Tiny girl

We had a wonderful day today with our little girl. She has an amazing personality and is very easy going. She cries when she is hungry, but it’s not really a cry, it’s more of a loud babbling. When she is hungry she says “ba-ba-ba-ba.” It’s really cute! She does work up huge crocodile tears – and the tears really bother Daddy. He doesn’t like to see his girl crying. I think it’s adorable.

We went to get her passport today and saw two doctors. The first was at the passport clinic and she was weighed and measured. She is 24 inches long and she weighs 11.8 pounds! No joke! Remember when I said she was teeny tiny? I had to email Samantha and ask her and Grandma to go buy an infant car carrier, since the car seat we bought would swallow her! She is the smallest baby that we’ve seen so far. There was another baby who weighed the same amount, but she is 3 inches longer – so she looks bigger and skinnier.

The second doctor we saw was an Australian doctor at the western clinic in town. We took her there to make sure that her cough wasn’t something serious. The doctor said she was healthy and not to worry.

Maddie has no teeth and very little hair, except for a weird little wispy piece that is so much longer than the rest – it’s pretty funny. She is eating her American formula like a trooper, better than most of the babies. She also tried rice cereal (not a big fan) and congee (over cooked rice in water) which she mushed up between her gums.

She babbles to us and smiles at everyone – she’s quite a little flirt. Everyone wants to touch her and tells us what a cute baby she is. I have to agree! We tried out the baby carrier today – as you can see from the pictures, she liked it.

Now we have to wait for her passport – so we have Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday to sightsee and shop. It will be nice to lounge around a little, since we’ve had appointments the past few days. We are getting super good at crossing the streets – in fact – I think it’s kinda fun! John says it’s just like playing Frogger.

Love to everyone! Thanks for posting the sweet comments – you all make me cry when I read them. Enjoy the pictures!

Here's what we've all been waiting for...

Where do I begin? First, Madison is healthy, sweet, lovey, and teeny tiny. She is a little bigger than her 3 month old clothes, but not quite in the 6 to 9 month old stuff. I will find out tomorrow at the doctor’s appointment exactly how much she weighs, but it isn’t much.

We left the hotel this morning and rode 2 hours to Vung Tau on bumpy streets while swerving to miss the scooters and other cars. It is not for the faint of heart! We arrived at the orphanage and I honestly felt just like I did before I delivered my biological children…nauseous, nervous and excited! They took us into a room to meet the Directors, sign the orphanage book, give our gifts and then…they brought in the babies. It was so amazing, I’m crying all over again just remembering the most wonderful feeling of the Director placing her in my arms. I knew it was her the second I saw those chubby cheeks!

The rest of the day was full of paperwork, pictures for her passport and the bumpy ride back to the hotel in Ho Chi Minh. We ordered room service tonight so we could bond and get our scabies medicine on. Maddie was a trooper – she loves to be massaged (definitely our baby!)

This will be a short post because we are exhausted and we need to get up early tomorrow for the doctor and passport appointment.

Enjoy the pictures! Love you Samantha, Codi and Carter!!! Isn’t your sister just a doll?

Jet Lag

Well…today jet lag seemed to catch up to us BIG TIME. We slept in late, took naps and we are getting in bed early because tomorrow is THE DAY! We will leave the hotel at 7:30 a.m. for a two hour ride to the orphanage.

We did manage to do a little shopping today and had fun dickering with shop girls. John is VERY good at getting the ladies to give him a deal. He just walks away and they start dropping the price – it’s amazing. He was quite proud of himself and some of his deals!

The kids asked about our hotel so I took a few pictures on the way back from dinner.

We went back to the pizza shop around the corner, and John got his picture taken with Jet Li.

We had a nice view of the street from our dinner table and I couldn’t help but notice how many beautiful women there are in Vietnam. American women have nothing on these gorgeous creatures. They have perfect posture, hold their heads high and are extremely classy. I’m also in awe of the pregnant women…they even ride the scooters!

Last night we ate in the hotel and got to listen to authentic Chinese music...here are some pictures of the musicians.
We called back home to talk to Sam, Codi and Carter today. I hope we didn’t make it even harder for them. They had just gotten in bed and Carter was upset. But, his smart sister had tried to help him and even sprayed his teddy bear with my perfume to help him feel closer to me. She’s such a great kid! I really miss them all so much and I was so glad I got to hear all of their voices. Codi was excited about his Wii conquer and Sam told me how happy she was to have her grandparents there.

So…I should really be getting to bed, but I know I’m going to have a hard time sleeping. I’m so excited to meet our new daughter. Hang on Maddie…Mommy and Daddy will be there soon!

Did you know your eyelids can sweat?

Hot, hot, hot! We spent the day shopping, sightseeing and sweating. We started out at Ben Thanh Market, which is like a huge swap meet. There is shop after shop of the exact same stuff, so the sales girls will hook their arms around yours and literally drag you to their stand. We found some pretty good deals. John thought I paid a little too much at one shop, so we got better as we went along. All you had to do was walk away and then they would let you name your price. It’s very bizarre. After we’d had enough of being pulled through the market, we decided to see some of the tourist spots. I had the bright idea to let a rickshaw pull us to the Unification Hall– where the President of Vietnam lived during the war. It’s like the White House to us, and is full of really old memorabilia and beautiful furniture. We took some neat pictures.

