Vietnam--Day Eleven

Well, today was a BIG day in the life of Camdyn. We had our interview and approval for Camdyn’s Visa and citizenship! She qualifies for a Visa which makes her an automatic citizen when our plane lands in Los Angeles.
We now have just three more days of Hanoi. Not that we are not ready to go home (especially to see the Bird), but we are very mixed about leaving. We’ve had a wonderful time here getting to know the birth country of our little one. When we started researching international adoption, we deliberately chose a country where we would be able to travel. Some people don’t like the trips, but I think this was essential in our journey with Camdyn. We’ve been through some of the most emotional times of our lives here in Vietnam, and I think this little lady has certainly been worth it. So, for three days we wait on one last piece of paper and we shop until we are out of our millions of Dong (Vietnamese money) and then we come home to more jetlag, unpaid bills, and kids not on any kind of schedule (why are we leaving again???).
Today we woke fairly early. We made it to breakfast at the hotel and then we took taxis to the US Consulate for our interview. It went really well and afterward we came back and played before meeting again to go out with the other families from our agency for a big celebration dinner. I cannot speak more highly of my agency. They have been fabulous throughout this process and we are so grateful for all that they have done to make this process easy and smooth. Tomorrow I am going for a spa day. Our hotel has a spa where a 2 hour treatment including 1 hour massage is $20 (start drooling jealousy now). I am going to indulge up to my ears in relaxation (I deserve it—I did just go through childbirth right?). Ok, so attached are some new pictures. One is of Camdyn’s boy friends from her province. She is particularly enamored with one little guy who we think was in the same room as her in the orphanage. There is also a picture of the three of us with our agency in-country facilitators (we LOVE these guys!). Have a great Thursday as ours is now almost over!

Vietnam--Day Ten

Wow, 10 days?? It really does not seem like we’ve been away that long (I’m sure it does to those keeping our son-lol). Today was a good day. We went to the Vietnam Women’s Museum and then the Revolutionary Museum. What we have decided is that Vietnamese have had very little of their history under their own command. They are a people who have been under another rule for most of their history. The other thing that we’ve decided is that in 10 years Hanoi will probably look nothing like it does now. There are many new structures going up with lots of high rise buildings being built. It’s kind of sad to us because the part we love about Hanoi is not that it’s a huge city (we could go to any city in the U.S. for this) but that it has old culture. The city still has street vendors and markets (remember the chicken story from yesterday?). The city has small shops mixed with larger and more modern ones. It would be a shame for the history in Hanoi to disappear.
Tonight we hung out in our apartment and then went to dinner at Highland’s Coffee. This place makes Starbuck’s look terrible! After dinner, Camdyn was pretty much spent, so we got her ready for bed and she drank her bottle and was out like a light. Let me just say that tub time is awesome. She is having such fun splashing and playing with her spoons. For a girl who never was in a bath her entire 8 1/2 months, she is a champion in the big hotel tubbie now.
Big Bird, if you are reading this, we’ve been telling Camdyn all about her big brother and how much she is going to love playing with him. Daddy & I were talking today about how our house is not Camdyn-proof and how we will have to come up with something quickly when we get home because this little lady cannot be contained.

