day one in da nang

we arrived in Ha Noi yesterday morning (wow was it yesterday?) and man it was hot.. seriously we in Florida have nothing to compare to this. we managed our way thru the comparatively small airport, looking for Ninh, our coordinator the whole time. we walked thru customs and there was Teresa, Audrey and Stuart!!!! So happy to see them! But no Ninh. it was one of those mixed feelings where i really just wanted to sit down with them and chat and get to know them, but at the same time looking everywhere for Ninh -- the possessor of our tickets to Da Nang. Finally we borrowed Teresa's cell phone and called him. he was on his way... good. we got to sit down and relax with them a few minutes.

Teresa handed me a disk full of pictures and videos.  great pix of the kids and that precious video of Emma humming! Well Ninh arrived soon enough and we talk for a few minutes. he tells us that he could not arrange any G&R's for Monday that they will be on Tuesday, 10 July. we ask what the plan is to return to Hanoi. and he says we'll be flying back to Ha Noi on Wednesday night at 7pm. we're too tired and exhausted to ask what we'll do all day on Wednesday -- presumably without a hotel room, but at that point we're not thinking straight.

Then off to the Viet Nam airlines counter to get our tix for our last flight of the very long day. We check in and they tell us we're over in bags and way over on weight. Ninh asks us what we want to do. well we don't know, but we're not leaving bags behind! so he talks to them a bit longer and settles on a price for the excess baggage. I ask Ninh (again) about letting us fly business class and wouldn't that allow a greater luggage limit (we're planning on paying the diff) but he says no and brushes it off. i still don't know what the problem is with that, but tiredness prevents us from pushing the subject. then the airline agent notices our carry on bags and says, nope there are no overhead bins so we'll have to check those in too. Huh? no overhead bins??? well all our electronics are there and i really don't want to check them in. even Ninh tells us to remove the stuff, but where would we carry it all? so Jeff says lets just check it in. and we sadly say (what we think is a final) goodbye to our stuff. we have 5 minutes to hug Teresa and the kids and rush off thru our last security check point off the day.

We head to the gate area and wait to board.  being a small airport, you have to ride a bus out to the plane. that was fun enough in 100+ degree weather : ) we get on the plane and guess what overhead bins!! Jeff and i look at each other and just say whatever! it's a short flight, just over 1 hour. we hit turbulence the last half hour. and finally all the exhaustion, lack of sleep, nerves, anxiety just get to me. i frantically look at the flight agent waving my barf bag and pleadingly try to let her know thru hand and eye gestures i REALLY REALLY have to use the rest room. she tells me no. i look at Jeff and let him know I'm not going to make it. so right there in my seat, three barf bags later, i finally feel a tad bit better. my main concern is stinking out the plane. that reflex action of you smell it you do it. but luckily no other signs of distress from the fellow travelers.

note from Jeff: he applauds me later on for being quite discreet in my vomitorium. apparently i was very quiet. and thanks Jeff for taking such amazing care of me! i love you!!!!

we land and i push my way to the front of the plane. I'm a little annoyed that they won't let us exit until all the bus class passengers have not only exited but walked down the stairs and entered their nice ac'd bus. but i make my way out and stand on the tarmac, trying desperately to get my legs back under me. i see Jeff just leaving the plane and he waves me on to the terminal. so off i go. it's luckily very small, and i find the one AC vent and stand there wobbly waiting for Jeff to come and deal with our luggage. thankfully everywhere we went we found those luggage carts so we gather our things and exit the airport and instantly spot our very friendly driver. he smiles then sees Jeff behind me with another luggage cart full of bags and says oh oh, he only has a small car. we manage somehow to load everything into the trunk and back seat and head off to the hotel. Jeff nicely enough lets me sit in the front and i do my best not to look around but keep my eyes facing front. it's hard to do as i really want to look around but each time i do the waves of nausea return. we see all the scooter and bike riders and trucks all going which way. they honk at each other impatiently to insist the right of way. we find it all amusing and never worry once about hitting anyone. it's kinda like a ride on universal, scary but you know you're in no real danger.

