New Movie!

Here's a new Lo video... Enjoy!

Movie #2...

So much going on, lots of new photos & video....we thought, 'why not make another Lo movie?'

without further what-have-you....

New friends, family &adventures

Nothing too exciting to report... Lola is doing great. She constantly amazes us with her ability to smoothly adjust to pretty much any new situation with ease. We went to a surprise birthday party a couple weeks ago, and a few people (probably parents) kindly suggested that we take Lola out of the room for the moment when everyone yells surprise; babies hate that kind of stuff and get scared, they told us. We guessed that she would be cool with it, and she was. Barely budged when 50 people yelled surprise and the DJ switched on the music. At this point, I think a bus could crash through our front window and she would calmly sit and watch it happen.

Lo has still had a little runny nose and gets the occasional cold, but is overall very healthy. She's putting on more weight and growing taller too. At last check, she was almost 27", and weighed 16 lbs, 10 oz.

Starting to say 'mama' and learning other new sounds. Oh, and we now have a full set of 4 teeth in front. It looks cute, but the 'fun' little nibbles on fingertips arent so fun anymore.

Still no crawling. She's working on it, and will get there soon. We are happy for her, but also fear what life will be like once we have to chase her. Its nice to know she's immobile right now.

Here are some photos:

Lo and her new B/F Mason

Cousin Jack and Lo

Cousin Zoe and Lola

Did this REALLY work?? All three cousins sitting still and looking at camera.

Fun in the sun!

Playin with toys makes Lo happy

Settling into actual "life" w/ Lo

Not sure if anyone is still reading the blog, but if so, here's another update...


Lola is still doing great. She is settling into a schedule now that the holiday chaos is over. She's regressed a little with her sleeping habits - we're back to one or two wake-ups per night, but nothing we can't handle.


Tal went back to work on Monday (1/7), which was hard for her, but its just another step back into reality. On Tuesday, 1/8, Mark and Tal both had meetings at the same time, which meant that Lola took her first trip to Day Care at the Wolfpack, an awesome home care operation run by a great woman named Ana.


We thought adjusting to daycare would be hard for Lola, but it turned out to just be hard for us. Lola immediately took to the gang -- new buddy Lucy, new boyfriend Cole (aka 'the bulldozer' for his clumsy, overpowering hugs) and a great little caretaker friend Nina -- she is 3 years old and takes on a mom role at the place; when Mark came to pick Lola up at the end of the day, nina helped gather Lola's blanket and toys, put Lola's hood on (it was cold) and gently pulled the cover over Lo's carseat. its an amazing gang of little people that will be a ton of fun for Lola.


Everything else is going well - she's had little colds, but evidently that's just what kids do. she's progressing every day. her little giggle has been expanded into an actual 'laugh' once or twice. she seems to be recognizing her role in conversations/interaction - she smiles if she makes people laugh, and listens intently when others talk.

Santa treated her well. as expected, she loved all her gifts but mostly enjoyed wrapping paper and ribbon and boxes. next xmas should be even more fun when she 'gets it'.

all for now.. here are the latest photos:

Glamour shot from the car-seat

Playing w/ uncle Andy & aunt Krystal

Uncle Andy took Lo to ger her first ink, a sweet full-leg tribal tattoo.

** Since we've got some very concerned feedback, we'd like to formally state that this is not a real tattoo.

Mommy says no tats until she's AT LEAST 5.

Lo and Mark on Christmas

Tal, Lo and Grammy

Lola's first trip to the Headlands.

Both grandmas, a grandpa and a santa hat.

Lola and Lucy at the Wolfpack day care. Ana (the caretaker) sent us this

photo to calm us since she knew Tal and Mark were a mess after

leaving Lo for the first time. Lola had a blast.

CBS evening news story aired tonight!

If you were not able to watch the CBS evening news, but you would like to see the story on Lola you can visit
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/12/10/eveningnews/main3603325.shtml

Happy Holidays!!!

Updates from the homefront

Hi all -

Just wanted to give a quick update on Little Lo, and her new American lifestyle.

Everyone is adjusting to our new lives together. Tallia and Mark are doing pretty good. We are a bit tired and have a little cabin-fever. Its such a production to 'go out' that we find ourselves staying in pretty much all the time, unless we NEED something. and even then, we try our best to put off any excursions until the last minute so we can consolidate everything into one trip.

