Katy got approval!

I heard great news this morning from Katy that she is approved to go get baby Yen. I couldn't be happier or more excited for her! Unless I was going too... then I would be more excited. ;-) Barnabas said that the flight must be like labor because it was awful going thru it but so quickly we forget and want to do it all again.

Yenny, mommy is coming!!! Yippie!!!

2nd week home

One month ago today we met our baby girl. Where does the time go??




Last week was Norah's second week home so technically this is the 2nd and part of the third. Norah has been adjusting extremely well to being home, in fact, we really couldn't have asked for things to be going better with her. Her appetite is back and she is eating well and trying new veggies. So far the ranking goes something like this:

1. Sweet Potatoes


2. Sweet Peas tied with Peas & Brown Rice


3. Spinach & Potatoes


4. Carrots


5. Green Beans


6. Butternut Squash

She is 100% on Similac now as we finished off the Vietnamese formula today. And we are working on eating Rice cereal & Oatmeal cereal combined with the very sweet Nestle cereal from Vietnam. That stuff takes like vanilla cake batter!





I am continuing to torture her with constant photo sessions, she is just so darn cute! And now that she is sleeping 11-12 hours every night everyone is in a much better mood. (Laura - I have no idea how you did it for so long, a few nights without sleep had me ready to go back to work asap. ;-) Clearly, I was delusional. )

Below we are eating peas for the first time and meeting good family friend Karen, who brought kisses from Granny Janny and Papa NeNe. She also brought presents for Norah which we are very thankful for. Thanks Karen!!!

The picture to the left has Norah wearing a "I'm Level 71 in His Heart" t-shirt. This is a throwback to daddy and his W.O.W. addiction.
Today was a beautiful 75 degrees and after I got over my weather change migraine we all went for a family walk in the park.

Norah and I were looking at the fountain and the ducks. Then she tried to fly like a duck.

Flying is fun!

Then we came back home and watched daddy do yard work. Or looked at trees or dogs ....

And drooled a whole lot! Then mommy laid on her back and I puked on her face. (See how much fun flying is???)

Then miraculously she was still awake so we played on the exersaucer a while before taking a power nap.

Whaaaa? NO NAP!!

Enough playing FEED ME!!!
One more thing, we know that the Viet Nam program is going through a lot of changes and that it is very scary for the families still waiting for referrals and waiting to travel to get their children. We just want everyone to know that we are thinking about you and hoping that things work out the way they are supposed to. Everyday I look at Norah and think about how sick with worry I would be if we were still waiting. We are so grateful to have our beautiful girl. Big hugs to Katy who is still waiting to get precious Yen. I think about you both every day!!!

Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre

No trip to Hanoi would be complete without seeing a show at the famous Water Puppet Theatre. This company has performed all over the world. Hue took us to the theatre and then had to leave us to meet with us a few hours later, so we had time after the show to wander around for a couple of hours after the show.

We wondered how people learn how to ride the motorbikes--at what age, where they practice, etc. Well, here's the answer.

You're not really supposed to take photos during the performance, but we took our chances. The sign of a quality water puppet theatre are live musicians (some of the lesser ones use recorded music).

Norah was an angel during the show, staying very attentive and watching the show.

A word of advice. Be very careful and subtle when taking pictures of police and soldiers. I read this in something after we got back home. Luckily, this picture didn't land Dani in jail or anything drastic.

There was a temple near the theatre, but admission wasn't free. I was starting to get a little worn-out from the language barrier and foreign currency, so we skipped this one.

A huge video screen counting down to the 1000-year anniversary of the founding of Thang Long (the original name of Hanoi).

This girl was a little chatterbox and went on and on about how kind we were to be doing what we were doing for Norah, how children with her kinds of conditions need help and all kinds of other things. Admittedly, she was probably just wanting to sell us more stuff (which she definitely did).

Word of advice #2: if people come up with these contraptions wanting to put them on you and have you take pictures of yourself, DON'T DO IT! After we did this, they then wanted money for taking the picture. They followed us for about half a block badgering us. (The pictures were funny though.)

Tran Quoc Pagoda

One of the things I was really wanting to do in Vietnam was visit one of the many pagodas. While I'm no longer really a practicing Buddhist (one of the most impactful statements I ever read was "One shouldn't strive to be a Buddhist, rather one should strive to be a Buddha") Buddhist thoughts and practices still play a major part of my life. Being able to visit one of the oldest pagodas in Vietnam was definitely a highlight of the trip for both of us.

We felt a bit weird taking pictures inside the worship area itself, and they didn't come out well regardless.

Guatama Buddha.

Dani wanted to take this old lady home with us, she was so cute.

There was money all over the steps here. I couldn't resist adding to the donations. Shortly afterward, a random guy came and took some of the money, but not all of it. I assumed he was associated, somehow, with the pagoda.