Vietnam--Day Nine

Hanoi joke of the day Question: Why did the chicken cross the road? Answer: To be dinner. We have seen a tremendous amount of chicken maltreatment (no, please don’t call PETA--see photo of tethered chicken). First, a woman tried to sell me live chickens in a basket. I’m not sure what I was going to do with them. I probably should have just let them fly free. Anyway, today we saw multiple chickens with their beaks/feet tied to a tree or something and they were waiting their “turn” to be dinner on the street. There are MANY street vendors and restaurants where they serve Chicken, so plucking and cleaning them on the street is normal, huh? I know that in the US that chicken farming is no more humane, but it is hard to watch on the street. I guess I’m just a city girl trying to make it (and not thinking about where my chicken comes from-lol).Today was a busy day. We awoke really early and went to breakfast at the hotel early. Because she saw her new friend Amelia eating them, Camdyn had her first bowl of Pho (noodles) this morning. She played with them and had rice noodles everywhere. We will try to get a picture tomorrow if she eats them again. After breakfast, we had two diaper changes (yuck!) and then off to the SOS International Clinic for her Medical Exam for her U.S. Visa. She checked out really well. She weighed 17 pounds (not a starving orphan!). Her ears were all clear and the Doctor said she was perfect (which of course we knew). She will have to start all vaccines when we return to the USA. After the appointment, we took a cab to the Museum of Ethnology. We were very curious about Camdyn’s ethnic background. Vietnam is a land with many different ethnic groups. They have approximately 56 different ethnicity's in Vietnam. Camdyn is a Nung. These are a small group of people who live at the foot of mountains (in the valley close to the earth/rice). Her people are known to be honest and trustworthy. It was told to us that historically when a King or leader in Vietnam needed a trusty assistant/messenger, that they would seek Nung people. Also, we were told by the guide that Nung were “well behaved” people. We certainly hope so. Also, Nung families live in stilt houses and are Rice farmers. We are so blessed to have information on Camdyn’s background and to be able to share this with her as she gets older. After the museum, we went back to Koto for dinner and then taxied back to the hotel for baths and bed. Here are some pictures of Camdyn from first thing this morning. Check out her “chicken hair” as we call it. Enjoy!

Pictures from the Museum of Ethnology: Bicycle for transporting goods, typical Nung house and beds (notice the mats), and house common to Mid-Highland's of Vietnam.

Vietnam--Day Eight

Today was a great day. It was a little misty/rainy in Hanoi, but it didn’t keep us from getting out and about. Camdyn woke once again last night, but was much more of a restless sleeper. She would cry like she was a little disoriented, but when you snuggled her close, she did fine and would go immediately back to sleep. This whole co-sleeping thing is completely different than what we did with our first child, so it’s still an adjustment. I do believe that it’s perfect for bonding, so we will persist. Anyway, today we went to the Temple of Literature which was really cool and the neatest part was that it was the place where students would take their exams to be “Mandarins”. They would study in their provinces and through their lives and then sit for a 30 something day exam. Only 1306 students ever passed the exams, with tens of thousands taking it. Needless to say, the history and the place were really interesting. After this, we ate at a restaurant, Koto whose motto was “know one, teach one”. It is a restaurant set up to train young adults in Hanoi to work in the restaurant business. The students were amazing and the food was really good too. Our waiter was a 19 year old who had gotten out of an orphanage and started the program. They have a 100% success rate in employment of their graduates. It was really a cool program. I hope it lasts forever. The people in Vietnam are enamored with babies. At every restaurant the wait staff will ask if they can hold Camdyn. The first few days, she would get fussy if someone tried to take her, but now she will at least go to someone if she is able to stay pretty close to us. After lunch at Koto, we went to a trade market and then took a cab back to the hotel. Camdyn is finally starting to like the bathtub. It’s been her one thing she hated from the beginning, but we figured out if one of us gets in and then holds her at first then she is much better. She also loves riding in the pouch that we wear to carry her. She is usually out like a light within minutes of getting in it. We still think she is a pretty good baby. We should still be on par to leave Hanoi on Monday February 4th. We still have a few more “official” things to do, but we’re mixing that stuff in with the fun stuff. We’re off to try the chocolate tea tomorrow and hopefully another museum. We have bought our little Bird LOTS of prizes and we think he will be VERY happy with them. Goodnight from Hanoi!

Pictures from the Temple of Literature

Vietnam--Day Seven

Well, we’ve been in Hanoi for one week. It’s crazy because we’ve still got SO much to see. We got up this morning (Camdyn did great last night with only one bottle) and fooled around doing housework kind of stuff (bottles, laundry, etc.). We then took a cab to the Cyclo Restaurant which was great, but the best part was that it is situated in the midst of “Little Hanoi” which are the market streets. We went down Silk Street and Toy Street. We got LOTS of presents for our Bird waiting at home for us. We also got Camdyn some lovely dresses to wear this summer and for her birthday. We shopped a long time, walked home via the lake and then Camdyn got a bit of a nap. We went back out tonight to pick up something we had ordered and then caught a cab back and had dinner at the hotel. All in all it was great day. Camdyn seem s to be bonding great. A waitress tried to take her today and she grabbed a hold of me and just buried her little face in my chest (so sweet). Tomorrow we hope to catch the Water Puppet Show. We have to go EARLY to get tickets. Goodnight from Hanoi! OH, the funniest thing….somehow I think my bras and underwear have been stolen from our room. I am down to two pairs and we’ve literally looked everywhere. We’ve laughed because they ride scooters all over the place here and perhaps the maids just needed extra car covers (you will smile if you really know me).

