Day 16 July 30th Monday
Written July 31st and submitted July 31st
Today starts the week of waiting for the magical phone call. We are waiting for a call from our caseworker that says the investigation has been completed and Gracie’s visa has been approved. Several people here at our hotel have been waiting a little longer than they have expected so everyone is on pins and need. We hope to get the approval before our flight this Sunday.
The four of us awoke from our sleep and everyone seemed healthy. Logan is much better now except for being a little plugged up and Becky is running about 90 percent, which for everything she went through the night before that sounds pretty good. Gracie is always so smiley in the morning and always happy to see us. She has her classic open mouth smile that always reminds us why we made the trip.
Once we got ready, we went downstairs for breakfast. This wasn’t a good breakfast day for Logan because there wasn’t much on the menu he wanted. He managed to find a couple of items that he would eat and then he grabbed the room key from Becky and headed to the room to get on the computer. Becky and I sat with Alison, who has been here a week longer than us and is still waiting for her baby’s visa to be approved by the US embassy. We really hope she gets approved soon because like everyone else she’s ready to go home. After a quick meal, Becky, Gracie, and I headed back to the room to begin our wait by the phone like everyone else.
About an hour later, Becky called Christy to see if she was going to some shop a couple of blocks away and that she would like to join Christy. So the two of them left for some shopping and Logan, Gracie, and I settled in for the morning. It was about an hour later that I heard the phone ring from the bedroom. I yelled at Logan to answer the phone because the phone in the bedroom doesn’t work that well. By the time I got in the front room to see who was on the phone, Logan had the phone in his hand but said nobody was on it. I picked up the phone and said hello. Martin, our caseworker, was on the other end. He must not have known what to say when Logan greeted him. Martin told me that our visa had been approved and that the interview will be sometime Tue afternoon and that he would call us tomorrow when he gets the appointment from the embassy. He said he was trying to call Christy’s room because her baby’s visa had been approved as well so if I could let her know, then that would be great. Matter of fact all the visas had been approved for the parents in our hotel and the Melia. I told Martin that was excellent news and when I got off the phone Logan was looking at me funny because he has never seen his dad dance like that before. I haven’t been that relieved in a long time and I couldn’t wait to tell the girls when they returned from the shopping trip. Logan was happy but he’s a man with little emotion unless he just bought a gameboy game and can’t figure out how to advance to the next level. Then his emotions really come out of him.
About 30 minutes after Martin’s phone call, I heard the girls in the hallway so I opened the door and told Christy to step inside because I had some news. The girls were ecstatic. Christy and Grace have a flight early Thursday morning so getting our visas on Wed means she can make her flight. We decided to meet for dinner for a little celebration meal.
Becky soon got on the computer to email Todd, our travel agent, to see if we can get us a sooner flight. Our current flight has us leaving Sunday so we are going to try to leave Thursday or Friday. The worst case is that we would have to wait until Sunday. We will fly into Chicago Monday 8/6 at 6:00 am. Just knowing the paperwork is complete and all we have to do is wait is good enough for me at this point.
We didn’t do much the rest of the afternoon. I ran down to the tourist center to read the comments on the blog. I copied the comments to an email and then mailed it to ourselves so Becky could read them in the hotel room. Logan got his fill of movies and video games that afternoon. We could tell Logan was feeling much better now because he was having fun pestering his little sister. As soon as we told him it was time to read for 30 minutes, all of a sudden he was hungry or tired or something else was wrong with him. We knew then that he was back to his old self.
Late in the afternoon, Gracie was sleeping so Logan and I went down to happy hour for some snacks. Every day between 2:30-4:30pm the hotel has snacks laid out for the guests. They usually include about five different types of pastries or baked goods and Logan usually likes them. We took our seat at the front window to watch the people on the street. I explained to Logan the events that will be taking place this week so we would definitely be home on Monday. I asked him what’s the first thing he’s going to do when we get back home and he said PLAY! I don’t blame him because he’s been cooped up with nothing but mom and dad and other adults for the past two weeks but he’s done an excellent job. I told him it was important that he came on this trip because Gracie’s going to have many questions about the place where she was born and she is going to be asking him questions. It will mean a lot to her when she gets older that her brother was there when we received her from the orphanage and that we spent the time in the hotel room getting to know her. Logan seemed to take it in.
As usual when sitting at the front table next to the window, street merchants still like to come up to the window and show you their goods. The cyclo drivers will stop in front of the window as well and wave at you to take a ride with them. Even sitting behind the glass in the security of the hotel, Logan has a hard time with this. He will slouch down in his chair to try to get out of their line of sight. I told him they can’t come in the hotel but he just doesn’t like people standing there looking at him. I just smile and wave back and eventually they move on. About an hour later Becky and Gracie joined us at the front window. Gracie just woke from her nap and she was happy as usual. After a short while, we went to the room to call Christy to see if they were ready to go to our celebration dinner.
We all headed out to dinner about 5:30 to a new place that Becky and Christy found earlier in the day. It was a small place that served Western food but this was the first place that was a little smoky. As soon as the waitress brought our food, Gracie decided she wanted to eat NOW! She is pretty good about letting you know she is hungry but this time we received no type of warning. So we quickly made her a bottle and she was happy again. On our way back to the hotel we stopped by a shop that Logan had spotted earlier that sold gameboy games and purchase a game for Logan. They’re only $6.50 US per game so it’s hard not to buy them while we are over here.
We went back to the room and Becky got on the computer and Logan played his new game. Becky and I got Gracie ready for bed and she went fast asleep. Logan and I watched a terrible movie because there was only one channel then we went to sleep
Monday, July 30, 2007
Halong Bay Trip
Day 14 & 15 July 28th & 29th Friday
Written July 30th and submitted July 28th
This weekend we decided to leave the hotel and venture out to a place called Halong Bay.
We were a little concerned about the trip because Logan developed a slight fever and his sinuses were a little plugged. We gave him some Motrin and that seemed to bring his fever down. Becky and I thought he could have a fever and sit in the hotel or have a fever and sit on the boat in Halong Bay so we decided to go.
The bus was going to pick us at the hotel lobby at 7:30am so we had to get up early and downstairs to breakfast early. Logan and I went to breakfast ahead of Becky while she finished up on a few things and when we returned I started getting Gracie ready while Becky took her turn at breakfast. We made it to the lobby right on time. Christy and her daughter Grace were already waiting for us. I was surprised to see them already in the lobby since Christy is by herself because her husband David had to go back to the States a couple days ago.
We sat in the lobby for about 15 minutes before the van arrived. During this time, Tracy, Amy, and Max entered the lobby door from the Melia hotel to meet their transportation from our hotel. While we sat there some of the local people were looking across the street with concerned looks on their faces and they were speaking in their native tongue. Apparently an old woman got her foot ran over by a truck in front of our hotel. So far I have seen quite a few accidents while we have been here.
The van pulled in front of the hotel and the tour director (Phuong) entered the hotel to get our tickets and check our names on the list. She was a young woman who spoke good enough English to understand things normally on the first try. We grabbed our bags and threw them in the back of the van then took our seats up front. Phuong announced that there would be 14 people traveling with us today. We all looked in back of the van and tried to imagine how we were all going to fit. We made our rounds to other hotels in the Old Quarter to collect the other riders. Every square in the van was occupied. There was a couple from Holland. The young woman was originally from Vietnam but her parents moved to Thailand after the war then eventually moved to Holland. Her boyfriend had studied in America so he was very familiar with our country. One family with two boys about the same age as Logan was from the Philippines and the last group was from Korea. The Koreans were only traveling to Halong with us because they were staying at a hotel on land.
The ride to Halong Bay was about three and a half hours. They do give you a break about half way at a tourist trap. The prices here are jacked up pretty high for even US levels so we didn’t get much. We got the babies out of the van to get them a change of scenery. After buying Logan a couple of cans of Pringles and Becky an ice cream cone, we loaded back into the van to finish the journey. During the trip, the babies did great. Becky and I passed Gracie back and forth so she could see some different faces and this seemed to appease her. She seems like she is going to be a good traveler just like her brother was when he was her age. As we left the busy streets of Hanoi, the landscape started to turn more rural. When we crossed the Red River, the director was standing at the front of the van and started asking us Vietnamese trivia to see if anyone has learned anything from our stay here. We were able to get a few of the questions correct. Some of the people were starting to drift from the trivia test and you could get a sense that the director (Phuong) was starting to get annoyed at this. Especially when Becky and Christy were joking and laughing directly seating in front of her. Phuong eventually sat back down so we could watch the landscape in peace and quiet. The highway took us pass many manufacturing plants, long stretches of rice fields, and through several small towns with many small buildings with shopping and eateries that all looked the same from the road. We could see some large steep mountains in the far off distance but the highway was relatively flat. As we started to get closer to Halong Bay, we started driving past large rocks. These were the size of small mountains and were sitting in areas by themselves. It looked as though something has just placed them randomly in their positions. These landmasses were anywhere from 1/8 to a 1/4 kilometer in diameter to 1/8 to a 1/4 kilometer in height. They were really fascinating to look at and their numbers began to increase as we got closer to our destination.
Halong Bay
We passed over a large modern suspension bridge as we entered the bay area. The city of Halong Bay has a population of 9,000 residents but it’s a typical tourist town filled with many hotels and restaurants. We stopped at the docks that were located in the heart of the city. There were many other tourists eagerly waiting to get to the boats. We unloaded the van and followed Phuong towards the main building that was the entrance to the docks. We could see many junkets tied to the docks. The junkets were all basically the same style of boat. They were made of what look like mahogany wood and had two levels. The bottom level is the cabins and the second level is the dinner room with a sundeck on top. All the boats had slight variations to them. Ours had a shorter dining room but had an area on the front of the boat with a table under a roof. This was excellent because we sat outside in the shade while cruising the bay. After a short wait at the entrance we followed our guide to the end of the pier. There had to be 50 or 60 boats all along the pier parked side to side. Our boat was on the other side of another boat so we had to step on to one boat then walk across it and step on to our boat on the other side with our luggage and Gracie in our arms. There weren’t any handrails so you had to be very careful not to drop anything into the water.
The dock was very busy and we had to wait about an hour on the boat before the captain finished his paperwork. Our group boarded the boat and climbed the flight of steps to the dining area were we grabbed a table for our small group (Becky, Logan, Gracie, myself, Christy, and Grace). Everyone had to show their passports in order to spend the night on the boat; compliments of a communist country. These boats can produce of lot of black smoke from their diesel engines so every time a boat went to leave a portion of it would drift into our boat. The dining area had many large windows which were open and every table had a fan mounted on the bulkhead (wall) so it was quite pleasant even though the sun was very hot. The benches were make of wicker and had plenty of padding and there was plenty of space for three people. The paperwork was finalized and the passports were given back to us so we were ready to set sail. It was fun to watch the other boats pull into the dock because they didn’t worry about docking these boats without bumping into one another. It was kind of like watching bumper cars but not quite so bad. We left the dock and cruised for only about twenty minutes. The guide told us we were going to have lunch out in the bay. There was a nice breeze coming through the windows and Gracie was asleep on the bench between Logan and I. The crew started to bring the food to the table plate by plate. Eventually we have about 7 different plates of food to share among us. There was chicken, fish, tofu, rice, sprouts (grass), and a few other things we tried but we had no idea what is was, but it appeared safe. Becky and I shared a bottle of white wine with our meal. Logan wasn’t crazy about much of the lunch but he was able to find a few items he liked with one of them being squid.
Cave Tour
Our guide went through the itinerary when we boarded the boat and she seemed very determined for us all to acknowledge that we understood it. She repeated herself many times so I got confused and it seemed like we were cramming four days of activities into two short days. Anyway I think we were supposed to eat lunch in the bay, cruise to the cave for a walking tour and then cruise some place to go kayaking in another cave before finally anchoring in the cove for dinner.
We finished our meal then the boat headed for the cave. We left the area by the city and headed out in the bay. In the bay, several kilometers away from the dock are all the tiny islands that stretch all the way to China. These rock formations are just beautiful. The guide, who by this time has been nicknamed the “tour guide nazi” after the “soup nazi” from the Sienfield show, said that there were two thousand of these islands. The name Halong means deep dragon because the rocks look like humps on dragon coming out of the water. This place is just spectacular with its natural beauty. I can see why it’s on the list for voting of the new natural wonders of the world. It truly has my vote. We cruised for about an hour before we got to the cave located in one of these tiny islands. The small dock had about ten junkets tied up to each other side by side so our boat just bumped right up into the boat at end and dock. We grabbed the babies and followed our guide to the entrance of the cave. Our guide said to stay close to her because there would be many people in the cave. The steps to the cave were many and steep. We probably climbed about 80 feet to the opening of the cave and by this time we all had a pretty good sweat going. I figured the cave would cool us down since it is under ground. Not in Vietnam. Even the underground caves are hot and humid. The cavern inside was plenty spacious. The height from floor to ceiling was about 40 feet in some areas. It was easy getting around in the cave because they had cut tiled steps into the rock floor. This is where the guide got her nickname. She pointed out many rock formations and told us to use our imaginations to see if we could guess what they were suppose to be. If we didn’t agree with her, then she seemed to get upset. If people started to not pay attention to her, then she again got very annoyed with this. This of course made Becky and Christy crack more jokes. On about the sixth rock formation our guide pointed to, I finally got tired of agreeing with her and I said it looked like a triple scoop ice cream cone and Christy agreed with me. The rest of our group then smiled and agreed so I think you could chalk one up for our team. We finally get to the exit and we were all ready to get back to the boat. As we descended the steps from the cave, we passed by little areas with refreshments and souvenirs for sale. Becky and Christy stopped to look while Logan and I continued to the boat. We all eventually made it back to the boat where we continued our cruise. The boat cruised through the tiny islands on our way to the place to get kayaks. During this part of the cruise Logan was sitting at one of the diner tables playing his gameboy while we were sitting at the table on the front of the boat talking to the couple from Holland. Logan went to leave the table and he accidentally pulled the tablecloth with him and broke a small vase sitting on the table. He then placed it back on the table and went about his business. We then approached this little manmade floating island. It was a cluster of short walkways with little huts on it. Our boat docked and we mustered onto the front of the boat to get off to get our kayak to go to another cave they kept talking about. The guide said if we looked closely at the island, we might be able to see monkeys on the sides. At this time one of the shipmates came to the front with the broken vase and talked to the guide and was pointing at Logan. She looked at me with a concerned look on her face and said he would like to be paid for the vase. I quickly asked how much and he said 50,000 Dong (about 3 dollars). I said no problem and that I would pay him when I get back from the kayak trip. We then all proceeded to the kayaks while Becky and Christy stayed back with the babies. As Logan and I walked to the kayaks on the side of the floating island, we passed some holding areas with different types of fish in them. You must be able to purchase seafood here because you sure could smell it. The walkways were made of bamboo and loose boards for it was pretty flimsy. We made our way to the launching area for the kayaks and there was a big pile of lifejackets. All the lifejackets were the same and they were for a 300 lbs man. Some were missing zippers and other the latches were broken but we were able to find a couple that would stay on us in case we flipped. The Coast Guard would definitely shut this place down for sure. Logan and I took the next available kayak and headed for the cave. We had about a half a mile to get to the cave. It was a nice peaceful and quiet and Logan and I seemed to get a handle on the kayaking part. The water was very warm (go figure) and seemed very deep. We went past a couple of junkets anchored with people swimming from them. We eventually made it to the cave in about 20 minutes. The cave was a lot smaller than we thought it would be but it was neat to kayak through. It gets dark here at 6:30pm and it was about 6:00pm when we reached the cave so I told Logan we needed to start heading back because we didn’t want to get caught out there in the dark with the larger boats cruising around. We made our way back to the boat where we boarded our junket and waited for the others to join us. When the others were back on the boat, we headed for a calm cove to set anchor for the night.
