Test results

We went to the doctor today to get Pearl's test results. Everything came back negative: TB, Hepatitis B and C, lead and blood count. Pearl is as healthy as could be.

Tonight, Carli has decided we are having a family game night for New Year's eve. My invitation told me to arrive at 7:12 p.m. It should be a wild and crazy night.

Happy New Year!

Doctor visit

We had our wellness checkup today and fun it was not! Pearl had two shots, a TB test (another needle), blood drawn (yes, another needle) and a urine sample (don't even ask how that is done on an infant!) Fortunately, she recovered quickly. Tomorrow she goes back to "read" the TB test and give a stool sample to check for parasites.

She weighs 17 lbs. 3 oz., her height is 27 1/2 inches and her head is 17 1/2 inches. She is on the 5th percentile for both height and weight. She loves to eat so I am sure we can improve those numbers.

Other than that, Pearl seems to be getting used to her surroundings a little better. But naps and bedtime still are big challenges. She likes the kids' club at the gym and Carli carts her around like the proud big sister.

Amazing things about Vietnam

I saw and experienced some amazing things in Vietnam that I want to share.

1. The people are amazingly friendly. People would constantly stop us on the street and say hello and smile. One day we stopped in an adidas store. The staff immediately came to us. Carli gave the one salesgirl a kiss on the cheek. After that they shared a snack they were having (yes on the sales floor) of an apple-type fruit dipped in a chili and salt combination. It was an interesting mix of flavors. As we left, they gave us the rest of the fruit to take with us. In the restaurants, they would take Pearl immediately and amuse her while we ate.

2. The street food was very interesting and usually smelled good, although I was never brave enough to try anything. The one thing that I will never forget is seeing cooked whole dog at a food stand. Basically it was a whole dog with no hair and charred brown. Even the tail was still there!

3. It is a scooter nation. There are scooters and motorcycles everywhere. It is amazing what they are able to carry on their scooters, too.

4. The noise is overwhelming. Our streets are so quiet in comparison. The drivers honk constantly. The rules of the road are that there are no rules! Chaos reigns.

5. It is dirty and dusty. HaNoi is a crowded, busy city and cleanliness is not a top priority (or their tolerance of dirt is more than mine). But you adjust and make do.

6. Life is lived on the streets. Everyone is on display and lives on the sidewalks. Street cafes consist of a small plastic table and tiny plastic stools for seats and waala...a business is born. People are hunched everywhere. Storefronts are part of people's homes and you can see them eating dinner and watching TV while "minding" the store. Women would walk miles everyday with the goods the had to sell hanging from baskets balanced on their shoulders.

7. Highlands Coffee was the best. Not only was it the best but the staff was friendly and attentive. After our first visit, they remembered us and once when I visited without Eric and the kids, the staff immediately wanted to know where they were. The strong Vietnamese coffee was good too!

8. People work hard. Not only do they work six days a week, but without our modern conveniences, the work is just plain more difficult.

9. 10 minutes outside of the city and you are in rice paddies. It is green, mountainous and beautiful. It appears to be a pretty simple life outside the city.

HaNoi is an amazing place. It is all I expected and more. I cannot wait to return and see more of the country to the south. But it is good to be home for now.

Sisters in matching PJ's

Doctor visit

The doctor visit yesterday went well. He removed a ton of wax from Pearl's ears. But otherwise Pearl is a very healthy little girl. He thinks the constant crying is die to jetlag and just her trying to deal with the major changes in her life. I thought the two weeks in HaNoi were our transition time but apparently not. I saw a friend at the grocery store last night (that has two adoptive kids) and she said what we are going through is very common. It will just take time for Pearl to adjust to her new surroundings, sights and smells. It makes sense but is soooo hard!

Home and transitioning

Well we made it home and finally got our luggage two days later. The time change is a killer and after being up all night, the entire family slept until 11:45 a.m. When I asked Carli to look at the clock and tell me what it said, she told me "one-one-dot-dot-four-five." I asked her to repeat it because I couldn't believe it!

Pearl was up again all last night and has been rather inconsolable so we are taking her to the doctor this afternoon. She is a different baby from when we were in Vietnam so something must be up. It will be an adventure to have Pearl in the car and in a carseat since no car seats or seat belts are used in Vietnam.

I hope everyone got what they wished for yesterday for Christmas.

I'd be lying...

...if I said the flight home has been fun!

First of all, we got stuck in a major traffic jam in HaNoi and stood still for over 30 minutes. I haven't posted about the traffic and driving habits of HaNoi so I will let you know now. There are no lanes and few traffic lights. And even if there are traffic lights, the Vietnamese don't follow the traffic lights. They easily run through red lights. They will not stop for pedestrians (not even children). It is crazy how chaotic the streets are and how few accidents we saw(actually only one). They honk like crazy and drive with wild abandon. It is a crazy meeting of scooters, cars and bicycles through very narrow streets.

The HaNoi airport basically followed this same premise also...no order, no lanes and total chaos. Once we got on our Hong Kong flight, Pearl decided there was no way she was going to sleep. She proceeded to throw up all over Eric. He took it all in stride. Pearl finally went down for a little bit and we all caught about a half hour of sleep on the 15 hour flight.

