You may get two posts today.  We went to church this morning and then this afternoon we are going to see the famous Vietnamese Water Puppets!  But, I received a few nasty e-mails about nothing posted in the morning (Diana Whitener), so I thought I would update you on the days activities so far.

As we prepared for church this morning, Mia seems to be developing an appreciation of the bath tub.  Up until now she has cried every time we (Kelly) has given her a bath.  But today, she seemed pretty happy!

Don’t be misinformed and think that the wash cloth you see in this picture was from the hotel.  Oh no.  Those would be very difficult to find here.  This is one that Kelly packed for the trip and would suggest others do the same!

Unfortunately for all our Catholic friends, we did not go to Notre Dame for church.  We remembered that another family had found a protestant church and Kelly got on the internet and found out where it was.  It was called Saigon Evangelical Church and it was at 155 Tran Hung Dao, Quan 1 (this is for those that come after us).  It was a very nice service.  If you sit up front on the right side, they have headphones and translate the entire service in English for you.

They even give you hymnals that are written in both English and another Asian language.

They sang many well known, traditional hymns during the service.  Then, the youth choir got up and sang “Shout to the Lord.”  Almost made you feel like you were back home, except for all the Vietnamese sitting around.  We don’t have many of those in our home church.

It was a good sermon.  The pastor, Pastor Phan Quang Thien, spoke on Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey and related the fact that while this was the beginning of Holy Week, Holy Week is the beginning of our ability to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. They did an alter call at the end and had communion.  The service was almost two hours long and Mia hung in there for most of it.  As communion was being passed, she started getting a little crazy so we decided to leave.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped in our favorite watering hole again;  D’ Liss.  Mia, as usual, made friends as she does where ever she goes.

She always seems to be really friendly with the person who has the Cheerios.

This picture was taken just after Kelly’s borderline breakdown.  That is what SHE is calling it.  I would say it is just a symptom of being away from all the kids and your home for so long and the realization that you will have to be here a little bit longer.  It has been a very nice trip and we can’t complain, but there are times you get just sick of being here, out of your comfort zone, and you want to go home.  I had dragged Kelly across several busy streets, in front of several moving busses, through the hot, humid streets of Saigon, and she had a moment of irritation and frustration at being here.  It didn’t help when one of the waitresses at the restaurant swatted at Mia for sucking on her finger.  Momma bear almost came out, then.

Overall, things are good.  We should get some additional documentation tomorrow (Monday) and then pray hard for an INS interview on Tuesday.  That is probably a little unrealistic, but we will be praying anyway!

We met up with a gentleman and his mother from Texas who are here waiting for his own baby.  We are going to head out to dinner with them tonight and then go to the water puppets.  If I can take some nice pictures, I may post again.

Have a wonderful Sunday at your own church!

Cameron

Have any of you noticed yet when I started this blog?  Look to the right, under Mia’s picture.  I just saw this evening that this blog began on 7-7-07.  The perfect number.  Kind of interesting, huh?  Or, maybe it is just late and I’m loopy.  You be the judge.

C

OK, to all those that wake up every morning looking for a new post, I’m sorry.  I usually post in the early afternoon here after we have been out all morning and Kelly and Mia are enjoying an afternoon nap.  This morning, however, we made an exciting trip to the grocery store.  While I COULD have posted pictures of me carrying bags back, I didn’t think it was very compelling.  So, I waited until evening.

This mornings fashion picture was done while Kelly and Mia waited for their breakfast.

Then, after extended anticipation, our breakfast finally came.  I decided that today was the day that I was going to try Pho Bo, which basically translates to Beef Noodle Soup.  A lot of the Vietnamese eat this for breakfast and I had become a little tired of my typical omelette.  Kelly decided, much to my surprise, that this morning was the morning for HER to try Pho Bo also.  Here is what it looked like:

To many of you that probably looks appetizing.  To some of you, like Koreen, you can’t imagine eating something like this for breakfast.  I wish the pictures that I took of Kelly eating her first bite of Pho had turned out.  Problem is, it was also her LAST bite of Pho and I didn’t have a chance to retake.  I ate mine … which wasn’t half bad … and she sat and watched.  That was the end of Pho for Kelly.

As usual, Mia kept the staff occupied during our breakfast.

