BUSY BUSY

Well, we have been extremely busy since we've been home. Van had a lot of blood work, xrays and tests done on Tuesday. It took 4 nurses and about 5 pricks to finally get enough blood to run some tests on him. He is clear of everything so far and seems very healthy. We are still waiting for the results of one test that seems to take a little longer. Van had been wheezing, so he has been using a breathing machine for the last few days, he's not liking it!! He is breathing better, his first experience with KY crud made him sick I guess. Hopefully we can quit using the machine on Monday if he is a lot better. We went back to the doctor today and started his immunizations and got a flu shot. He just took some motrin and is sleeping right now. He is getting so busy, he likes to follow you around and he wants to be held more. In this picture he is sitting on Race bouncing up and down on Race's belly. We will try to change his name next week and then on to applying for his SSN and etc. We will meet with our social worker on the 16th for a Post Placement visit, we will do three of these in the next year and then it will be yearly until Van is 18. The reports from these visits will go to Vietnam and they help Vietnam see that we are taking care of Van and that encourages them to keep their doors open to Americans adopting their children. The laundry, lunch, etc. is waiting on me! He liked walking down the toy aisle in Target yesterday, he likes anything that play music. We tried to get a little Christmas shopping done and were able to mark a few names off of the list. We plan to get a tree next week, it will be exciting to see how Van responds to the tree and lights.

Julie

Thanksgiving Photos

Family Photo at the Park (it was very cold)

Van enjoying Turkey and Peas

Race grinning for the camera

Thanksgiving Contd.

We are expecting my parents today for Thanksgiving. They are pictured in the previous post. Those photos were taken at Huber's farm in Indiana, we had just finished picking grapes. This will be Van's first time to meet one set of his grandparents. Van will have his medical checkup on Tuesday and receive all of his immunizations, etc.

Thanksgiving

Lunch Time

The first two photos were taken at the park and the last photo is of Mama's Kitchen or at least that's what Keith called it. We ate there several days, too many if you ask me. A plate of food, which consisted of rice, a meat and a vegetable and also a bowl of soup (with greens in it) cost $10,000 dong or $.65 U.S. You couldn't beat the price, but it got old, very old. Keith enjoyed it the best. The ladies were very nice and would try to tell us what meats to pick out. She acted surprised when Keith wanted to try some of the odd meat dishes. The food was cooked over a burner on the sidewalk. The accomodations were a little lacking, the tables were children's plastic tables and chairs, your napkin was a roll of toilet paper. I hope you are enjoying the photos. We still have to readopt Van, apply for his social security card, change his name, have him checked out by a physician and meet our social worker for updates in the following months.
Julie

Our new family

Van has been with us a month. Wow, the time has went by so fast for the most part. Van just had his bath and Keith has him giggling over something in the bathroom. We took the boys to the playground today; Race was running all around with his buddies and Van was trying out the swing, slide and seesaw, he liked the seesaw best, but not real interested in any of them too much. We tried to take some family photos in the yard today, but it's hard to get Van to smile when you want him to.

Photos taken at the orphanage and yes the second photo is of a potty break

Van's Orphanage Mates that were adopted while we were there: Trinity-4, Noah-8 and Ian-14 mos.

More Photos

The first picture was taken at Cu Chi Tunnels-Tunnels used during the Vietnam war as we call it and the American War as the Vietnamese call it. The other two families adopted children from the same orphanage that Van is from. One family is from Alabama and the other is from Maine. Van is getting very attached, he has started crying if either of us are out of sight. He is also starting to feed himself and the floor. He is giving me a fit when it comes to taking a nap, he napped fine at the Hotel, but I guess everything is new again for him.

Hungry?

The boys

The Boys

Home at Last

We arrived home at about 4pm on Friday safe and sound. Race and Van were pretty jet lagged the first night. Race went to sleep around 4 pm and was up at midnight and played for a few hours then he and Van woke up about 4am. We put them to bed at 7 last night and Race woke up at 7:30 this morning and Van is still sleeping. Van is starting to get the Kentucky crud. We are going to try to take him to church this morning and see how he does. Van needs some immunizations, so we will keep him out of the nursery for a while. More paperwork-I received yet another packet to fill out for our social worker. We still have to change his name, get his social security card, add him to insurance policies and take him to the doctor for his shots, etc. We are going to download all of our photos and try to put them on a web album. We will try to put the album on our blog or tell you where you can find it. We made the big trip to Walmart yesterday and picked up everything we were out of. Van done real well and Race spent the day with neighbors, which he really enjoyed. Thanks again for all of your prayers and thoughts while we were in Vietnam.
Keith, Julie, Race and Van

Adios Vietnam

We received Van's visa and packet today. Our ride just showed up to take us to the airport, so I must go. We are headed to the airport!
Julie

U. S. Bound

1. Ignore the #1 & #2 I can't get rid of them. Our flight is booked! We are leaving tomorrow, Thursday night at 11p.m. We will arrive in Atlanta on friday morning at 9:45 a.m. We are flying standby from Atlanta to Louisville as the flight we wanted is booked. The airline said that there are several flights from Atlanta to Louisville and we shouldn't have a problem getting home. The only other option would have had us leaving on the 13th and our visas run out of th 11th. We are ready to pack up and head out!! Our families are not too far from Atlanta if we run into any problems. We are scheduled to pick up Van's visa at 4p.m. tomorrow from the Embassy in Hanoi, much nicer experience than the Embassy in HCMC. Tomorrow we'll load up on diapers, etc. for the trip home. We hope since we are leaving so late that the boys will be able to sleep and ourselves as well. Van has a lap seat, but they are supplying a bassinett for us. This will be an interesting flight!
2. Julie

Embassy Appt.

