The Best Laid Plans (Saigon - March 8 - 11)

With the help of all my wonderful friends here - both new and old - I took Molly back to Saigon on Monday afternoon. We moved back in with Susan, Quan and Uncle Howard at the Somerset. We kicked Uncle Howard out of his bedroom, and made him sleep on the bed in the livingroom. It's a great bed - in the middle of all the action - all those midnight, 2am, 4am and 6am feedings for both babies. Of course, we had to take wailing babies right past him on the way to the kitchen to make up the bottles. Of course, the two babies had separate schedules - we never woke Uncle Howard up at the same time! He was a great sport about it.

Molly saw the Doctor the next morning, and got a bunch of pharmaceuticals prescribed to deal with all her issues. The doctor found an ear infection in addition to the scabies bites, but ruled out a concussion from the bump on her head.

We had two whole days together, with Molly showing signs of recovery, and me administering the multiple doses of drugs and lots and lots of love. Then I got a call telling me I had to rush her back to the orphanage!

My adoption file had been sent back to the local police for more investigation, and Molly had to be in the orphanage for the police to do their job! It was absolutely heart-breaking to see her starting to recover, and think about taking her back where she would be bitten all over again. However, I realized that Molly was not legally my daughter yet - she still belonged to the orphanage, and was with me only with the Director's blessing. Plus, I didn't want to do anything that would cause any trouble with the completion of my adoption, so I made plans to take her back the next day.

We first had a follow-up doctor's appointment, then by the time I got back to the hotel to pick up my bags and head back to Ba Ria, Susan and Uncle Howard had decided to go with us, had packed themselves up within an hour, and were ready to go!

We dropped Molly off a couple of hours later, then our driver, Quoc, found me a nice hotel in Ba Ria, to be close to Molly. Susan, Quan and Uncle Howard continued on to Vung Tau, where I was supposed to join them the following week. The expectation was that Molly would have to be back for 4 - 5 days, in which time the police would visit the orphanage to do their report, and I could have Molly back when they were done. I made arrangements to take Molly to the orphanage every morning, and take her back to the hotel with me overnight. I could continue to care for her, give her the prescriptions she needed, and try to avoid more scabies bites.

It was a good plan, but sadly, the police didn't participate as expected.