When we got to the center (without someone having a "roadside" incident -- thank you very much!!!) we saw Kieu right away. she was dressed in her "fancy" blue dress that makes her look like a Spanish princess. Chieu was in the sleeping room. when we walked in, he instantly stood up and went right into Jeff's arms! ahhhh. it was great for about 10 minutes. then every single child came running in and they were jumping and yelling and pulling and it was chaos. Chieu just freaked and started screaming. Jeff really wanted to sit alone with him to calm him down but the other kids would run over and touch and push and annoy Chieu in a way to make him scream more. then the nannies tried to "fix" the situation by scolding him. finally (thank god!) a stern nanny came in and shooed all the kids away. well away being 5 feet further out. then Jeff was able to sit next to Chieu and soon enough he had him calm. we laugh at the fact that our kids decided (very politely we might add) to have their individual meltdowns separately. so while one was hysterically screaming the other would calmly sit and play. the nannies kept giving the kids more and more treats and fruit, which did have the calming affect of distracting them.
the other two families, The NY Family and Amber and Jim, were in their own rooms meeting their precious ones. when we finally got our two to relax a bit we got them dressed. the 12mos dress i brought for Kieu was snug around her belly -- this girl has skinny arms and legs and a big belly! Chieu on the other hand, had his size 2T pants down by his knees most of the time. he's a true Ashton Male, no butt and no hips, but in his case skinny minnie arms, legs and no belly. the kid is thin as a rail but completely healthy looking. well we got the kids dressed and Chieu was loving his new shoes -- ones coincidentally matching Ba's. the orphanage director came in and she wanted photos of her, us and the kids. and we got to take some too, the first time as a family together (okay so this was before the G&R but let's not split hairs!)
The facilitator kept making us leave the kids to come to a ceremonial type room for the handing of the gifts. well we'd done that already on Sat, and what's more we want to be with our kids! so Jeff just kept walking out to see if Chieu and Kieu were okay. see he's a fabulous dad, he put his children before any forced protocol. I stayed behind and gave the director a photo album from another PAP family. (i took this time to ask about getting our photo album back, but i was told she wanted to keep it to show the birth family if they ever came looking for pictures. not sure how true this was, but heck if that's even remotely possible we'd love for them to see their children's new family) as we've been "warned" before the orphanage director is a bit of a... hmmm..... let's say politician and liked holding court. the vice director on the other hand i loved so much! but we sat in this miserably hot room and endured as much as we could. The NY family gave the kids these clapper toys which really was ... not the best choice. of course the kids loved it, don't get me wrong. but in those echoing rooms it was deafening. finally the male guard or caretaker, not sure, rounded up all the kids and took the toys away. that was a huge relief. we led our two wee ones into the playroom where they sat on this low swing. within seconds our little goofball Kieu was doing somersaults. she had this lolly pop in her mouth and I'm smiling at her and saying you're getting away with this now, but you will never do somersaults with a lolly in your mouth again! but she was cracking up and Chieu was cracking up too. I just want to say real quick i had every intention of taking picture of all the kids there. we were told we'd have an hour at the center, but that never turned out to be the case.. at least not an hour alone to do what we pleased
it was incredibly, horribly, miserably hot. i had brought two towels and Jeff and i were just mopping up the pools of sweat. we'd look enviously at the other families, the ones with kids NOT having meltdowns. they were so cool and comfortable looking. i was a soaking wet rat with my hair plastered to my scalp, no make up and desperately in need of a cold cool shower. ahhh, sometimes things don't work your way do they? from here we drove to the province court building. i don't know what it's called but it was an official building. it was cooler here and that was a momentary relief. momentary because Kieu had decided to take her turn at meltdown mountain. just before we left the center their nanny -- this one being one they were obviously attached to and she was very obviously attached to them, took Kieu from me and was giving her hugs and kisses. then i had to take Kieu and put her in a hot stuffy van and drive 15 minutes or so to the place. man this girl can holler. she screamed the whole entire time. now Jeff and i really wanted to sit down and just comfort our kids and love them. but Ninh kept insisting that some woman there take Kieu and leave the room. i was really upset about this, but i bit my tongue. this was the official signing of the G&R documents so i just did what i had to do. once again, Jeff would sit down long enough to sign what he had to, but then he was right there beside his little boy Chieu. Chieu loves his daddy.
