A Day And A Life With Gracie

Day 6 July 20, 2007
Submitted July 21 at 6:00

Our first night together went very well. Gracie slept until about 3:00am before she needed fed. She takes her bottles well since we finally figured the larger flow nipples is what she wants. You don’t get to her “chucky monkey” size without putting down the chow. She stayed up for a while after her bottle and didn’t get back down until a couple hours later. By this time Logan and I couldn’t sleep any longer so I got on the computer and Logan watched his Rocky movie.

About 7:30 we were all up and down at breakfast. Not many people were there this morning except a European family. Shortly after we set down to eat, the young woman worker came to our table to get a look at Gracie. The people really love babies over here. They don’t have any problem playing with or touching someone else’s baby. It’s really fascinating to watch. Since Becky and Logan were eating, I sat holding Gracie and drinking some of the syrup like coffee I have grown to love. The young woman returned to our table to take/hold the baby while I ate breakfast. Every morning before we got Gracie, we noticed the workers, especially the young woman, holding the babies of the other adoptive parents. I will be looking for this type of service when we get back to the states.

During our meal several of the other families made it down for breakfast so we spent awhile talking to them. It’s also good to get the load down on what’s going on with everyone. Sometimes we pass on vital information like where to buy Jiffy peanut butter.
While we were congregating, the manager, Mr. Tong, stopped by the group to show us some notarized papers. I thought I heard him say the Allsup family but at the same time one of the parents was asking him a question so I wasn’t for sure. Once we finished our meal, I noticed Kenny approaching us from the back of the restaurant. He told me it was time to go to the police station to sign file for Gracie’s passport. Logan asked if he could go so we both rushed upstairs to get ready. We returned to the lobby in about 10 minutes ready to go.

Trip to the Police Station for Gracie’s Passport

Logan and I had my passport and $200,000 dong($12 US) that was required for the trip. Kenny had a cab waiting for us outside. All three of us loaded into the cab and headed for the police station. Logan was happy to be traveling in a cab again. This was probably the only reason he wanted to go. Once we were in the cab, Kenny told me the process of notarizing the paperwork went faster than usual. He said it normally takes a while longer but since Mr. Tong at the hotel has a good relationship with the local official he can get things done quickly. Mr. Tong is the gentleman that took Logan and I to the soccer game several nights ago. The man is well connected. The police station wasn’t but a 5-7 minute ride from our hotel. The police station was actually several buildings all surrounded by a concrete wall. All the buildings were colored a faded yellow. It seems all the government buildings, and there are many of them, are pretty much the same color. They must have had a sale on paint. These buildings remind me of the Vietnam war images when people were trying to get through the gates to the US embassies when Saigon fell to the communists. Logan and I followed Kenny through the entrance of the wall surrounding the place. On the way Kenny told me that if it was busy, we might have to wait quite a while. We climbed some stairs on the outside of the building to the second floor and went into a room similar to a license registration office, but I don’t think they have one of those here by the way everyone drives. There were plenty of propaganda posters hanging on the walls that haven’t seen a coat of paint for many years. The place didn’t look that busy so Logan and I took a seat and Kenny headed for the counter to take care of the paperwork. We sat next to our friends from the Melia. There was Tracy with her new son Max and her sister Amy and next to her was David. Logan was behaving himself so far. After about a 20-minute wait, Kenny and Martin waved for us to come to the window. They wanted us so the officials could identify us by our passport pictures. Logan started to jump around a little bit and act out his baseball swing. The people sitting there waiting were watching him so they probably think all American kids swing their arms uncontrollably. After the woman at the window identified us we walked to another counter on the other side of the room to pay our $200,000 dong and left. The process took a little over a half an hour. Kenny said it was a very slow day there. We walked down the stairs and out to the street for a cab ride back to the hotel.

Lazy Day

Not much went on the rest of the day. We sat around the room getting to know Gracie. Logan can’t keep his face out of her face. He is very excited about her and is already a very good big brother. That afternoon Becky and Logan got hungry so they went to get something to eat while me and Gracie lounged on the bed. She had fallen asleep a couple of minutes before Becky and Logan left for lunch. Gracie slept the whole time they went to lunch and also when they returned. After Becky and Logan returned, I decided to go downstairs and get some appetizers during happy hour. Logan was under strict orders to read his book for 30 minutes. I got the only table at the front window and ordered a beer and headed to the appetizers. They serve pastries during their happy hour that are actually good because they are not too sweet. They are more light and flaky. The sky was gray and dark so it looked like to might rain. After a few minutes, the rain started to sprinkle down and soon it opened up to a downpour. It poured for about an hour or so. The people at the hotel turned off the air conditioner and opened the door to let nature cool the place off. Or at least they thought so. About half way through the downpour, Logan came downstairs to join me. He ordered a Coke Light (cracks me up) and played with his gameboy game. He asked if we could drink the rainwater and I told him that probably wouldn’t be a good idea. One funny question Logan keeps asking me is “Will Gracie speak our language?” I can’t get enough of that. I get the feeling that he thinks because she was born here she will automatically speak the native tongue.

As we sat there at the table, everyone started to make their way downstairs for dinner. Soon of the adoptive parents were at the front of the restaurant ordering dinner and conversing. Becky and Gracie also finally made their way down. We had a good time talking and decided to meet in the lobby at 8:00am tomorrow (Saturday) to go to the museum of Ethnology together. The museum has exhibits about the 50 or so minorities of Vietnam. It should be quite interesting because same of our babies have the same features and some seem to be completely different. We are wondering, along with several other parents, if Gracie is part of a minority.

It was about 7:30 so we all said good night and headed for our rooms. We gave Gracie her bath and got her ready for bed. It was a good night.

Gracie’s rash seems to be getting much better. The baths, creams, and air conditioning appear to be working. She had a congested nose in the morning so we sucked it all out of her and she was good the rest of the day. We determined the air conditioning was to low so we turned it up several degrees Celsius. We are starting to get used to it.