Nighttime on the Boat
It was approximately about a 30 minute cruise to our night destination. There were already about 30 other boats in the cove surround by the rock formations. It was like being in the party cove on Shelbyville but only better.
The power to the cabins didn’t get turned on until 6:00pm so I went below to get the air conditioners started so the rooms would be cooled for bedtime. Logan had been feeling pretty good for most of the day, but we had also given him Motrin earlier in the day. The guide announced that it was time to eat dinner so we all took our seats. We chose a table that didn’t have a vase on it this time. Again they brought out about seven or eight plates of food. It was getting dark so you could see the lights from the other boats in the large cove. It was quite scenic. The food was good and I was very surprised to see Logan eating the squid again. He thought the tentacles were pretty cool. I also thought it was cool that nobody at our table was eating it except him. Shortly after we ate the babies were getting cranky and Logan’s temperature went up a little and he looked very tired so we called it a night and went below to our cabins.
The cabins were clean and spacious for a boat. They all had their own bathrooms and the air conditioners were new and worked great. Logan and I shared a double bed in one cabin and Becky and Christy shared another cabin and each had a single bed that was up against the wall so the babies would not roll off. The walls and floors of the restroom were all white tile because the room was the shower itself. The restroom contained a toilet, a sink, and a shower nozzle overhead so you just showered standing in the middle of the room (very efficient). Like Becky commented you can actually shit, shower, and shave at the same time. Becky and I gave Gracie a sponge bath in the sink and then put her to bed. Both babies were very tired and quickly went to sleep. Logan and I said good night to the girls and headed to our cabin for the night. Logan played with his gameboy for a while then we went to sleep.
Day 2 of the Boat Trip
We had to get up early to transfer boats. I don’t understand why they did this but we had to be up and ready to move to another boat by 7:00am the next morning. This is not a problem because they turned off the power and water to your room at 6:30am. Thank goodness we took our showers that night before going to bed. You have to shower at night here just to get the layer of sweat off of you. Becky already had things ready to go. We grabbed our bags and headed for the second deck. A boat pulled along side of us and tied up. The guide said it was time to board the other boat. Instead of climbing down to the bottom level and loading on to the boat we stepped onto the roof of our boat and then stepped onto the roof of the new boat. It was very strange. There is a three foot overhang that runs around the second deck that matched up with overhang on the new boat. This is what we used to board the new boat. It just didn’t seem that safe but we made it. After I crossed to the new boat, I grabbed my camera because I had to get a picture of Christy making this crossing with Grace in hers arms. She said her husband David will crap when he sees this.
We made it onto the other boat successfully and the boat we spent the first day on sped away. This boat was very similar without the seating area in front of the dining area so I’m glad we spent most of our time on the first boat. We made our way to an island that had a swimming beach. We had a hour of free time on this island were you could do more kayaking, swim on the beach, or climb to the top for the view. Christy, with her daughter Grace strapped to her, and Becky climbed the stairs to the top while Logan, Gracie, and I went to the beach were Logan swam. The water was clear and you could see small schools of small fish swimming by. The stairs to the top of the island looked very steep and to reach the top was about a couple of hundred feet. It actually took Becky and Christy ten minutes to climb all the steps to the tops. When the girls returned, Logan and I took our turn climbing to the top of the stairs. This was very exhausting. Thank goodness they scheduled this part of the tour at 8:00am because it was already hot. Logan started to poop out on me so I kept telling him just around the corner but after the fifth or sixth time, he stopped believing me. I could eventually see the top so this motivated him. At the top was just breathtaking. You could see for miles and in all direction were these little islands. It was worth the climb to the top. I can’t believe Christy climbed it with her daughter strapped to the front of her. Logan hit the water again as soon as we descended to the bottom where he cooled off before loading back on the boat. It was time to cruise back to the dock at HaLong city. We cruised another two hours back to the dock where we grabbed our bags and followed our guide through the mob of tourist and to the restaurant for our last meal. The restaurant was located within a short walk of the dock. We entered and quickly realized we were in trouble because it was noon and this place was not air conditioned. We took our table in the back and under the slowest ceiling fan in the entire place when the servers started bringing all the plates of food. They eventually filled the entire table with all different types of dishes. It’s hard to eat when its 90 plus with tons of humidity in the air, but we managed to eat a little because we knew we had a three and a half hour drive ahead of us. The guide said we had an hour a half for lunch. We looked at ourselves in horror at the fact that we were going to be there for that long. We ran into Amy in front of the restaurant and she said the hotel across the street had air conditioning in the lobby so after we ate we headed for this place to wait out the rest of our time there.
The Van Ride back to Hanoi
With just ten minutes before the van was scheduled to leave, we made our way back to the front of the restaurant to meet the others for our ride back. We couldn’t wait to get in the air conditioned van. The signal was finally given by the guide to go to the van. Everyone loaded into the van and off we went back to Hanoi. The only problem was I kept waiting for the air conditioner to get cold and it never did. Logan and I were in the front seat and the sun was beating through the front window. I fanned myself the whole time back to Hanoi; it was just miserable. Becky and Christy were seated just behind us and Becky said she could just feel very little cool air. Poor Christy had the guide fall asleep next to her and had her head resting on her along with her daughter Grace on her. We finally made our way to a resting place that was just like the tourist trap we stopped at on the way to HaLong Bay. We grabbed some ice cream and stretched our legs for about 15 minutes before loading back into the oven for the remainder of the trip. We finally made it back to Hanoi where they dropped us off first. It may have helped that the babies were crying and everyone wanted us out. We quickly went to our room and cranked up the air conditioning.
The Intestinal Attack
A couple of hours later I started to get hungry and asked if Becky and Logan wanted to go get something to eat. Becky hadn’t felt to good since we got back from the trip so she said she wasn’t interested. When Logan and I finally got ready to go, Becky wasn’t doing well at all so Logan, Gracie, and I went to get something to eat and let her lie down and rest. We were gone about 45 minutes and when we returned, Becky looked terrible. She had the chills but no fever so that was good but she knew things were stirring inside her. After I gave Gracie her bath, I laid her next to Becky on the bed to put get her dressed for bed. Becky quickly got up and headed for the bathroom. I think it was this time that she was about to explode. I could hear her moan and call my name but I had to tell her I was busy with Gracie. Luckily Logan was feeling much better. We could tell this because he was pestering his sister. When Becky yelled for a cold towel to put on her face, I told Logan if he ever wanted to breathe again he would follow his mother’s instructions to the T. I couldn’t believe it but he did what he was supposed to do. He must have felt his mother’s urgency in her voice. Gracie took her bottle and quickly went to sleep. Becky eventually made it out of the restroom and took a couple of pills to firm things up a bit and went to bed. Logan and I watched the movie Narnia then went to bed.
It was good to get away for the weekend to get our minds off the adoption process. Sometimes sitting around the hotel we have time to speculate what is going or not going to happen so this was a great break. I’m also glad to go to HaLong Bay to see a different side to Vietnam. Hanoi has been a good experience but it’s great to see it’s natural beauty as well.
Written July 30th and submitted July 28th
This weekend we decided to leave the hotel and venture out to a place called Halong Bay.
We were a little concerned about the trip because Logan developed a slight fever and his sinuses were a little plugged. We gave him some Motrin and that seemed to bring his fever down. Becky and I thought he could have a fever and sit in the hotel or have a fever and sit on the boat in Halong Bay so we decided to go.
The bus was going to pick us at the hotel lobby at 7:30am so we had to get up early and downstairs to breakfast early. Logan and I went to breakfast ahead of Becky while she finished up on a few things and when we returned I started getting Gracie ready while Becky took her turn at breakfast. We made it to the lobby right on time. Christy and her daughter Grace were already waiting for us. I was surprised to see them already in the lobby since Christy is by herself because her husband David had to go back to the States a couple days ago.
We sat in the lobby for about 15 minutes before the van arrived. During this time, Tracy, Amy, and Max entered the lobby door from the Melia hotel to meet their transportation from our hotel. While we sat there some of the local people were looking across the street with concerned looks on their faces and they were speaking in their native tongue. Apparently an old woman got her foot ran over by a truck in front of our hotel. So far I have seen quite a few accidents while we have been here.
The van pulled in front of the hotel and the tour director (Phuong) entered the hotel to get our tickets and check our names on the list. She was a young woman who spoke good enough English to understand things normally on the first try. We grabbed our bags and threw them in the back of the van then took our seats up front. Phuong announced that there would be 14 people traveling with us today. We all looked in back of the van and tried to imagine how we were all going to fit. We made our rounds to other hotels in the Old Quarter to collect the other riders. Every square in the van was occupied. There was a couple from Holland. The young woman was originally from Vietnam but her parents moved to Thailand after the war then eventually moved to Holland. Her boyfriend had studied in America so he was very familiar with our country. One family with two boys about the same age as Logan was from the Philippines and the last group was from Korea. The Koreans were only traveling to Halong with us because they were staying at a hotel on land.
The ride to Halong Bay was about three and a half hours. They do give you a break about half way at a tourist trap. The prices here are jacked up pretty high for even US levels so we didn’t get much. We got the babies out of the van to get them a change of scenery. After buying Logan a couple of cans of Pringles and Becky an ice cream cone, we loaded back into the van to finish the journey. During the trip, the babies did great. Becky and I passed Gracie back and forth so she could see some different faces and this seemed to appease her. She seems like she is going to be a good traveler just like her brother was when he was her age. As we left the busy streets of Hanoi, the landscape started to turn more rural. When we crossed the Red River, the director was standing at the front of the van and started asking us Vietnamese trivia to see if anyone has learned anything from our stay here. We were able to get a few of the questions correct. Some of the people were starting to drift from the trivia test and you could get a sense that the director (Phuong) was starting to get annoyed at this. Especially when Becky and Christy were joking and laughing directly seating in front of her. Phuong eventually sat back down so we could watch the landscape in peace and quiet. The highway took us pass many manufacturing plants, long stretches of rice fields, and through several small towns with many small buildings with shopping and eateries that all looked the same from the road. We could see some large steep mountains in the far off distance but the highway was relatively flat. As we started to get closer to Halong Bay, we started driving past large rocks. These were the size of small mountains and were sitting in areas by themselves. It looked as though something has just placed them randomly in their positions. These landmasses were anywhere from 1/8 to a 1/4 kilometer in diameter to 1/8 to a 1/4 kilometer in height. They were really fascinating to look at and their numbers began to increase as we got closer to our destination.
Halong Bay
We passed over a large modern suspension bridge as we entered the bay area. The city of Halong Bay has a population of 9,000 residents but it’s a typical tourist town filled with many hotels and restaurants. We stopped at the docks that were located in the heart of the city. There were many other tourists eagerly waiting to get to the boats. We unloaded the van and followed Phuong towards the main building that was the entrance to the docks. We could see many junkets tied to the docks. The junkets were all basically the same style of boat. They were made of what look like mahogany wood and had two levels. The bottom level is the cabins and the second level is the dinner room with a sundeck on top. All the boats had slight variations to them. Ours had a shorter dining room but had an area on the front of the boat with a table under a roof. This was excellent because we sat outside in the shade while cruising the bay. After a short wait at the entrance we followed our guide to the end of the pier. There had to be 50 or 60 boats all along the pier parked side to side. Our boat was on the other side of another boat so we had to step on to one boat then walk across it and step on to our boat on the other side with our luggage and Gracie in our arms. There weren’t any handrails so you had to be very careful not to drop anything into the water.
The dock was very busy and we had to wait about an hour on the boat before the captain finished his paperwork. Our group boarded the boat and climbed the flight of steps to the dining area were we grabbed a table for our small group (Becky, Logan, Gracie, myself, Christy, and Grace). Everyone had to show their passports in order to spend the night on the boat; compliments of a communist country. These boats can produce of lot of black smoke from their diesel engines so every time a boat went to leave a portion of it would drift into our boat. The dining area had many large windows which were open and every table had a fan mounted on the bulkhead (wall) so it was quite pleasant even though the sun was very hot. The benches were make of wicker and had plenty of padding and there was plenty of space for three people. The paperwork was finalized and the passports were given back to us so we were ready to set sail. It was fun to watch the other boats pull into the dock because they didn’t worry about docking these boats without bumping into one another. It was kind of like watching bumper cars but not quite so bad. We left the dock and cruised for only about twenty minutes. The guide told us we were going to have lunch out in the bay. There was a nice breeze coming through the windows and Gracie was asleep on the bench between Logan and I. The crew started to bring the food to the table plate by plate. Eventually we have about 7 different plates of food to share among us. There was chicken, fish, tofu, rice, sprouts (grass), and a few other things we tried but we had no idea what is was, but it appeared safe. Becky and I shared a bottle of white wine with our meal. Logan wasn’t crazy about much of the lunch but he was able to find a few items he liked with one of them being squid.
Cave Tour
Our guide went through the itinerary when we boarded the boat and she seemed very determined for us all to acknowledge that we understood it. She repeated herself many times so I got confused and it seemed like we were cramming four days of activities into two short days. Anyway I think we were supposed to eat lunch in the bay, cruise to the cave for a walking tour and then cruise some place to go kayaking in another cave before finally anchoring in the cove for dinner.
We finished our meal then the boat headed for the cave. We left the area by the city and headed out in the bay. In the bay, several kilometers away from the dock are all the tiny islands that stretch all the way to China. These rock formations are just beautiful. The guide, who by this time has been nicknamed the “tour guide nazi” after the “soup nazi” from the Sienfield show, said that there were two thousand of these islands. The name Halong means deep dragon because the rocks look like humps on dragon coming out of the water. This place is just spectacular with its natural beauty. I can see why it’s on the list for voting of the new natural wonders of the world. It truly has my vote. We cruised for about an hour before we got to the cave located in one of these tiny islands. The small dock had about ten junkets tied up to each other side by side so our boat just bumped right up into the boat at end and dock. We grabbed the babies and followed our guide to the entrance of the cave. Our guide said to stay close to her because there would be many people in the cave. The steps to the cave were many and steep. We probably climbed about 80 feet to the opening of the cave and by this time we all had a pretty good sweat going. I figured the cave would cool us down since it is under ground. Not in Vietnam. Even the underground caves are hot and humid. The cavern inside was plenty spacious. The height from floor to ceiling was about 40 feet in some areas. It was easy getting around in the cave because they had cut tiled steps into the rock floor. This is where the guide got her nickname. She pointed out many rock formations and told us to use our imaginations to see if we could guess what they were suppose to be. If we didn’t agree with her, then she seemed to get upset. If people started to not pay attention to her, then she again got very annoyed with this. This of course made Becky and Christy crack more jokes. On about the sixth rock formation our guide pointed to, I finally got tired of agreeing with her and I said it looked like a triple scoop ice cream cone and Christy agreed with me. The rest of our group then smiled and agreed so I think you could chalk one up for our team. We finally get to the exit and we were all ready to get back to the boat. As we descended the steps from the cave, we passed by little areas with refreshments and souvenirs for sale. Becky and Christy stopped to look while Logan and I continued to the boat. We all eventually made it back to the boat where we continued our cruise. The boat cruised through the tiny islands on our way to the place to get kayaks. During this part of the cruise Logan was sitting at one of the diner tables playing his gameboy while we were sitting at the table on the front of the boat talking to the couple from Holland. Logan went to leave the table and he accidentally pulled the tablecloth with him and broke a small vase sitting on the table. He then placed it back on the table and went about his business. We then approached this little manmade floating island. It was a cluster of short walkways with little huts on it. Our boat docked and we mustered onto the front of the boat to get off to get our kayak to go to another cave they kept talking about. The guide said if we looked closely at the island, we might be able to see monkeys on the sides. At this time one of the shipmates came to the front with the broken vase and talked to the guide and was pointing at Logan. She looked at me with a concerned look on her face and said he would like to be paid for the vase. I quickly asked how much and he said 50,000 Dong (about 3 dollars). I said no problem and that I would pay him when I get back from the kayak trip. We then all proceeded to the kayaks while Becky and Christy stayed back with the babies. As Logan and I walked to the kayaks on the side of the floating island, we passed some holding areas with different types of fish in them. You must be able to purchase seafood here because you sure could smell it. The walkways were made of bamboo and loose boards for it was pretty flimsy. We made our way to the launching area for the kayaks and there was a big pile of lifejackets. All the lifejackets were the same and they were for a 300 lbs man. Some were missing zippers and other the latches were broken but we were able to find a couple that would stay on us in case we flipped. The Coast Guard would definitely shut this place down for sure. Logan and I took the next available kayak and headed for the cave. We had about a half a mile to get to the cave. It was a nice peaceful and quiet and Logan and I seemed to get a handle on the kayaking part. The water was very warm (go figure) and seemed very deep. We went past a couple of junkets anchored with people swimming from them. We eventually made it to the cave in about 20 minutes. The cave was a lot smaller than we thought it would be but it was neat to kayak through. It gets dark here at 6:30pm and it was about 6:00pm when we reached the cave so I told Logan we needed to start heading back because we didn’t want to get caught out there in the dark with the larger boats cruising around. We made our way back to the boat where we boarded our junket and waited for the others to join us. When the others were back on the boat, we headed for a calm cove to set anchor for the night.
