TravelStream™ news feed for member mixedbag on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/mixedbag en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Fri, 19 Dec 2008 20:44:34 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mixedbag/1/1229733480/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mixedbag/1/1229733480/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mixedbag/1/1229733480/tpod.html Fri, 19 Dec 2008 20:44:34 -0500 To Vietnam and Back

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Cincinnati, Ohio, United States

26 and a half hours after we lifted off from Hanoi, we finally landed in Cincinnati. Our return trip took us through Tokyo (six hour layover) and Chicago (thankfully we missed the winter storm). Throughout the three flights home, Anelise was great. She slept, ate and played quitely her way through the entire return journey.

Last night was a rough one though as Anelise was not interested in sleeping at all. Her sleep schedule is 12 hours off of ours here so it will take a little while to help her adjust. We are slowly introducing her to her crib since the current sleeping arrangement (she slept with us in Vietnam) is not a long term solution.

Today we are all feeling rather tired and out of sort. Everyone took a long afternoon nap that helped and I think we will all feel better once we have a few days home under our belt.

We are thankful to finally be home with our new daughter. We look forward to introducing you all to her in the coming weeks. Give us a call if you want to come for a visit so we can be sure Anelise is up and dolled up for your meeting!
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Hanoi, Vietnam

As we make our last entry from Vietnam, we can't help but remember a few times in the past where we faced challenges and difficulties with the adoption process. During these times, we would ask each other, is this still something we want to do? Perhaps these difficulties were signs from God that adoption was not the right direction he wanted us to go. Or maybe the challenges were tests of our faith and our willingness to stick with it and endure. We remember the concerns we had when we first considered adoption. Concerns any new parent has for their children. Will they be healthy, what will they look like, will we be able to handle all that the child brings to our lives? Through faith and the support of family and friends we were able to take that first step 31 months ago and we are so thankful that we did. After only 10 days with Ani, it is hard to think of our family without her. We came to Vietnam with one great kid and we are leaving it with two!
Just to share what we did over the last day or so, yesterday we spent time souvenir shopping and buying artwork. We went to the Hanoi water puppet theater in the afternoon. Ani made it through about 3/4 of the show before she began choking on cheerios. We both froze and waited for her to start to breath again when she promptly began to throw up a partially masticated mass of cheerios into my (Robert) hand. I gladly accepted her gift while Lan whisked her out of the theater. Of course Harrison and I stayed for the final 10 minutes of the show (hey, we paid full price for admission) with a hand full of warm yuckios. Ah parenthood.

We ate dinner at a restaurant specializing in Pho. Harrison was in heaven. Today we went to more galleries, had a nice lunch at a local place along a lake, visited a Tao temple and returned to the hotel in time for Ani's nap. Everywhere we went, Ani drew a crowd. It has happened ever since we got her and fortunately, she is good with strangers. Saying that, she does tend to favor women over men, Asians over whiteys (I'll have to continue working on that). Currently, Lan is taking care of packing while I run to a local store to buy some diapers and snacks for the flight back. We are so excited to see everyone. We depart for the airport in 3 hours. See you all soon!
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Hanoi, Vietnam

Good morning everybody
I'll cut to the chase - we have Anelises' visa and we are a go for bringing her back to the states! We took a taxi to the US embassy yesterday, paid the visa fee, conducted a quick interview through bullet proof glass with an American who reviewed our paperwork, he compared Anelise's passport picture with the real Anelise (to make sure we weren't trying to pull the old switch-a-roo) and viola, we now have her visa. It was a very simple process that took no more than 5 minutes total.

So now all we have to do is wait for our departure date. We will hit the old quarter later today which has lots of galleries and shops. Lan is taking a cooking class tonight through the KOTO restaurant we ate at a few days ago. The subject being taught is Vietnamese barbeque. I'm looking forward to reaping the benefits of her classwork! Tomorrow is another free day since our flight out does not depart until after 11 pm. Not sure what we will do for the day. We have started to learn to adjust our normal lets do everything schedule to a schedule that accomodates a baby's schedule. So we may just hang out at the hotel, pack up and relax before we begin the journey home. We cant wait to get home with the our greatest Christmas gift ever. Thanks for all the prayers, comments and encouragement.
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Hanoi, Vietnam

When I first saw my little sister, I thought she was going to be calm, quiet, and easy going. Okay. I changed my mind... She's nuts! (In a good way). I don't know what happened to the calm, quiet baby we adopted! Anyway, the food here is great, except at our current hotel. Lan Lan hotel had much, much better food. There, I had pho every single day for breakfast.(pho is a vietnamese soup) I never got tired of it. And, tonight we are going to a resturant called pho 24, and that means pho, pho, and more pho. (and I'll eat all of it!) Back to my little sis. I just can't stop looking at the picture of her gagging from stuffing her blanket too far in her mouth. I got a challenge for ya. Try looking at that pic without laughing. Anyway, I am really looking forward to coming home to see all of my friends and family, and I can't wait to show off my little sis.

