Day 5 at the orphanage - July 4, 2012

What a day we had today...first thing this morning, after breakfast, we headed over to get a taxi with the other family and, while we were talking a bird got hit by a car!  When safe, I ran out into the road, picked it up and placed it in a flower pot.  Hoping it would rest and be okay.  I'm not sure if it broke it's wing or not.  I pray that it is okay.  Later in the afternoon, I went back and was going to give it water, but it was not there.  I'm hoping that is a good sign.

Like yesterday, when we arrived at the orphanage first thing, Baby E was sleeping.  So we visited with the other babies and waited for him to wake up.  Finally, close to 10pm, he woke up.  I definitely think he is getting used to us...he doesn't cry at all when he sees us or when we pick him up.  We have successfully given him a bottle of water and also two bottles of formula.  It seems we have another small eater though.  He really has to be encouraged to eat.  M was the same but he just nursed on demand, which seemed to be every hour!  One of the younger ladies that works at the orphanage, was kind enough to go out and buy some Vietnamese CD's for us.  We paid her back and thanked her kindly.  What a special thing for Baby E to have to listen to as he grows up.  When we go back to Ho Chi Minh City, I would like to buy some more things for him.  Maybe we will have a bit of time to look around in Vung Tau tomorrow.  The days just go by so quickly.  Going to the orphanage twice a day, rest and eat in between...there's not time for much else.  It doesn't help that we are still going to bed so early.  Today, I observed a bit more how they make the rice congee they feed the babies.  They make the rice in a big rice maker and add very finely chopped vegetables, including spinach and garlic and meat...sometimes fish, sometimes chicken and sometimes pork.  It cooks for a long time and makes "rice soup"...the consistency is really nice for the babies.  I wonder if our rice cooker can make something similar.

After our visit at the orphanage this morning, we went make to the hotel for lunch and a swim.  Then it was a quick change and back to the orphanage.  But not before coming across a baby gecko that was partially squished.  The poor thing...it's head and front feet were okay but back legs and tail were not.  Again, I moved him over to a flower pot where I thought he might find food easier.  10 minutes later when we went to check on him, his head was down and he was covered in ants.  I guess that's nature...it just makes me so sad.  Things like this don't usually happen to me...it just makes me wonder why two precious animals got hurt today.  I know it happens every day but still, twice in one day...really?!

This afternoon was very nice...Baby E was awake, but when we arrived he was whisked off to the back.  I decided to follow and we were excited to see he was getting a bath.  It is so neat to see...the kids don't sit in the water...they stand them up against the wall and scrub them down from head to toe.  He was clenching his little bum tight and didn't seem to want to be cleaned there, LOL!  Then he was dabbed with eucalyptus oil on his chest and put in to a fresh, clean onesie.  I noticed it was made by the Gap so I checked the tag for size....if you can believe it, he's size newborn!!!  The tag says 7-9 kg's or 12-17 pounds!!! Yikes...I think I only brought a few really small items...most of what I brought was 6-12 months size!  Oh well, that's okay.  If I'm desperate for outfits, I can buy something here.  But I'm sure some of what I brought will work.  M was able to walk around with Baby E a bit more today, and they interacted and played more together.  It was very cute to see.

When finished, we headed back to the hotel.  Ray & M have headed off to the pool again, and I decided to check email and blog.  Might even read a little.  I would like to try to stay awake longer tonight.  Today is the first day I am really starting to feel more myself.  The heat still takes a lot out of you, but the pool and cold showers are nice.  I will, however, be glad to have E with us.  We can treat him for scabies and then stop bagging and washing our clothes.  Every morning and afternoon, the routine is to take our clothes off and put them in a plastic bag and tie it up.  We leave it for a few hours, or overnight.  Then, I soak it in hot water in the bathtub with borax and lavender oil.  It takes a long time for our clothes to dry though, and we are running out of places to hang them up.  We have one more bag to wash tonight, and then we plan to send one more load of clothes out to be laundered.  One more day at the orphanage and then, hopefully, the G&R ceremony.  Very excited to finalize the adoption...especially now that we see he is doing so well with us.

View of the baby floor from the orphanage courtyard.

Day 4 at the Orphanage - July 3, 2012

Okay, my body seems to think that 3:30am is the time to get up...will I ever adjust to the time?  Yes, probably when it is time to go home!!!