Nighttime on the Boat
It was approximately about a 30 minute cruise to our night destination. There were already about 30 other boats in the cove surround by the rock formations. It was like being in the party cove on Shelbyville but only better.
The power to the cabins didn’t get turned on until 6:00pm so I went below to get the air conditioners started so the rooms would be cooled for bedtime. Logan had been feeling pretty good for most of the day, but we had also given him Motrin earlier in the day. The guide announced that it was time to eat dinner so we all took our seats. We chose a table that didn’t have a vase on it this time. Again they brought out about seven or eight plates of food. It was getting dark so you could see the lights from the other boats in the large cove. It was quite scenic. The food was good and I was very surprised to see Logan eating the squid again. He thought the tentacles were pretty cool. I also thought it was cool that nobody at our table was eating it except him. Shortly after we ate the babies were getting cranky and Logan’s temperature went up a little and he looked very tired so we called it a night and went below to our cabins.
The cabins were clean and spacious for a boat. They all had their own bathrooms and the air conditioners were new and worked great. Logan and I shared a double bed in one cabin and Becky and Christy shared another cabin and each had a single bed that was up against the wall so the babies would not roll off. The walls and floors of the restroom were all white tile because the room was the shower itself. The restroom contained a toilet, a sink, and a shower nozzle overhead so you just showered standing in the middle of the room (very efficient). Like Becky commented you can actually shit, shower, and shave at the same time. Becky and I gave Gracie a sponge bath in the sink and then put her to bed. Both babies were very tired and quickly went to sleep. Logan and I said good night to the girls and headed to our cabin for the night. Logan played with his gameboy for a while then we went to sleep.
Day 2 of the Boat Trip
We had to get up early to transfer boats. I don’t understand why they did this but we had to be up and ready to move to another boat by 7:00am the next morning. This is not a problem because they turned off the power and water to your room at 6:30am. Thank goodness we took our showers that night before going to bed. You have to shower at night here just to get the layer of sweat off of you. Becky already had things ready to go. We grabbed our bags and headed for the second deck. A boat pulled along side of us and tied up. The guide said it was time to board the other boat. Instead of climbing down to the bottom level and loading on to the boat we stepped onto the roof of our boat and then stepped onto the roof of the new boat. It was very strange. There is a three foot overhang that runs around the second deck that matched up with overhang on the new boat. This is what we used to board the new boat. It just didn’t seem that safe but we made it. After I crossed to the new boat, I grabbed my camera because I had to get a picture of Christy making this crossing with Grace in hers arms. She said her husband David will crap when he sees this.
We made it onto the other boat successfully and the boat we spent the first day on sped away. This boat was very similar without the seating area in front of the dining area so I’m glad we spent most of our time on the first boat. We made our way to an island that had a swimming beach. We had a hour of free time on this island were you could do more kayaking, swim on the beach, or climb to the top for the view. Christy, with her daughter Grace strapped to her, and Becky climbed the stairs to the top while Logan, Gracie, and I went to the beach were Logan swam. The water was clear and you could see small schools of small fish swimming by. The stairs to the top of the island looked very steep and to reach the top was about a couple of hundred feet. It actually took Becky and Christy ten minutes to climb all the steps to the tops. When the girls returned, Logan and I took our turn climbing to the top of the stairs. This was very exhausting. Thank goodness they scheduled this part of the tour at 8:00am because it was already hot. Logan started to poop out on me so I kept telling him just around the corner but after the fifth or sixth time, he stopped believing me. I could eventually see the top so this motivated him. At the top was just breathtaking. You could see for miles and in all direction were these little islands. It was worth the climb to the top. I can’t believe Christy climbed it with her daughter strapped to the front of her. Logan hit the water again as soon as we descended to the bottom where he cooled off before loading back on the boat. It was time to cruise back to the dock at HaLong city. We cruised another two hours back to the dock where we grabbed our bags and followed our guide through the mob of tourist and to the restaurant for our last meal. The restaurant was located within a short walk of the dock. We entered and quickly realized we were in trouble because it was noon and this place was not air conditioned. We took our table in the back and under the slowest ceiling fan in the entire place when the servers started bringing all the plates of food. They eventually filled the entire table with all different types of dishes. It’s hard to eat when its 90 plus with tons of humidity in the air, but we managed to eat a little because we knew we had a three and a half hour drive ahead of us. The guide said we had an hour a half for lunch. We looked at ourselves in horror at the fact that we were going to be there for that long. We ran into Amy in front of the restaurant and she said the hotel across the street had air conditioning in the lobby so after we ate we headed for this place to wait out the rest of our time there.
The Van Ride back to Hanoi
With just ten minutes before the van was scheduled to leave, we made our way back to the front of the restaurant to meet the others for our ride back. We couldn’t wait to get in the air conditioned van. The signal was finally given by the guide to go to the van. Everyone loaded into the van and off we went back to Hanoi. The only problem was I kept waiting for the air conditioner to get cold and it never did. Logan and I were in the front seat and the sun was beating through the front window. I fanned myself the whole time back to Hanoi; it was just miserable. Becky and Christy were seated just behind us and Becky said she could just feel very little cool air. Poor Christy had the guide fall asleep next to her and had her head resting on her along with her daughter Grace on her. We finally made our way to a resting place that was just like the tourist trap we stopped at on the way to HaLong Bay. We grabbed some ice cream and stretched our legs for about 15 minutes before loading back into the oven for the remainder of the trip. We finally made it back to Hanoi where they dropped us off first. It may have helped that the babies were crying and everyone wanted us out. We quickly went to our room and cranked up the air conditioning.
The Intestinal Attack
A couple of hours later I started to get hungry and asked if Becky and Logan wanted to go get something to eat. Becky hadn’t felt to good since we got back from the trip so she said she wasn’t interested. When Logan and I finally got ready to go, Becky wasn’t doing well at all so Logan, Gracie, and I went to get something to eat and let her lie down and rest. We were gone about 45 minutes and when we returned, Becky looked terrible. She had the chills but no fever so that was good but she knew things were stirring inside her. After I gave Gracie her bath, I laid her next to Becky on the bed to put get her dressed for bed. Becky quickly got up and headed for the bathroom. I think it was this time that she was about to explode. I could hear her moan and call my name but I had to tell her I was busy with Gracie. Luckily Logan was feeling much better. We could tell this because he was pestering his sister. When Becky yelled for a cold towel to put on her face, I told Logan if he ever wanted to breathe again he would follow his mother’s instructions to the T. I couldn’t believe it but he did what he was supposed to do. He must have felt his mother’s urgency in her voice. Gracie took her bottle and quickly went to sleep. Becky eventually made it out of the restroom and took a couple of pills to firm things up a bit and went to bed. Logan and I watched the movie Narnia then went to bed.
It was good to get away for the weekend to get our minds off the adoption process. Sometimes sitting around the hotel we have time to speculate what is going or not going to happen so this was a great break. I’m also glad to go to HaLong Bay to see a different side to Vietnam. Hanoi has been a good experience but it’s great to see it’s natural beauty as well.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Friday, July 27, 2007
Second Hurdle Jumped
Day 13 July 27th Friday
Written July 27th and submitted July 28th
We were looking forward to this day all week. Today we are going to get Gracie’s passport and medical exam completed.
Pickup Passports at the Police Station
Gracie slept through the night! She stirred and cried a couple times very little, but it was a legitimate all night sleep. We were very happy with our Gracie. We were in a hurry this morning because Kim was going to meet us at the lobby at 8:15am to go to the police station to get the passport for Gracie. Becky and I woke before the kids so I went ahead and went down for breakfast. I was back up in about 10 minutes and then we woke Logan and him and Becky went down to eat together. When Logan woke up, he complained of a headache so we gave him some Motrin and this seemed to help. While they were gone, I woke Gracie and got her dressed then gave her a bottle. She’s always so happy to see you in the morning. Kim phoned the room at 8:12am to say they were waiting at the lobby for us. Don’t they know we parents have babies to get ready and we need the extra 3 minutes. We all headed to the lobby to join Christy and Grace for the ride to the police station. We arrived at the police station about 8:30am and headed to the same room when we applied for the passports the week before. This place is always crowded. It seems like everyone in Hanoi is there to get a passport. I know a lot of people in the States that go their whole lives without a passport so I don’t understand the demand over here. Kim told me to listen for my name being announced so I could go to the counter and sign my receipt and get Gracie’s passport. There was no way the person behind the counter was going to even come close to using the correct pronunciation for my name let alone be heard over this crowd. Luckily Martin stood with Kim (both World Child folks) to listen for the names while we parents sat in the waiting seats. It took two and a half hours before they finally called the names. During these long waits, we really get to see what makes Gracie keep from fussing. We will know her well before we get back to the States.
We were supposed to get our passports and go directly to the SOS clinic just a couple of blocks away for our scheduled appointment, but it took us so long at the police station to get the passports that Kim and Martin had to reschedule the clinic visit for 2:30pm this afternoon. The other parents took cabs back to their hotels while we decided to walk a short distance to a mall for Becky to get something to wear on the sun deck of the boat for this weekend. The walk wasn’t too bad because this had to be the coolest day since we arrived here. If I had to guess, it was only in the high 80’s but the humidity is still very high. We stopped at the mall and Becky was able to find something so we grabbed a cab and headed back to the hotel.
Dinner at KITI
We sat around the hotel room for about an hour before we started to get hungry and decided to get something to eat at a restaurant called KITI before our appointment at the clinic. This place is just one street over from the hotel so we were there in a matter of minutes. It’s a very small place that has Vietnamese or European style food. The front of the place was full so they took us to a room in the back where there was about four tables. Just as we sat down and got our menus, the power went out. The young woman tending the tables apologized for the inconvenience and we understood. It wasn’t as though it was completely dark. There was plenty of light coming through the front windows of the restaurant. It seemed as though it happens quite frequently so they just flipped the breaker and we were back in business. This place had great food. Becky took a big chance with a tuna sandwich, Logan had an excellent club sandwich, and I followed up with some sort of tomato, lettuce, basil pesto something, and fancy cheese sandwich that was quite tasty. It was only about $11 US. I can get used to these prices. We gave the woman the bill with our money and went to leave. She stopped up and said we gave her too much money and Becky told her that was her tip. The tip was only about a dollar. They are very appreciative here. We exited the place and rounded the corner to our hotel so we could make our clinic appointment.
SOS Clinic
We met Christy and her baby Grace in the lobby and Kim was already there getting us a cab. The clinic is only a couple minutes drive from the hotel (along with everything else). The building is 4 stories tall and takes up one whole corner of a city block. The clinic provides not only outpatient services but also emergency services. They will even make house calls. The doctors on staff are all from countries around the globe. We only had to wait about 15 minutes before we took Gracie in a room to have a nurse take her weight 13.5 lbs, length 23.5 inch, head circumference(nurse commented “big head”) along with a few vitals that Becky can explain better. Gracie started to exercise her lungs at this point. She hadn’t napped much today so she was pretty easy to set off so we loaded up a bottle and fed her while the nurse looked her over. Gracie settled down just fine. We went back to the waiting room until the other two babies (Grace and Max) were finished. We then were taken to another room to wait to be seen by a physician. We waited about 30 minutes before they called our name. The doctor introduced himself and said he was from Holland and asked where we originated. He was pretty friendly and asked if we were enjoying our stay in Hanoi. We said yes but we are ready to go home because you can only have too much fun.
The doctor seemed to be very pleased with Gracie’s condition. She was keeping her head up quite well and could prop herself up in a half pushup. Apparently that’s a test she must pass. We asked the doctor about the bumps on the bottom of her feet and a few other places. He said it wasn’t scabies but to put some anti itch cream on it and it should clear up. Her other rash that she had on the side of her head and in her folds around her neck are pretty much all gone. The overall assessment of Gracie was great so she cleared another hurdle. One more embassy interview and we are all done.
Logan had been complaining about his throat so we asked the doctor if he could take a quick glance at it. (Logan never complains so we thought it was worth asking) The nice doctor hesitated at first then grabbed the light and looked at his throat. The nice doctor seemed slightly disgruntled that we asked him to take 5 seconds to help us out. It turned out to be nothing so Becky and I said thank you and we were on our way. The doctor said he would see us next year when we come back for a son. He almost needed a doctor,lol.
We waited out front on the steps for Christy and Grace so we could share a cab back to the hotel. Logan didn’t look so good. I could tell because he started resting his head on me. He was complaining of a headache again and he didn’t look well. He looked up at me and asked if we were going to get a cab instead of walk. Gracie was passed out in my arms. She hadn’t had a good nap all day and it was about 4:00pm. As soon as Christy came out of the clinic we all took a cab back to the hotel
Back at the Hotel for the Night
Logan didn’t look good at all when we reached the room. He headed straight for the bed; not normal. He had a 100.4 temperature so we gave him some Motrin and he took his place in front of the TV. Gracie was still a sleep so I put her on the bed to finish her nap. It was easy to tell that Logan didn’t feel good because he wasn’t pestering his sister. He didn’t want anything to eat. Not even any pizza or spaghetti. After about an hour, the Motrin kicked in and Logan was up messing with Gracie (but not too close) and eating peanut butter and crackers and oreos as well. I hope he feels good tomorrow because we leave for our trip to the bay in the morning at 7:00am.
We spent the rest of the evening packing for our 2 day boat trip. Dawn and her daughter Eva were leaving for the states at 9:00pm tonight so she asked if Becky could help watch Eva while she finished packing. Becky was happy to help out. When Becky returned from Dawn’s room, we gave Gracie her bath, bottle, and put her to bed. Logan watched half of Jurassic Park before he went to sleep.
Written July 27th and submitted July 28th
We were looking forward to this day all week. Today we are going to get Gracie’s passport and medical exam completed.
