thought...ya think). She is itty, bitty. She is fitting in size 6 month clothing but is a peanut!

We got back to the hotel for a bottle and quick diaper change and out the door we ran. We met at 11:15am for our immigration interview. We waited in the waiting room for 45 minutes before our interview. Once we got in with the agent, we had a 5 minute conversation which mostly did not pertain to our newest bundle.

We are now back in our hotel room while Scott has gone to Vietnam Airlines to make travel arrangements to Hanoi. We are flying from HCMC to Hanoi on Saturday (night). Once in Hanoi, we will be on our last leg of this process. We will just need to go to the embassy to do our exit interview and pick up Avery's VISA. Once this happens we are bound for the good ole' USA! We anticipate heading home towards the end of next week. However, it could be sooner. We will post when we know further details.

Tonight, we are just going to stay in our room. Jessica, Ken, Beckett, Mary, Erin and Loston are going to join us. We are ordering pizza from Pizza Hut! Should be fun!

We made it back to HCMC

Thomas picked us up in Can Tho City last night (morning in the states) at 7:00, the director of the orphanage met us to say goodbye and we headed back to HCMC. We finally arrived back at the Rex around 11:00pm. We made excellent time! There is a lot less traffic later in the evening in those smaller provinces. Aunt Donna was scared to death by the drivers driving skills. We told her just "don't look". Avery did fantastic! She slept for the first few hours and then was awake and looking around. When we got back to the hotel we gave her a bottle, asked for a crib and layed her down. I guess she was out by 11:30pm. She slept until 4:45am. We have now played, had another bottle and is tired once more.

Today, Scott will go to UCIS to file our I-600 and then will return. We plan to have Pizza Hut at some point in time. We are STARVING!!!!! We also have to run to the Saigon Tax Center for some baby items and maybe to the mall across the street.

The internet connection here is not as good as it was in Can Tho. We will try to post as often as possible. Thank you so much for posting comments. We love reading them!!!

Surprise ~ GNR TONIGHT!!!!!

We just got back from the Local Justice Department. The document that was needed was signed late this afternoon. Thomas called and told us that our social worker was on the way to pick us up. We quickly got dressed and headed downstairs. Minutes later, a motorbike pulls up with the nannie, social worker and bundled up Avery. My heart dropped - to see my baby on a motor bike - YIKES! She hailed a taxi and off we went.

Can Tho - Day 3!!!

Today was our third day at the orphanage and still NO GNR! Apparently, we are waiting for a signature from the local justice department. We were hopeful that we would be able to do it this afternoon, but, it is now not looking very likely. With that being said, we will not have our GNR until MONDAY! The director of the orphanage has to fly to Hanoi tomorrow for a meeting and will not be available until Monday (she is needed for the ceremony). We are bummed because this may delay our time to get home to Owen. On the flip side of things, we do get to visit Avery at the orphanage everyday but Sunday from 9-11am.
This morning she was fantastic! She no longer cries when she sees us and LOVES to be cuddled! She is very curious about her surroundings and prefers to be held upright (against your chest). One other interesting fact is that she likes to play with HAIR! She is just like her big brother - look out Owie! She is very interested in her daddy and feel asleep on his chest - too precious! When it was time for us to leave, we said good bye, kissed her and handed her over to her nanny. She immediately began to cry - she has made a connection with us (thank God). We will post more when we now for certain about our GNR and room service is on its way!

Can Tho City ~ Day 2

We left the hotel today and headed to the Can Tho City Red Cross. We met with the Chairwoman and the Vice-Chairman. We spent an hour visiting and shared a snack of fruit together. I am not sure what kind of fruit we were eating besides miniature bananas since we do not have the majority of it in the USA. Most was rather tasty! When we left the Red Cross we went to see Avery. As we went in she was being held by her nannies and of all things, they were trying to do her hair. We had no tears today. She cuddled with all of us, had a small bottle and then screamed her head off when it was time for us to leave! She knows who her mommy and daddy are:)).