I think I can write now!

Hi everyone!!!

Sorry for the shortness of the last post. It has been crazy the past couple of days!!

let me start from the begining - We arrived here at 12:30 AM Thursday morning (VN time). The flight was grueling!!!! We flew Korean Airlines - it was very nice!!! The flight attentdants were extremely catering!!!

The next morning we went to breakfast and met the other couple who were from our agency and our facilitator. We then went to apply for our Giving and Receiving ceremony. If you adopt a child in HCMC you have to apply for the G&R ceremony in person. We will not have our ceremony until next Thursday - Nov. 9th. Then we went to the orphanage to visit our children. Brenden was having his diaper changed. When we finally saw him we were overwhelmed! However, our facilitator told us that if possible we shouldn't cry because the Vietnamese don't show emotion and the nannies would be watching us to see if they wanted to give him to us now before the G&R Ceremony. Brenden was not pleased to see me! I think I scared him because I was so exited!! However, he loved my husband (of course) and went right to him. David held him the whole time and he just stared at us. A few minutes later the nannies took him and we thought that our time with him was over for the day - but they changed him and gave him to us to take home!!! We were excited, but shocked! We had just gotten to VN a little over 12 hours ago!!! When we took him back to the hotel he took a nap. I am sure he was completely overwhelmed - I know we were!!

After he woke up - I gave him a bath and then changed his clothes. He just laid on the bed for quite a while and looked around! His orphanage had an outbreak of scabies last month and he is still suffering from them. I brought some scabies ointment with me and I rubbed it all over him. I am hoping that it will help his itching! He looks so pitiful! We just tried to get used to each other the first day.

The next day (Friday), we took him to get his passport pictures made and have his medical exam. They told us he was 24 inches long and 16 pounds. he is very little for an 11 month old. We were told he was malnurished in the orphange - so we are hoping he will gain a good amount here. He has been eating like a pig! I am feeding him all the time. He is finally starting to show some personality and laugh. Our facilitator told us that becuase he stayed in the orphanage for 11 months and did not get enough attention - his personality has not had a chance to develop. We are constantly playing with him to stimulate his mind. He is soooo cute!! We just stare at him in amazement!!! We can not believe that God has given him to us!!!! he is perfect!!

Yesterday we went and did some sightseeing. We went to the Post Office, Notre Dome and the Palace. It was fun - but different with a child. I was so busy making sure he was ok that I really didn't enjoy it. I am sure that I will get used to having a child with me - but it will take some time.

This morning we met our faciltator for breakfast and she showed me how to introduce solids to Brenden. He seemed to really like papaya! She said that she thought he felt heavier than he did a few days ago. I sure hope he can gain at least 5 pounds will we are here.

She did have some bad news for us regarding Hanoi. The APEC confernce has caused the US Embassy to close down the week of November 15-20. We are expected to get into Hanoi on the 15th. And, she is not sure about getting us rooms at the Guoman - which is where we were supposed to stay because they could all be booked. Therefore, I am not sure where we will be staying - scary!!! She told us not to panick - but it looks at though we will be here every bit of 4 weeks if not more. While we are enjoying being in our son's birth country - we are ready to come home to ours!!! We miss everyone very much.

I hope I will be able to post pictures of him while out here. The internet connection we have in the room is very slow - so my husband isn't sur eif the pictures will download or not. Hopefully we will have time to do this soon!!

We are finally not feeling so jet lagged. We were hoping to get over that before we brought Brenden with us back to the hotel. We ahve been fighting to stay awake with him. reat news - he is a great sleeper! So at night we are abel to get some sleep. Just today we are starting to feel better! The food here at the hotel is good. Since we have gotten here we have just been eating breakfast and snacking for dinner. We are not ready to bring him out to dinner yet. We need a little more time to learn his schedule.

I will try to start posting everyday. Thank you to those who have been leaving comments. It helps to hear friendly words from home.