What day is it? What time is it? Have I eaten today?

We're a little confused here in NJ. After sleeping 12 hours a night religiously since I picked him up, Adam is a little off kilter here. He stayed up until midnight, woke up again at 4 a.m., then went done at 7 a.m. and slept until 5:30 p.m. Its just 11 p.m. now and he went down again about half an hour ago -- not sure if its a nap or for the night.




Ok, so where were we? The cow suitcase helped me find Cindy, Tam's mom. Sunday morning, I got in the elevator to check out and head to the province, the doors opened on another floor, and the person standing there cried out "I'd know that suitcase anywhere!" LOL!




We headed to the lobby and she went off to Can Tho with Ellen and Brien and Jean anne and Chuck and I climbed onto my bus with two lovely families - Karen and Martin from London, who were adopting a two and a half year old girl, and Carl and Kim and their three children, Kaitlynn, Andrew and Rebecca who were adopting an almost 3 year old boy. The three children were so much fun to have along. They had given up their birthday gifts this year -- asking their friends to bring donations for the orphanage instead.




The drive to Vinh Long seemed endless - 3 and a half hours. After waiting so long that last stretch was tough. I thought I would lose my mind when they announced we were stopping for lunch! The restaurant was right on the Mekong Delta and the scenery was lovely, as were the geckos on the ceiling. The food was good, and the bill was amazing -- 8 people, $15!


We finally made it to the orphanage and were surrounded by the most beautiful, loving, curious children I've ever met. The two other families spotted their children immediately, but Adam was no where to be seen. Finally one of the nannies, came down the stairs, handed him to me and walked away. Those of you who have already had children this age can imagine his reaction -- he screamed his bloody brains out. And continued screaming for pretty much the entire visit. So much so that they removed us and put is in a separate room. I made a dandy first impression.




After a while, when it became clear he was not about to warm up to me that day, I went back to the main area with the other children. The nannies kept snatching him away from me and vanishing. I don't know if they were afraid I wouldn't take him because he was crying, or if they just wanted more time alone with him. I backed off and played with the other children and wanted to take every single one of them home with me.


We headed to the Golf Hotel in Can Tho for the evening and I had a lovely dinner with Chuck and Cindy and Jean anne and Chuck. Our G&R was scheduled for 9 a.m. At 9 a.m., we got the word it had been postponed until 10:30. Next notice had it at 1:30 so we went to lunch. Note to those of you yet to travel and may end up at the same restaurant, which we called the "Rice and..." Restaurant. The menu was basically pork and rice, shrimp and rice, etc. I ordered the chicken and rice. I guess I should have specified "No feet please". (I'm having trouble uploading pics, but will show you the appetizing selection in a future post)


The last postponement had the G&R set at 3. Adam screamed so loud and long he was removed from the ceremony! I was convinced the officials were going to say "No baby for you!". Much to my surprise they didn't. You'll be surprised to hear Adam screamed the ENTIRE ride back to Ho Chi Minh City. Note I say screamed -- not cried. This was the no tears absolutely enraged scream. There is a sincere cry, complete with tears. And then there's the "I want that NOW!" growl, which sounds a little like a demon baby. Definitely a strong personality!




Scroll down and refresh your memory of the picture of the social worker in Vinh Long holding a screaming Adam. Remember how I said that was my new favorite picture? Well, good thing -- as that's pretty much what Adam looked like for the next three days! Boy, did this baby hate me! Everytime he would doze off and wake again, he'd look like he was thinking "Oh damn! It wasn't a dream! She's still here!"

Many many apologies!

I ended up not being able to bring my laptop to Vietnam and assumed I would be able to go to the business center and update you every other day or so. Well, that worked fine until I actually HAD Adam. I have soooo much to tell you all! We just arrived home this evening (Sunday) around 10 p.m. The trip home contained an oh so lovely 10 hour layover in Tokyo, which became a 12 hour layover when the plane was delayed. Imagine it -- you're a 17 month old baby who falls asleep at 6:30 p.m. only to be awakened at 8:30 and dragged to the Hanoi airport for a midnight flight. On the bright side, you sleep through 3/4 of that 5 and a half hour flight, only to find yourself in Tokyo at 6:45 a.m. with nothing to do until your plane leaves at 4:45 p.m. As if that weren't bad enough, the flight is delayed until 7 p.m., which brings the time spent in the airport to just a little over 12 hours. And THEN you get onto the plane for another 11 hours and 55 minutes. Let's just say it was not pretty.