Harrison
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Hanoi, Vietnam

Hey all,
I am definitely sleepless in Hanoi. Not a single wink. We paid the price for giving Ani ice cream. It wasn't even much... a few little nibbles. We had a Vietnamese girl tell us "not good for baby, too cold".... we laughed and threw caution to the wind. Now we so solly, no more throw caution to wind, only lice cereal and formura for rest of trip. We think she had a belly ache and cried hard, harder than we've ever seen and with lots of tears. We felt so bad and vowed not to do that again. It was just so fun to see her loving the taste of these things...but so not worth her pain and our lack of sleep. It was all Rob's fault anyway, I usually know better.
We had many old people commenting on how we dressed Ani, apparently not warm enough. It is cooler here but feels great compared to Saigon. They all wear winter coats, scarves, and knit hats as if it was 40 degrees. It is maybe 75 degrees here. We get a lot of looks from everyone here which come with commentary about us and they don't realize that I understand. The boys call me their spy. Generally everyone says things like "oh look at that Viet baby with the American", "Is that a boy or girl", "isn't that baby cute in the baby pack", "the older boy looks like both parents but the little one looks nothing like them", "They should dress her warmer" . Looks and commentary are the only free things around here , and now we are so used to it, doesn't even phase us.
We have talked to so many young people about their lives and how they have managed to survive. They make $40 to $60, if they are lucky enough to have a job...if not they are living on the streets. One young girl we met and took to dinner with us. She had never in her entire life had that much food to eat. She was overwhelmed by the extravagance. She makes 800 dong (Viet $) per month = $50. Our server said he only makes 700 dong. The two kids were comparing their wages and asking each other if they knew any jobs that paid better. He lives with his family. She moved to the city to find work and send money home to her family who lived 2 and 1/2 days drive away. We took her home and I asked if we could see where she lived. She was so embarassed and ashamed. She said that this was no place for a lady like me to be and that she would feel sorry for me to be there. Her "apartment" was the size of a full size bed and this she shares with another girl. This room costs her $25 of her pay and she had $25 left to live on and then send some home when she can. This scenario is not uncommon here. It's everywhere you look especially in Saigon. They are some of the lucky who have a job, the rest live on the streets. I fully expected to see poverty here, but knowing about it and putting a face to it has knocked me off my feet.
We went to a restaurant today called KOTO (Know One Teach One). It was founded 10 years ago by a Viet who lives in Australia. It is a place where kids are taken off the streets and live, train in restaurant hospitality, and learn english here. It is a non profit restaurant and school and has 100% success rate and job placement. They are all now each other's family and now have a future. The food was some of the best we've had here in Vietnam. We went to a huge shop where all the handicrafts were beautifully created by handicapped children. Here they are trained in all these arts from lacquer painting to thread paintings, sewing. They are deaf, blind, missing arms and legs, deformed...many side effects from agent orange....ramifications from a war over 30 years ago. Some of these deformities, I have never seen before. Man did humanity screw itself up! But the are proud and working and wow the beautiful products they create. Of course I bought the place out...I'm a sucker for a good cause and gorgeous art. It's a win win for me.
So today is our last appointment. It is the interview with the US embassy and hopefully we can walk out with her visa which is what we are hoping for. At the latest, we may get this precious visa on Tuesday. There have only been a few rare instances when people were denied, but nothing as of late. We don't forsee any problems. Wish us luck in our last bit of red tape, then we are packed and the Free Fam is back on the road again. Thank God she is a good little traveller, she sure does fit in with our family because we are definitely a family on the go.
See y'all in a few days, Can't wait!!!!
Lan

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Hanoi, Vietnam

Today we had a free day to do whatever we wanted in Hanoi. We spent the day at a large park in Central Hanoi. Anelise was able to sample her first ice cream during the afternoon and some noodles for dinner. Anelise started out great tonight and fell asleep easily although a bit earlier than usual. She woke up 1/2 hour later and began crying and just a few minutes ago finally stopped. We tried everything but nothing worked. She did grab at her ear a few times which got us to thinking ear infection. We have amoxicillin that we can mix and administer but we don't want to if it is not necessary. We gave her some children's Tylenol and I walked her around the room for a good while until she fell asleep and I gingerly placed her in our bed. She promptly woke up and began crying rolled over to my spot and fell asleep. So since I don't have a place to sleep at the moment, I figured, I'd create a new entry. Maybe by the time I'm done with this, she'll be deeply asleep and I can move her over.