Lola is doing even better. We're hesitant to really describe how good she's doing, so as to make sure we don't jinx something. Really, though, we have been SO fortunate with everything about her. As far as we and our pediatrician can tell, she is in great health. She's eating really well and now is only getting up once or twice a night. Last night she slept from about 9:15 until 6:30. No complaints there.

Her sleeping and medical ease is overshadowed by her insanely easygoing personality. We've taken her out to a couple work events and holiday gatherings, restaurants, shopping trips, etc. She handles it all with no problems. Loves meeting new people, sits politely at dinner tables, doesnt fuss or cry or anything, so long as we keep the bottle ready.

I'd love to chalk it up to our awesome parenting, but we know that its just a combination of luck and her previous life experience in the orphanage. The orphanage setting (we think) taught her the magic of good manners -- being quiet and cute gets you a lot more than the opposite. Plus, she's not weirded out by odd noises and can sleep through pretty much anything.

Of course, we KNOW that a day will come when she is a screaming, wild, terror-diva, but for now we are enjoying it and soaking up as many long nights of sleep as we can.

This has been such an incredible journey. We've finally had time and energy to start looking back and reflecting on the whole thing. Its pretty incredible, but for now we're all just super happy and enjoying each other.

We're taking Lo to see Santa today. So far, she's been pretty unimpressed by Christmas, although the blinking lights on the tree are pretty popular.

We owe many of you call-backs and return emails, and we are super sorry that we've been unable to respond to everything so far. Please dont take it personally -- you are just as important as that dirty diaper; its just that when we have to choose which one to tend to, one option leaves our home smelling like soy-formula 'waste' and one doesnt. You do the math. We promise to get back to all of you soon.

*********Please check us out on the CBS evening news with Katie Couric TONIGHT. It runs at 5:30 on the West Coast, and later in other areas. Check your local listings, as they say.**********

Lots of love from our home to yours. And happy holidays.

Here are some new photos...

Lola practices 'sitting up' in her room

Three great additions to our home: Lola, the boppy and the taggy blanket. Thanks to Vietnam, Sam and Townsleys

3 weeks in California, she already loves sunbathing. (For all you parents, and others with general common sense: yes, this was a staged shot and no, we did not let Lola sunbathe.)

"My daquiri is melted and I still havent seen that Caprese I ordered. If I don't see that pool boy in the next two minutes, I am calling a manager."

Learning to stand. Crawling may not be in the cards - seems much more interested in getting up on two feet. We'll see.

The new look we're learning; cool and unaffected. Total Marin snob already. (Note a jealous Bosco sulking in the distance. Life is hard w/ a little human sister)

Marin IJ

Today's Marin IJ has a very nice story on the adoption.

It is on the front page of the online version today: marinij.com

After today (Wednesday), it will be available here.

New photos from home

We're all having a nice time settling in at home. Lola seems to be feeling better and now is sleeping for most of the night -- just one or two wake-ups, which is totally managable.

The dogs and Lo have now been introduced, and everyone seems pretty cool with the new arrangement. Lola thinks they're OK and isn't scared or bothered by them at all. Bosco might be a tad jealous, but generally is doing well with her. Pali has a not-so-bright look on her face (as usual) and has impressed us greatly with how gentle she is around Lola, since she is usally a zany freak and jumps on new people.

Here are some new photos:

Lola's hair seems to be growing fast here in the US. must be the shampoo.

(OK, not new hair, Bosco is taking a nap on her head)

Grandma Toni and Lo

Dueling Grannies

Uncle Mike knows how to become popular fast - food.

Auntie Ang says hi to Lola

part 2 tonight

part two of the news story is running tonight on bay area abc news (channel 7), at 5 o clock. we'll post the link to the online story when its put online.

update*** The story ran tonight. Here is the new link:

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=local&id=5781115


here are two new photos -

Lola getting her Thanksgiving dinner. She also got one fingerful of baby-food turkey, even though she isnt quite supposed to be eating turkey yet.

(Dr. Chung, if you are reading this: sorry!)

Lola telling Cheryl Jennings "Thanks" for running her story

Real update

OK, the brain seems to be functioning again.

So, yes, we are HOME.

Walking through the door last night was an amazing feeling - the final steps of a long, hard and great journey.

Travelling went very smoothly - Lola was perfect on the plan. We built her a little 'nest' of blankets on the floor on the first leg of our journey, and from Taipei to SFO, she had a little bassinet affixed to the wall in front of our seats. She seemed to be very comfortable and slept for much of the flight. Even the people sitting near us, at the end of the flight, told us how good she was.