Just wanted to let you all know we are ok, Adam is wonderful, and I have plenty of stories to tell -- tomorrow.

Hot and Heavy

Ok, so its a little hard to navigate blogspot because its all in Vietnamese so I don't know what happened with those last two posts!

The cow suitcase and I have arrived! I must confess that the cow suitcase feels like I am dragging around a whole cow -- I think I might have over packed! Hopefully, once the gifts and orphanage donations are out of it it will be more manageable.

I arrived late Friday night after a smooth, but long, trip and came in on the same flight as a couple from St. Louis, Ellen and Brian, who are picking up their son in Can Tho. I haven't hooked up with any of the other families yet.

Has anyone mentioned that its hot here? I think its 3000 degrees with 5000% hunmidity, but that's just an estimate.

The Kim Do is just lovely! Really beautifully decorated and very comfortable. And the air conditioner in my room works! (That was pretty much my main criteria for a room!) None of the hallways are airconditioned, so once you leave the room its sauna time.

I spent the day wandering around. WHen I left the hotel this morning I was immediately approached by one of those bicycle guys who wanted to drive me around. I said no, I wanted to walk. He said that was ok, he would walk with me. LOL! He followed me for blocks, chatting away until I finally caved and climbed in. He drove me to the war museum, which is very interesting and sobering. Worth seeing! My friend happily waited outside for me to finish and then drove me around the city pointing out sites. I think he might have ripped me off a teeny bit. Oh well, lesson learned!

The traffic here is absolutely hilarious! Being from the NYC area, I was prepared for the volume of it, but the seeming lack of any actual road rules and the fact that everyone just lets everyone one else cut in, or cross in front of them so nicely is VERY different. It all seems to work, somehow -- organized chaos. Found the Saigon Tax Center, and then found a nice supermarket and stocked up on snacks.

Met a man in the mall who's sister just graduated nursing school here and is taking a vacation to NY to job hunt. He wanted to know everything about NYC. He asked me to come to his house and tell his mother that she will be safe in NYC. I begged off, and decided he can bring them to the hotel to talk to me if he wants, but I'm not comfortable going to his house.

We are meeting in the lobby at 9 a.m. Sunday for the trip to Vinh Long! I can't believe the day is FINALLY almost here! More when we get back from Vinh Long.

Have they meniuon\\\

So far so good!

I'm in the Tokyo airport waiting for my connection to Ho Chi Minh City. It was 13 hours from Newark to tokyo and while it wasn't bad, I don't think its going to be much fun with a baby! LOL! I can just see my fellow passengers grounding when Adam and I get on!

I have only two minutes on the computer because I don't have any more yen! Will try to get on again when I hit Ho Chi Minh City. I hope this works, because the blogspot page is in japanese and I don't know how to change it to english!

3 more days until G&R! WOOOOOO HOOOOOO!!!!!!!

The best laid plans...

.... last night I happily dragged the box containing the crib into the living room, opened it, and started the long-awaited process of putting it together. The instructions were simple and clear and I was relieved to see I would be able to do it myself. I'm happily moving along, successfully attaching the back legs to the appropriate back piece/headboard of the crib and come to the step of attaching the front legs. I get out the appropriate hardware and turn to my pile o' pieces to get the front legs and....there aren't any. I run to the box and open it, thinking I've left them in the box, but no! There aren't any! AAAIIIIEEEE!!!! I can't tell you how many times I went back to the box and triple and quintuple checked, as if the front legs were going to magically appear. LOL! I never learn about doing things at the last moment.

I'm not going to stress about it. The legs will be here by the time we get back and all will be well. I'm going to get everything else in order and happily get on that plane tomorrow. Will the air marshalls arrest me if I joyously greet the crew with hugs?

I got a nice going-away gift today -- this updated photo of a sleepy, cranky looking boy -- maybe he's having a bad dream? Don't worry boo boo, Mama's on her way!

Holy Guacamole Batman!

The dog has been delivered to her temporary abode, the shopping is done, 75% of packing completed -- and I'm leaving in just about 36 hours! Guess its time to get cracking on that crib.....lol!