We're Home and Getting Settled... Final Post

We arrived home on Friday night and are beginning to settle into life! Quynh is adjusting well. She is exploring the house, the toys and family life and now sleeps in her crib at night. We still need to work out naps during the day because she only naps in my arms, and she needs more rest.

Chloe is thrilled to be home and went back to preschool yesterday. She loved seeing all her little friends again! We're glad that she has an outlet outside of the house right now because we're sticking pretty close to home as we get adjusted.

We want to send a big thank you out to all our family and friends for their love and support along the way. This blog was a great way to share this journey, and we so appreciate everyone who shared this adventure with us. We'll add some photos in the next day or two of home life, so you can see Chloe and Quynh at home.

Ready, Set, and Go Home

Well, the last few days have been eventful to say the least. First, we found out that Chloe had Roseola, a childhood virus that results in high fevers for several days and then ends with a rash. She now is feeling much better! We even had the chance to take the girls to the Hanoi Water Puppet show last night, and they both loved it. Chloe decided that she plans to be a water puppeteer when she grows up, and Quynh was literally leaning on the seat in front of us in order to get a better view during the show.

Today brought more excitement. We had our visa appointment this afternoon, and Gabrielle Quynh received her visa tonight at 6:00pm. We called our travel agent, and we're leaving on an 8:00am flight for Beijing, and we'll catch the 6:00pm flight for DC. We're packing wildly right now and are excited about going home tomorrow morning.

What an amazing journey we've had over the past few weeks. We feel blessed for our time here in Vietnam, and especially for our daughters. It still thrills us to realize that we now have two daughters both with incredibly fascinating birth countries. We look forward to traveling to Asia with them both again in the future. Now, it's time to head home and get into a routine.

Moving Through the Final Phases of the Adoption Process

The past few days were a bit of a whirlwind. Gabrielle Quynh received her Vietnamese passport and had her appointment at the SOS Clinic. She was quite irate about the check up, but she proved herself healthy for international travel, so this brings us one step closer to bringing her home. If the process goes as planned, we should have Gabrielle Quynh's visa on Friday, and we'll change our flights to leave on Saturday.

Beyond the adoption process, we've stuck pretty close to the hotel for the past few days. Chloe is under the weather and keeps spiking pretty high temperatures. We have her on an antibiotic, but it doesn't seem to be having much impact. We're going to take her to the SOS clinic today to have her checked out. I think all these changes in environment are leaving her worn down. She's done extremely well on this trip, but this kind of travel and family transition is hard on her. We're ready to get her back on her schedule. You know it's tough when your three year old tells you that she just wants healthy food like at home. She misses all the fruits and vegetables she can eat freely at home. Here we have to take more care in what we eat.

If we're all feeling up to it, we hope to see the Hanoi water puppet show before we leave. We understand that it's spectacular. We also hope to do some shopping. We have not done much shopping on this trip and would like to have some things for Quynh from Vietnam and bring a few trinkets to friends and family upon returning.

We'll add some pictures later.

Our Own Little Annie Leibovitz

Chloe has always loved photography. Up until now, we did not have a camera that fit her hands properly or had a shutter speed that could keep up with her. The new Canon Digital SLR fixed that. Here is a sequence from her latest series. All subjects were seriously considered - no accidents here.

Trip to Halong Bay

Once in every adoption trip the parents have to do something that is extraordinarily unwise in terms of pushing the kids to the limits. I mean, seriously, the normal adoption process already involves days full of driving cross country and flying around the world with infants that have probably never been in a car before. But as if that is not enough, the parents have to push the kids to do something additional simply because - "when will we be back here any time soon".

During Chloe's adoption it was the infamous trip into Hong Kong on the final night and during Quynh's adoption it will go down as the trip to Halong Bay.

The map in the travel guide shows Halong Bay to be a little over 100 miles from Hanoi. Seems simple enough when the roads on the map also look like US Interstates. We had seen pictures of Halong Bay and the guide book said it was a great day trip, so we gladly signed on when the rest of the families were interested and one father decided to step up and reserve a trip for the whole group.