Pickup Passports at the Police Station
Gracie slept through the night! She stirred and cried a couple times very little, but it was a legitimate all night sleep. We were very happy with our Gracie. We were in a hurry this morning because Kim was going to meet us at the lobby at 8:15am to go to the police station to get the passport for Gracie. Becky and I woke before the kids so I went ahead and went down for breakfast. I was back up in about 10 minutes and then we woke Logan and him and Becky went down to eat together. When Logan woke up, he complained of a headache so we gave him some Motrin and this seemed to help. While they were gone, I woke Gracie and got her dressed then gave her a bottle. She’s always so happy to see you in the morning. Kim phoned the room at 8:12am to say they were waiting at the lobby for us. Don’t they know we parents have babies to get ready and we need the extra 3 minutes. We all headed to the lobby to join Christy and Grace for the ride to the police station. We arrived at the police station about 8:30am and headed to the same room when we applied for the passports the week before. This place is always crowded. It seems like everyone in Hanoi is there to get a passport. I know a lot of people in the States that go their whole lives without a passport so I don’t understand the demand over here. Kim told me to listen for my name being announced so I could go to the counter and sign my receipt and get Gracie’s passport. There was no way the person behind the counter was going to even come close to using the correct pronunciation for my name let alone be heard over this crowd. Luckily Martin stood with Kim (both World Child folks) to listen for the names while we parents sat in the waiting seats. It took two and a half hours before they finally called the names. During these long waits, we really get to see what makes Gracie keep from fussing. We will know her well before we get back to the States.
We were supposed to get our passports and go directly to the SOS clinic just a couple of blocks away for our scheduled appointment, but it took us so long at the police station to get the passports that Kim and Martin had to reschedule the clinic visit for 2:30pm this afternoon. The other parents took cabs back to their hotels while we decided to walk a short distance to a mall for Becky to get something to wear on the sun deck of the boat for this weekend. The walk wasn’t too bad because this had to be the coolest day since we arrived here. If I had to guess, it was only in the high 80’s but the humidity is still very high. We stopped at the mall and Becky was able to find something so we grabbed a cab and headed back to the hotel.
Dinner at KITI
We sat around the hotel room for about an hour before we started to get hungry and decided to get something to eat at a restaurant called KITI before our appointment at the clinic. This place is just one street over from the hotel so we were there in a matter of minutes. It’s a very small place that has Vietnamese or European style food. The front of the place was full so they took us to a room in the back where there was about four tables. Just as we sat down and got our menus, the power went out. The young woman tending the tables apologized for the inconvenience and we understood. It wasn’t as though it was completely dark. There was plenty of light coming through the front windows of the restaurant. It seemed as though it happens quite frequently so they just flipped the breaker and we were back in business. This place had great food. Becky took a big chance with a tuna sandwich, Logan had an excellent club sandwich, and I followed up with some sort of tomato, lettuce, basil pesto something, and fancy cheese sandwich that was quite tasty. It was only about $11 US. I can get used to these prices. We gave the woman the bill with our money and went to leave. She stopped up and said we gave her too much money and Becky told her that was her tip. The tip was only about a dollar. They are very appreciative here. We exited the place and rounded the corner to our hotel so we could make our clinic appointment.
SOS Clinic
We met Christy and her baby Grace in the lobby and Kim was already there getting us a cab. The clinic is only a couple minutes drive from the hotel (along with everything else). The building is 4 stories tall and takes up one whole corner of a city block. The clinic provides not only outpatient services but also emergency services. They will even make house calls. The doctors on staff are all from countries around the globe. We only had to wait about 15 minutes before we took Gracie in a room to have a nurse take her weight 13.5 lbs, length 23.5 inch, head circumference(nurse commented “big head”) along with a few vitals that Becky can explain better. Gracie started to exercise her lungs at this point. She hadn’t napped much today so she was pretty easy to set off so we loaded up a bottle and fed her while the nurse looked her over. Gracie settled down just fine. We went back to the waiting room until the other two babies (Grace and Max) were finished. We then were taken to another room to wait to be seen by a physician. We waited about 30 minutes before they called our name. The doctor introduced himself and said he was from Holland and asked where we originated. He was pretty friendly and asked if we were enjoying our stay in Hanoi. We said yes but we are ready to go home because you can only have too much fun.
The doctor seemed to be very pleased with Gracie’s condition. She was keeping her head up quite well and could prop herself up in a half pushup. Apparently that’s a test she must pass. We asked the doctor about the bumps on the bottom of her feet and a few other places. He said it wasn’t scabies but to put some anti itch cream on it and it should clear up. Her other rash that she had on the side of her head and in her folds around her neck are pretty much all gone. The overall assessment of Gracie was great so she cleared another hurdle. One more embassy interview and we are all done.
Logan had been complaining about his throat so we asked the doctor if he could take a quick glance at it. (Logan never complains so we thought it was worth asking) The nice doctor hesitated at first then grabbed the light and looked at his throat. The nice doctor seemed slightly disgruntled that we asked him to take 5 seconds to help us out. It turned out to be nothing so Becky and I said thank you and we were on our way. The doctor said he would see us next year when we come back for a son. He almost needed a doctor,lol.
We waited out front on the steps for Christy and Grace so we could share a cab back to the hotel. Logan didn’t look so good. I could tell because he started resting his head on me. He was complaining of a headache again and he didn’t look well. He looked up at me and asked if we were going to get a cab instead of walk. Gracie was passed out in my arms. She hadn’t had a good nap all day and it was about 4:00pm. As soon as Christy came out of the clinic we all took a cab back to the hotel
Back at the Hotel for the Night
Logan didn’t look good at all when we reached the room. He headed straight for the bed; not normal. He had a 100.4 temperature so we gave him some Motrin and he took his place in front of the TV. Gracie was still a sleep so I put her on the bed to finish her nap. It was easy to tell that Logan didn’t feel good because he wasn’t pestering his sister. He didn’t want anything to eat. Not even any pizza or spaghetti. After about an hour, the Motrin kicked in and Logan was up messing with Gracie (but not too close) and eating peanut butter and crackers and oreos as well. I hope he feels good tomorrow because we leave for our trip to the bay in the morning at 7:00am.
We spent the rest of the evening packing for our 2 day boat trip. Dawn and her daughter Eva were leaving for the states at 9:00pm tonight so she asked if Becky could help watch Eva while she finished packing. Becky was happy to help out. When Becky returned from Dawn’s room, we gave Gracie her bath, bottle, and put her to bed. Logan watched half of Jurassic Park before he went to sleep.
A Not So Exciting Day In Vietnam
Day 12 July 26th Thursday
Written and submitted July 27th
We are just one day away from our second hurdle in the process. We have more down time today because we are just waiting to get Gracie’s passport and medical check tomorrow.
We made our daily trip to the restaurant down stairs for a visit with the other parents and some breakfast. There weren’t many people there today so we quickly finished our meals and headed to the tourism center to read the comments on our blog. We get such a kick out of some of the comments from the folks back home. We left the tourism center and went straight back to the hotel to meet David and Christy and their little girl Grace to go to the VITCOM (pronounced vincom by the Vietnamese). The place is a five story modern shopping mall. We met them in the lobby and jumped in a cab for the mall. Becky was looking for something to swim in on our trip to Halong Bay. She hardly gets in swimming pools back home so I don’t know how she thinks she will jump in the bay. The mall is typical of any mall back home. It’s just good to take a walk without someone trying to sell you something every 10 feet. We made it up a couple of floors before both babies (Grace & Gracie) started to stir and needed to be fed so David, Logan, and I took the babies to the coffee shop at the front of the mall to feed them. Logan was having a ball riding the escalators up and down between floors. It’s not taking much to keep him entertained these days. The coffee shop was called Gloria Bean and it had large windows that faced the busy street outside. We picked a table next to the window and setup camp and started feeding the babies. When the babies were fed, I orders some black coffee and David and Logan had strawberry smoothies. I sampled Logan’s and it was excellent. The girls eventually arrived with their bags and sat down to join us. We sat there for a couple of hours. It is nice to sit on some cushioned seats. The furniture at the hotel is beautiful but it is all wood so my tailbone is a little sensitive by now. We started to get hungry and the only thing I could see at the food court was more Asian food so we opted for a cab back to the hotel. Once at the hotel, we walked a couple of blocks to a restaurant called the Little Hanoi. This is the third time we have eaten there but we seem to find many items on the menu we like and we thought David and Christy would enjoy it also. If you want to be on the safe side, then this is the place to eat. It’s geared more for Westerners. After lunch, Logan and I took Gracie back to the room for a nap and David did the same with his Grace while the girls went shopping.
Gracie hit the bed for a three-hour nap. Logan watched some TV and I did some tying on my journal.
Becky finally made it back to the room around 6:00pm and Gracie started to awake shortly after. The phone rang and it was Joe who is flying out tomorrow. He asked if we wanted to join him and Amy downstairs for a couple of farewell drinks. The Allsup crew gathered ourselves and headed to the restaurant to meet Joe, Amy, and Collett. Joe has to get back because he must start seeing patients while Amy and Collett should be leaving sometime the beginning of next week. They have had some long nights trying to change their flight plans. There are now more single mothers here because the husbands have had to leave so you can sense the imbalance of testesterone vs estrogen. We had a few drinks and a good visit. Joe’s an easy going person for someone who was a Lt. Colonel in the Army and was also Chief of surgery in Baghdad. He’s very concerned about leaving Amy and Collett in Hanoi by themselves, but I get the sense that Amy can take care of herself. After a couple of hours, we said our goodbyes and we all retired to our rooms. Logan watched part of the Relic (not age appropriate I know) and went to bed. I hope Logan doesn’t have scary dreams from the movie.
Written and submitted July 27th
We are just one day away from our second hurdle in the process. We have more down time today because we are just waiting to get Gracie’s passport and medical check tomorrow.
We made our daily trip to the restaurant down stairs for a visit with the other parents and some breakfast. There weren’t many people there today so we quickly finished our meals and headed to the tourism center to read the comments on our blog. We get such a kick out of some of the comments from the folks back home. We left the tourism center and went straight back to the hotel to meet David and Christy and their little girl Grace to go to the VITCOM (pronounced vincom by the Vietnamese). The place is a five story modern shopping mall. We met them in the lobby and jumped in a cab for the mall. Becky was looking for something to swim in on our trip to Halong Bay. She hardly gets in swimming pools back home so I don’t know how she thinks she will jump in the bay. The mall is typical of any mall back home. It’s just good to take a walk without someone trying to sell you something every 10 feet. We made it up a couple of floors before both babies (Grace & Gracie) started to stir and needed to be fed so David, Logan, and I took the babies to the coffee shop at the front of the mall to feed them. Logan was having a ball riding the escalators up and down between floors. It’s not taking much to keep him entertained these days. The coffee shop was called Gloria Bean and it had large windows that faced the busy street outside. We picked a table next to the window and setup camp and started feeding the babies. When the babies were fed, I orders some black coffee and David and Logan had strawberry smoothies. I sampled Logan’s and it was excellent. The girls eventually arrived with their bags and sat down to join us. We sat there for a couple of hours. It is nice to sit on some cushioned seats. The furniture at the hotel is beautiful but it is all wood so my tailbone is a little sensitive by now. We started to get hungry and the only thing I could see at the food court was more Asian food so we opted for a cab back to the hotel. Once at the hotel, we walked a couple of blocks to a restaurant called the Little Hanoi. This is the third time we have eaten there but we seem to find many items on the menu we like and we thought David and Christy would enjoy it also. If you want to be on the safe side, then this is the place to eat. It’s geared more for Westerners. After lunch, Logan and I took Gracie back to the room for a nap and David did the same with his Grace while the girls went shopping.
Gracie hit the bed for a three-hour nap. Logan watched some TV and I did some tying on my journal.
Becky finally made it back to the room around 6:00pm and Gracie started to awake shortly after. The phone rang and it was Joe who is flying out tomorrow. He asked if we wanted to join him and Amy downstairs for a couple of farewell drinks. The Allsup crew gathered ourselves and headed to the restaurant to meet Joe, Amy, and Collett. Joe has to get back because he must start seeing patients while Amy and Collett should be leaving sometime the beginning of next week. They have had some long nights trying to change their flight plans. There are now more single mothers here because the husbands have had to leave so you can sense the imbalance of testesterone vs estrogen. We had a few drinks and a good visit. Joe’s an easy going person for someone who was a Lt. Colonel in the Army and was also Chief of surgery in Baghdad. He’s very concerned about leaving Amy and Collett in Hanoi by themselves, but I get the sense that Amy can take care of herself. After a couple of hours, we said our goodbyes and we all retired to our rooms. Logan watched part of the Relic (not age appropriate I know) and went to bed. I hope Logan doesn’t have scary dreams from the movie.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Another Unusual Day In Vietnam
Day 11 July 25th Wednesday
Written and submitted July 26th
Today we had a lot of down time. Everyone slept in and as usual we went down for breakfast. After some conversation with the parents, we went to the information desk to inquire about the trip to HaLong Bay for this weekend.
The hotel has a two-day trip that is similar to what the tourism center offered us yesterday. They can give us an air condition cabin (extra cost) with the meals and transportation included for $55 US per person. We were waiting to hear from Christy to see if she wanted to join us. Christy and her husband David and little girl Grace is switching from the Melia hotel to our hotel today so we will hear from her later before we confirm the trip.
After checking on the travel plans, we went up to the room to settle in for a long day. We thought we were starting to figure Gracie out when it came to her cries, but she proved us wrong today. She normally cries a little and sucks her thumb before she takes a nap during the day, but today she whaled away like something was moving through her system. She had eaten 5 oz of formula only a couple of hours before so we thought it couldn’t be that she was hungry. We couldn’t do anything to help calm her down so we gave in and made another 5 oz bottle. She sucked it right down and was happy as a clam. She didn’t get to be called “chunky monkey” for nothing. The girl can eat. She then proceeded to take a long nap.
This afternoon Becky wasn’t feeling her best so she lied down for a couple of hours. Logan and I played pinball on the computer. Logan is now in my realm so I put it to him while I had the opportunity. He’s impressed with how ol’dad can handle the flippers. He has been kicking my rear in game boy since we had been here so it’s nice to see him get challenged.
Sometime around noon, we called Christy and David’s room to see if they had checked in. They were there so we explained to her the deal we got and she said she was interested in joining us to HaLong Bay. David has to get back to his practice by next week so he is leaving for the states Friday night. He really feels terrible about leaving Christy and baby Grace. Unfortunately they’re not the only couple were the husband has had to return before the final paperwork has been completed. I am very fortunate that I work for Caterpillar. It is comforting to know my immediate supervisor told me to take as long as I needed to complete the adoption. I couldn’t imagine flying 36 plus hours alone with a new child with carryon bags and everything else. Becky told me not to get any ideas. Anyhow, I went down to book the trip with two cabins for Becky, Logan, Gracie, myself, Christy and Grace. It’s going to be a blast minus the 3 hour bus ride to get there.
While I was down stairs, I inquired about Asian Cup tickets for tonight’s game. Team Japan was taking on Saudi Arabia at the stadium in Hanoi and David had mentioned he would like to go. The crowd at the game shouldn’t be that large so getting tickets won’t be a problem. I ran into Tong (hotel manager) and asked him if he could get me three tickets for tonight’s game for David, Logan and myself. He said he could get me zone one and immediately jumped to his feet, pulled out his cell phone and said to give him a little time and I could pick up the tickets at the front desk. This man has too much energy. I returned to the room to finish Logan off in pinball.
Dinner at KOTO
David called the room a couple hours later and said he ran into Tong in the lobby. Tong had the tickets and had already charged them to our rooms so we were all set. We then all decided to meet at 5:00pm in the lobby to go to dinner before the three of us guys headed to the stadium.