Tomorrow we have our meeting with the US embassy. That should be the final hurdle we face before we can bring Anelise home. We are really enjoying our time in Vietnam but we are ready to come home to some familiar ground. The people here are incredibly hard working and industrious. They do whatever they can to make a living from walking around selling lottery tickets, standing on the side of the highway selling loaves of bread, pushing a bicycle laden with pots and ingredients for soup (Pho) to sell, you name it. One thing I noticed is that there are no birds in the city nor were there in Halong Bay. Our guide indicated that was because they have all been hunted for food. I'm not sure I fully buy that but it makes some sense. We have seen some extreme poverty in our travels here. Many of the people here care only about where and when they are going to get money to pay for their next meal. One of my pet peeves is litter. People here litter without a second thought. They simply do not worry about the environment, they have more immediate and pressing concerns. Yet despite this, everyone we have met and talked with seemed happy and wanted to know how we liked Vietnam. It sure has been a lesson in perspective, I can tell you that.

I'll finish with a note about Harrison. He is a fantastic kid and an amazing brother to Anelise. While much of this trip has been focused on her, he has been there right along with us doing his best to help out, making us laugh when we weren't doing that enough, doing his homework even when that's the last thing he wants to do, being our gopher for just about everything, reminding us to slow down and enjoy it all and being an absolute pleasure to have as our traveling partner and as our son. Lan and I are both humbled by how lucky we are to have him in our lives. Harrison - we love you beyond words and you are and will always be our favorite boy in the whole world.

Wish us luck on our meeting tomorrow. We will let you know how it goes.
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Halong Bay, Vietnam

Hey all. What a great day. We are back at our hotel in Hanoi and we are beat. I'll keep this short and just post a bunch of pics. The tour of Halong Bay was well worth the 4 hour one way commute. Anelise was fussy a few times during the trip there and back but it was no big deal. When we arrived at the bay, our guide had arranged our own private boat tour complete with lunch, a stop at one of the islands with lots of caves and a tour of the many rock formations. Tomorrow, we are going to hang out in Hanoi and just take it easy. Maybe a museum or gallery and some shopping. I'll post more info then. Until then, from half way around the world we send you our love.
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Hanoi, Vietnam

Just a quick entry to say we have all arrived safely in Hanoi. The flight aboard Vietnam airlines was very nice and only about an hour and a half long. Anelise handled the flight with no problem. We flew business class which on Vietnam airlines is the same as first class. It was very nice and reasonably priced. The plane (a Boeing 777 for you plane geeks) was well appointed and the service and attendants were, well first class. We are staying at the Cherry Hotel in downtown Hanoi. Its clean and the room is similar to that which you might see for a Marriot back in the states. We were running a bit late and with the horrible traffic in Saigon, we were not able to swing by Lan's old house. She was disappointed but we vowed to hit that on our next trip.

Stopped by the US embassy on the way to our hotel and dropped off our paperwork. On schedule to go there on Monday to finalize our paperwork for Anelise and get approval to bring her to the states. Speaking of Anelise, she seems to be flourishing in her new family. She is an absolute crack up. Loves to be silly, make faces and noises, is always looking for her big brother to play with and smiles constantly. When she is tired, she will climb all over you and then she passes out cold. She is picking up on little games we play with quickly, wants to unzip every piece of luggage we have and root through it and has even helped Harrison with his Algebra homework. She seems to be one smart girl. We are simply stunned at how fortunate we are.

Tomorrow we have arranged for a private tour trip to Ha long Bay. The trip includes transportation back and forth (about 3 hours each way), a boat ride out into the bay, lunch and tour stops once at the bay. Should be fun. We are starting to see the end of this trip before us. We don't feel we are quite through the woods yet but complications at this point in the process are very rare. The last hurdle is our meeting at the US embassy on Monday to finalize our paperwork with our government and to get approval to bring Anelise back to the states. I cannot adequately express what this trip has meant to us. It has been emotional for sure but also thrilling, educational, eye opening and fun. We cannot wait to introduce you all to Anelise. Also, thanks for all of your emails and comments posted on this site. We love hearing from you all back home and really appreciate you taking the time to correspond with us. We are glad to share this time with all of you.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mixedbag/1/1229094180/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mixedbag/1/1229094180/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mixedbag/1/1229094180/tpod.html Thu, 11 Dec 2008 22:34:00 -0500 To Vietnam and Back