Before we left, we were told to anticipate the possibility of a long wait at immigration - possibly up to a few hours. Luckily, we were first in line at the 'new immigrant' lane. We nervously approached, hoping it wouldn't take too long. The immigration officer seemed nice and started flipping through paperwork. Quickly, we noticed that it wasn't taking any time at all. Even when he said "she wasn't put into the system properly", he just shrugged his shoulders, and put her into the system (go figure). That delay meant instead of 3 or 4 minutes at immigration, it took us all of about 7. Then, he stamped her passport and said, "its official, she's a US citizen." You can imagine how nice that was to hear.

All the worrying, waiting, stressing and anxiousness dissolved with one quick 'clunk' of the passport stamper. She's ours for good.

We're all home now, safe and sound. Visiting the pediatrician (who was SO helpful, answering emails from nervous first time parents while we were in Vietnam) later this morning for a routine check-up.

Thanks again to everyone that posted comments on the blog. The trip was very challenging at times, but getting on the blog and seeing comments from home was enough to keep us going. We literally grabbed the computer right after we woke up each day to see the new comments.

Also, thanks for all of the great presents that we recieved at the shower. Coming home last night and having EVERYTHING we needed waiting for us was so nice.

Here are some new photos:

Perfect little angel on the plane:

We don't look like much, but we are finally back home.

House-sitting & airport pick-up duty has its perks - Wags gets the coveted "first hold"





"What the hell was all that talk about a 'land of opportunity?' I've been
here 5 minutes and i think im going to be squished to death."

Lola seems to have Grandma Betsy's approval.

2 days before thanksgiving, Haley (who happened to be at the airport, leaving for Colorado) reverses out of airport security to come meet Lola for a few minutes! We hope she made it back through security and got home.

All for now. We'll sort through the ample stock of photos and post some more later.

Lots of love,

Mark, Tallia and Lola

home.

we're here, and it feels beyond great.

very tired, and not smart. hope to update w/ more photos and travel stories after doctor appt. tomorrow morning (everyone is healthy - just standard post adoption visit)

- - - update - - -

we just found out that the story ran on the news tonight. here's the link:

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=local&id=5776742

How do you say, "holy crap, we lucked out again!" in Taiwanese?

BYE BYE HANOI!!!!!!

The little Giants Fan!



We are missin our buddies! Lola and Bryce

We're halfway home.

We successfully got onto the plane in Hanoi -- upon arriving at the airport, we learned that if we upgraded to business class we would secure our seats to Taipei, so we snapped up that opportunity so as to avoid the stress of 'stand-by'.

Sure, it was nice riding in the fancy seats and sneering at the commoners in economy seats through our little curtain, but mostly we are just so excited to know that we are officially on our way HOME! (* note: if the sarcasm wasn't obvious, i should mention that we'll be on the other side of the class curtain on our next, longer flight. ho hum)

Little Lo's health seems to be holding up well, and she was fantastic on the plane. didn't cry once, no smelly surprises. i'd go on more, but don't want to jinx flight #2.

Once again, our joy gets deflated a tad with exhaustion from long days and stress, but we are super happy. can't wait to see everyone back at home.

we arrive in sf tomorrow afternoon and then visit the nice folks at US immigration (apparently this can take up to two hours!) one last time.

Once Lola's passport is stamped there, she is officially a US citizen and will finally be our daughter under U.S. law. We can't believe it.

again thank you for all the love and support and the wonderful comments on the blog. It kept us sane for 16 stressful days in Hanoi!

almost there.....

Love to all! Happy Thanksgiving!

P.S. Cheryl Jennings from ABC may run the first part of our story early so watch ABC Channel 7 for us every night at 5:00! :)

Lola can't wait to meet you!

What would kenny rogers do?

know when to hold 'em... know when to fold 'em....

we're gambling again. this trip has been one long sequence of irrational, risky decisions, so we figure, why stop now? we seem to be on a hot streak, so we're gonna ride it out.

Were heading to Hanoi airport and hoping to get on a plane with our stand-by tickets. hopefully the gods will continue to be amused by our lack of common sense, and will give us one last little gift - 2.5 seats on a 747.

we'll update the blog in a few hours -- either from Taipei airport with good news, or from some Hanoi hotel. cross your fingers. - mt&l

Just waiting for airline tix!