After breakfast, we met with the other family adopting from the orphanage and our adoption rep and headed for the orphanage to see baby E again, and for them to meet their daughter for the first time.  The Director and Vice Director weren't there when we arrived, so we all went straight to the babies room for a visit.  Baby E was sleeping.   Everyone took lots of pictures, including ones of the nannies.  Now, I would like to ask their names today and write them down.  The other family was called in to see the Director and soon, M was called in too for more chocolates :)  We slowly followed after and we all visited for a little bit.  Then headed back to see the babies.  Baby E was awake so we had a short visit with him, before it was time to go.

Our adoption rep took myself and the other Mom shopping for baby formula, cereal, yoghurt, diapers, etc.  The Dad's and boys all went back to the hotel for a nice swim.  By the time we got back to the hotel, we were quite hungry and M seemed tired and hungry too.  I considered not going back to the orphanage that afternoon, as I felt M needed a rest, and I had been up for almost 12 hours by then too.  But when M heard that only Dad would be going, he got quite upset and said "we are supposed to go two times, and I want to go.  If I don't, I will miss baby E".  Awwww, okay then.  I said we could go but on promises he would be good, which he did.  The afternoon visit was nice...Ray fed him a bottle before we left and M was able to hold him for a few minutes without him crying.  Every day we make "baby steps" and accomplish new things together, which is nice.

Okay...now I will try to load some pictures.  Oh...the ceremony is to be on July 6th, all going well.  Then we can post a pic of our new family.

This is a picture of the street, with the orphanage at our back.

View from the beach near where we are staying

Day 3 at the orphanage - July 2, 2012

I couldn't have said it better myself....this is was written by Ray. Hello, I'm sure when Carrie wakes some time during the night (like she has for the last few nights) she will blog about some or all of this, but since she and Matthew are asleep ( at 7:30 pm) I thought I'd send a bit of an update (I figure I'm good for another hour or two before I crash). Today was the best day so far with baby E.  When we first arrived at the orphanage this morning and I picked him up he did cry for a very short time.  He got over that fast enough.  We took him down to the court yard again and spent a couple of hours there.  That's a good place because Matthew has a chance to play with some of the older kids.  He comes by every once in a while and gives baby E a hug and kiss and then continues on with playing. Just before we left the orphanage in the morning (baby E goes down for a nap around then) we had a chance to meet with the director.  We still have many questions for her, but because our representative from the agency wasn't there (she was picking up the other couple arriving from Ottawa to adopt a little girl from the same orphanage) we decided to wait to ask many of our questions. Matthew did get a chance to ask the question Carrie and I have been wondering about......when do we get to bring him home with us?  She explained to him that we need to visit him enough so that he becomes comfortable with us and feels safe.  When he doesn't cry when we first pick him up will be a good sign.  From there we would progress to taking him for a walk outside the orphanage.  She thought that maybe that might be possible in the late afternoon....dependent on the weather and baby E.  The director was quite taken with Matthew.  They even played a short game of "catch me" as she chased him down the hall. We came back to the hotel for some lunch.  Carrie wanted to get some rest.  Matthew wanted to go to the pool so he and I headed there for a short swim.  That was the first time we had used the pool here.  After a short swim we headed back up to the room.  Matthew had a bit of a nap while Carrie and I mapped out where the shopping mall is.  We were told it's better to buy a stroller here rather than lug one here all the way from Canada.  You can get a good one here at an inexpensive price....and since we already had enough luggage to bring that suits us just fine.  We will likely go shopping for that and the formula the orphanage uses tomorrow. When we arrived back at the orphanage in the afternoon baby E was just getting his diaper changed.  Once he was ready they handed him to me and he didn't make a peep.....it was like he expected us to be there!  In fact, he only briefly cried once the entire afternoon....because he didn't like the way he was sitting or something simple like that. After a little bit we decided to see if we could take him for a walk outside.  The director was gone for the day so we asked someone else.   They agreed and off we went down the street.  There was supposed to be a park not too far away, but we never ventured that far because the rain looked like it was about to come down.  Instead we just went down the street a ways and then worked our way back (about 20 minutes or so).  It was rather windy so we put a hat on him that we brought.....it suits him:).  Baby E was fine with the whole experience and spent the entire time looking at everything as it went by.  The babies seldom get out of their room so this little journey was a lot of stimulation I'm sure. We arrived back just in time as the rain was beginning to come down.  We took him up to his room and spent a bit more time with him.  Carrie was holding him while the nou nou's (nannies) were making him laugh.  I tried it too, but didn't get the same reaction....at first.  I was finally able to make laugh for the first time......and after that it was easy. As he is becoming more comfortable with us we are starting to see more of his personality.  Our first impression was that he is a very sensitive and serious little guy.  As he opens up we are seeing more of his playful and inquisitive side. I think I've written enough of a book for now.  We're curious to see what tomorrow brings. Caroline - the only thing I would add is that we met the wife and one son of the other couple today. They have had an exhausting trip coming straight from Canada to Vung Tau. We also talked with our adoption rep and she helped us arrange for a new room, closer to the pool, beach and restaurant and with not so mant stairs to get climb. Tomorrow we all go together with the family to the orphanage where they will see their daughter and we plan to take pictures of the nannies. Later, I desperately want to go to the mall and buy more snacks. Last night I had plain rice, French fries and half a banana cake for dinner. I'm hungry but need things plain right now. The heat makes me feel a bit nauscious so I'm not feeling too adventurous with the food yet. Oh, and the kids at the orphanage are getting used to us, when we first arrived in the morning, a number of them came and clung to my arms, and then one walked off with his arm around M. They are polite and well mannered, but can be cheeky little monkeys, just like M so I think their personalities are a good match. M really enjoys playing with them everyday. I do worry about picking up scabies, or other things, but we bag our clothes as soon as we get back to the hotel and shower with tea tree oil shampoo. It's all we can do. I expect we will visit the orphanage for a couple more days before we will be allowed to take E back to the hotel with us. He really is getting better each day with us, and I highly respect the Director for ensuring a smooth transition.