We met in the lobby at 5:00pm and loaded into a larger cab that the front desk had called for us. Becky and I told David and Christy about a place called KOTO that was a non-for-profit restaurant that was run by culinary students that were previously homeless children. It is supposed to be a very good place to eat. It was located next to the Temple of Literature that is about a 10 minute cab ride. Every place we go seems to be a 10 minute cab ride from the hotel. When we pulled up in front of KOTO, it looked as though it was closed, but sometimes the shops/restaurants look as though they need are being renovated. As soon as we got out of the cab and he drove off we realized this wasn’t the case. The place was under renovation and it was closed. We all decided to walk around the wall surrounding the Temple and see if there was any place to eat close by. We walked completely around the temple and saw no place good to eat so we headed for the front of the temple to catch a cab. On the way across one of the busy streets (people were starting to go home from work) an older gentleman on the opposite side of the street saw that I had Gracie in my arms so when I was about half way across the street he stepped into the street and put his hands out to stop the traffic behind him. I told him thank you very much. He asked if the child was Vietnamese and then asked were I was from. I was kind of hesitant at first but I told him she was Vietnamese and that I was an American. He was so happy. He repeated it out loud (she Vietnamese and you American) and gave me a thumbs up; I just smiled and returned his thumbs up. I often wondered what the Vietnamese people thought of us adopting babies from here. Becky told me she heard they are very pleased with it. There are many poor families with the children working at too early of age and finding themselves on the street. We finally got back in a cab and headed for a restaurant closer to the hotel called the Paris Deli. We took a table on the second floor where there was more room. They have many selections on the menu but I’ve learned to not get too exotic. Logan had more spaghetti, I stayed with the vegetable fried rice, and Becky had a cheese sandwich (she was starting to feel better and didn’t want to blow it). It seems like the four restaurants on this street that we have patronized are geared more to foreigners and the prices are just a little higher but still not too high. I think we got out of there for around $20 US. The added bonus was as we were walking down the stairs as we left we heard Christmas music over the sound system. There’s nothing like Christmas in Hanoi in the summer time to make you feel cooler. We walked the two blocks back to the hotel were us boys got ready for the game.
Soccer Game – Japan vs Saudi Arabia
Logan and I went up to the room to get ready for the game. My shirt was soaked with sweat from the walk from the restaurant so I changed shirts and we headed back to the lobby to meet David. David had the tickets that Tong reserved for us. The tickets were for zone 1 and the price was $200,000 Dong which is approx $12.50 US. The three of us jumped in the cab and headed to the stadium for an 8:20pm game. It’s going to be a late one for Logan. The traffic wasn’t as bad as the other game Logan and I went to because Vietnam was not playing. It cost about $100,000 dong to get there by cab. We arrived with about 20 minutes to the start of the game so we were able to get something to drink and head to the seats. The seats that Tong got us were first row at center field. These were great seats. The stadium was only about one third capacity so there was room to move about. For not being a big soccer fan, the game was actually very entertaining. It was a close match with Japan, the favorite, losing 2 to 3. I wasn’t rooting for Saudi Arabia because of the higher gas prices back home. At half time the three of us went to the concession area to get something to drink. If you order something in a can or a bottle, then you have to pour it in a plastic cup in order to take it back to your seat. When you are finished pouring your drink into your cup, kids are wondering from person to person with large bags to get the recyclables. After David and I finished pouring our glasses, we gave the cans to the kids. By this time, there was probably four kids around us waiting for Logan to finish pouring his. The kids were pretty competitive about getting the can from Logan. One girl had her hand on Logan’s soda can before he was finished emptying it. As soon as Logan was done, a couple of other kids went to grab it as well. Logan’s eye’s got pretty big at this. Logan told me he should have turned around and threw it behind him because it would have been cool to watch the kids dive after it. I told him that wouldn’t have been nice but what do you expect from an eight year old. We returned to our seats to watch the remainder of the game.
When the game ended, we headed for the exits. We only had to walk a short distance before we grabbed a cab and made our way home. It seemed like the cab driver understood where we needed to go. We showed him our hotel business card and he shook is head yes. We asked how much to get there and he responded $200,000 Dong. We said it only took $100,000 to get there and then he pointed to the traffic. We said no thanks and turned to walk away so he said $180,000 and again we went to walk away and then he said $160,000 dong and this time we factored in a little traffic and agreed. Sometimes I have to realize I am only squabbling over one dollar or so. He started down the road but David and I both realized on the first turn that he went the wrong way. So I looked back at David and said I think the cabby is going the wrong way and David confirmed this so we announced this to the cabby. About this time, the cab pulled to the side of the road as he approached a street sign that had arrows with locations on it. The cabby stopped and asked someone walking down the street which way to go. We couldn’t understand the words spoken between the two, but there is a universal “Oh crap, I’m lost” language shared by all. He quickly turned the cab around and headed towards our hotel. He eventually made it to the Old Quarter and stopped at this dark corner and the cabby pointed up the road and said something like “your hotel”. It didn’t look familiar to me, so because of getting lost the previous night I told him to drive around the block and come from the other side of the hotel. This direction to the hotel now looked familiar. At night when the shops are closed everything looks different than during the day and it’s hard to find your way around. I haven’t walked through the hotel this late at night (11:00pm) since we have been here. The lobby was very dark but the doorman was still there and the lobby was half filled with the employee’s scooters. Logan and I went up to the room to unwind so we watched a little Terminator III before going to bed. Becky and Gracie were already asleep.
Written and submitted July 26th
Today we had a lot of down time. Everyone slept in and as usual we went down for breakfast. After some conversation with the parents, we went to the information desk to inquire about the trip to HaLong Bay for this weekend.
The hotel has a two-day trip that is similar to what the tourism center offered us yesterday. They can give us an air condition cabin (extra cost) with the meals and transportation included for $55 US per person. We were waiting to hear from Christy to see if she wanted to join us. Christy and her husband David and little girl Grace is switching from the Melia hotel to our hotel today so we will hear from her later before we confirm the trip.
After checking on the travel plans, we went up to the room to settle in for a long day. We thought we were starting to figure Gracie out when it came to her cries, but she proved us wrong today. She normally cries a little and sucks her thumb before she takes a nap during the day, but today she whaled away like something was moving through her system. She had eaten 5 oz of formula only a couple of hours before so we thought it couldn’t be that she was hungry. We couldn’t do anything to help calm her down so we gave in and made another 5 oz bottle. She sucked it right down and was happy as a clam. She didn’t get to be called “chunky monkey” for nothing. The girl can eat. She then proceeded to take a long nap.
This afternoon Becky wasn’t feeling her best so she lied down for a couple of hours. Logan and I played pinball on the computer. Logan is now in my realm so I put it to him while I had the opportunity. He’s impressed with how ol’dad can handle the flippers. He has been kicking my rear in game boy since we had been here so it’s nice to see him get challenged.
Sometime around noon, we called Christy and David’s room to see if they had checked in. They were there so we explained to her the deal we got and she said she was interested in joining us to HaLong Bay. David has to get back to his practice by next week so he is leaving for the states Friday night. He really feels terrible about leaving Christy and baby Grace. Unfortunately they’re not the only couple were the husband has had to return before the final paperwork has been completed. I am very fortunate that I work for Caterpillar. It is comforting to know my immediate supervisor told me to take as long as I needed to complete the adoption. I couldn’t imagine flying 36 plus hours alone with a new child with carryon bags and everything else. Becky told me not to get any ideas. Anyhow, I went down to book the trip with two cabins for Becky, Logan, Gracie, myself, Christy and Grace. It’s going to be a blast minus the 3 hour bus ride to get there.
While I was down stairs, I inquired about Asian Cup tickets for tonight’s game. Team Japan was taking on Saudi Arabia at the stadium in Hanoi and David had mentioned he would like to go. The crowd at the game shouldn’t be that large so getting tickets won’t be a problem. I ran into Tong (hotel manager) and asked him if he could get me three tickets for tonight’s game for David, Logan and myself. He said he could get me zone one and immediately jumped to his feet, pulled out his cell phone and said to give him a little time and I could pick up the tickets at the front desk. This man has too much energy. I returned to the room to finish Logan off in pinball.
Dinner at KOTO
David called the room a couple hours later and said he ran into Tong in the lobby. Tong had the tickets and had already charged them to our rooms so we were all set. We then all decided to meet at 5:00pm in the lobby to go to dinner before the three of us guys headed to the stadium.
We met in the lobby at 5:00pm and loaded into a larger cab that the front desk had called for us. Becky and I told David and Christy about a place called KOTO that was a non-for-profit restaurant that was run by culinary students that were previously homeless children. It is supposed to be a very good place to eat. It was located next to the Temple of Literature that is about a 10 minute cab ride. Every place we go seems to be a 10 minute cab ride from the hotel. When we pulled up in front of KOTO, it looked as though it was closed, but sometimes the shops/restaurants look as though they need are being renovated. As soon as we got out of the cab and he drove off we realized this wasn’t the case. The place was under renovation and it was closed. We all decided to walk around the wall surrounding the Temple and see if there was any place to eat close by. We walked completely around the temple and saw no place good to eat so we headed for the front of the temple to catch a cab. On the way across one of the busy streets (people were starting to go home from work) an older gentleman on the opposite side of the street saw that I had Gracie in my arms so when I was about half way across the street he stepped into the street and put his hands out to stop the traffic behind him. I told him thank you very much. He asked if the child was Vietnamese and then asked were I was from. I was kind of hesitant at first but I told him she was Vietnamese and that I was an American. He was so happy. He repeated it out loud (she Vietnamese and you American) and gave me a thumbs up; I just smiled and returned his thumbs up. I often wondered what the Vietnamese people thought of us adopting babies from here. Becky told me she heard they are very pleased with it. There are many poor families with the children working at too early of age and finding themselves on the street. We finally got back in a cab and headed for a restaurant closer to the hotel called the Paris Deli. We took a table on the second floor where there was more room. They have many selections on the menu but I’ve learned to not get too exotic. Logan had more spaghetti, I stayed with the vegetable fried rice, and Becky had a cheese sandwich (she was starting to feel better and didn’t want to blow it). It seems like the four restaurants on this street that we have patronized are geared more to foreigners and the prices are just a little higher but still not too high. I think we got out of there for around $20 US. The added bonus was as we were walking down the stairs as we left we heard Christmas music over the sound system. There’s nothing like Christmas in Hanoi in the summer time to make you feel cooler. We walked the two blocks back to the hotel were us boys got ready for the game.
Soccer Game – Japan vs Saudi Arabia
Logan and I went up to the room to get ready for the game. My shirt was soaked with sweat from the walk from the restaurant so I changed shirts and we headed back to the lobby to meet David. David had the tickets that Tong reserved for us. The tickets were for zone 1 and the price was $200,000 Dong which is approx $12.50 US. The three of us jumped in the cab and headed to the stadium for an 8:20pm game. It’s going to be a late one for Logan. The traffic wasn’t as bad as the other game Logan and I went to because Vietnam was not playing. It cost about $100,000 dong to get there by cab. We arrived with about 20 minutes to the start of the game so we were able to get something to drink and head to the seats. The seats that Tong got us were first row at center field. These were great seats. The stadium was only about one third capacity so there was room to move about. For not being a big soccer fan, the game was actually very entertaining. It was a close match with Japan, the favorite, losing 2 to 3. I wasn’t rooting for Saudi Arabia because of the higher gas prices back home. At half time the three of us went to the concession area to get something to drink. If you order something in a can or a bottle, then you have to pour it in a plastic cup in order to take it back to your seat. When you are finished pouring your drink into your cup, kids are wondering from person to person with large bags to get the recyclables. After David and I finished pouring our glasses, we gave the cans to the kids. By this time, there was probably four kids around us waiting for Logan to finish pouring his. The kids were pretty competitive about getting the can from Logan. One girl had her hand on Logan’s soda can before he was finished emptying it. As soon as Logan was done, a couple of other kids went to grab it as well. Logan’s eye’s got pretty big at this. Logan told me he should have turned around and threw it behind him because it would have been cool to watch the kids dive after it. I told him that wouldn’t have been nice but what do you expect from an eight year old. We returned to our seats to watch the remainder of the game.
When the game ended, we headed for the exits. We only had to walk a short distance before we grabbed a cab and made our way home. It seemed like the cab driver understood where we needed to go. We showed him our hotel business card and he shook is head yes. We asked how much to get there and he responded $200,000 Dong. We said it only took $100,000 to get there and then he pointed to the traffic. We said no thanks and turned to walk away so he said $180,000 and again we went to walk away and then he said $160,000 dong and this time we factored in a little traffic and agreed. Sometimes I have to realize I am only squabbling over one dollar or so. He started down the road but David and I both realized on the first turn that he went the wrong way. So I looked back at David and said I think the cabby is going the wrong way and David confirmed this so we announced this to the cabby. About this time, the cab pulled to the side of the road as he approached a street sign that had arrows with locations on it. The cabby stopped and asked someone walking down the street which way to go. We couldn’t understand the words spoken between the two, but there is a universal “Oh crap, I’m lost” language shared by all. He quickly turned the cab around and headed towards our hotel. He eventually made it to the Old Quarter and stopped at this dark corner and the cabby pointed up the road and said something like “your hotel”. It didn’t look familiar to me, so because of getting lost the previous night I told him to drive around the block and come from the other side of the hotel. This direction to the hotel now looked familiar. At night when the shops are closed everything looks different than during the day and it’s hard to find your way around. I haven’t walked through the hotel this late at night (11:00pm) since we have been here. The lobby was very dark but the doorman was still there and the lobby was half filled with the employee’s scooters. Logan and I went up to the room to unwind so we watched a little Terminator III before going to bed. Becky and Gracie were already asleep.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
One Down, One To Go
Day 10 July 24th Tuesday
Written and submitted July 25th
Today is the day we have been waiting impatiently for since we have arrived here. Today we are scheduled for our first interview with the INS department at the US embassy. The majority of the paperwork will now take place.
We are all starting to get into a normal routine. Gracie is getting up only once during the night for feeding then she quickly goes down for another several hours of sleep. Logan is getting his needed 10 hours of sleep with makes the days go a little shorter since they begin at 8:00am instead of 3 or 4 am like we had been doing the last week.
We all dressed and went down to see if there was going to be something to eat for Logan. Thank goodness he’s not a picky eater but sometimes it can be a challenge for him to get something he likes here besides pizza and spaghetti. We sat and chatted with the other parents as usual but this morning we were a little nervous because of the interview. Becky especially had several questions she wanted to ask the parents that already went through the interview. Becky had heard some horror stories of the interviewer asking some pretty particular questions about our life back home or how the adoption agency has conducted itself. I think you always get yourself worked up about the unknowns. I wasn’t quite so concerned because I didn’t know about some of the horror stories. Ignorance is bliss.
After breakfast, Gracie was getting tire so we went to the room for her to take her nap. After a while, Becky and I were getting a little anxious about the interview that was scheduled at 2:00pm Tues so we decided to get out of the hotel room and head down to the tourism center a couple blocks away to check our blog for everyone’s comments. It’s a real treat to read all the comments from everyone back home. All the comments and the emails have been great.
