We met the baby!

Hi! We are in Da Nang at the Sandy Beach Hotel. I just came down to the lobby to update the blog and add pictures. When I plugged my camera in to the computer I got a giant shock! I guess they are not compatable, so no pictures today. My next thought is to take them to a photo shop I saw and have them put on to a CD (or maybe borrow someone's laptop!). Then maye I can upload them from there. Hopefully I'll have time to do that late this week.

Let me get everyone caught up on what's been going on! So much has happened since my last post. On Saturday, as I mentioned, we went shopping and managed not to get run over by any motorbikes. We went to a small grocery store and had real difficulty finding stuff to buy....our plan is to eat at least one meal a day in our room. We finally got a strange combination of things like ritz crackers and oreos (we're supposed to only eat prepackaged things....and there was hardly anything we recognized!). They also had formula, so we'll know where to go when we need it. After shopping, we went back to the hotel. We decided just to take a little nap around 4:00 PM and then go out to dinner for some real Vietnamese food. But then we woke up at 9:00 PM....so we just decided to go back to sleep and skip dinner! So tired....

But since we went to bed so early, we woke up really early! Like 1:30 AM! We had to get up at 3:00 AM anyway to meet our group for the flight, so we just stayed up. We took a taxi to the hotel where we were meeting the group at 4:00 AM. Then we went to the airport and took the 6:05 flight to Da Nang. We were so happy to have CAS's representitive with us to take care of everything....so much less stessful than doing it ourselves. We were then driven to the beautiful hotel....the Sandy Beach Resort! It is so lovely here.....like something you'd see in a movie. There are flowers and gardens everywhere....two swimming pools and beautiful ocean and mountain views. I can't wait to show pictures! It's so relaxing.

On Monday afternoon we decided to take a trip to the town of Hoi An (about 20 minutes away)....it's sortof the cultural "epicenter" of Vietnam and has lots of shopping. We saw a beautiful Japanese covered bridge and some old restored Chinese merchant houses.....we really needed another day to tour some of them! We also shopped a bunch...the market was so interesting! I bought some beautiful silk which Mom is going to sew up in to different things for us. We also got a really cute bamboo hat for the baby, some very interesting fruit, and a few gifts for friends & family. Then we came back to the hotel (extremely hot and sweaty). We swam and looked out over the ocean and ate dinner in the little open air cafe at our hotel. So much fun.

We managed to stay up until 8:30 PM on Monday night....yea! Then we woke up at 5:00 AM on Tuesday morning, which is really good because early morning is the only time it's (sortof) cool in Vietnam. At 8:00 we left for the orphanage. It is about an hour drive....an amazing drive. We went through countryside and saw people harvesting rice in the paddies with water buffalo and ducks everywhere. We went through small villages with thatched huts and bicycles everywhere.

When we got to the orphanage, the babies were brought out one by one. They all looked really healthy and sweet. Ours was last! They had to wake him up from his nap and he was so sleepy that he went right back to sleep on my chest! So sweet. He slept for about half an hour and I just snuggled him. Then he woke up and looked around.....he was a little grumpy and wondering who were these strange people holding him! At first he was very somber and quiet....he'd looke me in the eye and then look away.....After a while he got more comfortable with us and became more animated. Eddie "flew" him up in the air and he started giving us the most adorable open mouth smiles! By the time we left, he was looking me in the eye more and smiling a little. He's very interested in his hands and feet! He'll hold them up and look at them all the time. I think he'll really enjoy having some toys to hold and look at....I don't think he's ever had any! I sooooo wish I could post pictures for you all. We got some really good video, too.

We're hoping to have the Giving and Receiving Ceremony tomorrow and then fly back to Hanoi to get started on the paperwork....but we're not sure wha'ts going to happen. Our agency representative is going to visit the people's committee members and find out if we can do it Wednesday, or if we have to wait until Thursday. This last minute stuff seems weird to me, but I guess it will all work out! I really hope it's tomorrow.....otherwise we'll have to wait until Thursday to see the babies again!

I'll probably post again when we get back to Hanoi.....Thursday or Friday.