Vietnam--Day Six

Today was a MUCH better day. Camdyn has been an absolute delight and it’s been fun getting to know her cute personality. Today is the first day that neither of us has felt swimmy or sick feeling from jet lag. That’s sure a nice change considering we weren’t sure what planet we were on through yesterday.
We figure about the time we get used to the time change, we’ll be heading back east about 15 hours. Camdyn is showing us lots of tricks. She can crawl, pull up, babbles dadadada, and today tried to let go to take steps. She does not seem to have any developmental delays, which is impressive considering she’s been in an institution for so many months. It just goes to show how what good care she was receiving at her orphanage. We will always be indebted to her nanny and the caretakers at her orphanage. It is clear that she was loved and cared for. We are told that her orphanage is one of the nicest in Vietnam. We run into other families with their babies from other orphanages and most have had scabies or rashes or been VERY sick. Outside of her normal baby crud and ear infections, she seems to be a perfectly healthy little lady. She doesn’t even have any diaper rash. We are SO happy about her care these past few months.
Today we woke early and went to breakfast at our hotel. We took a taxi down to the Hanoi Opera House and then walked to the Vietnam History Museum and then the Sofitel Metropole Hotel (where Brad & Angelina stayed—whew…) and then to the grocery store/mall and back to our hotel for diaper change and bottle. This hotel is amazing. We found out today that we can rent a water cooler with instant hot filtered water for $12 for the length of our stay. Up until today, we were boiling all of our hot water and keeping it in a thermos to make bottles. This little tip will make our lives ever so much better and middle of the night bottles much easier. Tonight we went with the other two couples from our agency to Bobby Chinn’s for dinner. It was wonderful and the babies were surprisingly very good. Camdyn ate her first baby cookie/cracker and looked like a little bird eating it. The boys in our group gulped their cookies down in like 2 seconds, and she just sweetly took tiny bites and made hers last the entire meal. SO CUTE!
Tomorrow we’re going to hit another museum and then go to have the kids little Vietnamese outfits made. We want to get her a little dress for her birthday and then Bird wants a “Black Ninja Suit”. We also want to find some other Vietnamese items for her nursery. We are discussing taking a day trip on Monday to Hai Long Bay with the other couples from our agency. I am a little nervous about a whole day away from the hotel with a 3 hour van ride and all day boat rides, but I sure wouldn’t want to miss any opportunity to see something so close since we’re here.
Outside of Hanoi (the other child update), our Bird has changed places. He left Disney and traded grandparents. We hope that he’s having a great time (we know he is) and didn’t wear his Mimi & Grampy out too much. We were able to get a decent phone card today to make calls, but he doesn’t like talking on the phone, so we have not had too much conversation. Maybe later. Well, we’ve almost been in Vietnam one week and look how much has changed. We joke that Camdyn is the BEST souvenir that we’ve ever brought home from a trip! It really has been crazy how easily we showed up here and legally adopted this child. I guess it’s really not easy considering how much paperwork was done last summer. In fact, when we got to the government building in the Province where we adopted her, they had our dossier/file and it was funny seeing all of our pictures and information in a little manila file in rural Vietnam. At least I feel better that all of that paperwork we did actually went SOMEWHERE!

Vietnam--Day Five--What's in a Name??