Vietnamese Motorcycle Police Officer (in tan)

Street sweeper

Scooters...scooters...and more scooters

When we went into the Unification Hall our rickshaw drivers told us they would wait for us and then take us wherever we wanted to go. When we asked how much it would cost, he told us “a few dollars.” We let him ride us past the Notre Dame Cathedral, which is only open on Sundays, and then on to the War Remnants Museum. The museum was very somber and disturbing to me. I couldn’t help but cry as I looked at the disturbing and graphic pictures from the Vietnam War. The most amazing thing to me was to see all of the horrific pictures of what we did to the Vietnamese people, and then walk outside to the gift shop where they sold both Vietnamese and American military hats side by side. They really do like Americans here, which blows me away.

Unification Hall

Orchids at Unification Hall

So, after seeing the museum we tried to find some shorts for John and headed to the sporting goods area of town. We found lot of nice stuff, but not what he was looking for. We were tired and sweaty and ready to go back to the room so we asked the rickshaw drivers to take us back. Now, we thought we were going to give them $6-$10 for taking us around, so when the driver dropped us off a few blocks from our hotel on a secluded side street and told us we could walk back to the hotel from there, we were a little concerned. And then he hit us with $40!!! There is no way we would have taken the ride if we had known it would be that much, but now we had two angry men wanting to get paid, so we gave them the money and walked back pretty ticked off. We got hosed in Ho Chi Minh!

We decided that we should have lunch and chill out, so we headed to this little pizzeria and had a delicious lunch with beer. We had to laugh about what had just happened. Live and learn.

We have one more day before we get the baby, so we will venture out again tomorrow and see what kind of trouble we can get into. Oh yeah! I almost forgot…John almost had his camcorder taken away by a soldier!!! He was videotaping a street and there were some women marching against the government so he started taping them. All of a sudden this soldier started running towards him. John hid the camera and the soldier ran past him and grabbed another man who was also taping the disturbance and made him hand over the camera! We keep forgetting this is not the US and we don’t have any rights here. We tried to get a picture of a police officer’s motorcycle yesterday and we were told “NO”! We need to be more careful or my next post will have to be called - "Arrested in Vietnam." Love to all!

Go-o-o-o-d Mo-o-o-o-r-n-i-n-g Vietnam!!!

We are here…finally! What a LONG day of flying. We celebrated Valentine’s Day somewhere over the ocean and had three pretty decent flights. We actually got stuck in Vegas because our plane was late coming in, and then we RAN to the connecting flight in LA, but we made it with seconds to spare. EVA Airlines are wonderful. The seats are still a little small for Daddy, but I was pretty comfortable. The flight attendants are so nice and very accommodating. We caught up with our friend Jen and her mom, Lisa, in Taiwan. We also met another family that is adopting a little boy. We all have different G&R dates, which is a bummer that we don’t get to go with Jen. She goes on Thursday and we go on Wednesday.

We landed in Vietnam and HOLY COW is it hot and humid. We were told over and over how hot it is, but you just can’t prepare yourself for it. We are also having a hard time wrapping our heads around all the motor scooters! It’s insane! I will take pictures so you can see what I’m talking about.

The hotel room is okay, nothing great. The bed is HARD AS A ROCK! I don’t think we will be getting a great night sleep on it. Right now we are getting showers and chilling out and then we are going to get brave and tackle the city. Since we have a few days to kill, I’m sure we will be pros at getting lost and dodging scooters in no time.

Well, I’m going to close…we miss the kids and are really tired, but very excited to finally be here. Love to all!

Today is the day!

I’ve dreamt about this day for YEARS…and here it is and I’m NOT READY! I’m shaking like a leaf and my normally calm, cool and collected husband is stressing worse than me. It’s not the best combo. We think we have everything packed – thanks to my awesome sister and Samantha. Also thanks to Denise for the really cool air packs for our clothes – you put the stuff in and roll the air out. They saved us a lot of room. We actually got all the stuff in that room into 2 check-ins and 2 carry-ons – NO JOKE!

So, we leave for the airport in 2 hours and I’m literally sweating and for some reason I’m posting on my blog. What a dork. John’s parents are here and have received the official briefing – “don’t let the kids run the house, remember, you are in charge.” J

We just found out that we will not be receiving Madison until Wednesday morning, so I won’t have any baby news until then. Remember, in Vietnam we will be 14 hours ahead of West Coast time.

I want to take a minute and apologize to my co-workers…I’m sorry I didn’t come around and say good-bye to everyone like I promised. I tried saying good-bye to a few people and started crying and realized I just couldn’t do it. You guys are like family to me and I will miss everyone…even Brock. J

I also want to thank everyone for being so generous and caring. We have the most amazing support system. Ali and Joe – thank you for taking the kids so Mom and Dad can have a night off! Angie – thank you for keeping me sane! Marsha, Tana and Bernadette – you guys ROCK! Heather Rae, I love you so much and I can’t wait to see you holding your new niece.

Samantha – I love you to the moon and back!

Codi – I love you 6 and ½!

Carter – I love you more than ice cream!

So…here we go…check back soon…love to you all!

A-A-R-R-G-G-G-H-H!!!!!!!

This is what my baby's room looks like...it's not pretty! All of this stuff needs to find its way into those red suitcases...somehow...soon...REALLY SOON! We leave on Friday evening, and just like with every pregnancy, I'm working till the last second. My head is spinning with all the things that still need to be done.

The rest of the house is just as big of a mess, I haven't been to the bank yet, and I still have a few more things to get before we leave. And is if that wasn't bad enough, it's freezing outside!

I was reading some of the comments posted and I wanted to give a shout out to Rick!! Hey dude, your car is still in one piece and we can't wait to see you again. Be safe and hurry home!

Hey Joe - John says "get a real man's job" and stop eating pies...unless it's rhubarb pie from Marie Calendar's - and then bring me some.

You guys are great! Thanks to everyone who is reading along, we hope you're enjoying our insanity. WHOO-HOO we leave in 3 days!