Do you see the maid behind the glass?  She had been playing peek-a-boo with Mia from behind the door.  Do you ever have that friend or neighbor that is just a little TOO friendly?  That is this maid.  She is a very nice lady, but she insists on picking Mia up all the time, and Mia doesn’t really like her all that much. 

On our way over to the store, I snapped this picture of a street vendor.  You can tell by the look on her face how excited she was to be the subject of yet another American’s vacation scrap book.

At the grocery store, I took this picture of four people on a scooter.  These people will pack as much as humanly possible on these two-wheeled vehicles.  I have seen people carrying food, televisions, even refrigerators on the back of their bikes.  Four, however, is the most people I’ve seen on one yet, but I’ve got my eyes peeled for that individual brave enough to try for five.

On our way home we stopped in a little French cafe we like called D’Liss.  It is nice because it has peach iced tea and really good hot chocolate.  The food isn’t bad either.  The only problem today was that the power was off, which isn’t a totally uncommon situation over here.  So, we sat in the heat, with no air conditioning, and drank our iced peach tea.

Bao Chau (Mia) got tired and decided to take a nap on the bench.

After lunch and a little nap (the point at which I did NOT post pictures today), we took a cyclo ride to the zoo.  These guys were really nice and it was a very pleasant way to go.  During the trip, they explained what the different buildings were and were basically like a tour guide.

As you can see, though, it is NOT the fastest mode of transportation on the streets.

We stopped at Notre Dame church and our driver took our picture.  While I look like I am smiling, it is a look of fear as I am realizing that I just handed my camera over to a guy that could run off and probably buy two or three more cyclo’s once he has sold it.  In the end, he did give it back.  We did run into a little issue on payment at the end of the ride, but I didn’t feel like fighting him and paid him what he wanted.  Somedays you feel like you are negotiating everything and it can get a little tiring.

The zoo was nice.  While the infrastructure was in need of repair, the landscaping was kept extremely nice.  You see this in most areas of HCMC.  They seem to take a lot of pride in their parks and botanical gardens.

The elehants were kind of cool, just because you could get so close to them.  They (vendors, not the elephants.  They are smart, but not that smart) sell these sticks … I don’t know what they are … and the elephants eat them.  You can actually feed them (the elephants, not the vendors.  Well, you may be able to feed the vendors by hand, too, but I didn’t see anyone try) from your hand.  So, you can imagine how friendly they are towards people (both vendors and elephants).

On the way to dinner, Mia got a little bored with the normal view and decided that the upsidedown view was MUCH more interesting.

We went by the hotel, picked up our friends, and went to what is quickly becoming our favorite place to eat here.  Aleez Boo. 

To all of you that were concerned about my not getting the pineapple rice boat on my birthday (that was actually none of you), I ordered it tonight and it was great.  Along with onion rings.  They were great, too!  On our way home, we went through another local park.

At the hotel tonight, Mia played with her favorite toy … the empty water jug.  Isn’t that typical.  She walked around the beds, into the bathroom, and back around the beds banging the empty container on the floor the entire time.  At least I know what to get her for Christmas!

Tomorrow we have the opportunity to go back to Notre Dame church for a 9:30 English service.  It is not protestant, so we haven’t yet decided if we will go or not.  We will probably make that decision in the morning.

Have a great Saturday!

Cameron

Hi everyone,

Just want to again ask for your prayers concerning this INS process.  This process can be so complicated and so fraught with potential problems.  Regardless of all of your efforts to make sure you did everything correctly and asked all the right questions, you still can be derailed by issues out of your control.  Whether the problems are based with your adoption agency, their staff, or the corruption and graft that is so prevalent within the system here, you really have no control over the outcome.  All you can do is continue to pray and believe that God brought you here and will see you through.   Once past the INS interview, things will go much smoother.  But, until then, we will always have a bit of concerns.  Continue to believe with us that this, as everything else, will go smoothly.

Thank you for all of your support.  And thanks to all the people (Patty & Tony, Ed & Vicki, Sandy, Jodi, Tammy, Mom & Dad (both), Koreen, Kim, etc.) who have really helped with the process by making sure that this time for our kids is an enjoyable time.  They may very well not want us to come home!

