She is an angel!

She has changed so much in one day! Her eyes light up today, she smilies with a little dimple, and she giggles at the kids. She even sings! She is a true joy and everything we thought she would be. It is hot hot hot here so any picture of us we are sweating so bad and it shows! We have our first interview on Friday so we leave for hcmc tomorrow. We will miss our huge beach villa. But it will be fun to be in the city. I have lots of shopping to do. I did buy all the kids a lantern today and an embroidered table cloth for Paisleys table. We got to go to Hoi An today and visit the orphange there were a lot of older kids are. I you know anyone interested in adopting a cute 10 year olds girl, Joanne our facilitator's wife said she wants a family bad. She was so cute and I have lots of pictures. She looks like she's more around 7 or 8 size wise. We then went to the silk factory and out to eat with Joanne and all the kids. Jeff wasn't adventurous enough to eat the food there. We ate some interesting food, very good! In this heat it is very hard carrying the baby. She is just a heater and we both end up drenched in sweat. It will be hard after Jeff leaves as I won't be able to pass her to someone when I need a breather.
We are staying at the Duxton in HCMC and either the Horizon or Melia in Hanoi. Sad thing is if we stay at the Melia we all have to pay more and 2 families were already asked to pay more because of the kids traveling 3 days before travel, a little unexpected last minute to say the least.
Can't wait for that business class they put us in though. That's nice and we get to go to the business lounge to wait. Free food and drinks there. Hate lugging all the suitcases though. We have a ton!
Cheers!

Today she's ours!

A few pictures of our trip so far, above is morning view from our room!
When we walked the streets of Vietnam in HCMC. It was surreal!
Swimming, Swimming and more Swimming
Ryker at breakfast buffet at Novetel in HCMC
Raven's new friend that gave her her barrette

We met our girl!

We were there before we knew it. We went into a gate and down a long drive past another building and there it was. When we went in the room was MUCH smaller than I thought it would be from pictures and video. Jeff spotted her on the floor on her tummy before I did. I tried to take a few pictures then took her in my arms! She was as cute as I imagined and just as content as can be. Our experience at the orphanage was one of the best I've ever had. The nanny's there are so caring to the babies. And there are a lot of tiny ones there right now. Lukily one of the girl in our groups speaks Vietnamese and I had her ask if Paisley had ever been sick or in the hospital. She smiled and laughed and said happily no she's never been sick and is always happy. The orphanage director later asked when we were all sitting around at a table who was taking her and then laughed while saying something and making the gesture that she was very big. To me she is normal 7 month size and similar to my other 2 kids at that age. But I did have big babies. But compared to the other babies there she is big. Her outfit she had on was a 3-6 mo. but it seemed tight. I think all her clothes will be perfect! She does have some bug bites and bumps here and there and a sore looking boil on the back of her head that they said is from the heat. I'll want to have that looked at right away and put antibiotic cream on it. She still has her beautiful hair. In the back it is starting to grow back in. We were there a couple of hours and Raven even got to feed her. It was amazing how ALL the babies are on such a schedule that when it was feeding time they were getting fussy or tired. Jeff was holding a little guy that just instantly started falling asleep on his shoulder. There was a precious little blind baby there and the few older ones with disabilities. The older one in his crib laying down would laugh and laugh when we touched his belly. It was JUST heart breaking. The little girl we saw in pictures with her pearls was there without her pearls. Raven was asking where the girl in the video with the pearls was. She was in the other smaller room. Tommorrow we leave around 1:00 for a 2:00 appoinment when we get the baby. Then we're coming back to our new room their moving us into that's a beach villa and chilling out with her. Can't wait!
Joanne said we could go to Hoi An on Wednesday but can't bring the babies. I was so excited when she said we could go to the orphanage there were her boys were volunteering and we wanted to go to the silk factory and other places. But several of us don't want to leave the babies so we may just go on our own for a short while. Any suggestions on what you recommend us doing there is appreciated. Also what the heck do you do for supper at the sandy beach? all they tell us is a buffet that's 18.00 each and we just want a light snack. The outside bar/grill is always out of everything we order. Did get some snacks for the room today.
I'll post pictures in the morning and of our baby after the G&R.

