Visa!

We had our second appt today at the Embassy and we are approved to get Ella's visa! We will be coming home as planned on Friday! Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

And Her Name Is....

Ella Autumn!

Update

Getting measued at SOS. She weighs 13.76 lbs!

nap time...she's a binky baby

Temple of Literature

Aiden on toy street aka Heaven

power lines. they're all like this.

view from our hotel room

looking out the window

We've had a very busy week...I can't believe it's been 9 days already! It's flying by! On Thursday morning we had to pack up all of our things and move to a different hotel for the night. We knew that might happen when we booked here because the hotel was full for that one night when we made our reservations. Anyway, we packed everything up, moved to another hotel and then had our first Embassy appointment in the afternoon. It seems that everything went well at the appt, but I don't want to jinx anything. Friday morning we moved back to our original hotel, then went to the SOS clinic for our medical appt, then Dan went to go get baby girl's passport. Now her paperwork will be reviewed in Ho Chi Minh City and we should (hopefully) hear something from the Embassy about our second appt late this coming week or early the following week. If all goes as planned, we will be issued her visa after the second appt and will be approved to come home.

We have been doing a lot of exploring in Hanoi this week. We visited the Temple of Literature and the Museum of Ethnology. We've done a lot of eating! Baby Girl (still working on the name!) is doing great! She is still a bit stuffy, but has had her course of antibiotics and is much better. Her skin also looks great...no longer rashy. She is such a wonderful baby! We are all so in love.

love to all!

Photos!!

Sorry, these are backwards in order. I have to remember to download them in the reverse order of what I want them to show up!

First bath with us

Aiden feeding her her first bottle with us

Baby Girl with her nanny

She's ours!

napping on mommy.

kisses from big brother

happy mommy!

There she is!

the orphanage (Hanoi orphanage #1 Dong Anh)

Aiden meeting the orphanage director

walking towards baby girl's room

On our way to the orphanage

We're Here...and We Have Our Girl!!!

I'm sorry I haven't posted until now...it has been a whirlwind the last couple of days! This is actually my third time trying to post! Our flights were great, except the legroom on Cathay Pacific coach is severly lacking. Dan (who is 6'4") had his legs touching the back of the seat in front of him with the seat straight up...with it reclined, the seat was completely digging into his knees. It was a rough 14 hours. Aiden was a rockstar!! (thank you Grammy Diane for the gameboy...the boy loves it!) We arrived in Hanoi after about 27 total hours travel time. The only mishap was that Dan left his coat (with his wallet) at the gate in LAX. The biggest issue with that is that in our paperwork of things needed to apply for baby girl's visa is listed a driver's license. It was a very stressful 9 hours until we emailed Cherie (our in-country coordinator) when we arrived and she reassured us that we don't actually need our driver's licenses to apply. Our hotel is wonderful. We have two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a full kitchen and washing machine/dryer (which we are still trying to figure out). The windows are floor to ceiling...and even on the 10th floor we can still hear the cars honking! Horns are an integral part of driving in Hanoi. The horn is just as vital as the steering wheel, gas pedal, and brake pedal. The lines in the road don't mean much here and street lights barely mean anything. Crossing the street is an adventure...we have a little celebration every time we make it to the other side safely! Such an adrenaline rush! Hanoi is really amazing....it accosts your senses with it's sounds, sights and smells. We are already in love with this city and I just can't get over the fact that we are here!
Now for the most important news...at about 6:00pm on Thursday evening (the first night we arrived) Cherie called us to check in on how we were doing. Dan talked to her and told her how wonderful it was to be here, but that we were not looking forward to having to make it through the weekend knowing that baby girl was so close. He told her we planned to go to Halong Bay (natural limestones about 3 hours from Hanoi) to occupy our time. She wished us a good weekend and told us she would be in contact with us Sunday eve to make plans for Monday morning. Christie, Dad and Aiden were napping and Dan went downstairs to explore. At about 6:30 the phone rang, it was Cherie and she said “I have a proposition for you, would you like to go get your baby tomorrow?” Thankfully for Cherie's ears everyone was sleeping so I couldn't let out the SCREAM of joy that was in me!!!! I said “let me see, Halong Bay...or our daughter...not such a tough choice!” She told us we needed to be in the lobby at 8am to meet Dr Hong (the in country doctor on PLAN's staff) who would take us to the orphanage. Cherie told us we would have our Giving and Receiving ceremony in the afternoon and apply for her passport as well. All of this would put us at least 4-5 days ahead of where we would be if we had to wait for Monday. This is when the true excitement and butterflies started! We were going to have baby girl in our arms in about 15 hours! I think I slept oh, about 4 hours that night.
We were a ball of excitement on our hour drive to the orphanage. When we arrived Dr Hong took us to the room where our baby girl was. There were about 10 babies laying on large cots. We'd already planned on Aiden getting to be the first one to hold baby girl. We went over and Dr Hong had has find her. Everybody was crying and we sat down and I put our sweet girl in Aiden's arms. A moment that I will never forget. She is perfect and beautiful and perfect and perfect!! Because we were the only family we had a good amount of time to be with her and visit with the babies and nannies. The babies are typically taken care of by 2 or 3 primary nannies, but all the nannies know all of the babies...and love them so much. They were all kissing and hugging her, saying what a good baby she is. She had two main nannies, but only one was there. I got to ask her what her feeding and sleeping schedule is. We could tell baby girl really knew her nanny...she kept looking at her and smiling. Her nanny changed her into the clothes we brought for her and fixed us a bottle to take with us. I gave her a big hug and said thank you and took some pictures of baby girl with her. Then we went upstairs to meet and have tea with the director of the orphanage. Then it was time to go back to the hotel with our beautiful daughter. We got back and had some lunch, Dan went to apply for her passport. Then around 3 we went to the Giving and Receiving ceremony. It was really special, but fairly informal. We signed the paperwork making baby girl our daughter.
I can't even begin to express what a wonderful baby she is. She is mellow and happy. I think in the three days that we've had her she's cried for all of 10 minutes. It's like she's always been with us, she is a perfect fit. She is a bit rashy, which we expected, so we are using the ointment we brought with us on her skin. We took her to the SOS international clinic yesterday because she is snotty and congested. She has an upper respiratory tract infection, so we got her antibiotics and cough medicine.
Aiden is in love with her. He loves to smooch on her and feed her. He gave her her first bottle. He is even helping with diapers (only the wet ones!) which is something he said he wasn't going to do. He has had some moments where we can tell that he is jealous and a bit overwhelmed....but overall he is doing amazingly well.
I promise to post pictures soon...I know that is really what everybody wants!!

Here We Come Baby Girl...part three

We received our final, official approval Sunday night from the Embassy in Hanoi! We leave for the airport in 20 mins...
next update from Hanoi!

In Limbo Land

After our agency told us that the Embassy was allowing families with set travel plans to travel, they were told that the Embassy was giving permission only on a case by case basis. We were instructed to write an email explaining our situation to the Embassy in Hanoi to get official permission to travel. On Wednesday afternoon we sent an email to the Embassy...and as of yet have not heard back from them. As far as I know, the other families from our agency that are scheduled to be in Hanoi by November 3rd have received their approval. I'm not expecting to hear anything over the weekend...but am hoping for Monday morning. If we don't get the approval by then we may still have to cancel and/or postpone our travel.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!