Cameron

Today is Luke’s third birthday!  Happy Birthday, little guy!  We miss you.  I’m sure that Brittany will show this to you.

Our paperwork is supposed to be filed with the US INS today.  After that, they have a day or so to call and check on the investigation into Mia’s adoption just to insure that everything is legitimate.  Their concern is child trafficing.  Hopefully, we will get an interview with INS early next week.  This is the part of the process that causes the most problems and can have the longest wait associated with it. 

Last night we went for a little walk through some of the parks on our way to an area called De Tham.  It is a street that is popular with a lot of tourists and has a bunch of different restaurants.  HCMC is interesting because you have all this congestion, motorcycles, scooters, cars, people, and then these really pretty, peaceful parks everywhere.  In the evening people gather in the parks to play games,

exercise,

or just go for a walk.  You can walk through these parks all evening and feel very secure.  Most of the parks are closed to motorcycles and scooters, so it gives you a break from dodging them all day.

We chose a restaurant on the corner of De Tham because it had Heinz Ketchup at every table.  After awhile, you start to recognize the signs of the finer eating establishment.  The ketchup and the fact that there were a lot of Westerners in the joint.  Kelly ordered rice with pineapple, crab, and shrimp served in a pineapple boat.  I was slightly jealous because this was MY birthday meal and that was what I was going to order.  But, I had some Vietnamese food and she let me taste some of hers.  I guess that was OK. 

While at the restaurant, Mia tried her hand at a little more rice.

She seems to be less and less interested in her bottle and more interested in real food.  Who could blame her?

As we walked back to our hotel, we passed by the market that we have visited oh so frequently this week.  What we didn’t realize is the place totally transforms at night into a gathering place for people.  They close off parts of the street around it and then they bring out these large tents.  The tents are actually mobile restaurants, complete with full kitchens.  The smell was wonderful.  I think we may try eating down there one of these nights.  Some of the things they were offering didn’t look too appetizing, but most looked delicious.

We stopped at a little cafe called the Blue Cafe just up the street from our hotel.  There, Kelly and I shared a banana split for my birthday. Not your traditional birthday sweets, but nice on a warm HCMC evening.

Note to travelers … milk products are some of the riskiest things for travelers to eat when trying to avoid travelers diarrhea.  We read that this morning … after we had the banana split.  Some information is timely.

This morning I shot a picture of Mia while she was still asleep. While it may LOOK like a homicide scene, this is her position of comfort.  Go figure?

Today’s fashion picture:

After breakfast, we went out to another local park just to walk around and enjoy the sites.

Mia thought it was fun to pick up food and leaves from the ground and eat them.  It kept us busy trying to stop her from ingesting something that she shouldn’t.

Father and daughter bonding picture.  Don’t you love my posture?  I fixed it right AFTER Kelly took the picture.

Back at the hotel room, Kelly tried to catch up on e-mails while Mia indicated that she did NOT like the attention directed away from her. 

Kelly finally gave in and spent some quality time with the little princess.

Before I close this thread, I wanted to show everyone that it isn’t just me that Mia doesn’t like to go to.  She is very selective in who she will spend her time with.

OK, maybe it is just me.  Have a great day!

Cameron

 Today was just a waiting day.  Waiting for our documents to be translated and filed with the US INS.  That should be done today and filed with the INS tomorrow morning.  That means a long, three-day weekend because of Columbus day.  Hopefully we can get an INS interview early next week and get up to Hanoi mid-late next week.  Then … home!  We are having a fine time here, but we miss all the kids (Hi Zach, Jake, Nick, Brit, Max, and Luke) and are pretty much done with the Vietnamese thing.  Nice place to visit … don’t want to stay too long!

For those of you concerned about my bonding with Mia, look at the pictures below.  It isn’t perfect, but she is tolerating me a lot more.  In fact, the two of us played on the bed for over a 1/2-hour this morning with Kelly out of the room.  I think she only cried once or twice.

Without a lot of stuff on our agenda, we went shopping this morning (AGAIN!) and then went for a walk this afternoon.  There are a lot of street vendors.  We haven’t had enough guts to actually TRY them yet, but I was close today.  I passed a lady who was frying something and I figured anything fried has GOT to be good, doesn’t it??

