I've Got My Girl!!!

This may seem a little disjointed, it's excerpts from emails I wrote to family and friends, but I wanted to get the info on the blog for others to read as well. Just ignore some things that seem strange. I do have internet in the room now, so it shouldn't be a problem any more.
----------------------------------
Well, that trip was a nightmare. Not the flying part, I enjoyed that, the service was wonderful and believe it or not, the food was good too, it’s just soooo long. 23 hours in the air! Not including lay overs and time difference! I’m so tired I could puke! Got up early this am to go get Anah. We got there about 11, she had finished lunch and was playing. She is so tiny! She wears a size six and it’s loose in the waist, her legs don’t seem to be too short.

She ate a huge dinner as far as I’m concerned. A huge big bowl of fried tofu and tomato (recommended by the waitress for Anah). I ordered sweet and sour pork, it came with white rice, and noodles with chicken. All of it was huge! Anah then ate half a cup of rice, ¼ cup of the pork, and about ½ cup of noodles and chicken, as well as an orange juice! Don’t ask me where she put it!

Anah is beautiful. We don’t have to worry about her being shy, at least not with me! Already she’s climbing all over me, teasing me, but we are going to have to be firm with our “no’s” she thinks cause she’s cute and if she laughs she can get away with things. She is learning pretty fast though, it’s just all a testing ground for her. Did I mention she’s beautiful!? Lol. Her teeth are rotting in her head, we’re gonna have to bring her to the dentist even before the Medicaid starts, because they could be painful or cause infection. We at least need to make sure she’s not in pain from it and make sure she doesn’t get an infection from the rot.

She slept with the plastic rainbow slinky on her arm like a bracelet. I have to wake her up in a minute so we can go eat breakfast before we have to leave for our appt. for her passport.

Tell everyone to keep praying, I know it has helped already in her adjustment and transition, at least she hasn’t been afraid at all, which is terrific.
---------------------------------------
Well, we just got back from applying for Anah’s passport. It is all very easy really, at least on my part, lol, not sure how easy it is for Chau. He has been wonderful, so has his brother Cong. I am done for the day and it’s only 10:30am. Later today Anah and I will venture out near the hotel and go to the pharmacy, to see if I can get something for her eyes and a pair of shoes for her. If I see anything unusual that I want, I’ll get that too, otherwise I’ll wait for Sen to take us shopping. She will take us out either Friday or Sat., whichever day works best for her. I need clippers for Anah’s nails, they are long, toe nails too. She did well in her bath last night, she’s got some dry skin though, need lotion for that.

The converter must have got damaged during one of it’s many testings at all the airports! When I got here, it didn’t work at all so I changed the fuse, it still didn’t work, by then it was 1am on Wens. Am and I still hadn’t slept since 3am on Monday! I may have dozed for a couple minutes at a time on the plane, but literally that was it, because it was so uncomfortable and I think I kept stop breathing without my CPAP. UGH. I was almost in tears I was so tired. I felt like getting on another plane and coming home, just so I could go to bed for a week! So the first night I slept from about 1:30, til 7am when I had to get up so I could eat breakfast, pack everything for Anah and her caregivers and make sure I had the right paperwork ready. Chau called at 9am and said he would pick me up at 10:30. So I laid on the bed for about an hour, but didn’t really sleep because I was afraid I wouldn’t wake up in time. No alarm clock in the room, but they give me a wake up call each morning.

We drove an hour and a half to Bac Giang (sang) to the orphanage. When I walked in the room all the little once came up to me and tried to get my attention, very sad. It was mostly babies, 19 to be exact and Anah. The older children belong to another part of the orphanage, it is for deaf children, that’s who came up to me, but I didn’t know it at the time. The French are now running Anah’s orphange since the US is out of adoptions in VN now. The babies there are all going to French families, I was thankful to know they weren’t going to languish there. Of course, they are all healthy, typical children, no special needs or anything. I don’t think it’s the same for the deaf children. Of course, I think a lot of them just go there because they can’t go to typical schools, and their parents can’t care for them, but most of their parents/family won’t sign off on them so they can get adopted, it’s very sad.

We had to stay until 1:30, when the director would come back from lunch. After we sat in his office for a little while, drank tea, and gave him his gift and the bracelet for his fiancee, we left. I didn’t know where we were going, but apparently we had to go to the Bac Giang dept. of social services or something like that. We signed some more papers and then they brought us into a room for the ceremony. I didn’t have my camera with me because I didn’t know what was going on, it was in the car. They seat you at a big table with bottled water, fruit and cookies, along with Vietnamese beer (no, I didn't drink it), lol. You sign some papers, the “man” (don’t know what his position is), read things, Cong translated and I basically agreed that we wanted to adopt Anah and that we would always care for and provide for her. They asked if I had something to say, so I just said that I was thankful to be able to add Anah to our family. And that we wanted to keep her name close to her VN name, so we added the “a” and it’s meaning is= answer, because she is an answer to prayer. They seemed to like that. Of course, no one smiles, so it’s very hard for me to gauge things. I signed a big book and then we are done. Hand shakes, thank yous, and eating some fruit and drinking water, that’s it. We left to go back to Hanoi, Chau stayed behind because he had to finish up the paperwork, he didn’t get back until today. Cong brought us back to Hanoi, it was about 4:30 by then. Anah and I rested for about ½ hour, but I was afraid I’d fall asleep and not get up in time for dinner, so we got up and went upstairs. I told you about the food and Anah eating, well she ate just as well at breakfast this morning.

I tried to get internet in the room, no go, because the connecter that plugs into the computer, in the phone jack area is not the same as ours. After dinner, I passed out for about two hours, woke up at 8pm and went up stairs to the restaurant to try and get the wifii going. I didn’t understand what the lady told me, but apparently she was telling me that they DIDN’T have wifii up stairs, only in the lobby. So, down to the lobby we go. I couldn’t get it working, but after several different bell boys tried, eventually one got it working. So then I happily started typing and the computer battery died. Oh, did I mention that I tried to get on one of the two computers in the lobby all day, but there are a bunch of teens staying here for some soccer game or something, so I couldn’t get on! By 10pm I got on the lobby computer and sent out that first email….argh. So now, that is why I’m typing everything up in word and will copy and paste it into my email when I’m ready to send it. It’s also easier for me to do it this way since Anah is more content in the room. I think she’s still tired, she’s laying back down with the covers on. I know I’m still tired and plan on napping too in a little bit.

The staff are going to send up someone to look at the room connecter to see if they can get a plug adapter for the phone/cable for me. The staff here are absolutely wonderful! So helpful in every way. In the restaurant, trying to get things for me that they think Anah will like, fixing the converter, extra blankets, answering questions, anything and everything. Really a wonderful choice by RoseMarie and Chau! They will tell me were to go this afternoon when I want to go to the Pharmacy and to get shoes. I will take a hotel card with me, this way if I get lost, which I don’t intend on going far, I can give it to a taxi driver and he will bring me back. But really, I plan on making one or two turns at most! If I can’t find it then I’ll turn around and come back and wait for Sen.

I’ll have to tell you about driving and the sights later, right now I’m starting to get a headache and need a rest. It was so much better sleeping with the CPAP last night, at least I feel like I got some sleep and rest.
I lock the door and put the chain on, Anah hasn’t figured it out yet, so I’m safe, at least for now. I’ll write more later. Love to all.