Visa Appointment

We just were notified that our second visa appointment is scheduled for tomorrow at 2pm. Thus, our visa for Iyla will be ready on Wednesday afternoon. We are trying to get our flight changed to Wednesday evening or Thursday morning. Hopefully, we will be able to book flights for one of those days. We love Vietnam, but are ready to be back home!

Sunday September 30th

Here is Iyla on Saturday night playing with one of her favorite toys-- her ball. Unfortunately, we will be leaving it behind when we come home. We will just have to get her a new one!

Iyla at lunch on Sunday at Mama Rosa's Italian eatery. The food is delicious, the prices are GREAT, and the wait staff LOVES Iyla!

Here is a different view of Hoan Kiem lake. We walked there after lunch and (more) shopping!

This is a temple as seen from Hoan Kiem Lake

After our time out on the town, we returned to the room for some playtime and some time spent going through everything that needs packing, etc

Here is Iyla during one of her FAVORITE games-- a cross between hide and seek and peek-a-boo. The game involves hiding underneath or behind a cloth of some kind. Where is the kid hiding?!??!

Here is step two of the game-- right before her favorite part....

Here I am!!!

Iyla trying on a hat or two....

Iyla and Mommy cuddling

Watch out world, here I come!!!

Saturday, September 29th

Well, today we finished up our shopping here in Vietnam. We met Jason and Dana over in the Old Quarter for one last shopping SPREE!! During our time here, we bought a TON of stuff for Iyla and a few special people. We think we did pretty well (notice the closet brimming with our finds)!!

After shopping, we had lunch at an authentic Vietnamese restaurant. This was the view from the place. We could not get over the fact people use the power lines to dry their clothes-- thankfully, they used plastic hangers instead of metal ones!!!

Here are Dana and Jason at lunch

Our new friend Ron at lunch

Here is their version of 'grilled' shrimp-- They still had their HEADS on!!! Notice the little hand at the left of the frame-- Iyla wanted a taste but she will have to wait for her next visit to Vietnam!!

Here is what they served with Ron's meal of blackened chicken. They literally served ALL of the parts of the chicken-- even the feet!!!

Visa News!

We were called just this evening by PLAN staff with the AMAZING information that our visa for Iyla had cleared!!! In fact, all six families' cases cleared at the same time!! YAY!!! We will be called on Monday with the time of our second appointment (either Monday or Tuesday) and the visas can be picked up the following day. What does that mean?!?!

Well, it means that we can come home-- as soon as we have that visa in hand. We will be looking for a flight on perhaps Wednesday or Thursday. If not, we will stay until Friday but we are GREATLY relieved that the visa has cleared and the stress is OFF!!!

It also means, that Iyla will be an American citizen as soon as we return to the U.S!!!

Very good news!!! :)

Friday, September 28th

Today, we visited the Temple of Literature. The temple was the sight of the original university in Vietnam. It was founded back in 1076. There were several beautiful gardens, pagodas, and buildings all over the peaceful campus. We greatly enjoyed walking around the park-like environment. While the Temple of Literature is right in the middle of Hanoi and hustle and bustle of town, it has a very different atmosphere. Here are a few pictures from the day:

Inside this building, several musicians playing traditional Vietnamese instruments presented a lovely show for visitors. We enjoyed the soothing, unique music and even purchased a few CD's to bring home. The musicians called Michael up on stage and had him in one of their hats- too funny!!

After the Temple, we headed back to the hotel for some lunch and Iyla had a nap. Later we had dinner with a few friends and are getting ready for a fun day of SHOPPING tomorrow!!

Wednesday Night and Thursday September 26 and September 27th

Wednesday night-- we had a bit of a PARTY over in Ron's room. Ron and his daughter Lily hosted 4 families for a fun gathering to help thank Cherie and Brian for all of their help during our stay. We ordered food from Al Fresco's and Ron had laid out quite a spread courtesy of the Citimart-- complete with cookies, chips, nuts, candy, etc. A great time was had by all-- a perfect night to relax and enjoy our Vietnam experience.

Thursday, we attended the Ho Chi Minh Museum. It has 3 floors dedicated to Ho Chi Minh's life and works for Vietnam. The grounds were GORGEOUS-- so tropical and lush. The museum had several very unique displays including this HUGE bronze statue of Uncle Ho himself. Surprisingly, we were allowed to take pictures of everything in the museum without being escorted out by the men in the military police uniforms. Very nice.

Here are a few pictures of various artifacts. The clock (in the display case) shows the actual time of Ho Chi Minh's death and it was housed where he was being cared for at the end of his life.

The lovely tea set was a gift for Ho Chi Minh from the people of the Soviet Union. There were several such displays throughout the museum.





After visiting the museum, we headed back to the hotel for lunch and swimming!!! Iyla loves the pool. Here are a few pictures of our little bathing beauty:

Thursday evening, we had dinner at the Kiti restaurant with Dana, Jason, Emilie, Connie, and all of the babies. This dinner marks the last for Emilie and Connie in Hanoi as their second visa appointment was TODAY (THANK GOD!!) and they will pick up Ellie's visa and head home tomorrow night!! Safe travels to them!

Tuesday and Wednesday September 25 and 26th

Tuesday we pretty much stayed around the hotel as we had two appointments. One appointment was for Michael to pick up Iyla's Vietnamese passport. The second appointment was Iyla's medical appointment at the SOS clinic that took place in the afternoon. Now, we wait.... We wait to be called for our second visa interview.... We fully expect it to take a week--- sometimes they come through earlier but we are NOT planning on that at all! In fact, I am preparing for the possibility we may even have to stay here LONGER. Well, we will just have to wait and see what happens.

Here are a few pictures from the last couple of days:

Iyla in the hotel playroom

Monday, September 24th

Our day began as it normally does with feeding the little one and giving her a bath in the duck tub (with small ducks of course!) As you can probably tell, Iyla is quite the water baby and loves her bath. She likes to splash around with the ducks and doesn't even mind having her hair washed.

After bath time, we get Iyla dressed in one of her many outfits and let her play for a few minutes. Here is Iyla with a dragon toy we bought her in the old quarter on Sunday. She is too funny with that stuffed dragon!!

Here is the look of a serial NON-napper. She fights naps and going to bed until the last possible second-- not a lot of fun. We really think she is afraid of missing all of the goings on....

Please Iyla, PLEASE NAP!!

Today was a fairly quiet day otherwise. We had our first embassy appointment which entailed lots of waiting in an VERY hot American Embassy building. When it was our turn, we answered the interviewer's questions and will await word from the embassy in the early part of next week. In other news, 3 of the 5 families (that had appointments last Monday) have cleared and some are on their way home as early as today (Tuesday). The other 2 are just waiting on their clearance--there was talk of some misplaced paperwork-- they should however, clear today or tomorrow.

Today (for us) Tuesday, Michael is set to pick up Ms. Gustin's Vietnamese passport at the appropriate office this morning. Also, we have our visa medical appointment scheduled for 1pm this afternoon over at the SOS clinic. Not sure what else in on tap-- but we are always pretty busy keeping up with Iyla!!!