Shopping, Meetings and International Health Care

Thursday July 26, 7:00 pm

Yesterday we all went to the shopping district on an outing. The girls did great their first time in the strollers. Mom, Dad and Carolyn were a little nervous because we had to cross many busy streets and in Vietnam the way you do this is step out in the middle of on coming traffic and the traffic will swerve around you. You must not stop or falter in the middle of the street because that changes your gait and therefore changes the timing of the oncoming vehicles that are trying to miss you. What a ridiculous system. You feel suicidal just stepping right off a perfectly safe curb into oncoming traffic of hundreds of cars and motorbikes. The system seems to work, though. I don't know how, but it does seem to work.

We went to a tailor that the agency had recommended where we bought lots of things. I bought au dai’s (tradition Vietnamese outfits) for the girls, two in each size, matching colors. 24 all together. They are truly gorgeous. I am also having Christening outfits made for them as well. We were going to do more shopping however the clouds were starting to boil over and we decided with Ms. Ilona still having an infection we didn’t want to risk the long walk back to the hotel in the rain. We’ll go back today to so Carolyn can do some more damage. I really was not planning on bringing back a lot of souvenirs or gifts because I knew I would have my hands full on the return trip, but I did want to get the girls beautiful outfits from their country that they should be able to wear until they are 12-14 years old.

Al and I had a meeting with the agency from 4-6 last night to review the paperwork we’ll be needing for the balance of our meetings. The Vietnamese portion of our adoption is complete. We received a stack of documents on each girl, including translated copies of their birth certificates, abandonment reports, hospital records, etc. We are lucky that of the families going through the process with us we were the ones that had a considerable amount of background on the girls and the circumstances of their birth and relinquishment. This will be a blessing for them when they are older.

We did have a bit of an incident last night. I will spare you the details but we did have to take Maia to the clinic late last night. This is an international clinic so supposed to provide good care. Let’s just say that after last night I continue to pray that we all remain in good health through the balance of the trip. Yikes. I was pretty unhappy with the treatments they were suggesting, was arguing with the pediatrician (who was on the phone) and finally won. Maia is fine, but not thanks to the ridiculous clinic. I was so glad to have Carolyn, who has been a nurse for 20+ years, by my side. Anyway, alls well that ends well.

Today will probably be a free day, but tomorrow Maia and Ilona’s Vietnamese passports should be ready. Then we will have an appointment with CIS, probably on Monday. Once we pass the CIS interview we will be allowed to schedule the remaining appointment in HCMC, a visit to the Cho Ray Hospital for the “official” medicals on both girls.
Oh, by the way, Maia does weigh 12 lbs, not the 16 lbs the home visit doctor told us. She is snarfing down cereal, doesn’t like formula, and I noticed today that her legs are getting chubby already. They were very thin when we picked her up.

Ilona, who probably weighs more like 16 lbs rather than the 19 lbs the doctor told us, is getting really strong. Yesterday she came very close to sitting up by herself and also to crawling.

It is amazing what just a couple days of attention can do for these guys.

I’ll send more updates later, and hopefully more pictures.

Also, still having trouble connecting to some outside internet services. We think it might be a hotel firewall issue. Most of the time we see “page not available” error messages and it often takes several attempts to send an email through. I hope all is well with everyone.

Love Tina