We met in the lobby at 8am on Saturday. After a 4 hour bus ride we were in Halong Bay. The bus was tight and cramped as it was built for the average Vietnamese body, but everyone stayed in good spirits and we were more than excited when we first caught a glimpse of the bay and the boat we would be riding on.

The Vietnamese are trying very hard to get Halong Bay voted in as one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. We are not quite sure how many "7 wonders of the world" lists exist today, but Halong Bay definitely has a fighting chance of being included on one of them. The landscape of the bay is surreal, with 100's of large jutting rocks/mountains shooting straight up from the water. You are able to boat all around the islands and it is magnificent in every respect. On the day we went, it was slightly hazy which gave everything a otherworldy appearance when viewed from a distance.

The boat we were on had a dragon on the front and plenty of table seating for everyone which worked out great when the lunch of fresh fish and squid was served. Our family spent most of our time on the top deck because of the openness to the fresh air and the unimpeded views. After boating for several hours, we visited one island where we were able to get off the boat and walk through some beautiful cave structures.

The turning point for the trip came very quickly when the parents, as if we weren't already pushing our luck, said "yes" to the question "Do you want to see the 2nd cave?" After a moderate hike up, we were in the 2nd cave and that was when Chloe's legs finally gave out. (She had been a total trooper until then!) I was already wearing Quynh in the baby carrier on my front, but that didn't stop Chloe from choosing me to be the one to carry her as well. So one on front and one on back - Dad finally learned what it meant to have two daughters!

The walking went up and down over slippery surfaces for quite some time and when we got back to the boat I was exhausted and so was everyone else. Now we just had a 30 minute boat ride and a 4 hour bus trip to look forward to! Needless to say some 4 hour trips seem to last a lifetime. All of the kids having been in the orphanage together must have learned that when one starts crying it is best to just go along with the flow so you don't miss out on any attention that your bunk mate is getting. The kids were crying, the parents were all going to their mental happy places and we seemed to get stuck behind every truck, water buffalo, cow, and accident imaginable.

The one rest stop we stopped at on the way home looked like something out of a Quintin Tarantino horror spoof with dirty bathrooms and jars of the local liquor with dead cobras ceremoniously wrapped in them. When we hit the accident on the bridge into Hanoi proper and the bus came to a halt, I really believed that some parents might just start walking the 2-3 miles back to the hotel. Luckily things cleared up quickly and we all got to go back to the property 12 hours after we left to try to wrestle our exhausted and manic kids to bed.

And you know what, after seeing the photos and writing this blog 24 hours later, I would do it all over again. There are some things in life that are 7,000 miles away from where you live and that cannot be replicated in National Geographic. Having an adventure with your family in Halong Bay is one of them!

Day at Westlake

Hanoi has many beautiful lakes and parks situated throughout the city. We took the opportunity to visit Westlake with our friends - Matt & Amanda and their daughter Kate. The lake is gorgeous and provides an interesting juxtopisition of the old vs new Vietnam. Development around the lake is coming like it does to all beautiful places. New hotels and residences are beginning to rise along the edges of the lake on top of the old shacks and small fishing outposts. The lake has one of the fun Hanoi pasttimes of paddle boats in the shape of large geese. We went out on one and had a lot of fun before Chris' legs could no longer take the peddling on an apparatus made for legs 6-12 inches shorter.

I must say some of the development here is beautiful. The form must follow function and the only function I can imagine is staying cool and taking up what little land there is as much as possible. All of the buildings are made of concrete and are typically 3-4 stories tall. They are one room wide and maybe two normal rooms deep in most cases. The front and rear of the dwelling usually has large windows, doors, and patios on various levels while the sides are typically devoid of any openings or adornments at all. Some of the newer designs are painted in vibrant colors and look like something that would fit perfectly in Malibu.

We walked around one side of the lake looking at the sites including a beautiful pagoda. We also walked on side streets that obviously had not been visited by westerners in some time. After about a 1 mile walk, we ended up at a great coffee shop near the Sheraton that seemed to cater to travelers from around the world. It was lined with maps and most horizontal surfaces were covered with travel magazines and books. We also found a small shop that had water wings for Chloe which she has put to good use since.

