Ok, there are going to be a lot of pictures in this blog, so I hope that it doesn’t take TOO long to open.  If it does, let me know and I may have to edit it down a little.

As you can see by the picture below, Mia just loves me!  She is so happy to be around me!  This picture is from last night and she has warmed up to me a little bit, although she still cries when I hold her.  However, she does watch me a lot as I walk around the room and she doesn’t seem TOO scared of me.

Yesterday afternoon, to keep Mia from crying, we went and stood out beside the street.  It was raining, so we couldn’t go for a walk, but since the place that she has been living is close to the street, the sounds of the cars are soothing to her.  We haven’t had to do that today because she seems to be feeling so secure with Kelly.

Before going to dinner, tried Mia with some cereal.  She took to it right away.

After Mia had her dinner, it was time for Kelly and I to have ours.  We left the hotel lobby:

And headed up the street to a little place called the “Highland Cafe.”

This was a great little restaurant with outdoor seating and, again, a place for Mia to watch the cars go by.  The waitress took a picture of us.  Notice that the women just CAN’T keep their eyes off of me!  Sixteen years of marriage and I still have it!

We thought we would give Mia her first exposure to Cheerios.  Is there anything this little girl won’t eat??

She surely fits into our family.  She kept throwing napkins on the floor expecting Kelly to pick them up for her.  Then, she got a real kick out of banging the table with her rattle.  She is getting a little more liberal with her smiles!

I have to throw the next shot in because it is probably the ONLY time I have held Mia and she wasn’t crying.  And, for the record, this period of father-daughter bonding was very short.

On our way this morning to the hospital to get the girls Medical Visa Exams, we passed so many beautiful buildings.  The French occupied Vietnam up until 1954 and, during that time, Vietnam was very prosperous.  Consequently, there is such great architecture.  The city, while poor and filled with a ton of people and questionable hygienic practices, is actually very clean.  They keep the street very clean and cleared of trash.

We arrived at the hospital and had to walk around the campus to get to the office where they do the Medical Exams for Visa’s.

Kelly was grilled by the physician.  Actually, he was a nice guy who spoke very good english and was very pleasant, as was his nurse.

First they checked Mia’s height, then weight, and then did a brief medical exam.  As you can see, she really enjoyed this part of her day!

We then came back to the hotel where Mr. Hiep went through our documentation in order to get it translated and prepared for the INS interview.  We are HOPING that is this week yet, but that is probably unrealistic. Since Monday is Columbus Day and the INS office is closed, Tuesday is probably a better estimate.  But, we can dream, can’t we?

Upstairs in our room, Mia was content to lay with the bag of toys that Kelly brought for her.

However, she was none to happy when mommy was paying more attention to the computer and answering e-mails than she was to Mia!

Not long after this, Mia started getting her hands all over the computer and Kelly told her “no.”  You should have seen Mia’s face.  She scrunched it all up (very much like she looks when I try and hold her) and started crying (again, like when I hold her). Mommy had to help her gather up all her emotions.

I have general pictures of Vietnam that I think I will post later today or tomorrow if I have some time.  Tomorrow is a free day for us before the Giving and Receiving Ceremony on Wednesday.

I hope you guys are enjoying the journey with us.  Thanks to everyone who has written and let me know that they have been reading and enjoying the blog.  If you want to know something that I’m not putting down, just ask!