All is well in Ho Chi Minh City

Well, it is almost 6:00am on Friday morning. Sorry for not posting until now, but we have been busy and wore out.

Wednesday-- Well this was a good day for all of us. One of the CHI reps took the families site seeing. We pretty much just drove around and then we went to see a Chinese Temple and then we went to the Museum of Vietnam History. We had a lot of fun. Then it was back to the hotel. Today was the day that we actually got Daniel's passport. It is his Vietnamese passport, so when he get home, we will not be able to use it anymore. Only one of us had to go get the passport, so I stayed in the room with Daniel. He was napping when Kyle left, and I did not want to sit here with nothing to do, so I decided I would wake him up. He actually smiled at me :), it was so cute. I finally got him to eat quite a bit. We have been worried because he has not been eating a lot. We were told that he may not eat or drink a whole lot for the first several days, but we were still worried about it. After his lunch, I propped him up on some pillows, and started tickling him, and he just laughed and giggled. I was totally shocked, I immediately got the video camera and filmed a little bit of him. It was not easy trying to tickle him and film at the same time, but I did not want Kyle to miss THIS!!! After a few minutes of tickling him, I thought I would try to stand him in the floor and see if he would walk to me without whining, and low and behold, he did GREAT!! I also got this on film. After just a minute or two, he decided he just wanted to play with a few little toys in the floor. About that time, here Kyle came in the room and was surprised at what he saw. After all this, all of the couples came to our room for a meeting with Thuy (our main CHI rep). She was going over our agenda for the next few days. The next step she told us, is to go to the CIS Immigration office here in Ho Chi Minh City. After our meeting, Thuy took just a couple of the families to a traditional Vietnamese restaurant. It was on the river and it was a very nice place. The dinner was excellent, and we ended up tasting a few different dishes. After we got back to the room, it was late and we were both so tired.

Thursday-- We went and had our CIS interview today. It went like we expected, just some questions about ourselves and then about Daniel. We met with the US representative of Homeland Security for no more than 5 minutes. So now, the only thing we are waiting on is our interview in Hanoi with the Embassy. It is looking as if this could happen on Monday or Tuesday. If this does happen, we should be getting home earlier than expected. Things have gone pretty smoothly so far, so I am hoping that this does as well.

We also went to the zoo. Daniel wanted to point at everything. He makes sure we are looking at what he is pointing at. We kept trying to give Daniel water because it was so hot, but he would have none of that. Finally Kyle poured some water in a bottle cap and pour it in Daniel's mouth. Daniel would then spit it out letting it run down his shirt and then smile real big. Maybe he got a little water. It was so hot at the zoo, we were all wanting to leave within 30 minutes. Kyle asked one of our CHI reps if she thought it was hot. She said, yes it is very hot. We had wondered if maybe the Vietnamese thought this was just normal feeling weather. They just deal with it better. When we got back, Deanna and Jason (another set of CHI adoptive parents) let us have a bottle of peadialite. Daniel drank half of it in just few minutes.

Daniel has been having some issues today. He has not wanted me what so ever except about for a total of a couple of hours or so. I got to feed him at breakfast, then while we were at the CIS office, he feel asleep and I held him. Also, I got to hold him at lunch for a little while and then at the zoo for a few minutes. When we got back from the zoo, he did not want anything at all to do with me. He absolutely screamed his head off when I tried to pick him up and console him. All he wanted was Kyle. Thursday night, Daniel discovered an empty bottle box. He investigated it for nearly 20 minutes, then discovered he could put his little cars in it. He then put cars in and dumped them out for over an hour. When Kyle was next to him, he would hand the cars to Kyle one at a time, then want them back one at a time and fill the box again. Then dump them out and over and over. He did this until eyes were nearly shut and head drooping. It did not take 1 minute for him to fall asleep on Kyle's chest.


Renee and Daniel at the Chinese Temple


Daniel feeding himself Yogurt.


Daniel looking at the elephant at the zoo.



Daniel and the empty box he played with for over an hour.