We went to the Reunification Palace for a tour while we were out.  It was the former Presidential Palace when South Vietnam was an independent state.  Then, in April 1974, the North advanced into HCMC and took the palace.  This was the beginning of the unification of North and South Vietnam.

Here is Kelly and Mia in front of the palace:

It really was very pretty … both on the outside and the inside.  They had various rooms for the president and vice president to meet people:

And, the view from the third floor really does show off how pretty this city is in many areas:

We went down into the basement where they kept all the combat areas.  Mia enjoyed riding in the carrier with Kelly.

I posted a bunch of other HCMC city pictures in the photo section if you would like to see them.  We were going to the zoo today, but didn’t make it!  Maybe tomorrow.

Cameron

Today is Brittany’s eighth birthday!  We hate that we have to be away from her on this special day, but I wrote her an e-mail today and told her that Mia was a pretty good birthday present for her, too!

I uploaded a ton of pictures today and I won’t be able to put them all on this blog.  So, you may have to click over to the photo manager section and look at them if you don’t get enough reading through this entry. 

Last night we went out to dinner with a very nice couple from Australia that does medical training for hospitals in HCMC.  As we were walking to the restaurant, it started pouring down rain.  It does that often here.  It will get really windy, then pour rain, then the sun will come out. 

We ate at a really nice restaurant that was part of what seemed like a high end hotel.  The meal for Kelly and I, including tip, was $21.  It was, by far, the most we spent in a day on food, let alone one meal.  It was a splurge. 

Mia had her first experience in a high chair.  She wasn’t a big fan.  She is going to have to learn a little bit about being a lady!

That night, we Kelly gave Mia a bath.  You can tell how MUCH she enjoys here bath.  This is the one area that she is NOT like our other kids. Imagine how much she would have howled if I had given her the bath!

We left early this morning to head out to the government center in the province where Mia was orphaned.  We were down in the lobby by 5:30AM for an hour taxi ride to the province.

When we arrived at the governmental offices, we had to wait.  This is apparently pretty common in Vietnam.  We sat in our van for over an hour.  Luckily, because it was morning, the heat wasn’t too bad.  Mia decided that she wanted one of Fayth’s toys.  I am getting the feeling that Mia ran the orphanage while she was there.  She seems to demand what she wants and people seem to give it to her!  She will fit right in!

At the governmental offices we had the Giving and Receiving Ceremony where the official signs the documents saying that Mia is officially ours and then talks to us briefly about raising Mia in a way that respects her heritage.  It was all over very quickly.  We saw that we were the 30th entry in the adoption book for this province.

Then, we were done!  I included the next pictures for Maxwell.  It is a motorcycle dump truck.  It is how they transport small amounts of dirt and stone for construction.  I was wanting to bring one back for him, but I just cant fit it in our luggage!

This picture is just because my wife is still so pretty, even after having SEVEN children!

We then went to the church that supports the orphanage and met with the orphanage director.  We were able to ask questions of him, although he didn’t have too many answers.  Most of these babies are orphaned because the families are just too poor to care for them.  They have about 50 kids, from babies all the way up to teenagers.

After meeting with the director, we drove over to the orphanage itself.  The orphanage was VERY clean and was so much nicer than I was expecting. 

Here is the area where the older girls stay.

And here is where the babies are.  The caregivers that took care of Mia were there and it was kind of like a reunion!  Mia really came out of her shell and we had the chance to see her true personality come out.  She was laughing and playing and really enjoying herself. 

Again, we had to watch Kelly closely as she started eying the orphaned babies!

Tomorrow we go to the zoo!  Mr. Hiep translated our documents today and will give them to the INS office tomorrow.  Then, INS has a day to contact people to verify the correctness of the investigations into Mia’s past before they call us for an interview.  We are still prayerfully hope we will be  out of here next Friday afternoon. 

Cameron

Today … for a brief period of time … I was a millionaire.  Then, we went to the market today and it all disappeared in the twinkle of Kelly’s eye!  Now, understand that $1 US dollar equals $16,000 Vietnamese dollars, so we were not really living the high life.  But, it was nice for a little while!

We found out this afternoon that our Giving and Receiving Ceremony will be tomorrow (Wednesday) at 7AM.  That said, it takes a little while to get there, so we have to leave the hotel at 5:30!  Don’t get me wrong … I’m excited to finally be recognized as Mia’s dad.  But, don’t they understand I’m just getting used to the local time?

