Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

I sat down to check email I realized that today is a holiday! Hope everyone is wearing their green back home!

Right now John and Linh are both taking naps. John has a sore throat and Linh is just sleepy. She had a long day yesterday. We went to the Pottery Village this morning after breakfast. It was a fun trip- about 20 minute cab ride from the city but definitely worth it. We couldn't find it in the guide book, but the manager at Al Fresco's who is extremely nice told John and me about it the first night we went for dinner. I picked up a number of souvenirs. Beautiful pieces all hand painted.

This afternoon we are going to have a pizza party for one of the families that is heading home tomorrow. We pick up Linh's passport tomorrow morning, then hopefully her visa on Thursday. At this point, it looks like we will be in Hanoi until next Tuesday unless seats become available on an earlier flight. That is ok- we still have places to visit.

Yesterday morning we went to old quarter and walked around. That was our first time in that area. We went to dinner with the 3 other Holt families for a traditional Vietnamese meal. The day before we went to war museum and visited the most prestigious hotel in Hanoi- Metropole Hotel. I think that was the same day John went for weazel coffee. I was not brave enough to try it. He of course will try anything- yesterday he had street food and some street beer. Oh yeah- one day he convinced me to ride on a motorbike too. That was a scary 5 minutes. Those that have been in Hanoi traffic would understand.

We did buy Linh the infamous squeky shoes! Thank you Jackie for reminding me! The first pair of shoes lasted only a couple of days (we lost the one on the motor bike). So we went back to the little shop downstairs and I looked for a size 3 (yes the footprint we were sent by agency was not correct size- so the size 6 I bought back at home are huge) and I found a cute pair, tried them on and Linh started walking and squeeking. I said those are the squeeky shoes! She loves putting them on in the morning. Sometimes when she is fussy about getting dressed, I hurry up and put her socks on and then her shoes and she calms down.

I know- everyone is waiting for pics. Here are a couple. One of the other families here emailed these to me. We went to Cafe Smile (a restaurant/ cooking school for former street children) and John ordered creme caramel. I believe he had one bite and our little Linh gobbled up the rest.

I will try to download some more later. I know I'm supposed to be the electronic whiz in the Austin household but not when it comes to downloading from my camera. We have a lot of camcorder video too. At night we review the day of Linh laughing. It is fun!

Update Day!!

We received our update for Linh yesterday or maybe Tuesday (Obviously I have been a very poor blogger these days). I posted a couple of the pics (last 2). I didn't expect the update, but it is great to have more pics of Linh!
John has been claiming to see a smirk here and there from Linh but this morning at breakfast we both saw real, honest to goodness smiles! She even laughed. It was wonderful. Today is the third full day with us.

She has not been feeling well- we took her to the SOS clinic yesterday. Holt VN staff set up appointment and brought us there. She had a cold which we had been treating with meds from orphanage, but it turned into bronchitis. So now we have new meds which we started last night. She seems to be feeling better today which may be why we finally saw a smile. There are 3 other Holt families here. It is great to meet after communicating online for so long. We are going to get a group picture of the kids tomorrow morning.

We did go to Hoam Kiem Lake one day and to the prison aka Hanoi Hilton on Sunday. We hope to get out a bit more once Linh is a little better. The last 2 days we have really kept a low profile and spent lots of time around hotel. We are really adjusting to being parents. I have to say, by the end of the day, John and I are both exhausted. Last night we stayed up until 9pm. Woohoo!

We have gone to Al Fresco's 2 times - they have really good pizza which I keep bringing back to hotel- it is a great snack. Sunday we also went to Big C. It was overwhelming- so many people. I will try to be better about updating blog. Here are some pics- I know that's what everyone is looking for-

Its Wednesday

We went to apply for Linh's passport this morning. We are doing well. Trying to adjust to each other. Linh eats a lot and sleeps without any problem. She is wobbly walking but she seems to like it. I have some pics below- I know everyone has been waiting. Sorry it took me so long.

We are here!

We arrived in Hanoi last night. Today we met another Holt family at breakfast and then went to the Big C to do some shopping. We took it easy this afternoon and walked around a bit to familiarize ourselves with the city.
Tomorrow morning- we meet Linh!! I will do my best to post some pics.

We are going to Vietnam!!!!

We received the most wonderful phone call yesterday! We have approval to travel to Vietnam. We are going to meet Linh on 3/9/09!!!
We are still on cloud 9!

We have our flights booked, our hotel requests submitted, visa applications on their way, re- fingerpint appointments in process. This weekend I will work on a game plan for the next 2 weeks of what we need to complete.

We are going to have the best weekend knowing that we are only a couple of weeks away from meeting Linh.

And we received these photos of Linh that were taken just last week! Look at how she has grown!

Good news last week for Hanoi families!

Last week we found out another family will be traveling soon to meet their daughter. We are so excited for them! Congratulations!!
It is wonderful to know more children are being united with their forever families. It has been three weeks since Tet and already it is a good new year!

And we wait some more

Monday is Tet which means everyone in Vietnam will be celebrating the New Year with their families and friends for a couple of weeks. John and I had a pre Tet dinner last night at a wonderful Vietnamese restaurant. The food was delicious. The chef was born in Vietnam and studied in France so there is a French influence to the traditional Vietnamese food on the menu.

We have reached week 10 waiting for PC approval. Since there will be celebrations for the next couple of weeks in VN, we will not hear anything from Hanoi until after 2/9 when everyone goes back to work.

I guess I have a bit more time to finalize the list of clothes I will be packing.