My last blog in Vietnam

This blog entry is bittersweet. I really can not wait to get home and see my beautiful children – Samantha, Codi and Carter. I know the kids can’t wait to meet their new sister and get some Mommy loving. But, honestly, I will be sad to say good-bye to Vietnam. This has been the most life changing experience I have ever had the privilege to go through. It turns out that my husband and I make great travel companions, and except for one little tiff on the day we went to get Maddie (so I’ll chalk it up to stress), we did not have any arguments and spoke to each other with love and respect.

The Vietnamese people are very proud of their country and they are sweet, kind and extremely accommodating. If we ever come back, I think I would enjoy staying in Vung Tau on the ocean or maybe in Ho Chi Minh again.

We did venture out in Hanoi today, once to go to the temple where we met a nice monk who we asked to bless the girls. He touched the babies and spoke softly to them. Unfortunately, he did not speak any English, so we are going to have to trust that he understood what I was asking for and actually blessed them. The temple was gorgeous and I finally got some cool pictures.

Jen was accosted by two women who chastised her for not having Addison completely covered up. It’s a Vietnamese thing. They always think the babies are cold – even though we were sweating like the fat kid sitting next to gravy! It was funny, it felt like we were more of a tourist attraction than the temple was, because everyone wanted to talk to us and take our picture and ask questions about the girls.

In the afternoon we set off to the nearest mall. It was a long walk and it started to rain a little, which caused all the dirt sidewalks to turn to muck – which I proceeded to kick up all over the back of my black pants. Can you say “Super Sexy?” NOT! We walked past appliance “stores” and high end jewelry stores, like Cartier, and then sandwiched in between was a place to buy toilet seats and street lights. It’s bizarre! To top it all off, a large portion of sidewalk had been torn up so we had to walk in the street. Talk about hair raising. I was rather glad when we arrived back at the hotel.

I had the best food ever for lunch - sweet and sour chicken with sticky rice. It was delicious! Between that and the Vietnamese spring rolls, I’ve been in heaven eating here in Hanoi. No con cho for me! Sorry John.

Maddie was not feeling well this evening, so we retired early and let John entertain Jen and Lisa and Addison. Then he went outside and got his ass kicked playing ping pong against some little kid.

All in all, I think we’ve really tried to embrace the culture and to find humor in what we didn’t understand and look for enlightenment wherever we could. Hope you enjoy today’s pictures. The next time you hear from me I will be home and our family will be complete. See you on the flip side!