Since it was a free day, we spent most of it at the market.  As we walked over, Kelly wanted me to take a picture of the dentist office across the street from the hotel to show her brother, Todd.  You probably can’t see it, but it offers teeth whitening in an hour.  I guess the Vietnamese need white teeth, too!

The market, while smelly in certain parts, does have a lot of neat stuff.  Here are just a bunch of colorful grains, etc.

The girls at the market just LOVE Mia.  They are always trying to make her smile, touch her, talk to her, etc.  You would think that Mia was different from them with the way they respond to her!  It’s not like there are a million other babies around that look Vietnamese.  But, they think she is cute and they all love her.

Kelly and I came back to the hotel at lunch to rest from our (Kelly’s) buying and after coming down to the lobby the lady that was with us gave Kelly a very pretty arrangement of flowers for her birthday yesterday.  It was a very nice gesture and well received.

In the lobby, Mia tried to act like a big girl!

Again … notice the dress.  I don’t want anyone coming back later and saying that I didn’t show today’s fashion!

Mia has been a little unhappy today.  We don’t know if she is missing home or is a little constipated, or what.  But, she has not been very happy.  She has regressed a little bit with me, not wanting to have ANYTHING to do with me.  I had to hold her for awhile while Kelly had to take a shower.  She was really pleased with that!

 Before we could head out the door, one of the maids had to take a few minutes to try and get Mia to smile.

Mia started to turn the corner at the market in the afternoon.  It all started when we put a Vietnamese hat on her and she looked so cute!

Then, in the market, Kelly was really getting her to smile and even laugh several times.  It is nice to see that personality coming out of our little bundle.

Kelly has become a master negotiator, even to the point of negotiating for the other peoples purchases.  She was telling the sales lady today, “No, no … too expensive!”  Most of the sales people go along and play the game happily.  However, one lady did not!  She actually got a little mad with me.  I’m not really sure why because all she had to do was say “no.”  But, we started to leave several times and I guess she didn’t appreciate it.

As we left to go home, I took a picture of the ladies on their way through one of the streets. 

Tonight we are going to dinner with a couple from Australia that come here on missions work.  They help educate hospital employees.  They are a very sweet couple and love children, so they have been nice to have around.  We will update everyone after the ceremony tomorrow morning!

Cameron

First, I have to post a picture for the other family.  The husband was not able to come on the trip and still hasn’t had a chance to see his little girl, so I’m posting a picture for them here:

That said, this afternoon we went to the market, which is just up the street about a block or so.  It is kind of a free-for-all.  Whatever you would like to buy, you can.  The part that is a little difficult to deal with is the food aspect.  It is hot and humid (not awful … probably not as bad as a person would think it would be), and there is all this food sitting in the open.  On the way to the market, there were several people selling food on the street.  Here is a lady selling crabs:

And I have no idea what the next two people are selling.  I didn’t ask and didn’t want to know!

There are many vendors that walk from place-to-place with carts loaded with food.  I loved this cart because of all the bananas on it!

There are also people walking around outside the market trying to get you to buy their wares.  While most of the people are very low key and not very obnoxious, these vendors who are walking around are very aggressive and can be somewhat irritating.  We had one guy trying to sell sun glasses that, even after telling him over-and-over that we were not interested, he insisted on putting the glasses on one of the lady’s with us.

At the market, there are several out door shops with lots of really pretty flowers and various souvenirs.

Inside the market, it is divided into three areas.  The front area is various meats and fruits that can be purchased.  This is NOT the place for Westerners to go.  Raw food mixed with hot, humid air.  This area pretty much ruined my lunch the other day.  Below is some sort of meat, origin unknown.

And here are three little fish in a basket.  I kept looking for a few loaves and we could have fed the whole place!

The next third has cooked foods where people can sit down and eat.  Again, I wish I could send you the smells along with the pictures.  It is probably to your benefit that I can’t.

Finally, the back third is clothing, electronics, souvenirs, etc.  When we first got there Kelly commented on not knowing where to start.  As you will see by the progression of shots, she pretty much figured things out quickly and was working hard to get some deals.  This first girl is the one of the girls that Kelly mentioned in her blog.  She was very cute a personable and worked the BOTH of us like a pro.  I wasn’t sure we were EVER going to get out of her booth. 