we finally arrive at the Sandy Beach, and let me tell you it was as beautiful as everyone told us. they took wonderful care of us. sat us down, while they checked us in. hand us more waters and get us to our room. The one image i kept holding on to was getting to our hotel room and just sitting down. i kept envisioning that and it's what allowed me to keep going. as soon as i got in the room, i instantly sat down on the bed and gave over to complete exhaustion. i don't think it was even a 1/2 hour before we were both in bed and sound asleep.

trying to kick into gear

Hey well it's Thursday morning.. i think??? and we just got up and are going to make our way to breakfast. exciting huh? well after so many hours of traveling it's about the most we can manage...

the plan is to stay here in the hotel today and relax and organize all our suitcases as it looks like some mad 3 year old has run amok in our bags.

oh speaking not of.. but Teresa gave me a disk of photos and some videos. in one of the videos Emma is lying on the floor singing/humming to herself. it's so sweet. will try to upload our pic later. after COFFEE

love to all and thanks so much for all the comments. we love feeling so connected to all at home.

made it to sandy beach, da nang

internet is sketchy so a quick note to post that we got to sandy beach. we slept most of the afternoon just had some dinner and will sleep some more.

saw teresa for the promised five minutes.

will update this entry in the morning.

we're in hong kong!

well we made it to Hong Jong. it really is beautiful here. got to LAX around 9:30pm last night. found out there was an earlier flight to Hong Kong, leaving two hours earlier. i tried to get us on that, but they just were not cooperative : ( the flight was okay. pretty hot for a good part of it. must be cutting down on air con (as the brits would say) we scored in the seating though. we got two seats in a 3 seat row. i urged Jeff to sit in the aisle seat, and me in the window seat. thus discouraging any fellow travelers from moving up to our row. it worked and we had the three seats to ourselves. we may be stuck in the cattle car known as economy, but at least we got one extra seat to stretch out on. we had some ugly turbulence right around the end which left us both regretting packing away our Dramamine. but Jeff remembered we had pepto and for me at least that did the trick.  we'd sleep maybe 3 or 4 hours then wake for a while then try to go back. so it was in fits and spurts. we're pretty wiped and still have two more flights to go. can't wait to check into the sandy beach and crash for the next 24 hours. oh but a long hot shower first.

will try to post when we get to Viet Nam. can't believe we're finally this close!

looks like we'll be able to make our flight!

okay we're at the airport in Orlando. after much stress and hearing the flights from Orlando to Dallas were later and later AND Todd finally calling us back and saying WHY AREN'T YOU AT THE AIRPORT TAKING CARE OF THIS.. ummm cause i thought that was your job!!! Then he goes on to tell me we will never make our LA flight if we wait to take this delayed flight to Dallas. our only hope is to see if American will put us on another airline. and that he said was only a 50/50 shot. great thanks for the vote of confidence! well the long and short of it is American agreed -- without any qualms! -- to put us on a non stop on United. at first they suggested a flight thru Miami then on to lax but i said nooooo. so we suddenly .. after 6 weeks of planning this trip, found ourselves running to throw all the luggage into the car, get dressed and head to the airport. the woman from American calls me back and says just as she was about to book us flights on United, United's system went down.  anyway we get to the airport, and i get our new tickets while Jeff parks the car and tries to manage the mess called our luggage. we meet up at United to find they do not honor the same rules as American. if any bag is over 50lbs we have to pay. well they're all over 50lbs!! but wait i cry, Cathay allows 70 lbs. too bad i hear back. so we decide to take our chances and proceed to check in. we get the mother of all things unholy and mean. when i tell her our original tix were on American and they did courtesy passage for us, she looks at me like I'm saying she has horns growing out of her head (which no doubt she does!) then she weights the first bag and it's a measly 53lbs. she complains we should have dealt with this before approaching her. so we drag all our stuff over to the side and weigh and re-arrange and re-weigh and finally decide we'll have two bags over weight but so be it! we get back in line and I'm totally plotting to snub this he-man, evil meany, no heart ticket agent... but luckily Santa Claus beside her takes us instead. we explain our ticket situation. no problem he cheerily says. he weighs our bags. it's 6o something pounds. he confesses they'll allow up to 52 lbs before they charge so why not reshuffle again and try to get all the stuff into one bag and only pay one fee. and he says take your time and do it right here. so we pull the luggage apart and weigh and move and re-weigh. we get three suitcases at 52 lbs and one just under the max of 70 lbs. i think we may have dropped a few things along the way as I'm not sure how we even managed this feat. but we paid a somewhat reasonable fee  and happily check our bags. Jeff and i were downright giddy at this point. no matter we haven't even made it to the plane we were just so happy for this tiny kindness. we skip over to security where of course we're flagged. those one way tix get you every time! no problem. we happily endure that. . so here we sit enjoying our tiny respite. our flight to LA is in one hour. we arrive in LA at 9:30, hours before our departing flight. I'm just so happy to make it this far!

