Update: November 10 Thai turned 3 wonderful years old. Happy Birthday Big Boy.

So how is the little guy doing?

He is eating his mommy out of house and home but everything he eats is white-yogurt, turkey, egg whites, banana, milk- and lots of it-but in a little over 3 months he has gained 1 pitiful pound! Wish I could say the same...

He is speaking in 3 word sentences: " Lina go school"
'Thanh Thai want eggs" "Thanh Thai's __________."



He and Lina are adorable together and totally love each other even though she will tell you he is a lot of trouble some times. I catch them cuddling on the couch and plotting mischief together all the time. Thanh Thai pines for her while she is at school and can't understand why she isn't at daycare with him.























He loves to help mommy cook and is pretty darn good at it...

We are home!

Lina and her new brother! Aren't they adorable together?!

Thai Starts to Meets the Family!

One happy little boy!

TAM COC- GORGEOUS DAY TRIP!

We are actually sitting in Taipei Airport but since we are a day ahead- you can pretend that we

just got back from this exciting day trip to a 1000 year old capitol of Vietnam 2 hours outside Hanoi and then to a place called Tam Coc,  "Three caves," that was exquisite. More about the the pictures later- Thought you all might be hungry for some news. BTW Thai did brilliantly so far on the airplane. He does NOT like the seatbelt and very quickly learned how to unhook it but other than that he was one of the better behaved males on the plane.

Hanoi #1

We love Hanoi, pure and simple. There is obvious French influenced architechture, food and lovely accents but so far no terrible traffic circles! Hanoi is quartered off and we are in the "Old Quarter." It is shopping paradise and we are all sorry we spent so much in HCMC. Hanoi is proud of it's 'made in Vietnam' crafts and the streets in our section are kind of labeled as to the product sold on them. We are apparently on SHOE STREET because almost every vendor sells SHOES! Enjoy this little taste of Hanoi.

Cynthia has found work here , good thing she loves Rambutans,

Yes, This is what you imagine it might be...I was dying to say "I hate your guts" outloud- or did I?

Even guts need to be attractively arranged for full effect.
















Thank goodness
Thai likes GREENS

If children do not have hats on in the street you are verbally scolded. , top Thai's pick

bottom mommy's pick.

L
Life immitates art or what Vietnamese really think of American children.

A short walking tour of Hanoi with a happy ending.

Totally unrelated clip I

This is too weird-Thai starts singing when we are out walking not softly to himself but really loudly in Vietnamese. No, we don't know what he is saying but we already sent a clip to A.I.

Getting ready for the G & R

The Giving and Receiving Ceremony is practically the whole point of the trip -it IS the final adoption and can be cancelled if the officials are offended or upset in any way or get a wiff of American arrogance. A friend warned me that the officials almost cancelled hers because they did not think she was dressed fancy enough. Luckily, the officials in Binh Thuan Province were very understanding an very dear and seemed to appreciate both family's sincere intent to honor to Vietnam and it's people and raise the children knowing about their heritage.

I prepared, of course, by shopping! The traditional Vietnamese Dress http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aodai is lovely and perhaps not so suited for a western woman "of a certain age" but my efforts seemed to be appreciated. Young girls ran to get me breakfast and people on the street smiled- everyone loved my Ao dia, it seemed except for a little group of street boys who threw themselves on the ground rolling and laughing when I walked by!

Here is the seamstress taking out the arms to accommodate a bit of movement. In Vietnam the Ao dai is considered standard dress. You see women riding scooters in them and at the airport women baggage handlers were wearing them. An interesting mix of modernism and tradition.

The back of the Child Care Center(Orphanage) Very quaint, very clean, very "green."




The back of the resort we stayed in while in Binh Thuan province traveling back and forth to the Child Care Center . It was a little tough going back and forth.

Right after the Giving and receiving ceremony Thai gets his first taste of the good life!

In between trips back and forth from the Child Care Center we all dined in a place we called Paradise. It was a compound so remote a scooter driver had to escort the van or we would still be looking. The food was incredible and we were treated like royalty.

It was so quaint! Around every corner was a lovely little surprise. -

These were some type of bitter cucumber that ended up on our plates moments later. Very yum.

This little guy below was very grateful that no one in our party ate pork. He was an adorable potbellied pig- An authentic Vietnamese potbellied pig, I'd guess. His mother was not happy about the attention he was getting- Can you believe people keep these things as pets in the U.S? I bet our hosts would be quite amused by this.

Did I already say that the food was also amazing?

And you thought D.C. traffic was bad?!

This is a traffic circle during evening traffic.

Thank you, The French!