Day 2 at the orphanage

We were surprised today, when we arrived at the orphanage, the nou nou's said we could take baby E downstairs for a walk. We stayed at the orphanage but walked around with him. In the morning, he still cried with us, but was consoled more quickly and the crying didn't last for as long. This was more fun and more appropriate for M as he was able to play ball with some of the older children there. In the baby room, he was getting a bit too active and starting to make everyone nervous. Overall, he is doing very well, but definitely needs to burn off some energy. M desperately wants to hold E and to carry him. So far, we have only let him sit with him. E cries, but I think it is good for him to get used to everyone, and it seems to be working. M was sad not to have more time to hold him, but he was so happy and proud of himself that he was able to rock him to sleep before we left. We were feeling better about how well E was doing with us, however, when we tried to feed him his cereal, he clamped his mouth shut. Then he cried. I tried to feed him a bit, but he just kept crying, so the nou nou took him and fed him his food. Hopefully, we can try again tomorrow with more success. Okay, intermission here...Ray has found a gecko or lizard of some sort in our hotel room....eeeeek, it's 4 in the morning, what the heck are we supposed to do? Okay phew, we managed to capture him and take him outside. Day 2 at the orphanage cont... After our morning visit, we headed back to our room. After several attempts, we managed to order a pizza to our room. After eating that, we all crashed and slept for an hour. When we got up, both M and I had a hard time waking up and M was very grumpy. But, that passed quickly and we were soon back on our way to the orphanage. It was around 2:30 when we arrived. E just finished having a bottle, and again we were told to go for a walk with him. Happily, we obliged. He cried a little but really seems to be calming down and getting used to us. Now when we transfer him between us, he doesn't cry anymore. Matthew played ball again, in particular, we played monkey in the middle with one boy. We were all having so much fun, but the boy would get upset if any one else joined in the game. Finally, he let one other little boy join in. At one point, Ray went over to play, and E whipped his head around to see where Ray went. It was very neat to see. Also, he is starting to communicate with us a little, as he did with the nou nou the day before, by making little grunting noises. He is also starting to really look at and study us. He loves to play with Rays nose and feel his stubbly chin, but I love when he just looks up at us. It's very reassuring to see him becoming more confident with each interaction. Later, we shared our first family hug. M gave him a big kiss and said he will always do that when we have a family hug. Awwww, do they have to grow up? Ray, M and I were sharing a bottle of water and E wanted some to. He was starting to get more aggressive to have a drink. I didn't want to give him any as I still have a cold, and also don't feel it's our place yet. We did ask for a bottle of water for him, and then we said our goodbyes for the night. We are looking forward to Day 3 at the orphanage. We were told we can ask our questions of the Director then. We are also hoping she will allow us to take him back to the hotel today or tomorrow. We certainly don't want to rush things, but it would be nice to bring him back to the hotel and to start establishing our routines together. Also, he is teething, and probably in some discomfort. We have teething gel and teething rings here for him. Maybe we will bring the teething ring to the orphanage today, and that might help his gums a bit. Today is the day we will meet the other couple adopting from the same orphanage, we are excited about this.