the moment we were done signing the documents i walked out in the hall. there was the nanny holding Kieu. I walked right up to her and the nanny shrugged her shoulders thinking Kieu would not go to me. But i was not to be swayed. i put my arms right out and kieu came right to me! nanny was a bit surprised, but i didn't care. we went inside and the ceremony continued. the part where they have you stand up and shake each officials hand, and then ceremoniously hand you your child -- well that had me bawling! as everyone tells you it was fairly short and not before long we were headed out. Jeff, me and our two newly adopted chickapees! the drive back had Emma fussy but Chieu was glued to Jeff, and as long as Jeff was holding him, he was all grins. Jeff thinks it's hysterically funny that Kieu decided to throw up all over my new white dress at almost the exact mile marker where i had previously made my donation. but the rocking sensation of the van had her asleep soon after. once we got to the hotel we put her to sleep and Chieu decided to explore the toys i had laid out. he instantly realized that the suitcase was filled with more goodies and suddenly he had everything out. Huge Grins from him. we had shown him his backpack and Power Ranger toys back at the orphanage. he found the rest and was busy stockpiling his riches.
I had to finally wake Kieu from her nap and with a little fuss and a little whine she was up and for the next 3 hours they were laughing and playing and dancing and singing to each other. they would always play right next to us. and constantly look up to assure themselves we were staring at them 24/7. Jeff got great footage of them, and as soon as we learn how to cut these long segments down, we'll try to upload them. while the kids were playing Kieu got accidentally hit on the lip. she started crying which turned to wailing. i took her in to go potty and then Chieu out of no where starts screaming hysterically. they were feeding off each other's misery, Jeff took Chieu and i took Kieu and we went off in separate directions. she'd calm down a bit and look around, but then start crying again. i could hear -- across this huge property, Chieu screaming too. when we thought we had them settled down, we both went back to our room, but it instantly started up again. so Jeff had this great idea to take them to the beach. ohhh that man, he's so smart! as soon as we walked down there and sat down, they were quiet as a lamb. both nestled in the arms of their favorite parent. we managed to have dinner there, which we're happy to report they have good appetites, but Kieu is a big eater and Chieu will eat just enough to be full then it's play time for him. we met up with some other folks from our group and the kids did fine. running and playing together. Jeff took the kids down to the sand and boy what a fun new experience that was. they figured out how to climb up the wide concrete "rail" of the steps (about 4 steps big) and leap off into daddy's arms. i tried this once with Kieu but Me does not do this right and she had no problem saying Khomg to me (no). so daddy had to race to keep up with them as one would climb up and leap as the other would climb up behind. they pretty much barely avoided kicking each other in the head, but they did not care one bit. Chieu and Jeff had their first battle of wills when Chieu decided to climb the jagged rock wall. Jeff said Khomg so Chieu would keep one foot on the wall, not climb it, just keep his foot on it. we decided it was time to head back to the room which resulted in a major meltdown from Chieu. but Jeff just sat down with him, and waited it out. it took about five minutes but Chieu eventually realized dad was not playing this game. so when he settled down, Jeff said, You Ready? and took his tiny hand and we all walked back to the room.
okay Jeff is packing up since we leave here tonight and fly to Ha Noi. so I'll just quickly add bath time was a huge riot! they love love love playing in the bath. sleep was an issue at first, eventfully i got Chieu to fall asleep -- both laying next to each other on the one twin bed. he had two night terrors but we consoled him gently and he put himself back to sleep. okay gotta run! will try to post tomorrow... we have no idea btw what is happening, our facilitator has been awol and we all "think" we're supposed to leave here at 5pm.
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