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