Day two in Vietnam

It's Monday here. I could'nt post yesterday because the internet can't be accessed here unless in lobby! We see baby Paisley in 1 hour! We'll hang out at the orphanage today and tomorrow we get her.
Sunday- kids and hubby were in much better spirts after sleeping 12 hours! We were all away at 3:30 am and waiting for breakfast buffet to start at 6! That's a first for us. Usually we're the last to arrive right before their shutting down the breakfast. Little girl is like her mom and wanted to try all different kinds of food and loved it all! I will have to post pictures of it later. All the girls working there fell in love with her and kept coming up to her and hugging her and playing with her hair. I took a picture of her with one in her traditional vietnamese dress. Now she wants one just like it. Later in the day little girl told her she liked her sparkly barrette and the girl gave it to her! Jeff and Molly and their 2-boys hung out with us at the pool. The kids all had a great time together. Our son and their oldest were skeeming on sitting by each other on the plane ride to Danang. Later Molly's husband let us out into the crazy streets. We went down all kinds of back streets and had the experience of a life time! We saw how they lived and worked and played and ate. The smells were incredible both good and bad. No way could we use a stroller around here! Our little girl fell in the first block and scraped her knee a little. Molly's husband helped a women with a baby that was begging. He took her into a store and told her to pick something out. She was very shy and unsure what to do. Her man was standing back on the street looking nervous. They looked very poor, with dirty worn clothes. She picked out formula for the baby and I couldn't stop the tears from coming! What a wake up call and an act of pure selflessness on both Jeff (molly's husband) and this women. He then talked her into getting more so they got some water and a few other items. She then was grinning from ear to ear and looking back on her man who still looked nervous. Every house has a store or shop of some kind on the lower level. Some homes were all done up with columns iron gates and just beautiful and some right next to it would be a tear down but have people living there. Our little Raven gets lots of attention every where she goes so her Dad was guarding her like a hawk!
By the time we got back to the hotel my clothes were drenched all the way through. Crazy!
We cleaned up and met the other families for our ride back to the airport and a business class flight to Danang. One couple didn't know anything about our plans at all. They told them nothing. But they were just taking in the ride and anxious to get their son. Our Paisley is the only girl! We met Santosh and Jennifer as well and are excited to get to know them all better. Molly is sweet just like we all knew she would be and her husband is the character in the family but what a great family they are and we just love their boys as well. We had lunch with them and shortly after my stomach started taking a turn for the worse. NOT GOOD! I think it may have been the vietnamese coffee I had that's served in a french press with condensed milk and then you pour it on ice. It was so good but never again. I was praying on that flight I wouldn't be sick! Ryker fell asleep instantly, comfortable all spralled out in business class. Joanne and her boys flew with us. Another crazy experience at the Sandy beach resort in Danang. NO FOOD to eat for supper. Jennifer couldn't get them to bring room service, we just wanted a little snack and all they had was 18.00 buffet. so went to outdoor bar with band and ordered chocolate cake and ice cream for kids. Jeff tried to order hamburger or hot dog and they kept saying no we don't have. So after 1/2 hr I went to find out where kids cake was and guy said no cake. I was pissed! We went back inside and I asked them, in the mean time the guy followed us from outside cafe and said I told you no cake. I marched over to cooler and pointed at the chocolate cake! Unbelievable! My kids were ready for bed and it was not a good experience! He later said sorry no charge for one piece. well the cake tasted like lemon so they didn't eat it but he ice cream was like homemade and was so good. Everyone was out by 9:00 and up again today by 6:00. Had a great breakfast here this morning and Joanne is arriving at 11:00 our time which is 11:00pm in Iowa and we are going to see the babies. I have all the gifts, her adoption book I'm having them all sign, a huge suitcase full of donations and 2 cameras and video. I'll post tomorrow if I can. Please pray for all the babies health and adjustments! Tomorrow we're moving to a beach front as well as Molly and Jeff so we all have more room. It is right on the beach I cannot wait! We leave here Thursday to go back to HCMC.
Hi to everyone and please call Mom and read this to her. I did talk to her for 2 minutes today.

All tuckered out

The photos above are from our hotel window. I've seen tons of pictures of all the bikes and moter bikes but it is just so different to actually experience it. The bikes just pull in front of everything and everyone including big buses. It is just crazy!

Ok the husband and kids could just not roll with me any longer. The kids almost fell asleep eatting a late lunch. Hubby was crabby and impatient. They went to bed at 3:30 this afternoon! They better not get up at the crack of dawn. Well it will probably be earlier than that but we have those great hotel black out blinds so that may help us sleep a long time. So they went to bed and I organized a few things. I was seriously wondering if we made the best choice bringing the kids after the way they acted today. It was not fun! I told hubby he could take both kids home with him and leave right after the G&R so baby and I could just chill out in peace! Then I went into complete panic because I cannot find the cord to get the pictures off my little sony onto my computer. I remember taking each cord and putting them in little baggies and wanting to put them all in my lap top bag. Well every other cord is there except that one. So I checked everywhere else, knowing that when I packed these cords the suitcases were already zipped up so it must be laying on my dining room floor where I was doing this. I only had a few pictures on there from Hong Kong and the plane. I'll be able to take around 400 pictures on the one sony card I have with it if I want but I did bring another camera and it's a sony but with a mega zoom so much larger. I'll just have to lug that thing around with me! Oh well! At least I brought another camera. I was just worried I wouldn't be able to get them off of there and could only take 400 shots this whole trip. Those knowing me and my photography know that just won't happen.

At dinner we ordered cheese pizza and I ordered Pho! I was so excited to try it but I have nothing to compare it to. I was suprised by all the huge chunks of onion on top and major green ones. I'm not a big onion fan so was worried it would be just an onion soup which I would hate. It had chicken and noodles in it and was great to dunk our bread into. I was so dissappointed in my mocha. I had heard vietnamese coffee is so strong so opted for mocha thinking that would help. But it was extremely watered down. It didn't even taste like espresso. I'm not sure they use milk with it either. It was very watery. And I'm so paranoid about getting sick I'm trying to be careful. We get a breakfast buffet tomorrow so I'll be curious to see what they have. The food on the plane was prepackaged discusting stuff! I have to be very careful of prepackaged items that are full of preservatives. Anyone reading this that knows my Mom please tell her we made it safely! I'll try to call her if timing works out. We signed up with Skype to call from the computer and it is really reasonable.

Can't wait for tomorrow!!!