Our First Meeting

With our adoption representative and another family going back to visit the orphanage where their first son was adopted from, we headed off from our hotel in HCMC, for the the boats. I was glad to be taking the hydrofoil boats to Vung Tau as I knew this would be faster. We brought way too much luggage, and I could tell the people helping us with our bags thought so too. However, we made it to our new hotel. We had a short 20 minutes or so to freshen up and collect a few things to bring to the orphanage. This included a goodie bag for the older kids with stickers, pencils, sharpeners and balls with funny faces, a donation to the orphanage for supplies, a thank you card and money for the nou nou's and a rattle for our baby. With everything in hand, we headed back down to meet our group and we drove the short 5-7 minutes to the orphanage. Our first meeting - we went inside the orphanage, our older son was so excited to be meeting his baby brother. After meeting the Director and talking with her for a few minutes, we were allowed to go and meet baby. Ordinarily, the Director prefers visitors come before 11am or after 2pm to give the babies a nap and the nou nou's their lunch. So we had a very short first meeting. Our older son asked how we know which baby is his brother, there were so many all standing or sitting by the gate looking at us. I spotted a nanny with our baby and gently pointed our older son (M) to him. M went straight for him and picked him up. The poor little guy was scared and started crying, which kind of upset our older son. I forgot to prepare him a little better for that, as it is to be expected. But we said its okay and he tried again. He was a little scared of us as well, and of course our big camera didn't help, so we put it away for a bit. Ray and I held back just letting him see and get used to us. The nou nou's encouraged us to hold him and console his crying, so we did. They were all so friendly, helpful and understanding. If baby got too upset, they would swoop in and cheer him up and tell him it's okay. It's a bit of a blur, but at one point, I believe it was the Director who came up to baby while I was holding him and took his arm and said Momma, over and over to him. Almost as if to say its okay, don't cry, this is your Momma. We were about to leave but Ray hadn't had a chance to hold him yet, so he asked to hold him and I got a few pictures. We also asked the Director if we could take some pictures for another couple in France, waiting for their baby. After promising not to post pictures online, she agreed and showed him to us. So S&S, we will email you pictures as soon as we can get them loaded and emailed. Then it was time to leave. We returned to the hotel and met our group at the hotel for lunch. Our rep ordered a wonderful assortment of food; rice, spring rolls, grapefruit salad, oysters and cheese in their Shell and large shrimp. Being so close to the ocean, all the seafood was very fresh and tasty. We went back to our hotel room for a short 25 minute rest. At this point, our older son had been up for over 12 hours. We could tell he was getting overtired, but we were allowed one more visit to the orphanage, and of course, we wanted to go. So, we didn't nap but cooled off and rested, got a cab by ourselves and headed back to the orphanage. Our representative met us there later. This was a really nice, more relaxed visit. We were there for over two hours and were able to spend lots of time with him and the other babies. We bribed him for his affection with little corn puffs, and made fast friends with all the babies. Ours is certainly a little more reserved, or as Ray put it, more "sensitive", but he is warming up to us. One of the nou nou's suggested we take him for a walk in the hall when he started crying. Ray did this and helped calm him down, then I took a turn and he started to cry again, but I walked and sang to him and he again calmed down. Matthew was growing impatient for his turn so we let him sit with him for a minute. Of course, this got him crying again, but we picked him up and consoled him. Later one of the nannies took him to give him a bottle. At first I was going to leave them, but M followed so I though I had better go too. We sat back and took more pictures. Then he had some water and she put him down on the floor. This particular nanny seems to really make him laugh. I would like to learn her name. I asked if she primarily cared for him, but our rep said no, that they all do. It was kind of funny, but while we were watching and interacting with him, M would try to sit with him. The little monkey (the baby) would keep moving in circles so his back was to M. M didn't seem bothered by this, and kind of took it to be a game. The nannies encouraged baby to play with M and even put him on top of M when he was lying down. M found this quite funny. He stated he thought having a baby brother would be boring but said "actually, this is kind of fun". We got to see him crawl at this point, which we were excited about, and the nou nou was encouraging him to walk, with some help, towards his bottles. Shortly thereafter, it was nap time again. We left the orphanage after taking a picture of the formula he is on, and our rep promised to write out his daily schedule for us. We are starting to get an idea of what it is, but it will be nice to have more details. We watched another nanny rock baby in his crib and sing him to sleep. He was so tired. As I suspected, the rep said that likely our adoption ceremony won't happen until around the 5th or 6th of July, so we will need to extend our stay in Vung Tau. We wonder if the Director, when we see her again on Monday, will let us bring him back to the hotel with us on Monday. This would be nice. The couple we have been in contact with arrive on Monday. It will be nice to finally meet them. We have met her daughter...she makes the cutest little smiles to us. They will have their mandatory few days of visits with her, and then we will have our adoption ceremony together. Back at the hotel, around 5pm, we shared a few leftovers from M's lunch, and went to bed. True to form, I slept 7 hours and woke up around midnight. The air conditioning is really making me cough alot, so I woke Ray up (actually, probably the coughing did that) to get him to turn it to a lower setting. I will try to sleep some more...wish me luck!