After weeks of being the subject of much talking, hoping, thinking and celebrating -- we finally have the Visa in hand!


Thao, a very nice assistant with our agency just delivered these from the US embassy. Feels great to have them in hand:

The mysterious 'sealed envelope'. We honestly dont know what

it is; just that we dont open it, US immigration does when we get

back to the states

Outside of Vietnamese Passport - looks like the Camera focused on

the pretty flower instead of the passport. oh well. you can

see it in person someday. you'll love it

Inside of passport.

Jack-pot! These things are like the Holy Grail in

our hotel. And Little Lo's got hers! So, so, happy to have this.

p.s. - Carol, if you are reading this, please tell Bosco and Pali hello and we will be home soon. we miss our little pups very much.

Reminding ourselves how lucky we are

"We are so lucky to have been approved."

That's pretty much what we keep telling ourselves as this trip gets frustrating for little things.

Lo has been having a tough couple of days -- started having trouble sleeping on Saturday night, then last night (sunday) she developed a fever and really seemed to be uncomfortable. A little Tylenol got her fever down for the night, but we took her in to the doctor this morning (monday) and they diagnosed an upper-respiratory infection and bronchitis.

It sounds bad, but that's pretty much par for the course with all the adopted kids in our hotel - they've all had it, but Lola's just came on later. So she's got medicine now to help her, and is finally getting in a good nap, which she really needs because she's had a really hard time sleeping.

For the first time, Little Lo is actually crying -- like, actually "im in some pain here mom and dad, please help me" kind of crying. For the first week, she'd given a token fake 'cry' when she wants to eat. We all know its fake, but since it seems to be working for everyone, we just go along with it. kind of like the 12 year old that still 'believes' in santa, since believing in santa has some nifty perks. anyway, the 'real' cry is pretty much the worst sound in the world; our heart breaks when it comes on, so we hope to get past this illness fast


Also, our travel plans aren't progressing as quickly (or, more specifically, concretely) as we had hoped. Its still possible that we could get home tomorrow, but we are relying on "stand-by". and by 'stand-by', we mean 'stand-by in the Hanoi airport with a sick infant'. good times. there are a number of back-up plans like flying down to Ho Chi Minh City and then to SF, but its time consuming to arrange - for some reason, the airline needs to contact the SF office to make changes, and the SF office is closed during business hours here. so its a lot of leaving messages and then hearing back 24 hours later. we're trying to be positive, but the possibility of thanksgiving in Hanoi is feeling moreso each hour.

finally, our Hanoi family -- the others in our travel group -- all leave this afternoon, so we're losing the local 'support group' that we've gone through everything with. we've all gotten to know each other well over the past couple weeks, so it will be hard to see them go.

With that said -- although there is a lot of stress going on, we still bump into other families here at the hotel that are stuck here indefinitely and not certain about their adoption status. All things considered, we're in pretty good shape and are so happy to at least know where we stand with Lola. She's our little angel for good, even if we are stuck in Hanoi with runny noses for a few days more.

We will learn more tonight, when our travel agent contacts the airline's SF office at 8:30 pacific time, 11:30 at night here.

anyway, to summarize, today has been lame, but overall we are super lucky and a happy family gettin' through it together.

Quick note

we heard from Cheryl Jennings that she is planning to run the story about our adoption on Thanksgiving day at 5:00 p.m. (in Bay Area) on Channel 7 (ABC). Tune in if you are interested!

A long but fun day

Words can't describe how much more relaxing and fun life after Visa approval has been. We are just beyond excited that we got approved and know that we'll be coming home soon. Just a great, great, great feeling.

Today, we got up early and headed off for a day-trip to Ha Long bay.

Ha Long Bay is a beautiful bay on the coast, about 3 hours from Hanoi. The bay is full of 3,000 little lime-stone islands that pop out of the water (see photos below). Our tour guide tells us that in Vietnamese legend, a dragon was sent from the Gods to Vietnam to protect the country from invaders. The dragon then gave birth to a bunch of little dragons (the islands) and left them there to protect the shoreline.

It was a long ride to get out there, but well worth it. Its a beautiful place - gave our travel group a perfect opportunity to finally relax for the first time in weeks.