Our Embassy appt. consisted of looking over a form and signing about two or three forms. We are to pick up the visa and package tomorrow at 4p.m.(this is 99%). We are going to the airline shortly when our ride picks us up and we'll try to book our flight for tomorrow night or Friday! Wow, I can't believe we're about to come home. Please remember the families that are left behind as they have a long and hard wait ahead of them. I will update once our tickets are booked.
Julie

By the weekend

We are hoping to be home by the weekend. We leave at 1pm with 5 other families for our Embassy appts. We will probably be there a while since we will need to wait on everyone to finish. We have met several other nice families, it helps to have someone to share your joys and frustrations with. Most of the families here have children from the Hanoi area or North, they are so cute. Race is happy he is able to play on the computer a little. Our room was pitch black last night, which was a nice change from seeing and hearing the street lights and noise. We are planning to book our flight today and should know our return date this afternoon. We were told our airline only flies on so many days of the week, but we found out otherwise online, so we'll see what transpires. We are all feeling pretty well. We will probably do a little more roaming of the streets today. The weather is great, we are glad to not be sweating. The people here like to kiss Van on the mouth (gross)! They also like to hold him, which makes me a little nervous, especially when they want to walk out of sight. An older lady on the street wanted to hold him, but I kind of ignored her holding her arms out to him. It was too long and too hard of a journey for someone to run off with him.
Julie

Hello from Hanoi

Well, we made it to Hanoi about 11p.m. last night. The motel we were going to stay in was booked, so we had to stay in what's called a guest house. The room was large and it was $10.00, that's about all I can say. We are now at the Lucky Star Hotel, much nicer. I just had a bath for the first time in 3 weeks, although I did shower in HCMC. I even got the privilege of smelling some chicken (i think) cooking through the bathroom window. Also, I was able to blow dry my hair for the first time. Our Embassy appointment is tomorrow around 2p.m. and we should get Van's visa hopefully on Thursday. The problem now is that we need to book our flight 5 days in advance, but we can only rebook it once for free. We should be able to book our flight tomorrow after our meeting once we have a better idea of exactly when we'll get the visa, it is normally the day after the meeting. We are about to go and explore Hanoi. It seems quieter here, several degrees cooler and less people. Van was a little less than thrilled to get on the airplane last night. He calmed down after a while though. He fell asleep about 10 mins. before we landed. I don't think he's going to be a happy camper on the long flight home. There is a lake near by and going to check it out. Please continue to pray for us even though we think the roughest part is behind us.
Julie

PRAISE THE LORD

We just got the call a minute ago. Our Hotel is booking our flights right now, we will fly to Hanoi this evening. What a Mighty God we have!!! I will update asap.
Julie

Running in the Rain

It's Monday morning and hoping for good news today. We enjoyed the tunnels Saturday. Race really enjoyed crawling in some of the tunnels, I chickened out and turned around. It was really hot, small and dark in the tunnel (3 things I don't like). Race wanted to go through them again. Van went through one on Keith's back and that was enough for him. It was nice to get away from the city. We were able to see some country side, ride on rough rides and see a few rice fields. We kind od hun out yesterday. Last night we went to a restaurant with our friends by taxi. We went to this restaurant by suggestion of a Hotel. We arrived at the Restaurant and it was flooding. We were looking at the menu on the table and it was a little scary price wise. We decided to leave and our taxi had already left, so we stood in the rain most of the time waiting on another taxi. We tried to tell the taxi driver to take us to a certain hamburger joint next to a certain Hotel, but he took us to the Hotel instead. Finally he dropped us off at the KFC, so we settled with that. We walked home (Hotel) in the rain, the streets were inches deep in water and who knows what else. Someone was asking about the 8 year old that was adopted, he does not know English, but knows ma and a few other words, but gestures and gets his point across. It's so good to hear from so many people, please keep us in your prayers. If we do not travel to Hanoi today our Visas will need updating. We heard that updating these Visas should not be a problem, but I don't put much confidence in "shouldn't be a problem". Van is learning to spit and pull hair. We have a lot of work to do as Van is already pushing his luck! We know God is faithful and will have us home soon!
Love,
Julie

Hello Village Friends

Hi, it's Saturday morning and we are going to explore some tunnels that were used during the war. We are traveling with two families that have children from Van's orphanage. Race and Van are ready to play in the Village back yard. We miss our neighbors and friends. Van started walking for us last night. He is the typical Carnival Monkey- he was doing flips on the bed and walking on all fours last night. Race was laughting so hard that he started hitting his hand on the bed, so then Van started doing that. He is getting more and more active each day. We are so thankful for friends that are praying for us and even paying our bills for us. The little guy that was also adopted from the orphanage is close to Race's age and just as active as Race so that helps out a lot.
Later
Julie

Barbecue

It's Friday evening and we just returned from eating at a BBQ place with our friends from Alabama. We let the kids play at the park and at their Hotel this afternoon. We still are being told to "wait". Wednesday we went to the War Remnant Museum, the photos were pretty gruesome. Van got a haircut yesterday, he done really well. His previous haircut was pretty gapped up. We are going to some tunnels tomorrow morning with some other couples with our agency. We are doing better since we have friends to share this experience with.
Julie