Ho Chi Minh City

Well, we arrived safe and sound in Ho Chi Minh city. Both flights were great and it really was a breeze getting here. Sure, we prepared alot in advance, but I was thinking yesterday, I could do this again, no problem. The flight home with baby might be a little more exhausting though. And we HAVE to have a bulkhead seat or an extra seat for baby. There is just no room between the seats and it would be way too cramped for 12 hours. The only glitch in our travels was that a representative from our hotel wasn't there to meet us. Fortunately, a cab driver lent us his cell phone to call the hotel. Apparently, they thought we were coming in at 10pm. After checking our hotel confirmation, sure enough, it said arrival time 2200. Darn, can't believe we didn't catch that. So, we paid him $2 U.S. for the use of his phone. Probably too much, right?! Well, it was a lifesaver for us so it was worth it. The outcome was we had to hire a taxi to take us to the hotel. Fortunately, we asked the hotel what this should cost and then said no more than $10. Well, no one wanted to take us for that amount. They all showed us a card that said downtown was $25-30 U.S. finally, we found someone to agree to take us for $15 U.S. but then the wierdest thing happened. We started heading towards the cab and then he passed us off to another driver. We then confirmed the amount with him, carried on a bit further and then got passed off again! This driver was a smoker and I told him I am allergic (Carla you can testify to that, right?!). Right away he threw his cigarette on the ground and we were off. Thankfully, this driver did take us to our hotel. Our 5 year old son commented on all the safety infractions along the way though, lol. In the cab we didn't have seat belts, the people on motorcycles were carry young children and even sleeping babies, no helmets on the kids, two men we saw had tooth picks in their mouths and one was talking on a cell phone. Honestly, I was paying more attention to the road signs and wishing I had mapped out the route to the hotel so I could see if we were on track. I realized part way to the hotel that we didn't ask for the cab drivers ID and we were in an unmarked car (ie no taxi signs on the car and no meter). However, as I said, we made it safe and sound. After checking in, we had a look around at the pool, indoor and outdoor play area, restaurant by the pool and mini grocery store. We met up with a representative from our adoption agency for a few minutes, found out when we leave in the morning (it's early!) bought some groceries. Yikes, I think we paid too much, and then headed out in the heat to sit by the pool and enjoy the sunshine. As soon as we got into the pool - torrential downpour and wind! So, we stayed in the pool until we heard the thunder and then figured it was time to head back inside. I didn't realize how tired my son was. He was being good and seemed full of energy but we sat down on the couch for a drink and some snacks and within 5 minutes, I realized he had fallen asleep on me. So, as much as I wanted to push through until after dinner, I thought ok, let's have a nap and we can have room service when we wake up. Right! 7 hours later!!! It's midnight now, I have been awake for the past hour. Thankfully, everyone else is asleep. For how long though? I'm not sure. Well, time for another decongestant. I forgot to mention my cold to they adoption rep. I sooooo want to meet our baby tomorrow, but not sure if we will be able to with my cold. And I certainly don't want to pass it on to him. We will have to see what the rep says in the morning. Well, another 8 hours and we will be on the move again. Oh, and something really cool, the son of a former neighbour of ours is traveling in Vietnam right now, and we hope to meet up with him and his girlfriend in another week or so. It will be nice to see a familiar face in a foreign country! So far, true to what we have read and heard, the Vietnamese people are lovely. Looking forward to our travels today and to seeing more of the country.

Leg 1 of 2 to Vietnam

When we left it was 2am on June 28th. Only 11 1/2 hours later we have landed in Tapei, Taiwan and it is currently 6:40am on June 29th. So, we lost part of a day, but who is counting? We hope to see our baby boy tomorrow, we are so excited. We all slept for over 5 hours on the plane, which was great. Our final leg to Vietnam will only be 2 1/2 hours. That should feel like a breeze. Although we all seem to have developed colds. I am the most congested and the landing was a bit rough on my ears. we will be met at the airport in Vietnam and then head to our hotel, and maybe straight to the pool. At 5am in Taipei, it was already 28 degrees celsius or 82 degrees Fahrenheit! But we will take that over the rain and cooler weather we have been getting lately. We are all looking forward to getting to our hotel, unpacking and having a look around. For now, Matthew has found a little friend who is from Vietnam, and they are playing Star Wars Lego together. His English is very good, makes me wish I knew more languages!