Quynh remains very closely attached (every minute of the day it seems) to Heidi though she is starting to warm up to Chris a little. Chloe remains a fun playmate, but Mom is really who it is all about. Quynh must realize at some level that Heidi can be totally trusted and that she fell in love with her before she ever made it in person to Vietnam. As a family we are settling in to the normal rituals as we have had a couple of days with very little need for paperwork, etc., as we wait for Quynh's Vietnamese passport. The property is great and the pool is a hit with Chloe where she keeps trying out all of the new floaties that she is picking up along the way.

Beautiful Sights from Vietnam

Chris here -

Vietnam - what a beautiful country! We have had the privilege over the last week of seeing some beautiful sights in Vietnam. This is a country that an adventurous person could learn to love very quickly. The countryside ranges from beautiful beaches to mountainous jungle and everything in between. Everything is extremely lush and the sights and smells can at times be overwhelming to the senses. It is too bad Hemingway never captured this country in one of his novels.

The markets and shops are still primarily small establishments run by individual families and are a pleasure to peruse. The food markets are amazing with every kind of fruit, vegetable, and meat imaginable and noodle shops range from exquisite sit-down establishments to temporary sidewalk gathering spots. The sidewalk shops have simple stools laid out surrounding a lady preparing and selling noodles and roast meat from simple charcoal fired stoves. You get the sense these are the local's favorites and the ladies have been operating in their same section of sidewalk for quite some time.

The people have an easy grace to them brought on by living in such a hot and humid climate. It is not uncommon to see stall vendors and store owners laid out relaxing without shoes while waiting for their customers to come by. It is a lifestyle of primarily waiting and replaying similar occurrences day to day. Scooters are the primary mode of transportation and if good forbid suv's show up here the city would be nothing but one big traffic jam. There are few traffic lights and everywhere else on the roads it is just "go with the flow". It involves lots of honking and death defying maneuvers but seems to be very efficient for the adolescents and middle age men who seem to be the only ones brave enough to give it a try.

Well enough talking, a picture is worth a thousand words, here are some of the beautiful sights from the last couple of days. (Will add pictures later because our connection is bad.)

A Relaxing Day

We had a relaxing family day yesterday, and a full night of rest, so it was good for the entire family. We spent our time swimming, taking a long walk and going to the grocery school. We even found a few places to play along the way. We also had ice cream at Fanny's. If you have kids or even if you don't, it's a fun place to hang out, and the ice cream is wonderful. Chloe highly recommends the Bee Sundae.

Gabrielle Quynh is feeling more comfortable by the minute. Both girls are handling all this change with such curiosity and grace!

We'll post about our adventure at West Lake and the swan boats in the morning.

Learning About Gabrielle/Quynh

We still haven't decided what to call Gabrielle/Quynh. We may do what we did with Chloe and use both Chloe and Yao Yao with Yao Yao being the name we typically use inside the family. Chloe likes the option of using either name, so it's likely that we will do the same for both kids.

Here's what we're learning about Gabrielle Quynh:

Likes

• Being held ALL the time. She likes to spend every moment in Mommy's arms. She only walks if Mommy walks away for a minute, so she can be closer. We have read about how a lot of the kids will go to wait staff in restaurants, so their parents can have a relaxing meal. The wait staff try, but neither child will have any of that.


• She loves to play with brightly colored toys. This kid is all about books and toys. It's funny because Chloe came to us with no interest in toys. You can tell that Gabrielle has played a lot.


• Speaking of playing... She loves to play with Chloe. The only time I'm allowed to leave the room is when Chloe is close by. Gabrielle and Chloe are thrilled with one another. I can't express how proud I am of Chloe. She adored "her" baby, and is so glad that "she" adopted Gabrielle. Chris and I are the just the parents. They are the main event.


• Looking out the window. We spend a lot of time looking out the window and pointing at things.


• Just hanging out in the room and playing. She seems to be happiest when we're just relaxing and playing inside. That's when we get the smiles and giggles. We're going to take it pretty easy for the next few days to give her time to just get used to us. There's a lot to see here, but she's overwhelmed, and we want to respect her transition process.


