What a weekend!

We heard back from the facilitator and he green lighted us to fly directly from Hanoi to Da Nang. this was a big issue with us for many reasons. first of all it's so much nicer in Da Nang (a coastal town) then Hanoi. secondly, we'll be in Hanoi for two weeks as it is, so why spend more time there? lastly we'll be that much closer to our kids and with any luck we can see some of the volunteers -- though not the kids.. that is a big NONO. but the volunteers can come up and we can visit with them and give them some money to buy all the kids fruit and treats.

I'm still nervous about the idea of just barely getting to Vietnam on time. I'm afraid the flights will be delayed. afraid I'll be so jet lagged that i won't have the energy to see the kids.  so maybe getting there 3 days prior is a very good thing. We're still planning on being there around 3 weeks. we figure the adoption will roll along nicely and we'll be done in 2 weeks, but the extra time at the head of our trip and tail end will be nice for sightseeing.  There are so many places we'd like to take the kids. so many things we want to teach them. (this is ice cream, it is very very yummy).  of course we also realize we can spend every day of our trip in the hotel. the kids might be too overcome by everything and will not want to leave the room. this is also good because I'll have the chance to sit right next to them and maybe they'll ignore me long enough so that i can sneak a little kiss or squeeze one of those gorgeous cheeks!

Lots of folks showed up for our baby shower and it was great showing off the kids rooms and all their goodies. we got lots of presents which helped a lot.


Dorky me forget to take the classic photos of the gift table and the pre-eaten cake. so i took this one picture of the face cake. we plan on freezing it and having it when the kids are here. really i just felt too weird cutting up their beautiful faces and watching someone eat it. yikes!