When we first got the referral of our sweet baby girl, we were very conflicted with choosing a name for her. Her Vietnamese name was what her parents had given her and we felt absolutely no right to take that away from her until she was ours. That being said, we tossed around a few names but deliberately did not call her anything other than her Vietnamese name until we went to court and she became ours. Well, now the time has come and we have gone through so much thought and energy to choose what we feel is an appropriate name for such a sweet and unique little person. SO, this is what went into choosing her name. First, we wanted her to have roots from many sides. We wanted something Vietnamese as well as something that gave her a connection with her new family. If you’ve ever read a Vietnamese baby name book, you will discover quickly that there are very few names that translate well into English.
To get to the happy choice of her name, the story has to get sad just for a minute. About a year and a half ago, I lost probably my favorite person (outside of my husband and child) in the entire world. My “Pa” was the world to me and I have so many deep memories of spending my childhood living next door to him and “Ma”. When his life ended, a part of my heart changed which will never be the same. No longer would I get a cell phone call just to know what the weather was or to ask “how’s it percolating?” He was a joy and a delight and nothing could make me happier than to honor him with naming my sweet baby girl (now his sixth great-grandchild) after him. You see, when I was growing up, it perplexed me that his name was just C.J. It amazed me that it didn’t really stand for anything. His legal name was just two initials. Though people speculated that it stood for Carl Jr., which was not his name. He literally was just the initials C & J. We think it’s about time that our family had another little “C.J”, therefore, our baby will be named Camdyn Jayne. We will call her Camdyn (maybe even CJ someday—especially if she’s a ball player), and I will always know that a big part of her is named after a sweet person who I loved very much. The coolest part about her name was that outside of the initials, her name has many different levels of roots. Her first name has my name mixed in it, and her middle name is after both of her grandfather’s names (rhyming and spelling). The other piece is that “Cam” in Vietnamese is a girl’s name meaning “little orange” and that means good luck in Vietnamese. All of these things put together, we feel like this is a respectful little name and unique enough for the person that it’s bestowed upon. We know it’s been a long time in the making, but we think it’s perfect for her and now that we know her we know that indeed she has been named appropriately.
So, if you want the big announcement, here goes: Camdyn Jayne, born in Vietnam, and adopted into her forever family on January 23rd, 2008.

Vietnam--Day Four--What orphanage??

This baby acts like she’s known us forever. She is such a funny girl. She has gotten such a personality today and she has been laughing and saying “da, da, da”. She pulled up and started crawling up the couch and she has been a sheer delight to watch. We went on to the international clinic and had her seen by the physician. She did have a double ear infection as well as a throat and upper respiratory infection. We got our prescriptions and hopefully in a day or two she will be feeling like a new woman. We are just enjoying having her. She slept pretty well the first night (bottle @ 8:30 then again at 12:30 and then not again until 5:30). We actually thought this was pretty good for the first night and for being sick. She’s not a huge eater, but tried to rip a French fry away today. We’re not sure exactly what she’s been eating, but we’re starting over with just formula and cereal for a few days. I think bonding is going really well. We went to the clinic and the Vietnamese nurse took her from me to weigh her and she starting fighting and screaming like a cat to get back to my arms. Once there, she relaxed and started smiling again. This is a huge step from yesterday. Oh, we picked a name. I will write all the details in my next post. Also, the little Buddha shirt was picked out by her big brother at the Lucky Kid store. WE wanted him to see her picture wearing this shirt. Lastly, of all the toys we brought, her favorite things are little disposable baby spoons. She gets really ticked if you take away the spoons. I guess if you live in an orphanage for 8 months, you get to be stingy with your new toys for a while. Tonight we went out for our first real outing (except the clinic) with the baby. She was tired, but we wanted to go to dinner with our case manager who happened to be in Hanoi (we LOVE her) as well as the other two families from our agency.

The restaurant we went to was a really cool place on the outskirts of Hanoi. The name of the restaurant translated to "The Forest" and the place had trees growing through it and served AMAZING Vietnamese food. We took quite a long taxi ride to get there. There are NO carseats, so we just hold the baby tight and hope for the best. The first picture is of the baby in her "pouch" with her Daddy. She is very comfortable in this pouch and slept through our loud dinner. All of the other babies were carried about by the wait staff. The people in Hanoi love babies. The other pictures are of the path going from the road down to the restaurant and then inside the restaurant.