we can come home early!!!!!!

OMG OMG OMG!!!!! we just got a call from the agency to tell us we've been approved by CIS and that they moved up our SOS medical appt to tomorrow (same day we're getting the kid's passports) that our 2nd CIS appt is on Friday.. which means..... we pick up the kids visas on Monday and we can fly home Monday night!!!!!!!!

i just sent an email to Todd to see if he can book us on a flight home on Monday. we're so hoping he can get us out the same night. we're all so couped up here we're ready to get home and into our new routine and start out new lives together! wow we still can't believe it. i dont' know what's going on with the other families but I'm sure we'll find out more tomorrow. we were going to go to Ha Long Bay for the weekend, but it's not worth it to leave for the whole weekend and then attempt a 30 hour flight home. better to lay low here and maybe even do some exploring.

we went to see the water puppet show. got there about 15 minutes before show time but they were all sold out so we ended up taking a cyclo ride. the ride around the old market was kinda cool. it was odd to be in the middle of the traffic flow from this advantage. but as close as the calls seemed we arrived back at the theater unscathed. David and Emma both did fine on the cyclo. in fact David REALLY perked up when we passed the toy street. he's had his eye on some kind of bike, or scooter, or anything with wheels. Emma did find too, just as carefree as usual. with her being sick she's been pretty quiet and not her usual animated self. David did well at the puppet show. it was kinda long for them and they did their best to watch it. David went from the floor to my lap and back to the floor to my lap.  but he was good so he got a special toy afterward. we walked around a very short bit (the theater is right across from the lake)   We just sat there and played for a while.

Twice today David has looked at me and said" eat?" while gesturing the food to mouth action. (which is what i do when i want to ask him if he's hungry) i couldn't believe it. i asked Jeff, did he just say eat? he's been doing really well with the potty thing, although he has to cry a bit first -- just to see if we'll cave and take him to the bathroom. but the moment he comes out he's all smiles and jumping up and down and saying yeah yeah yeah. we make a huge deal about his big boy efforts. Emma even got into it too and tried to climb unto the toilet but we had to grab her before she fell in.