Planning a Weekend Trip
We loaded Gracie in her carrier that is similar to a backpack but she is on the front of the person carrying her. She seems to really like the carrier because she fell asleep in it on the way to the tourist center. We reached the center without any problems. We are starting to cross even the widest, busiest roads now with no problems. The trick is you have to just keep walking in the same direction very slowly and the cars and scooters will move around you. I don’t think we will try this at home. The tourist center is a modern building with glass windows that has good air conditioning and the computer connection allows us to view the comments on our blog. After we viewed the comments, we took a look around the room to see if they had any trips we would be interested in. Some people we have met have made the trip to HaLong Bay. It has over 3,000 separate little islands with boat trips that take you through the islands. We inquired on a two day trip that starts by picking us up at our hotel at 8:30am Sat and busing us to the HaLong port to board a junket (boat) and cruise the bay stopping at a cave and a place to swim. We will spend the night on the boat in a calm cove (I hope) that has eight cabin rooms (lower level), restaurant/bar (middle level), and a sun deck on the top. We will cruise the bay the next day back to the port where we will have lunch and board buses back to the hotel. The bus ride I was told is a 3 hour ride so I don’t think that will be much fun but it will be worth the ride. All the meals are included for $55 US per person. This will give us something to do for the weekend and should provide some really good photo opportunities.
It was getting hot and we needed to get back to the hotel to get ready for the interview at the Embassy. When we got back to the room, Logan was getting a little hungry so I attempted to order room service again from the kitchen. The first time I tried I wasn’t very successful. As usual, the first guy didn’t understand me so he had to pass me to another person. I told him that I would like to order a cheese pizza. He told me that just a cheese pizza wasn’t on the menu. I told him I would like a ham and cheese pizza without the ham. He sounded a little confused so I said to order a ham and cheese pizza and just thought when it arrived we could pick the ham off. The pizza arrived with ham cheese, green and red peppers, and onions. I see that I still need to work on my room service ordering skills. The pizza here at the hotel is very good but Logan had to pick the stuff off the top.
We got dressed for the interview and headed down to meet Martin in the hotel lobby. At all the interviews we have to wear long pants. I hate this because it is very hot so I prefer to stay in shorts. The Vietnamese wear long pants all the time. Only Americans and Europeans wear shorts here. We met Martin at the lobby and all loaded in the cab and headed for the US Embassy.
1st Embassy Interview
This interview is the first of two interviews with the US Embassy. The first is with the INS department. They take your paperwork and start the process of checking to make sure all the paperwork is complete and determine whether or not there are issues that are questionable about our adoption. They look to see if the child was abandoned, such as in Gracie’s case, that all the proper notification had taken place in our hometown. If any of the paper seems a little questionable, then they will call us back for more information. At this point in the process the Vietnamese government considers us to be the legal parents of Gracie. It’s now time for the US government to determine that everything is legitimate and that they approve the adoption so we can proceed to the second interview. The worst-case scenario would be that the US does not approve the adoption and she would have to stay in Vietnam, which then would force us to stay in Vietnam until the approval went through. We are positive that the process will take only a week so we should have the approval and move to our second interview. Pray we don’t get any phone calls from the Embassy for further inquiries. The second interview is to get her Visa and then to wait 24 hours for the Visa approval. After the approval of the second interview, we can then fly home.
We entered the building and headed to the second floor. At the top of the stairs we went through security. We had to have our bags run through the x-ray machine and give them our electronic devices such as our camera, Logan’s game boy, and Becky’s Ipod. We then proceeded through the metal detector and was each issued a visitor’s badge. The office was just a short walk from security. By this time, Becky and I were both pretty anxious but we tried not to show it in front of Logan. The room sort of reminded me of the driver’s license office except the people at the counters were behind glass with microphones and speakers at the window. All of the parents that went to the orphanage to get our babies together last week were at the embassy together. Everyone seems a little on pins and needles. The gentleman from the Embassy appeared at one of the windows and called for us all. He wanted to explain the interview process to us in a group and not as individuals to speed things up a bit. He said he would call the families one at a time into the interview room starting with the Allsups. It pays to have your name start with an A every now and then. At least we will get it over with first. Shortly after the briefing, they called for Becky, Logan, Gracie, and I to enter the interview room. It was a small room with several chairs in front of a window of thick glass with the microphones and speakers. There was an opening at the bottom of the window to pass items to the other side. The gentleman from the embassy was very polite and professional. He had a list of standardized questions on a sheet of paper that he recorded our answers on. They were all very straight forward such as what health insurance I had to how many persons resided in our house. There weren’t any questions that we had to hesitate to answer. All in all it went rather smooth. Gracie might have helped speed things up a bit during the interview because she was starting to get hungry so she was getting restless. The interview took only about 10 minutes and we returned to the waiting area along side everyone else. We were relieved to get that over with. When the other two families were finished, we went through security and collected out electronic items (Logan was happy to get his game boy back). We headed for the front of the building for another cab ride to a place to get Gracie’s picture for her passport.
Passport Picture
This was the easy part. We took a cab back to the south of the lake close by our hotel. The place was a small shop that took only passport type photos. The parents took a seat on a stool then put a white sheet over them and placed the baby on their laps. The white sheet is to give the picture of the baby a white background. All the babies got their photo taken and we took a cab back to the hotel. We were ready to change into shorts and head to happy hour for a drink. We met several of the parents at happy hour to give them the download of our interview.
Dinner at Little Hanoi and the long way back to the Hotel
It was 6:30 and Gracie was getting sleepy so we thought we would get her out and Logan was getting hungry so we decided to walk a couple of blocks to a place called Little Hanoi. We have already eaten there so we knew Logan liked the spaghetti. For the benefit of the gals at the gym, I had a cheese and tomato sandwich with a Tiger beer and Becky had a baguette and water (I don’t think things are going well with her) and Logan had his usual spaghetti. Jenny, the meal cost only $12 US with tip. Lol. Gracie was getting fussy so we fed her a bottle and left for the hotel. When we crossed the street and headed for the hotel, Becky wanted to see some of the shops down a side street and asked me if we could find our way back. I thought since we were only a couple of blocks from the hotel that finding a way back should be easy. We walked down the street and took a left in the general direction of our hotel. We started down this second street and things didn’t seem as bright and lively. We quickly made our way down this street and turned another left thinking we would be getting close to our hotel. We were being followed by a small man for about half the block and he started to get us nervous. I had turned around a couple times and on the third time I was going to warn him to back off, but he was gone. We walked towards a street that looked busy and all lit up. This place didn’t look familiar. I couldn’t believe we only walked three blocks and we were completely lost. I usually have the hotel business card with me, or the map, but since we were only supposed to go to the restaurant and back, I didn’t bring them with me. It was about 9:00pm and I was starting to get worried. We asked a shop owner where the hotel was but he sent us down the wrong road. We then asked a cyclo driver for directions and he told us to count 1 2 left 1 2 right and then asked if we wanted a ride there. I was in no mood for a ride and I thought I could get there faster walking. Logan kept asking me if I was worried and I kept assuring him I was not. Little did he know I was very concerned. When I was younger and wondering the streets of Korea and Japan with my Marine Corps buddies, I didn’t care about were the streets took us but this time I was concerned. The directions the cyclo driver gave us were correct. I couldn’t believe we got lost that quick. Every street here looks the same with all the shops so close and all the stuff displayed out front on the sidewalks. Becky said it right when she said it reminded her of the Decatur Celebration every night. We were happy to make it back to the hotel. I learned to never leave the hotel without my map and hotel business card.
After an exciting adventure, we all got ready for bed.
Written and submitted July 25th
Today is the day we have been waiting impatiently for since we have arrived here. Today we are scheduled for our first interview with the INS department at the US embassy. The majority of the paperwork will now take place.
We are all starting to get into a normal routine. Gracie is getting up only once during the night for feeding then she quickly goes down for another several hours of sleep. Logan is getting his needed 10 hours of sleep with makes the days go a little shorter since they begin at 8:00am instead of 3 or 4 am like we had been doing the last week.
We all dressed and went down to see if there was going to be something to eat for Logan. Thank goodness he’s not a picky eater but sometimes it can be a challenge for him to get something he likes here besides pizza and spaghetti. We sat and chatted with the other parents as usual but this morning we were a little nervous because of the interview. Becky especially had several questions she wanted to ask the parents that already went through the interview. Becky had heard some horror stories of the interviewer asking some pretty particular questions about our life back home or how the adoption agency has conducted itself. I think you always get yourself worked up about the unknowns. I wasn’t quite so concerned because I didn’t know about some of the horror stories. Ignorance is bliss.
After breakfast, Gracie was getting tire so we went to the room for her to take her nap. After a while, Becky and I were getting a little anxious about the interview that was scheduled at 2:00pm Tues so we decided to get out of the hotel room and head down to the tourism center a couple blocks away to check our blog for everyone’s comments. It’s a real treat to read all the comments from everyone back home. All the comments and the emails have been great.
Planning a Weekend Trip
We loaded Gracie in her carrier that is similar to a backpack but she is on the front of the person carrying her. She seems to really like the carrier because she fell asleep in it on the way to the tourist center. We reached the center without any problems. We are starting to cross even the widest, busiest roads now with no problems. The trick is you have to just keep walking in the same direction very slowly and the cars and scooters will move around you. I don’t think we will try this at home. The tourist center is a modern building with glass windows that has good air conditioning and the computer connection allows us to view the comments on our blog. After we viewed the comments, we took a look around the room to see if they had any trips we would be interested in. Some people we have met have made the trip to HaLong Bay. It has over 3,000 separate little islands with boat trips that take you through the islands. We inquired on a two day trip that starts by picking us up at our hotel at 8:30am Sat and busing us to the HaLong port to board a junket (boat) and cruise the bay stopping at a cave and a place to swim. We will spend the night on the boat in a calm cove (I hope) that has eight cabin rooms (lower level), restaurant/bar (middle level), and a sun deck on the top. We will cruise the bay the next day back to the port where we will have lunch and board buses back to the hotel. The bus ride I was told is a 3 hour ride so I don’t think that will be much fun but it will be worth the ride. All the meals are included for $55 US per person. This will give us something to do for the weekend and should provide some really good photo opportunities.
It was getting hot and we needed to get back to the hotel to get ready for the interview at the Embassy. When we got back to the room, Logan was getting a little hungry so I attempted to order room service again from the kitchen. The first time I tried I wasn’t very successful. As usual, the first guy didn’t understand me so he had to pass me to another person. I told him that I would like to order a cheese pizza. He told me that just a cheese pizza wasn’t on the menu. I told him I would like a ham and cheese pizza without the ham. He sounded a little confused so I said to order a ham and cheese pizza and just thought when it arrived we could pick the ham off. The pizza arrived with ham cheese, green and red peppers, and onions. I see that I still need to work on my room service ordering skills. The pizza here at the hotel is very good but Logan had to pick the stuff off the top.
We got dressed for the interview and headed down to meet Martin in the hotel lobby. At all the interviews we have to wear long pants. I hate this because it is very hot so I prefer to stay in shorts. The Vietnamese wear long pants all the time. Only Americans and Europeans wear shorts here. We met Martin at the lobby and all loaded in the cab and headed for the US Embassy.
1st Embassy Interview
This interview is the first of two interviews with the US Embassy. The first is with the INS department. They take your paperwork and start the process of checking to make sure all the paperwork is complete and determine whether or not there are issues that are questionable about our adoption. They look to see if the child was abandoned, such as in Gracie’s case, that all the proper notification had taken place in our hometown. If any of the paper seems a little questionable, then they will call us back for more information. At this point in the process the Vietnamese government considers us to be the legal parents of Gracie. It’s now time for the US government to determine that everything is legitimate and that they approve the adoption so we can proceed to the second interview. The worst-case scenario would be that the US does not approve the adoption and she would have to stay in Vietnam, which then would force us to stay in Vietnam until the approval went through. We are positive that the process will take only a week so we should have the approval and move to our second interview. Pray we don’t get any phone calls from the Embassy for further inquiries. The second interview is to get her Visa and then to wait 24 hours for the Visa approval. After the approval of the second interview, we can then fly home.
We entered the building and headed to the second floor. At the top of the stairs we went through security. We had to have our bags run through the x-ray machine and give them our electronic devices such as our camera, Logan’s game boy, and Becky’s Ipod. We then proceeded through the metal detector and was each issued a visitor’s badge. The office was just a short walk from security. By this time, Becky and I were both pretty anxious but we tried not to show it in front of Logan. The room sort of reminded me of the driver’s license office except the people at the counters were behind glass with microphones and speakers at the window. All of the parents that went to the orphanage to get our babies together last week were at the embassy together. Everyone seems a little on pins and needles. The gentleman from the Embassy appeared at one of the windows and called for us all. He wanted to explain the interview process to us in a group and not as individuals to speed things up a bit. He said he would call the families one at a time into the interview room starting with the Allsups. It pays to have your name start with an A every now and then. At least we will get it over with first. Shortly after the briefing, they called for Becky, Logan, Gracie, and I to enter the interview room. It was a small room with several chairs in front of a window of thick glass with the microphones and speakers. There was an opening at the bottom of the window to pass items to the other side. The gentleman from the embassy was very polite and professional. He had a list of standardized questions on a sheet of paper that he recorded our answers on. They were all very straight forward such as what health insurance I had to how many persons resided in our house. There weren’t any questions that we had to hesitate to answer. All in all it went rather smooth. Gracie might have helped speed things up a bit during the interview because she was starting to get hungry so she was getting restless. The interview took only about 10 minutes and we returned to the waiting area along side everyone else. We were relieved to get that over with. When the other two families were finished, we went through security and collected out electronic items (Logan was happy to get his game boy back). We headed for the front of the building for another cab ride to a place to get Gracie’s picture for her passport.
Passport Picture
This was the easy part. We took a cab back to the south of the lake close by our hotel. The place was a small shop that took only passport type photos. The parents took a seat on a stool then put a white sheet over them and placed the baby on their laps. The white sheet is to give the picture of the baby a white background. All the babies got their photo taken and we took a cab back to the hotel. We were ready to change into shorts and head to happy hour for a drink. We met several of the parents at happy hour to give them the download of our interview.
Dinner at Little Hanoi and the long way back to the Hotel
It was 6:30 and Gracie was getting sleepy so we thought we would get her out and Logan was getting hungry so we decided to walk a couple of blocks to a place called Little Hanoi. We have already eaten there so we knew Logan liked the spaghetti. For the benefit of the gals at the gym, I had a cheese and tomato sandwich with a Tiger beer and Becky had a baguette and water (I don’t think things are going well with her) and Logan had his usual spaghetti. Jenny, the meal cost only $12 US with tip. Lol. Gracie was getting fussy so we fed her a bottle and left for the hotel. When we crossed the street and headed for the hotel, Becky wanted to see some of the shops down a side street and asked me if we could find our way back. I thought since we were only a couple of blocks from the hotel that finding a way back should be easy. We walked down the street and took a left in the general direction of our hotel. We started down this second street and things didn’t seem as bright and lively. We quickly made our way down this street and turned another left thinking we would be getting close to our hotel. We were being followed by a small man for about half the block and he started to get us nervous. I had turned around a couple times and on the third time I was going to warn him to back off, but he was gone. We walked towards a street that looked busy and all lit up. This place didn’t look familiar. I couldn’t believe we only walked three blocks and we were completely lost. I usually have the hotel business card with me, or the map, but since we were only supposed to go to the restaurant and back, I didn’t bring them with me. It was about 9:00pm and I was starting to get worried. We asked a shop owner where the hotel was but he sent us down the wrong road. We then asked a cyclo driver for directions and he told us to count 1 2 left 1 2 right and then asked if we wanted a ride there. I was in no mood for a ride and I thought I could get there faster walking. Logan kept asking me if I was worried and I kept assuring him I was not. Little did he know I was very concerned. When I was younger and wondering the streets of Korea and Japan with my Marine Corps buddies, I didn’t care about were the streets took us but this time I was concerned. The directions the cyclo driver gave us were correct. I couldn’t believe we got lost that quick. Every street here looks the same with all the shops so close and all the stuff displayed out front on the sidewalks. Becky said it right when she said it reminded her of the Decatur Celebration every night. We were happy to make it back to the hotel. I learned to never leave the hotel without my map and hotel business card.