Along the way, we were speaking with our Vietnamese tour guide who was telling each of the families what their baby's name means. After we went through all the babies, Tallia asked what her Vietnamese name meant, and Phuong (our guide) told us that it means 'a Vietnamese person that leaves the country, but comes back'. So it was fun to learn that Tal's return was meant to be.

Lola was great on the trip. She does very well in the car, and magically timed her diaper-presents to coincide with great opportunities to offload her stink-bombs. She dealt with the long ride, the boat trip, the cave adventure and being held by a number of Vietnamese ladies like a real trooper. We are very lucky to have her.

In other news, we heard from our travel agent that we are on the "wait list" for a Tuesday flight home, which would be ideal. He is working hard for us to get us on that flight -- we'll see what happens.

We will post updates on travel as soon as we can. Here's photos from today:

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....

Just got a call from our agency. our visa has been APPROVED!!!

we travel to the embassy at 2:45 today for the second interview (which is more of a formality) and should be able to pick up the Visa on Monday, and travel home soon after.

needless to say, our heads are spinning and we are ecstatic. we'll try to organize our thoughts and post something that makes more sense later, but for now we're just gonna sit and enjoy life.

thank you SO much to everyone that prayed, sent good vibes and thoughts... it helped in many ways.

love m&t

** update -- we went to the Embassy this afternoon, and its official: we have been approved. we pick up the Visa on Monday afternoon, and will hopefully travel home early Tuesday (or possibly late Monday night, but that's a longshot).

We are SO relieved and excited. We travel out to Ha Long bay tomorrow for fun, and it will be much better knowing that we will be back home soon.

Tomorrow night, we'll have photos of the bay to upload and might have a more clear travel plan. should be a very thankful thanksgiving!

Another day; no visa

No news yet... still TOTALLY within the normal time-frame, so its not "bad" that we havent gotten word. but, obviously, we'd love to get that call with good news. ho hum... making the best of Hanoi.

For now, here's some footage of awesome parenting.

No news yet!

No news from Embassy today.

We're expecting word soon-- our agency rep Thao is probably going to call to check in tomorrow (Thursday, VN time) with the Embassy. At the first interview, they told us to expect a decision late this week or early next.

Our hotel is full of families that are adopting -- so we all bump into each other in the hallways/restaurant and get updates on what is happening with other people. so FAR, we keep hearing good news around here...lots of approvals, and very few NOIDS (the dreaded 'notice of intent to decline', not the villain from 1980's Domino's pizza ads)

So we all have managed to stay pretty positive. Doctors appointment went well yesterday -- the Dutch doctor looked at her for about a minute; poked, shined a light, wiggled some limbs, and said "this looks like a very healthy baby." so that's good.

also, Lola was given her Vietnamese Passport, which is cool. however, the agency people have held onto that for us. so we cant take a picture of it yet, as planned, but its cool to know she has it.

All for now.... We will immediately relay news from the embassy once we hear something.


Only one new photo today: we thought it would be wise to slowly introduce Lola to terry-cloth hoodie jackets, so she doesn't go into culture shock when she gets home and sees mommy's closet. she seems to be doing pretty well - no apparent allergies or fear of this particular blend of terry, nor hoods in general. she will fit in well at 28 loma linda.

We have a NAME!!!!!

We know what you're thinking: "it's only been one week -- why jump into a name so fast? its perfectly normal to raise a human being and not give it the dignity of a name for months on end!!"

In spite of that, we have FINALLY landed on a name that fits. After cycling through the final candidates over and over, we agreed that the name that most perfectly stuck was Lola Elizabeth Bodenhamer. The "Lo" is the name of a river in Tuyen Quang, so we are pleased that her new name lets her sort of keep some 'water' symbolism to honor her original, Vietnamese name. Plus, we just think its pretty.

Little Lo seems to enjoy her new name, and probably just likes having a name. She was having a miniature identity crisis, but that's all over now!

Our excitement over having a name for her ALMOST makes us forget how bored we are getting here in Hanoi. There are little things to do here and there -- medical appointments, gatherings with the group, etc.

But there is a LOT of down time. Our room seems to get a tad smaller each day, and its not just because we keep hitting the "shopping district", although that doesnt help either. Everyone is really ready to get back to the US. Its getting closer to the time when we should hear from the Embassy, so we're keeping our fingers crossed for good news.

We finally found a restaurant that has that one thing - - 'good food'. Perhaps you've tried it? needless to say, the three-pack of families have eaten there a lot since we found it.

that's all for now. we hope to have news soon regarding the Visa!! here are a few photos from the past few days:

After a long day in the fields

Even her feet are cute.