We are now in San Francisco. Our flight is delayed but even so, it would be great to get to Portland. We will then figure out how we will get from the airport to our house. We don't have a car seat because we were going to have family pick us up but with the crazy snow, they can't get to the airport.

That's all for now. I plan on posting more about my observations of Vietnam later.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Last night in HaNoi

We spent our last night in HaNoi visiting with the friendly people that made our stay more enjoyable. We said good-bye to the staff at Highlands Coffee and in particular, Quy. We also stopped at Restaurant Kiti. We ate there a lot because the food and prices were good and the service and staff were excellent. They gave Carli and Pearl a stuffed dog as a going away present. We then did a little shopping to thank those that helped us while we were away.

The visa was delivered. We are in the midst of packing and wondering how we accumulated so much stuff when one entire suitcase was donations when we arrived to HaNoi. See everyone soon!

Our mission is complete!

Well, we had our embassy visit today and it lasted about 30 seconds. We waited for about 20 minutes and then got the call to the window. They asked us if our application was true to the best of our knowledge. We said "yes" and then we were told that the visa would be ready at 4:30 p.m. today.

I immediately had tears of relief. I could not believe it was true. Carli immediately grabbed Pearl and told her that she was ours forever. The whole affair put Pearl to sleep. She did not realize how monumental the occassion really was.


So we leave tomorrow. I think the biggest challenge might be getting to Portland from San Francisco due to the snow and crazy weather.

Required Medical Visit

We had our medical visit today. Overall Pearl is a healthy 17 pounds. She has a little cold and fever, though, so the doctor prescribed some antibiotics. We had a long wait but Pearl caught everyone's attention. Tomorrow we go to the embassy for our interview and visa. We changed our tickets and will be leaving on the 24th.

Hoa Lo Prison

Today we went to Hoa Lo Prison. It opened in 1896 and was built over a craft village. It was a place where thousands of patriots and revolutionaries were imprisoned and tortured. It's claim to fame is that it was where John McCain was imprisioned during the VietNam war.

We went to lunch at a place for the second time called quan an ngan. It is an open air restaurant with food stalls surrounding it. The food is good, relatively cheap and I tried a few things that sounded interesting an ended up being quite tasty. We met some people from Tokyo. Again we got lots of smiles and Pearl got lots of kisses from the locals.

We then came back to our hotel and gave the girls a bath. We all took naps since Pearl has been keeping us up at night and we were pretty tired.

Other musings...

I had read about a restaurant that I was really excited to try. We took a taxi to the address and low and behold the restaurant was nowhere to be found. Eating is a bit tricky since I don't eat meat so we wandered around and settled on a Vietnamese restaurant that looked nice but was mediocre as far as the food. Carli took the pictures of the Christmas decorations at the restaurant. As usual, Carli made friends. This time it was an Australian couple. Carli told them all about the adoption struggles, played staring contests and jump on one leg contests. The woman, Tanya, proceeded to show Carli her stomach tricks. I am sure the waiter thought we were nuts.

I love traveling oversees because you are able to meet people from all over the world. It makes the world feel like a much smaller place.

On our walk back, there was a large group "exercise" session going on at the lake. Carli decided to join in. She got lots of laughs. The picture is pretty dark so you might not be able to see her in action!

Temple of Literature and other wanderings

Today we took a wrong turn and went through the bowels of HaNoi. I think we saw true HaNoi life and people were shocked to see Westerners wander their streets. As always, though, we got lots of smiles and "Xin chaos" (hello). By the time we got where we wanted to go, we decided to have lunch first. We ate at KOTO. It is a not-for-profit restaurant and training program that changes the lives of street and disadvantaged youth in Vietnam. Trainees go through a two year program studying the hospitality business. Graduates gain employment once they are done and KOTO has a 100% success rate. Check it out at http://www.koto.com.au/.

While at lunch we met a couple that was from Michigan. They were in the process to adopt from Vietnam but did not make the cutoff so they are now adopting from Ethopia. We wish them the best.

Finally we visited the Temple of Literature. It is a well-preserved example of Vietnamese architecture and is considered the most important historic site in the Dong Da District. In 1076 it became the site of Vietnam's first university.

As usual, Carli made lots of friends and was asked to take pictures with them.

Our feet are sore but it was another great day. We were able to change our tickets and will now leave on December 24th. It will great to be home although this has been a fantastic trip.

More pictures

I am posting more pictures of Pearl today. I got chastised for not posting any pictures of Pearl yesterday! We got Pearl's Vietnamese passport today. Monday morning we have the medical appointment and then Tuesday we meet with the U.S. Embassy. If all goes well, we could leave a day early.

Carli and I have played a lot of Uno while Pearl takes her naps.I have been curious what the Vietnamese people think when they see a Western family with a Vietnamese baby. So Eric asked our agency liason and she said they are very happy that the baby has a family. They realize that a child in an orphanage would have a very difficult life.