After an exciting adventure, we all got ready for bed.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Can It Get Any Better????????
Day 9 July 23rd Monday
Written and submitted July 24 at 5:00pm
Gracie awoke about 3:00am ready for her bottle and a diaper change. I made a bottle while Becky freshened Gracie up a little. She is so happy after she wakes up. Becky sat in the front room so not to wake Logan in the bedroom. Gracie likes her thumb so you have to pull her thumb out of her mouth and quickly put the bottle in or else she will have her thumb back in her mouth in a heartbeat. Several minutes passed and Gracie got about half the bottle down when Gracie started coughing. It sounded more like a hacking cough as though she was trying to get something out of her throat. Becky yelled to me so I rushed to the front room. Gracie was breathing but she just couldn’t stop hacking. Then Becky said we must not have rinsed the nipples well enough so she had soap in her mouth. Poor Gracie, can’t even speak words yet, let alone bad words, and we have already put soap in her mouth. We quickly rinsed the nipple more thoroughly and Gracie was able to finish her bottle and go back to bed where she didn’t wake until about 7:00am.
Early morning exercises down at the lake
I had heard that many of the local people meet early in the morning at the nearby lake to exercise, so I got out of bed around 5:30 and headed for the lake. Logan would like the streets of Hanoi during this time because the shops are not open and the streets are very empty. There were people walking in the same direction as I was. I figured they must be going to the lake for their morning workouts. The lake is only a few blocks away so I made the trip within 10 minutes. The lake was alive with people. There is a park-like walkway around the lake and it was full of people. The first group of people I saw was about 30 or so older folks that were doing some form of Tai Chi with a boom box playing some traditional music. This group of people was doing the same motions together. They formed four lines of about ten persons then at one point they all changed formation to stand in a single file line and gave each other back massages. While they were performing this exercise, many people walked by them on their way around the lake. The lake area was filled with thousands of people, young and old, walking around the lake. I took a walk half way around the lake in order to get some pictures and film. I ran into several other groups that were performing the same type of exercise, but I also saw other people doing several other activities. There were some men lifting weights, doing pull-ups, and sit-ups. I might see if I can join them later in the week. I’ll ask Mr. Tong at our hotel if the local people don’t mind foreigners joining them. There were a couple of groups playing badminton without a net on the same path as the walkers. The walkway is about 25 feet wide so there is a little room but very crowded with the walkers. Another area had a couple of men playing a game that looked a cross between badminton, soccer, and hacky sack. They used a larger birdie than badminton and the net was about waist high. They would use their feet only to kick the birdie over the net. It was fun to watch. It didn’t matter where you looked around the lake, you could see people doing some form of activity. And it was not only a place to workout before the busy workday, but it seemed to be a social event. There were some younger people walking with the elderly folks. It was my guess that the grandkids were walking with their grand folks. Sometimes we in America might think we have it better because our quality of life is better, but these people seem to have some things figured out. They seem to care first about their mind, body, and family before their work. I have yet to see an overweight person here.
The time was about 7:00 and I thought the family might be getting up so I headed for the hotel. At this time in the morning, I could already feel that the heat and humidity was going to be elevated. I didn’t do anything except walk half way around the lake and I had a pretty good sweat on.
Life at the Hotel
Becky and the crew were starting to rise when I got back from the lake. We got the kids ready and headed for the chow line. We sat at the front table by the big picture window so we could watch the local people getting ready for the day. We happen to notice a small tree outside the window was a banana tree. Here among all this traffic and people was a banana tree growing on the side of the building. It had about 15 small green bananas on it. It doesn’t take much to excite us nowadays. We saw some of our friends and got caught up on how they were doing. This was another day with no scheduled events so we settled in for another day of playing with Gracie.
After breakfast, Logan wanted to buy a new video game from the store down the street. They’re pretty cheap here so we told him it would be all right. We went upstairs to get ready for our day. Logan and I were going to the video game store, so I asked Becky which street it was on and before she could start with her directions, Logan said he knew where it was so not to tell us. Logan and I headed for the street. It’s funny that Logan doesn’t like walking anywhere except when he wants a game boy game. We left the hotel and turned left with Logan in the lead. We snaked our way through scooters and people to the end of the street. Logan made a right turn then walked about forty feet and then stopped and turned around. He spun a 180 and headed in the opposite direction. He walked another forty feet then stopped and spun back around. This is when I saw the look of confusion on his face. I told him not to worry because it all looks the same so it’s easy to get confused. We then decided to head back to the hotel room and get the directions from Becky. Logan had the look of defeat. Becky told me that her and Gracie would go with us so we all headed to the street once again. We crossed the street and walked about thirty feet and there was this very narrow store with video games for sale. Logan and I had walked right by it previously and didn’t even see it. The people at the store let Logan play with the game for a while to see if the game worked. He seemed satisfied so we bought the game and went back to the hotel room.
We just hung around the room all afternoon. We get a little tired of sitting in the room but this is precious time spent getting to know Gracie. She seems to be adjusting to us more every day and all the face time with her is great. She seems to be getting used to Logan’s crazy antics. He loves to get in her face all day long. Logan was getting hungry so I ordered some French fries from the kitchen. I didn’t have any luck getting through to the first person I spoke to so he put on another fellow. This guy seemed to know what I wanted but after about 45 minutes it was apparent that the lunch order didn’t get translated. Becky called the kitchen and ordered the fries this time and it arrived about 15 minutes later. Lost in translation.
Dinner Date with the Gang
All the adoptive parents from both hotels had planned on meeting at Al Fresca’s at 5:00 for dinner. We met some of the people from our hotel at the lobby and loaded into cabs for the restaurant. We arrived at the place a little earlier than the folks from the Melia so we took a long table on the second floor. Becky, Logan, and I had already eaten here so we knew Logan would be eating pizza again. I’m trying to stay mainly vegetarian for personal plumbing reasons. I haven’t experienced anything bad but I don’t want to take any chances. I tried the vegetarian lasagna and Becky had a club sandwich (I know the girls at the gym like to hear my take on the menu items). The lasagna was a little bland so I had to add a lot of pepper on it. I would like to put hot sauce on it but that’s like putting gasoline on a fire so I opted for pepper. Becky seemed to like her sandwich and Logan devoured his whole pizza so I’m sure we will be back again before we leave Hanoi. We had about 12 people at dinner so it was great to hear what everyone has been doing. It was nice to hear many had been in their rooms just like us. After dinner, the four of us went across the street to the indoor mall to get some formula for Gracie. We can’t wait to get her home and get her started on cereal. Logan was happy we were taking a cab back to the hotel. The cabby said 3 dollars and I told him it only cost 2 dollars to get here so we agreed on 2 dollars. I don’t blame them for trying to get what they can.
It was getting late so we gave Gracie her bath and put her to bed. Logan and I started watch Speed II on the TV but I couldn’t keep my eyes open so we shut off the TV and went to sleep.
Written and submitted July 24 at 5:00pm
Gracie awoke about 3:00am ready for her bottle and a diaper change. I made a bottle while Becky freshened Gracie up a little. She is so happy after she wakes up. Becky sat in the front room so not to wake Logan in the bedroom. Gracie likes her thumb so you have to pull her thumb out of her mouth and quickly put the bottle in or else she will have her thumb back in her mouth in a heartbeat. Several minutes passed and Gracie got about half the bottle down when Gracie started coughing. It sounded more like a hacking cough as though she was trying to get something out of her throat. Becky yelled to me so I rushed to the front room. Gracie was breathing but she just couldn’t stop hacking. Then Becky said we must not have rinsed the nipples well enough so she had soap in her mouth. Poor Gracie, can’t even speak words yet, let alone bad words, and we have already put soap in her mouth. We quickly rinsed the nipple more thoroughly and Gracie was able to finish her bottle and go back to bed where she didn’t wake until about 7:00am.
Early morning exercises down at the lake
I had heard that many of the local people meet early in the morning at the nearby lake to exercise, so I got out of bed around 5:30 and headed for the lake. Logan would like the streets of Hanoi during this time because the shops are not open and the streets are very empty. There were people walking in the same direction as I was. I figured they must be going to the lake for their morning workouts. The lake is only a few blocks away so I made the trip within 10 minutes. The lake was alive with people. There is a park-like walkway around the lake and it was full of people. The first group of people I saw was about 30 or so older folks that were doing some form of Tai Chi with a boom box playing some traditional music. This group of people was doing the same motions together. They formed four lines of about ten persons then at one point they all changed formation to stand in a single file line and gave each other back massages. While they were performing this exercise, many people walked by them on their way around the lake. The lake area was filled with thousands of people, young and old, walking around the lake. I took a walk half way around the lake in order to get some pictures and film. I ran into several other groups that were performing the same type of exercise, but I also saw other people doing several other activities. There were some men lifting weights, doing pull-ups, and sit-ups. I might see if I can join them later in the week. I’ll ask Mr. Tong at our hotel if the local people don’t mind foreigners joining them. There were a couple of groups playing badminton without a net on the same path as the walkers. The walkway is about 25 feet wide so there is a little room but very crowded with the walkers. Another area had a couple of men playing a game that looked a cross between badminton, soccer, and hacky sack. They used a larger birdie than badminton and the net was about waist high. They would use their feet only to kick the birdie over the net. It was fun to watch. It didn’t matter where you looked around the lake, you could see people doing some form of activity. And it was not only a place to workout before the busy workday, but it seemed to be a social event. There were some younger people walking with the elderly folks. It was my guess that the grandkids were walking with their grand folks. Sometimes we in America might think we have it better because our quality of life is better, but these people seem to have some things figured out. They seem to care first about their mind, body, and family before their work. I have yet to see an overweight person here.
The time was about 7:00 and I thought the family might be getting up so I headed for the hotel. At this time in the morning, I could already feel that the heat and humidity was going to be elevated. I didn’t do anything except walk half way around the lake and I had a pretty good sweat on.
Life at the Hotel
Becky and the crew were starting to rise when I got back from the lake. We got the kids ready and headed for the chow line. We sat at the front table by the big picture window so we could watch the local people getting ready for the day. We happen to notice a small tree outside the window was a banana tree. Here among all this traffic and people was a banana tree growing on the side of the building. It had about 15 small green bananas on it. It doesn’t take much to excite us nowadays. We saw some of our friends and got caught up on how they were doing. This was another day with no scheduled events so we settled in for another day of playing with Gracie.
After breakfast, Logan wanted to buy a new video game from the store down the street. They’re pretty cheap here so we told him it would be all right. We went upstairs to get ready for our day. Logan and I were going to the video game store, so I asked Becky which street it was on and before she could start with her directions, Logan said he knew where it was so not to tell us. Logan and I headed for the street. It’s funny that Logan doesn’t like walking anywhere except when he wants a game boy game. We left the hotel and turned left with Logan in the lead. We snaked our way through scooters and people to the end of the street. Logan made a right turn then walked about forty feet and then stopped and turned around. He spun a 180 and headed in the opposite direction. He walked another forty feet then stopped and spun back around. This is when I saw the look of confusion on his face. I told him not to worry because it all looks the same so it’s easy to get confused. We then decided to head back to the hotel room and get the directions from Becky. Logan had the look of defeat. Becky told me that her and Gracie would go with us so we all headed to the street once again. We crossed the street and walked about thirty feet and there was this very narrow store with video games for sale. Logan and I had walked right by it previously and didn’t even see it. The people at the store let Logan play with the game for a while to see if the game worked. He seemed satisfied so we bought the game and went back to the hotel room.
We just hung around the room all afternoon. We get a little tired of sitting in the room but this is precious time spent getting to know Gracie. She seems to be adjusting to us more every day and all the face time with her is great. She seems to be getting used to Logan’s crazy antics. He loves to get in her face all day long. Logan was getting hungry so I ordered some French fries from the kitchen. I didn’t have any luck getting through to the first person I spoke to so he put on another fellow. This guy seemed to know what I wanted but after about 45 minutes it was apparent that the lunch order didn’t get translated. Becky called the kitchen and ordered the fries this time and it arrived about 15 minutes later. Lost in translation.
Dinner Date with the Gang
All the adoptive parents from both hotels had planned on meeting at Al Fresca’s at 5:00 for dinner. We met some of the people from our hotel at the lobby and loaded into cabs for the restaurant. We arrived at the place a little earlier than the folks from the Melia so we took a long table on the second floor. Becky, Logan, and I had already eaten here so we knew Logan would be eating pizza again. I’m trying to stay mainly vegetarian for personal plumbing reasons. I haven’t experienced anything bad but I don’t want to take any chances. I tried the vegetarian lasagna and Becky had a club sandwich (I know the girls at the gym like to hear my take on the menu items). The lasagna was a little bland so I had to add a lot of pepper on it. I would like to put hot sauce on it but that’s like putting gasoline on a fire so I opted for pepper. Becky seemed to like her sandwich and Logan devoured his whole pizza so I’m sure we will be back again before we leave Hanoi. We had about 12 people at dinner so it was great to hear what everyone has been doing. It was nice to hear many had been in their rooms just like us. After dinner, the four of us went across the street to the indoor mall to get some formula for Gracie. We can’t wait to get her home and get her started on cereal. Logan was happy we were taking a cab back to the hotel. The cabby said 3 dollars and I told him it only cost 2 dollars to get here so we agreed on 2 dollars. I don’t blame them for trying to get what they can.
It was getting late so we gave Gracie her bath and put her to bed. Logan and I started watch Speed II on the TV but I couldn’t keep my eyes open so we shut off the TV and went to sleep.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Lazy Sunday
Day 8 July 22nd Sunday
The Allsup family is starting to get back to our normal sleep routines. I don’t think anyone except Gracie woke up before 6:00am and after a bottle, she quickly and quietly went back to sleep. We finally made our way down to breakfast for social hour. Several of our friends were there so we traded baby stories for a while. The hotel workers really like Logan. They are always giving him high fives and asking him what sports he likes. With Logan being so shy, he gets a little uncomfortable with it but it’s good for him to try to interact with people from other cultures. We sat at the same table as Dawn and her daughter Eva. The girls decided to go shopping for a while after breakfast and Logan and I agreed to watch Eva for her.
When Dawn and Eva got to the room, Gracie was already sleeping in her crib. Eva is a cute little gal that has a spike hairstyle. When Becky and Dawn left Eva calmed down and went to sleep. She was probably asleep 10 minutes when Gracie started crying because she made a mess in her pants. This woke Eva up and she started crying as well this had Logan starring at me and shaking his head. He didn’t think O’dad was up to the challenge. I quickly changed Gracie’s diaper and placed her on the bed surrounded by pillows. Gracie was good to go because she doesn’t like those dirty diapers on her. I picked up Eva and walked around the room bouncing her around and finally she went back to sleep. By this time Gracie was back out as well. Logan looked at me and said “Dad, mom owes us big time”.
There wasn’t much to do this afternoon. We just sat around the hotel did a lot more reading, games, playing with Gracie, and TV. About 4:00pm we left the hotel with Dawn and Eva to the Mediterranean restaurant to meet up with Tracy, Max, and Amy. We sat there for a couple of hours catching up on what we all have been doing the last day or so. We left the restaurant for the hotel. Very close by was St. Joseph’s Catholic Church and it was conducting Sunday night Mass. The inside of the church was filled with people and spilled out to the front of the church with people sitting on small plastic stools. The church had a large projector screen with the mass projected onto it so people from the street could view it. There were many people who parked their scooters, bikes, and cars to watch mass taking place. We would have stopped but the babies were ready to get back to the hotel. Gracie looked like she was ready to fall asleep again for about the fourth time today. The girl likes her sleep.