We're not the only ones bored in Hanoi

Mommy rocking the baby

Lola and Bryce kickin' it

Ava, Bryce and Lola - the Three Musketeers (the 2 others in our group all came to our room for pizza and cards tonight. like the dorms, but cleaner. and with infants)

Bathtime fun -

Quick update

Hi all -
No new photos today -- lent our camera's USB cord to another fam in our group.Spent today shopping, went to dinner and had baby's first experiment w/ rice cereal. She got a little down, more on chest. Tomorrow, we get Vietnamese passport (still no word on the U.S. Visa) and visit the doctor.

thanks again for kind words and support - the comments keep us from going completely crazy.

being sick: bad for tummy, good for blog

Yesterday was a day of recovery -- still a little too weak to brave Hanoi, so we sat around the hotel room and passed the time with the "movie maker" program. hope this works... if so, enjoy the show. --m&t

Thanks Jon & Angela

Up and running with the blog/photos again, now that we're both feeling better (see previous post)

Here are a couple photos from our "Giving & Recieving" ceremony in Tuyen Quang (if you are curious, it seems to be pronounced "Twin Kwong"). One of the other couples that is with us took them for us and emailed today.

Also, a couple photos from around the orphanage.

We hope to be able to get out and see some of Hanoi in the coming days. Thanks to everyone for all the nice comments.

We are definitely in Hanoi

We're not in Marin anymore. Its amazing how casually a Vietnamese doctor can say a phrase like "Diarrhea Epidemic".

Well, we've both been pretty much dying the past couple of days. Tallia was given a fluid IV at the western doctor here, and mark picked up the bug a day later. Just an awful couple of days. We both seem to be improving now and its nothing serious, but wow... what a 48 hours.

Luckily, the illness was sort of staggered -- hit Tal first then Mark. This allowed one of us to be the 'parent' while the other laid on the bed waiting for the next trip to the restroom. There was a brief period when the sickness was hitting both of us hard -- of course, it was during our trip to the embassy for the huge, important interview.

It took everything that we had to get up for that interview, but we have the best inspiration ever. Although it was difficult, it had the feeling of one last little "test" for us -- and that if we could pull it together and do well, everything else will fall into place.

To make a long story short, the interview SEEMED to go well. It's actually very brief and simple -- none of the really pressing questions that we were told to anticipate. So now its done, which feels great, and we just wait for word.

Should hear the news sometime late next week... If we werent so exhausted, it would probably be terrible waiting so long for that news, but for now we are just happy to be done with appointments and get some time to relax.

Here are a couple of pictures from the pre-sickness. We'll try to upload more later today.

new photos from back in Hanoi

Ahhhhh

Well, we're awake. and totally overjoyed.

our little baby is insanely adorable. the photos didnt do her justice... huge curious eyes, long beautiful eyelashes, perfect little lips -- and on an on. she's just a knockout from head to toe.

she has a little cold or something that is causing her a tiny bit of discomfort, but other than that she is in great health. she's a little fatty -- no real concerns about proper nourishment from a visual inspection. no rashes, no pink eye -- none of the little issues that are pretty common in orphanages.

all in all, we are super excited. today she's opening up a little more -- smiling, voicing her little objections to the problems of modern living, etc. She really digs her little "ipod" toy and the mirror -- both fascinating. also, her food. she LOVES food. the nanny said, "she not cry, so if she cry, she hungry".

Speaking of the nanny, she was pretty devastated about having to give little Hien away. It was hard for us -- she held our baby for most of the day yesterday (while the other families all held their own babies) and was literally standing outside the van touching the glass (you know in movies where someone is in prison, and they do the touch-through-the-glass-in-the-visit-room?) and staring at us/baby as we drove off.

Then, randomly, we get a knock on the door after we get home. Turns out it is Lieu (the nanny)'s sister, who had also help care for our kiddo. She cried too and sort of let herself into our room and hugged and kissed and fed the baby.

All a little offputting in a way. You don't want to take a baby from someone that cares about her -- but Lieu was very clear that she was happy for us and Hien, and just asked us to send photos. Really, it's comforting knowing that she was SO cared for the past few months. All of the children at this orphanage were loved and treated like important little people.