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Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

It is Friday at 32:15 am Vietnam time. I can't seem to sleep so I am sitting in the bathroom writing. It's the first night that Analise is sleeping through the night without being restless. She only woke up once att 11pm to take a bottle. She is so quietly sleeping that I find myself waking up to listen and make sure she is breathing...she is.
Up to now I have been so exhausted that I pass out by 8:30. We've been so busy with the schedule of paperwork appointments that I have not had a moment to process what has just happened to my life. I am overwhelmed by all the sights and sounds of Vietnam. And I am overwhelmed by all the memories flooding in of my years in this country. And I am overcome with emotions for my new daughter and the renewed purpose and meaning she is bringing to my life.
It seems so long ago and so trivial now, some of my previous concerns....would I bond with her, would it take a long time, would I go through the motions but not really feel it in my heart. Well, I felt it...the very first moment Madame Chau pointed her out to me. I loved her instantly as I held her and she grasped her fingers tightly onto me and put her cheek against mine. It was love at first sight!
When I look at her little smiling face and her scrawny little body, I can't help seeing images of where she came from just a mere few days ago. The conditions she lived in were nice compared to many other places, I am told. I believe it since we have seen some horrible living conditions on our drive to get her. The poverty in these villages is unimaginable. I thought I had prepared myself to see these things but now I realize that I could never have prepared myself enough.
Robert, Harrison and I wanted to save a childs life. What we have found is that she has saved ours. She has brought us on this journey to open our eyes and see the world around us with clarity, purpose, and joy. Robert and I have layed awake in these past few nights talking about our children's future. But mostly, we talked about the clear vision of how we should live our lives because we are forever changed by everything we have seen and experienced.
Speaking of my boys...I have never been more proud of them. Harrison has been such a terrific big brother. He thoroughly enjoys her and hates it when she is napping. It could also be because that is the time he is supposed to be doing homework. Robert is a loving, caring papa. He carries her everywhere in the baby pack and she loves it. He is so patient and calm with the kids but mostly with me, because as some of you well know, I can get a little nutty at times.
To all of you, our family and friends, thank you so much for your love, support and prayers. Please continue to pray for us as we go to Hanoi to finalize more paperwork. Please also continue to love and support us when we return 'cuz we'll be real tired and we'll be needin' it !!! You guys are awesome and we are so blessed to have you be part of our lives and part of our "adventure".
Much Love,
Lan Lan
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Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Well it wouldn't be a family trip without someone losing something. So this morning, Lan was to ride with Diep to get Anelise's passport finalized. When Diep arrived, Lan went to get her passport and it and the moneybelt it was in could not be found. Panic ensued.

Since I still had my passport because I take very good care of it, I ended up going with Diep on her motorbike to get Anelise's passport. The ride through Saigon was a blast. Literally, if I lifted my arms out to either side of me, I'd poke another motorbike rider in the eye. It was that crowded, everyone going from 1 to 35 miles an hour, mix in cars, buses, pedestrians and traffic signals that yearn for attention but no one gives them any, you get the picture. It was awesome!

Upon returning to the hotel I was hopeful that Lan had found her moneybelt and passport. She did not. So for the next hour or so we along with Diep and Madame Chau searched our small hotel room. We ended up finding it underneath the bed. The odd thing about that is that it is nearly impossible to get anything under the bed. The frame goes all the way to the floor (about 1/2 gap on the bottom) and there is no other way to get anything down there. We found it using Harrison's flashlight (gotta love the kid, his backpack always has what you need in it) and peering under the bed. The beds only have a single mattress made of incredibly dense foam that weighs a ton. We were able to heft the mattress off the bed and then pry up the boards that the mattress rests upon to enable us to access the space under the bed. There it was, under the very center part of the bed. We could not have shoved it in a more inaccessible spot if we had tried. A great cheer from all arose which promptly woke up Anelise from her nap. It was quite a relief and the first scare of that sort Madame Chau had seen with passports in her 15 years of arranging adoptions. Yes, another first for the Free family!

After all of this, Diep decided it best she hold onto Anelise's passport until we fly out tomorrow for Hanoi. We made one last trip out to Ben Thanh market today and will head out to the same restaurant we hit yesterday because it was that good. Flight to Hanoi tomorrow leaves around 11 am.

I'm going to attach pics from misc times up to this point in our trip to get Anelise. Enjoy.
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