flight problems

I called the airlines today and while we were talking she noticed that our flight out of Orlando was delayed 1.5 hrs. and that the connecting flight in Dallas was also delayed so we would make that okay. this means instead of a 6 hour layover in LA it would be a more reasonable 4 hours or so. thing is she also told us Dallas is a mess right now and we would be well advised to have our flights rerouted thru another city. but of course i cannot get our travel agent on the phone to help us! and to add to the confusion, the agent told us one thing, but the travel agency is not showing any delays so we don't know who's right. and I'm getting a little nervous about sitting here only to find out our flight was on time... so let's hope we get some returned calls SOON!

UPDATE: so we just found out our aircraft has not even left it's originating city, which means we won't be leaving Orlando now until sometime after 8pm and arriving in Dallas around 9:30 -- 3 hours late. they are trying to make sure we have a connecting flight out of Dallas. there is one that would leave there at 10:30 getting to LA at 11:30. that would give us just over 2 hours layover in LA. which with having to go thru LAX security, scares me a bit. but 2 hours i can live with. as a courtesy, American has upgraded our Dallas to lax flight to first class. let's just hope we get there in time to enjoy it! oh and two urgent calls to Travel Guru Todd AND NO RESPONSE BACK!!!!

it's raining outside and it's pouring inside

well, so here goes the truth. i'm so freaked out right now. not about the trip. that'll be fine. i've traveled plenty and know i can make do with just about whatever comes at me. i'm terrified about the actual, no going back, this is it folks, reality of the situation. it's one thing to intellectually accept the change in my life, but it's a whole other matter to actually go thru it. i worry about all those new mom things, will i know what i'm doing (nope) will i make mistakes (yeppers) will i freak out and want to run away (absoluteamente!) i worry about our kids and how they will adjust. will they have to endure racial slurs. will they ever feel like they fit in? will they always wonder about the family and life they left behind? it's all going thru my head right now, and what i wouldn't give for a kind voice to reassure me it'll be okay. i'm so scared and so excited and so worried and so... okay you get the picture. i have to thank all the incredible folks i've met thru this adoption journey. i know i could never have managed this alone. there are a lot of great folks out there, some home already with their kids, some waiting to know who their child is. it's a great community and often feeling like i was a single parent in this journey, without them, i would not have survived.

we leave in just about 24 hours from now. my life will be different. wow will it be different! i can't wait to see David and Emma for the very first time. i wish more then anything to sneak a little hug out of them. that will be torture to be so close but prohibited from any invasion of their personal space. while i'm sure complete strangers can walk in and they'd be all too happy to play and hug with, well we're not complete strangers, we're some odd and different folks that have to be observed and critiqued. so im picturing my little two pint sized munchkinlanders, looking us up and saying: "So you're our parents?"