Today ended up being a pretty busy day. We waited around our previous hotel until 11:30am and then finally checked out. The person at the reception desk was not very happy we decided to change hotels. She kept asking us why we wanted to leave and what the problem was so that she could correct the issue. She also wanted to know where we were going and how much we were going to spend a night. We kept telling her we just wanted to be with the other families from our agency. Then when she took our credit card she told us it was declined and wanted us to pay in cash. So Dave gave her an American bill but she didn’t like it. Then they wanted us to take two taxi’s to the new hotel rather than the taxi that looks like a mini van. Then finally the mini van taxi came and we were only about 10 minutes away from our new hotel. We are very happy we decided to change hotels. The other two families are here and the rooms are like apartments. We have a living area with a table and a kitchenette and a washer and dryer. There is also a mini-mart on the ground level of the building that has many staples.
Then we were contacted by our agency that the necessary paperwork from the Giving and Receiving ceremony were received and we could go to apply for Jacob’s passport. Since none of our paperwork has gone quickly we were expecting a long wait for this as well. It was only about a 15 minute ride to the department of justice and it took us only about 20 minutes to apply for all three children’s passports. These will be done by next Thursday. So we are free to site see until next week. Then once we receive the passport we have the medical exam and visa interview. This will take place on Friday of next week. Once we receive his visa we will be free to leave!
Now I feel I need to clarify Dave’s last post. Our children were not starving to death. I packed many items that could be made with hot water such as oatmeal, cup of soup as well as granola bars, peanuts and a few other snacks. But our children were not always very cooperative. When Emily asks to go out to lunch she is referring to McDonald’s or Wendy’s and for those of do not know her she can be a bit opinionated so she often chose not to eat any of those things! But this will definitely be easier for all of us!
Jacob is beginning to warm up to me. He still prefers Dave but he is slowly coming around. Yesterday when Dave went out to get more water he was letting me feed him cheerios. We were sitting on the bed and he would scoot away form me on his bottom and I would then show him the cheerios and gesture for him to come near me so then he would scoot towards me take the cheerios in his mouth and then scoot away again. Then this afternoon I was feeding him fish crackers placing the cracker on my nose to make him look into my eyes. Dave decided to try the hip hammock that we brought with us to carry him while we were out today and Jacob was so cute because he got this cute little grin on his face because he was actually attached to daddy’s hip!
Then we were contacted by our agency that the necessary paperwork from the Giving and Receiving ceremony were received and we could go to apply for Jacob’s passport. Since none of our paperwork has gone quickly we were expecting a long wait for this as well. It was only about a 15 minute ride to the department of justice and it took us only about 20 minutes to apply for all three children’s passports. These will be done by next Thursday. So we are free to site see until next week. Then once we receive the passport we have the medical exam and visa interview. This will take place on Friday of next week. Once we receive his visa we will be free to leave!
Now I feel I need to clarify Dave’s last post. Our children were not starving to death. I packed many items that could be made with hot water such as oatmeal, cup of soup as well as granola bars, peanuts and a few other snacks. But our children were not always very cooperative. When Emily asks to go out to lunch she is referring to McDonald’s or Wendy’s and for those of do not know her she can be a bit opinionated so she often chose not to eat any of those things! But this will definitely be easier for all of us!
Jacob is beginning to warm up to me. He still prefers Dave but he is slowly coming around. Yesterday when Dave went out to get more water he was letting me feed him cheerios. We were sitting on the bed and he would scoot away form me on his bottom and I would then show him the cheerios and gesture for him to come near me so then he would scoot towards me take the cheerios in his mouth and then scoot away again. Then this afternoon I was feeding him fish crackers placing the cracker on my nose to make him look into my eyes. Dave decided to try the hip hammock that we brought with us to carry him while we were out today and Jacob was so cute because he got this cute little grin on his face because he was actually attached to daddy’s hip!
4 comments:
These are great smiles! So glad to know that the kids weren't actually starving (I knew they weren't) But it sure is hard to not have exactly what they want. The food is my girls' reasoning for not wanting to travel with us!
Emily not eating...not much of a surprise.You now how she goes through those phases at home, not to mention when everything is so different. She'll eat. I feel like I'm stalking you guys, i'm cheking the website so often. I think we are all home sick for you. My kids talk about you guys all the time and are asking tons of questions. Olivia will say Jacob when she sees him in the pictures, but she freaks out seeing Emily. She said " Emily come here" when she saw her picture, it was so funny. She goes to the door and says "come on" like its time to pick her up from school. OK I'm babbling,have fun sightseeing!
I can't believe that we are looking at the same child! I have waited a whole year to see a smiling Jacob. We have seen the transformation from match picture to "with forever family" pictures for other families, and now it has happened to our Jacob! We can't wait to welcome him to his forever home.
Mom and Dad
Great news about the hotel move. I would have loved to stay at that hotel but we liked the Westlake too.
Glad to hear your little guy is starting to warm up to Mom. Have a great time sightseeing in Hanoi and getting together with the other two families. Such great fun :)
Post a Comment