• Rubbing heads, giving kisses, tickles, and just looking at one another. You can tell Gabrielle has experienced a lot of love because she's extremely affectionate.

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!

Chris here...

Most of the time adoption feels nothing like going through a pregnanacy, but then....you wake up on Monday morning to a call at 7:35 telling you to be downstairs in 20 minutes because unlike plans for the adoption to occur on Wednesday, Monday is now the day! Labor has started in a big way.

We rushed around frantically showering and throwing everything that might be necessary in a plethora of bags...overpacking is not a problem at times like this! Chloe helped along the way to chants of "I'm going to be a big sister" and we were off. We took a three hour bus ride through the Vietnamese coutnry side up into a mountainaous region. The countryside was beautiful and the people along the way were all smiles. We will save the beauties of Vietnam in general for another post.

Upon arriving at the orphanage two things became apparent - our new daugther was a favorite of the nanny and the nanny was the favorite of our new daughter. The orphanage director held her the whole time on a 15 minute ride to the local government complex where the actual ceremony took place and throughout most of the ceremony. We learned that unlike our previous direction - Quynh is actually pronounced "Quinn" and that was the name she went by in the orphanage. It is the name we will probably keep for her if we can change Chloe's habit of refering to her nonstop as "my baby Gabrielle".

After the official ceremony, we went back to the orphanage and dropped of the babies for a nap. This was very hard on the new mommies, but allowed everyone to take a breather over a nice Vietnamese lunch of fresh fish, fried corn (best thing ever), rice noodles, and beef with rice. Washed down with the local beer the meal was perfect and in a beautiful setting - seen in the picture with Chloe below.

After that we went back to the orphanage for about 3 hours of visiting with the babies, the nannies, and the other new families. It was time well spent learning the little eccentricities of the care the children were used to and getting recommendations on their future care. We finally got to hold Quynh at this point once she fell asleep in the nanny's arms. It felt great and Chloe especially loved holding her for the first time. Speaking of that, Chloe was perfect throughout the whole day and was super enjoyable to all the couples. She talked to most of them during the bus ride as she was definitely stretching her wings in the role of big sister!

After the ride home on which Quynh, Chloe and Chris slept the whole way, Quynh and her new family settled into the apartment to get acquanted. 13 hours of labor and we are a family!

PS - She is definitely a momma's girl at this point!

Having Fun in Hanoi

We had a great day today in Hanoi. We headed out this morning for a walk around the Old Quarter and happened upon a beautiful temple where one of the nuns invited us inside. The property was beautiful, and Chloe had a great time jumping in the puddles in the courtyard. When we returned from our walk, we met Ninh and a few of the other couples in our adoption group and then headed out to the pool for a bit. In the afternoon, we met up with Amanda and Matt for another walk and then a great meal at the Green Tangerine.

Early observations about Hanoi... First, the traffic (wow)... It's everything people write about and more. Crossing the street really is a dangerous sport. Second, Hanoi has everything you would ever need for your baby. Chloe likes to nap in a stroller, so we were able to find one easily today. We're finding that if you're a big stroller junky like we are, a stroller is usable in Hanoi, but you have to be able to lift the stroller up from time to time. Third, walking around the Hao Kiem Lake is a lot of fun. It seems to be the place to go for formal portraits. We saw a bride and groom being photographed and several others in formal clothes having their pictures taken.

We're adjusting well, but our body clocks are way off. Chloe started her nap around 3:00 (in the stroller), and she refuses to wake up still. It should be an interesting night when she wakes up at midnight. Chris just fell asleep as well, so it looks like it's lights of at 7:00 for us. With such little sleep over the last 48 hours, we've all been running on a combination of adrenaline and excitement. I think we're calming down now and crashing.

As a sidebar, it's amazing to realize that we are finally in Gabrielle's birth country. We keep reflecting on what she may be doing at this very moment, and we can't wait to enjoy the land of her birth with her in our arms. It's on Chloe's mind as well. She tells everyone we meet that we're here to adopt our baby.