So Cute I Can't Stand It

Molly has a new expression.  She has started wrinkling her nose.
I can't stop laughing at this picture!

Celebrate Adoption News From VT3

I just got an email from a waiting family whose file had been held up for a long time.  The hold up has been solved, and their file can move forward.  I'm so excited for them!  They are adopting a child from the same orphanage as Molly, so I know and love their child from my time spent there.

I'm so happy to have gotten the good news today!

Just Because I Can

And because Samantha has been asking, here are some random pictures of Molly from March 2010:

Homecoming (June 5)

We are home! The flight was good, and Molly was easy. She slept most of the way, as it was overnight for us.

There was a big crowd to welcome us home. Most of my family members drove up from the Okanagan to greet us, some of my friends were there, and 4 other adopting families were there with 3 of the babies who have all recently come home from Vietnam. One of those families came over from Victoria for the weekend.

We are blessed to have so many people that care for us!

Some of the crowd waiting for us to arrive

This is us on the monitor

Grandma and Grandpa meet Molly for the first time

An armful of gifts for Molly

Meeting Uncle Larry

Meeting cousin Deborah

The 'Fab Four' - Quan, Mylan, Molly and Ninh

The family came back to the house to celebrate my niece's birthday, as well as Molly's homecoming.
Happy birthday Janel!

Playing with Uncle Rob

Ron welcomed me home with a bouquet of peonies, and Lori left some lavender.

Loan

Beautiful

I don't know where to start to write about Loan. She is an employee of my Ontario based adoption agency. She lives in Ho Chi Minh City, and takes care of all the families who travel to the South to adopt their children. She speaks Vietnamese, English and French. She is warm and caring, funny and playful, professional and capable.

And Loan is also the glue that held me together here.

We liked each other instantly. We got to know each other in the van on the way to Tra Vinh with Susan and Uncle Howard, to adopt Susan's little boy. We had a conversation on that trip about what I was doing (crazy!) and I told Loan that I had promised in writing that I wouldn't yell at her out of frustration if my file got held up. We kind of giggled about that, but Whoa! it could have happened! Anyhow, she said OK, don't yell at me, but you can cry on my shoulder. Whoa, that did happen!

Every Friday night, as the weekend was looming, and the police investigation had not happened, I phoned Loan (she gave me a cell phone) and cried on her shoulder. EVERY FRIDAY NIGHT! I don't know what she was doing when I called, and I don't remember even asking if she had time to chat. I just whined. And she listened, and she comforted, and I carried on.

Here are some of the wonderful things Loan has done for me:

• The first night back at the orphanage, the arrangements hadn't been relayed to the staff, and they wouldn't let me take Molly back to the hotel. One phone call from Loan, and all was well.
  
• One day I left my purse in the van that Quy had picked us up in. I couldn't communicate my panic to him, so I phoned Loan, and she made everything OK again.
  
• In the first few days back at the orphanage, she came out to Ba Ria just to see me. She took me out for dinner, and convinced me to spend the next day in Vung Tau visiting Susan, while Molly was cared for at the orphanage. She was so right, both Susan and I needed a visit with each other then.

• She had plans with friends to spend a holiday weekend in Mui Ne, and invited Molly and I to join them. I'm kinda like work for her, but we went anyways, and had a great time!


• She realized that in Mui Ne, with Molly, I didn't have any free time to get out and explore, so she did some souvenir shopping for me, and brought me two lovely bracelets on the last morning! How thoughtful is that?


• She had to make all the phone calls to invite the guests to Molly's birthday party. I tried, but I didn't want anyone to misunderstand me. I wanted them to come on the right day at the right time to the right place!


• I casually mentioned one day that I would like to travel to Dalat before I fly home with Molly, if I could find someone to go with me. So, she invited some friends and came with me! Just so that I could see some of the country while I was here.
  
• I have already posted about how hard Loan has worked on my behalf to solve the hold-up of my file. It's so fortunate that she has such good working relationships with so many people in the adoption community.