Becky and I gave Gracie her bath and then Becky gave her a bottle and put her down for the night. Logan and I watched a movie together and then we all passed out. We can’t wait for the work week to start so our paperwork will continue.
The Allsup family is starting to get back to our normal sleep routines. I don’t think anyone except Gracie woke up before 6:00am and after a bottle, she quickly and quietly went back to sleep. We finally made our way down to breakfast for social hour. Several of our friends were there so we traded baby stories for a while. The hotel workers really like Logan. They are always giving him high fives and asking him what sports he likes. With Logan being so shy, he gets a little uncomfortable with it but it’s good for him to try to interact with people from other cultures. We sat at the same table as Dawn and her daughter Eva. The girls decided to go shopping for a while after breakfast and Logan and I agreed to watch Eva for her.
When Dawn and Eva got to the room, Gracie was already sleeping in her crib. Eva is a cute little gal that has a spike hairstyle. When Becky and Dawn left Eva calmed down and went to sleep. She was probably asleep 10 minutes when Gracie started crying because she made a mess in her pants. This woke Eva up and she started crying as well this had Logan starring at me and shaking his head. He didn’t think O’dad was up to the challenge. I quickly changed Gracie’s diaper and placed her on the bed surrounded by pillows. Gracie was good to go because she doesn’t like those dirty diapers on her. I picked up Eva and walked around the room bouncing her around and finally she went back to sleep. By this time Gracie was back out as well. Logan looked at me and said “Dad, mom owes us big time”.
There wasn’t much to do this afternoon. We just sat around the hotel did a lot more reading, games, playing with Gracie, and TV. About 4:00pm we left the hotel with Dawn and Eva to the Mediterranean restaurant to meet up with Tracy, Max, and Amy. We sat there for a couple of hours catching up on what we all have been doing the last day or so. We left the restaurant for the hotel. Very close by was St. Joseph’s Catholic Church and it was conducting Sunday night Mass. The inside of the church was filled with people and spilled out to the front of the church with people sitting on small plastic stools. The church had a large projector screen with the mass projected onto it so people from the street could view it. There were many people who parked their scooters, bikes, and cars to watch mass taking place. We would have stopped but the babies were ready to get back to the hotel. Gracie looked like she was ready to fall asleep again for about the fourth time today. The girl likes her sleep.
Becky and I gave Gracie her bath and then Becky gave her a bottle and put her down for the night. Logan and I watched a movie together and then we all passed out. We can’t wait for the work week to start so our paperwork will continue.
As The Asian World Turns
Day 7 July 21, 2007
Wrote and submitted at 2:00pm on July 22
Gracie has proved to be a good sleeper. She slept from 8-3am before we could hear her sucking her thumb from her crib. After a quick diaper change and a bottle, she went back to sleep until around 7am. The rest of the family is starting to sleep in a little these days.
We all headed down to the restaurant to get something to eat and see if any of the parents were already down there. This is the time of day that all the parents seem to meet. Today several of us were going to the museum of Ethnology on the other side of Hanoi so we quickly ate and went up to the room to get ready for the trip.
Trip to the Museum of Ethnology
We were almost ready when the phone rang. It was Joe who said the taxi was waiting out front so we grabbed our stuff and headed for the lobby. They were just loading in the taxi when we reached the front door of the hotel. We successfully crossed the busy street and jumped in the cab ready to go. Joe had to call for a cab that would fit all of us since most cabs here are very small Toyotas. Within the group going to the museum was Joe & Amy with their girl Collett, Dawn and her daughter Eva, and Becky, Logan, Gracie, and I. The ride to the museum was a 20-minute drive through more traffic that’s similar everywhere in Hanoi. I’m starting to get familiar with some streets close by the hotel but for the most part it all looks the same. During the trip, we drove passed several parks with large tress that provide much shade. It’s good to see so many parks in the city and the people seem to make good use of them because there are always people sitting in the parks relaxing. We only experience one dramatic moment when Dawn spotted a bug from her seat in the back of the cab. She said she didn’t know were it went but it looked as though it headed my way. This got Becky pretty excited because Dawn said it looked like a roach. A couple of minutes later the bug appeared on the back of Becky’s seat (she was sitting in the middle of Logan and I and had Gracie on her lap). It appeared to be a roach so Becky went nuts. I was looking for something to smash it, but Dawn saved the day by swatting it with her fan. Becky thought it was dead. I didn’t have the heart to tell her it was just scared off and that it was still lurking in the cab. The cab driver seemed to get a kick out of this. The remainder of the trip was pretty calm. We reached the museum and unloaded the cab and headed to the ticket counter. The building was white and modern looking with curved walls. We all purchased our tickets and went through the gate to give another person at other window the tickets we just purchased. The woman at the second window saw my camera and said something in Vietnamese and pointed to the first window again. Then I noticed a sign that had prices for taking pictures. The cost to get into the museum for the four of us was 42,000 Dong but the additional cost to take pictures was 50,000 Dong. That’s equal to about $5.75 US so it was still pretty cheap. The lobby at the entrance was a circular open room that was two stories in height. You could see people on the second floor balcony. This room was the only air conditioned room in the entire place so we took a lot of breaks there. We arrived at the museum at 9:00am and it was already very warm. The exhibits usually had descriptions hanging on the wall next to them with English on the bottom. There were exhibits that explained the different languages in Vietnam and what families started them many years ago. It broke down what regions of Vietnam were populated by different ethnic groups. Gracie is a little light skinned so the area she came from referred to a certain group as “White Thai” so we are assuming she is part of this group. It doesn’t really matter, but maybe she might qualify for some educational assistance or something,lol. Logan was getting a little antsy during this time so we kept moving. He was a little upset because he wanted to put the sling on and carry Gracie but we needed to try the sling out on him in the hotel room first before he carried her. It’s great that he wants to take care of her.
We made our way to the second floor and man it was getting hot up there. There were some good exhibits of houses, weapons, baskets, dress, and other items but Gracie was getting crabby and Logan was getting bored and the heat didn’t help either. I took Gracie and Logan back to the lobby to cool off. The people walk by and love to see the babies. The people here will play with babies and squeeze their cheeks. It’s really great to see that babies are respected and adored by everyone here. Our group eventually got back together in the lobby so we decided to see the exhibits on the outside behind the building. We made our way down the steps but Logan didn’t see the first step and tumbled down several steps. Luckily the steps were very wide and not very tall because he stopped quickly but he did hurt his leg just a little so he, Gracie and I went back in the museum to sit and wait for everyone to return. The tour outside didn’t take long because everyone was getting hot so we had the museum call us a larger cab and headed for home. No bugs were found on the return trip.
Lounging at the Hotel
When we returned from the museum, we headed to the room to feed Gracie. Soon after her bottle we put her down for her nap and she went fast asleep. Man, the girl can sleep. The rest of us sat around and read, watched TV, and checked email. Becky is still trying to figure out a way for us to see our blog from the hotel room. She is very persistent.
After Gracie woke from her nap, we left the hotel to get something to eat. Logan keeps trying to get us to eat at the restaurant next door to our hotel because he still doesn’t want to walk anywhere. We told Logan that since Dawn saw that restaurant hanging their chicken and duck on a line outside all afternoon roasting in the sun proved we would never eat there. Then I quickly thought that this might be standard procedure for all the restaurants here. I sure hope not. We decided to walk a couple of blocks to a place called the Mediterranean. (Recommended by our friend Tara) It serves mainly an Italian menu with a large list of wine. Logan again had pizza and Becky and I had pasta dishes. It was a good meal but the price was a little higher than most restaurants here but it still only cost $25 US and that was with a glass of wine and a couple of Tiger beers. Not bad.
Walk to the Melia
After dinner, we headed off to the Melia to visit Tracy, Max, and Amy. Logan is getting used to crossing the streets. Logan went a couple of steps ahead of Becky and I because we were tending to Gracie and when I looked up Logan was about to cross the busy street on his own. I yelled at him to come back and he quickly did. This street was much wider than ours in front of the hotel with 4 lanes of traffic. He’s not ready for that one on his own just yet but maybe in another ten years. We made it to the Melia after about a 10 minute stroll. We ran into Tracy in the lobby who was on her way to pick up her laundry across the street. She said to go on up to the room because Max and Amy were there so we went on up. We visited with them for a while. Max is such a strong little boy and seems to being doing very well. He’s a little lankier than Gracie but the boy can really lift himself up. He’s able to can get up an all fours so he’ll be crawling very soon. We caught up with what’s been going on with them and took some pictures of Max and Gracie together. Becky used their computer to read our blog and look at the pictures that Julie has posted for us. Thanks a bunch Julie! After our visit, the Allsup family grabbed a cab for our hotel to retire for the night.
Soccer Game – Vietnam vs Iraq
The big game was at 8:30pm and I was hoping to go to one of the coffee houses on the lake to watch the game. Tong told me that was the place to see it on TV and watch the local people go crazy so I thought that would be fun. The only problem was by the time the game started, I was too sleepy and fell asleep shortly before the game started and I woke up with 10 minutes left in the game. Becky and Logan were already asleep before the game began as well. Vietnam lost 2-0. So goes another day.
Wrote and submitted at 2:00pm on July 22
Gracie has proved to be a good sleeper. She slept from 8-3am before we could hear her sucking her thumb from her crib. After a quick diaper change and a bottle, she went back to sleep until around 7am. The rest of the family is starting to sleep in a little these days.
We all headed down to the restaurant to get something to eat and see if any of the parents were already down there. This is the time of day that all the parents seem to meet. Today several of us were going to the museum of Ethnology on the other side of Hanoi so we quickly ate and went up to the room to get ready for the trip.
Trip to the Museum of Ethnology
We were almost ready when the phone rang. It was Joe who said the taxi was waiting out front so we grabbed our stuff and headed for the lobby. They were just loading in the taxi when we reached the front door of the hotel. We successfully crossed the busy street and jumped in the cab ready to go. Joe had to call for a cab that would fit all of us since most cabs here are very small Toyotas. Within the group going to the museum was Joe & Amy with their girl Collett, Dawn and her daughter Eva, and Becky, Logan, Gracie, and I. The ride to the museum was a 20-minute drive through more traffic that’s similar everywhere in Hanoi. I’m starting to get familiar with some streets close by the hotel but for the most part it all looks the same. During the trip, we drove passed several parks with large tress that provide much shade. It’s good to see so many parks in the city and the people seem to make good use of them because there are always people sitting in the parks relaxing. We only experience one dramatic moment when Dawn spotted a bug from her seat in the back of the cab. She said she didn’t know were it went but it looked as though it headed my way. This got Becky pretty excited because Dawn said it looked like a roach. A couple of minutes later the bug appeared on the back of Becky’s seat (she was sitting in the middle of Logan and I and had Gracie on her lap). It appeared to be a roach so Becky went nuts. I was looking for something to smash it, but Dawn saved the day by swatting it with her fan. Becky thought it was dead. I didn’t have the heart to tell her it was just scared off and that it was still lurking in the cab. The cab driver seemed to get a kick out of this. The remainder of the trip was pretty calm. We reached the museum and unloaded the cab and headed to the ticket counter. The building was white and modern looking with curved walls. We all purchased our tickets and went through the gate to give another person at other window the tickets we just purchased. The woman at the second window saw my camera and said something in Vietnamese and pointed to the first window again. Then I noticed a sign that had prices for taking pictures. The cost to get into the museum for the four of us was 42,000 Dong but the additional cost to take pictures was 50,000 Dong. That’s equal to about $5.75 US so it was still pretty cheap. The lobby at the entrance was a circular open room that was two stories in height. You could see people on the second floor balcony. This room was the only air conditioned room in the entire place so we took a lot of breaks there. We arrived at the museum at 9:00am and it was already very warm. The exhibits usually had descriptions hanging on the wall next to them with English on the bottom. There were exhibits that explained the different languages in Vietnam and what families started them many years ago. It broke down what regions of Vietnam were populated by different ethnic groups. Gracie is a little light skinned so the area she came from referred to a certain group as “White Thai” so we are assuming she is part of this group. It doesn’t really matter, but maybe she might qualify for some educational assistance or something,lol. Logan was getting a little antsy during this time so we kept moving. He was a little upset because he wanted to put the sling on and carry Gracie but we needed to try the sling out on him in the hotel room first before he carried her. It’s great that he wants to take care of her.
We made our way to the second floor and man it was getting hot up there. There were some good exhibits of houses, weapons, baskets, dress, and other items but Gracie was getting crabby and Logan was getting bored and the heat didn’t help either. I took Gracie and Logan back to the lobby to cool off. The people walk by and love to see the babies. The people here will play with babies and squeeze their cheeks. It’s really great to see that babies are respected and adored by everyone here. Our group eventually got back together in the lobby so we decided to see the exhibits on the outside behind the building. We made our way down the steps but Logan didn’t see the first step and tumbled down several steps. Luckily the steps were very wide and not very tall because he stopped quickly but he did hurt his leg just a little so he, Gracie and I went back in the museum to sit and wait for everyone to return. The tour outside didn’t take long because everyone was getting hot so we had the museum call us a larger cab and headed for home. No bugs were found on the return trip.
Lounging at the Hotel
When we returned from the museum, we headed to the room to feed Gracie. Soon after her bottle we put her down for her nap and she went fast asleep. Man, the girl can sleep. The rest of us sat around and read, watched TV, and checked email. Becky is still trying to figure out a way for us to see our blog from the hotel room. She is very persistent.
After Gracie woke from her nap, we left the hotel to get something to eat. Logan keeps trying to get us to eat at the restaurant next door to our hotel because he still doesn’t want to walk anywhere. We told Logan that since Dawn saw that restaurant hanging their chicken and duck on a line outside all afternoon roasting in the sun proved we would never eat there. Then I quickly thought that this might be standard procedure for all the restaurants here. I sure hope not. We decided to walk a couple of blocks to a place called the Mediterranean. (Recommended by our friend Tara) It serves mainly an Italian menu with a large list of wine. Logan again had pizza and Becky and I had pasta dishes. It was a good meal but the price was a little higher than most restaurants here but it still only cost $25 US and that was with a glass of wine and a couple of Tiger beers. Not bad.
Walk to the Melia
After dinner, we headed off to the Melia to visit Tracy, Max, and Amy. Logan is getting used to crossing the streets. Logan went a couple of steps ahead of Becky and I because we were tending to Gracie and when I looked up Logan was about to cross the busy street on his own. I yelled at him to come back and he quickly did. This street was much wider than ours in front of the hotel with 4 lanes of traffic. He’s not ready for that one on his own just yet but maybe in another ten years. We made it to the Melia after about a 10 minute stroll. We ran into Tracy in the lobby who was on her way to pick up her laundry across the street. She said to go on up to the room because Max and Amy were there so we went on up. We visited with them for a while. Max is such a strong little boy and seems to being doing very well. He’s a little lankier than Gracie but the boy can really lift himself up. He’s able to can get up an all fours so he’ll be crawling very soon. We caught up with what’s been going on with them and took some pictures of Max and Gracie together. Becky used their computer to read our blog and look at the pictures that Julie has posted for us. Thanks a bunch Julie! After our visit, the Allsup family grabbed a cab for our hotel to retire for the night.
Soccer Game – Vietnam vs Iraq
The big game was at 8:30pm and I was hoping to go to one of the coffee houses on the lake to watch the game. Tong told me that was the place to see it on TV and watch the local people go crazy so I thought that would be fun. The only problem was by the time the game started, I was too sleepy and fell asleep shortly before the game started and I woke up with 10 minutes left in the game. Becky and Logan were already asleep before the game began as well. Vietnam lost 2-0. So goes another day.
Friday, July 20, 2007
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