Backtracking, Backpacking

Some pictures and videos from the last week, not in any particular order

1) Honestly, he was using the chopsticks like a grown-up moments before this was shot. Apparently they do not let the children eat with their fingers at the Child Care Center. He will only accept food from a spoon or chopsticks. He will even take it from you and put in ON a spoon and THEN eat it.

What we know about Thanh Thai after 2 days

1) He likes to brush his teeth

2) He likes to dance

3) He knows how to go potty in the right place

4) He can use choptsticks!

5) He loves noodles

6) He learned to drink from a water bottle yesterday

7) He is definately 2 years old

8) He loves shoes, especially his orange crocs

9) He knows how to turn the t.v. off and on, change the channels and make it really really loud

10) He is learning English faster than we are learning Vietnamese

11) He likes to play catch

12) He does NOT like elevators

13) He and his sister Lina are going to have a blast together

Gotcha!

The Giving and Receiving ceremony -one of the best and worst moments of my life- In my excitement I forgot my passport in the van and had an uncharacteristic freakout until it was found- the rest is a blur- I also forgot my glasses and I kept forgetting whether my name had one "C" or 2. But we got through it. I especially love the ghost of Ho Chi Minh in the background.-Rebecca







Thanh Thai and his Nanny- The first time he has cried at all was when we said good-bye. I'm talking primal screams here-
it was heartbreaking.










Here he is 24 hours out the Orphanage- can you believe the change? We are all stunned and humbled by the human spirit. -Be careful, you will either laugh or cry.






Life is good.

2nd day at children's center-12 hours to go

Thai LOVES his orange crocs and the shades. Wore the shoes all day--might be the first time, judging from the cuts on his feet and the number of times he fell as he walked around today!
















This is Duyen, a very sweet 11 year old. She loves the babies, and loves Thai. She was so sweet, Cynthia really fell in love with her. She wrote Cynthia a note in English that said "Duyen love Cynthia", then asked if she could come to Thai's Giving and Receiving Ceremony. Amazingly enough, the Director said okay. So Cynthia bought her a red dress (her favorite color) to wear tomorrow. It's going to be one tear jerker day though. Will be very hard to say goodbye.





















We stopped along the street to watch people harvest rice. You can't see it, but to the left the rice goes in (which looks like wheat), and then it's stripped and this lady catches it in a basket (the one squatting) which is piled high as could be like a pyramid before switching baskets. Fascinating!

Rice used to be the biggest export product from Vietnam, but according to our driver, who seems to be the world's biggest expert on all things Vietnam, it is coffee. This area is not known for its rice production because of the amount of salt and brackish water. The coffee, btw, is amazing!! They fix it with sweetened condensed milk. We also are quite in love with the dragon fruithttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_fruit--a cactus like plant which is a work of art to look at, as is the fruit, and is quite unusual inside--milk white with lots of little poppy seed-looking things. Apparently, Vietnam JUST started exporting dragon fruit to the US. Look for it at Whole Foods. It tastes a little like a kiwi.

Day 3-Binh Thuan

More later- speechless. It was incredible and now we are staying at a 10 star resort so I have to go put my feet in the South China Sea.

Day 2- Friday, July 26 Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

We're here, we're here , we're here!

These little guys are everywhere! But I don't think we can bring one back- sorry ARI!

Yummy...Rambutan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rambutan-

We buy a big bag for breakfast

Our hotel is near a very famous market, we spent the afternoon trying to figure how much everything is when one American dollar $ is $1700 dong (Vietnamese money)- A cup of coffee costs $500 dong !

Day 1 July 24 & 25, D.C. to Taipei

Here We GO.......










Made it to Taipei, Taiwan. Only one more 3 hour leg to go before we're in Ho Chi Minh City. Very long very tiring. I'll tell you one thing, I definitely prefer foreign air carriers. United was crowded, very little leg room, etc. EVA Air on the other hand had twice as much leg room, the most beautiful stewardesses in the world, very customer focused. A delight! Still, a 12 hour flight is a 12 hour flight. We're ready to be there!

Hugs to everyone, Cynthia

Ditto everything Cynthia said about the airlines. The airport here is spotless and modern and efficient. I am very honored and excited to be included in this trip, and I hope we all still love each other on the way home! I plan on eating nothing but great food from now till I get home! Cheers!









Here are some pictures from the Taiwan Airport- Bonnie wants to live there - I mean IN the airport-but I took her passport so she wouldn't be tempted. -Rebecca
















This is the relaxation room it had plants, bird noises playing and a soothing voice saying something lovely, I'm sure- it also had free massage chairs which we had to be dragged out of in time to get back on the plane.



This is the Little kids Relaxation room- very nice, very very pink- "Hello Kitty"appears to be the regional animal of South East Asia- it is even painted on the planes.




LITTLE Kitties BIG mice...now does that make sense to you?