These girls didn’t fair to badly, either.  Especially the girl on the right in red.  She took quite a liking to Mia and you can imagine how that worked on Kelly.  Again, these girls are professionals!  Notice how there are multiple people “helping” Kelly out with her decisions.

This next girl didn’t get a sale.  OBVIOUSLY she needs to take a few lessons from the others. 

As you can see in the next shot, Kelly had become a professional in her own right by the time we were ready to leave!

After coming back to the hotel and letting Mia nap for awhile, we left to go to Pizza Hut to celebrate Kelly’s birthday today.  Those of you who know Kelly know that she doesn’t really care for Pizza Hut, but there was something nice about going somewhere that is a little like home.  Before leaving while we were in the lobby we had Mia do some of her tricks.  First, here is the dress that Kelly said I didn’t take a picture of:

Then, the tricks.  Kelly got Mia to take a few steps across the lobby floor.  The boys who work in the lobby LOVED this!

Here is a picture of the mall, called The Diamond Center, that has the Pizza Hut on the fourth floor.  It was as nice if not nicer than any mall we have in the U.S.

That is actually the last picture of the night.  Not long after this, I was informed by a security guard that it is illegal to take pictures in the mall.  So, I was shut down. 

I hope you enjoy the pictures!  We will see what I can come up with tomorrow.  Have a great day!

Cameron

Mia is napping so I thought I would take a minute and talk about her! She is as precious as we imagined. We learned today the source of her “high maintenance” tendencies – Mr. Hiep told us that one caregiver in particular, the one with a ponytail in the pictures, carried Mia around all day, every day.

Well, she certainly likes to be held now, and, I think she must have let her fall asleep lying across her chest because this seems like the preferable way to go to sleep.

She is really an easy baby. She slept all night last night. It was fitful sleep and it seemed she was in constant motion. I believe all the babies slept together on the floor on a bamboo mat and just rolled everywhere. She rolled back and forth and all around all night. She is a great napper – 2 times a day. She is very patient when waiting for her bottle and just doesn’t really complain much at all. She now only seems to cry when she is getting tired (or when Cameron holds her!) She actually let me put her down in the lobby today for a few minutes and was standing and taking a few steps. She looked absolutely darling in her little dress but Cameron didn’t have the camera at that time. We had just returned from the market and so we were hot and tired and enjoying a cold drink. We had a good time shopping, and, yes, kids and nieces and nephews, I was getting stuff for the birthday party! We were bargaining with 2 girls in particular who were so cute and so nice – I’d bring them home too! The girls here are just beautiful. Everyone loves Mia when we walk by, we are trying to figure out what they are commenting about. It seems like something about her round face or something. The boys who work at the hotel were commenting on her ears when we first brought her in. They said she has long ears that means she will live a long life, we, however, know that all her days are already known and ordained.

The guys who work at the hotel are so polite and helpful, they also love the babies so much. The manager of the hotel saw Mia’s legs today and went and got cream for them to help clear up the bites, marks, etc., just to be nice. It really is a pleasant country to visit and I look forward to someday telling Mia all about it.

Mia certainly does have a mind of her own. She seems to also have learned early how to fight for what is hers. When she is close to the other families baby she will steal her toys and will not let go of them. Today she was grabbing the box of cream that I was trying to read and would not relinquish it. I finally won and she cried, so, of course I had to hold her and cuddle her. She gives Luke a run for his money with that burying her head into you and cuddling! I think there will be a definite fight for my shoulder once we get home and I am not certain at this point who will win – my money is on Mia at this point-she is something else. I like to think she has strength of character, but only time will tell what she will put us through! She shows us more and more of her personality each hour we are with her. She is making us work for her affections. She does babble and seems to be doing more of that. She even makes a squeal here or there when she gets excited. This usually seems to be when we are outside and something must be familiar to her. It really does my heart good to see her coming around and interested in what is around her. We are so thankful for her and look so forward to bringing her home to meet her brothers and sister and entire family. Brittany already talked to her on the phone today and told her how much she loved her. Mia was very interested in that voice she was hearing!