• There are probably numerous other things she has done behind the scenes that I'm not even aware of. I can't speak the language well enough to find out!

When we prepare to come to Vietnam to pick up our children, we are asked to bring gifts for some of the key people we will be involved with here, including Loan. Well, a gift from me couldn't be big enough to convey the enormous gratitude I feel for her. So, I would like to be a resource for future families preparing for travel. I know a little bit about Loan's tastes, I know the shampoo she likes, and I know a tailor in Vung Tau that has Loan's measurements.

So before we left, I asked Loan to be Molly's Vietnamese Godmother. She brought over a cake the next day, and Kinh, Ngoc and Tam (Loan's boyfriend) came over to celebrate!

At the airport, when she was seeing us off, she bent over Molly in the stroller and talked to her in Vietnamese for a few minutes. I don't know what Loan was saying to her, I just assume that she was giving her god-daughter some good advice for her life in Canada.

I will take Molly back to Vietnam, hopefully often, as she grows up. I want to keep these friendships and relationships close to both of us.

Goodbye Dalat - Day 4 (May 24)

The last morning was simply breakfast and packing and hopping onto another bus for the 8 hour ride back to Saigon. Molly was an angel on the way home again - what a great kid!

And what great new friends we now have! Kinh was really funny, expressive, and loved Molly. If he wasn't carrying my baby, he was carrying my diaper bag.

Kinh bought each of us a rose at the market the first morning. These two were for Molly and I:
Ngoc was really good with Molly too. She could get Molly laughing great big belly laughs. She would play peek-a-boo with Molly and quote "I see you" from Avatar. Molly loved it!And dear Loan - the whole trip wouldn't have happened without her. She made all the plans, booked all the tickets and kept us all happy. Watch for my next posting for more on Loan. Dalat was a great trip! Better with my 3 friends, but I would recommend it to any travellers in the country.

Molly Rode an Elephant - Day 3 (May 23)

Day 3 started with a 2.3km cable car ride across a valley. The view from the heights is stunning.

It dropped us off on the other side at the Quang Trung Reservoir. The grounds above the reservoir house a pagoda, quarters for the monks and gardens. Again, it was a peaceful and beautiful walk through the area. The water was down a long hill, so we decided that it was lovely to look at from up above. Because, you know, if you go down a hill, you have to climb back up. My calves were stiff and sore from the previous day's walks.

The next stop was the elephants!

Molly rode an elephant!

She could have ridden an ostrich too, but Mommy is scared of those big birds. Plus, the saddle didn't look very safe.
After that we needed lunch and a nap, but we carried on in the afternoon. The first stop was a an embroidery house, which I have no pictures for, because cameras were not allowed. I had no idea what to expect - embroidered flowers on pillowcases? More handicraft shopping? No, there were works of art. Tapestries completely filled with thread, painting pictures of landscapes, people's faces, butterflies and flowers. The back-side of the embroidered cloth was as perfect as the front side. We wandered through 3 floors of work on display, then went out back of the building to see more. There were some artists working on pieces. I saw that the pictures were first hand-drawn on the cloth, then the stitches filled in the spaces. There were also some shops selling embroidered products, but they cost many millions of Vietnamese dong. Too expensive to consider. So, we left with no pictures or souvenirs, but wow, the art form is stunningly beautiful.

2nd stop was at the Valley of Love. Another large property leading to a lake, but this one was like an amusement park. There were fake statues of animals dotting the landscape, interesting looking boats on the lake, and even some cowboys offering a horse ride around the lake. We declined, but Kinh and Ngoc decided to go for a bike ride.

A quick break for refreshments, and we were off again.

Last stop for the day was the Hang Nha Crazy House. Nga is a woman who studied architecture in Russia for 14 years, then came back and built this weird and crazy 'art-installation' guesthouse. The rooms are for rent, but it's just too kitchy. We took a quick tour, and called it quits for the day. We were exhausted. I ordered room service, put Molly to bed and I think the others went out to see the night life...