Even the director of the orphanage, a funny little man called Mr. Lep (or something like that) was super caring and affectionate towards the babies and the kids around the Center. Culturally, he couldn't just "show" how much he liked them, but he playfully slapped at all their cheeks and said things in Vietnamese that would crack himself up while he looked down at the baby like a proud dad would. All very sweet.


The orphanage itself was a nice place, a run-down, but happy little u-shaped buidling complex with a courtyard in the outskirts of the city of Tuyen Quang - a bustling little Village in the middle of beautiful countryside just a few hours north of Hanoi. there were lush foresty areas and rice fields on the way up there, and spectacular mountains that seemed to "grow" differently than their american counterparts -- jutting straight up into the sky, with rocky point shooting off in funky directions. all very beautiful.

The day was long and tiring, but obviously good. Even the food at the luncheon was better than anticipated. BOTH of us ate a little of everything. Some of it was even bordering on "yummy", although none of it LOOKED very yummy. we were both very pleasantly surprised. Mr. Lep sat near us and made a good half-dozen "toasts" throughout, happily clanking his mug of Hanoi-made beer against Mark's mug and laughing at Tallia for wasting a good beer mug on Coke.

The ceremony was interesting, but more of a procedural thing than an exhilarating experience. We have video of that, so you can see for yourself when we have time to upload that.


The ride their was long, the ride back was longer. Lots of road construction going on everywhere, though its not entirely clear why they picked THAT particular stretch of road, which made for a bumpy ride. Luckily, our little one is pretty sturdy, so she slept through much of it and we didnt have to worry about her neck.

Today we're all learning a lot about each other, having fun, cleaning up some messes, etc. We will pick up her passport today (still no name. soon!)


Also -- GREAT news; heard from agency that the previous group of families that picked up babies from Tuyen Quang (our orphanage) got their Visas approved!! so that is a very POSITIVE sign. clearly, we're not out of the woods yet, but news like this is undescribably exciting for us.


That's it for now, i'll throw a couple more photos on and then have to get back to this amazing little creature.


thanks to all that are posting comments. we havent had time to respond, but we read every letter of every word and it makes us super happy to hear from you all.



more posts later if the time works out. keep sending good vibes for easy adoption.

Going to be fast (sorry!)

So the day was a success -- we have her in our hands, she's beautiful and perfect and sweet and we could go on and on with great things to say about her.

With that said, we left at 6ish, and just got back (i think its about 9 p.m., but it feels like 4 a.m.) we are super tired, so the heavy stock of photos will have to wait until tomorrow. For now, here are a few:

First time holding her -

Mark & Tallia and Lieu - our baby's caretaker - and baby. still nameless. soon.

Tomorrow, more photos and stories. Now, bedtime.

Love,

Mark & Tal

We're here, we're tired

Just got into Hanoi a couple hours ago. We are tired, and not very smart right now, so this will be brief.

First, some photos from the journey -

The "Hello Kitty" gate at the Taipei airport:

Noodle Soup -- its all we've been eating so far

(havent figured out how to rotate photos on the blog yet. after 30 or so hours of travel, i dont really care, either)

Tallia getting massaged by a blind man at Taipei Airport

TOMORROW is the big day (well, one of the big days that we'll have over here, but this is the best one). We leave the hotel at 6:20 a.m. for the ride to the orphanage, where we will meet our little munchkin.

I'd go on and on about how excited we are, but we're both just too tired right now to function enough to clearly write much more. (awesome sentence structure there!) Tomorrow night (that should be Monday morning US time) will be the good blog post - photos of us w/ baby.

keep praying/thinking good stuff -- we need beau coup Karma for adoption processing w/o any trouble.

lots of tired love,

mark & tallia

Think good thoughts

Scary few days...

Apparently there are families in Vietnam right now that are having difficulty finalizing their adoptions. US immigration is changing policies and there is an effort over in Vietnam to investigate certain orphanages/provinces to ensure that adoptable children were really 'orphaned' in a safe, legal way.

All well intentioned policies, but creating quite a headache for us and many other families -- some of which are already over there. Its a long story, but essentially we would still have the ceremony as planned, and be given the baby. At that point, Vietnam would recognize the adoption, but the U.S. would not, so we wouldn't be able to secure the Visa necessary to get her home. Of course, this could be specific to another province, it could be a problem with the individual families or children involved, or any number of things... so there's a chance that everything just sails along as planned. But we don't really know.

Although there is a risk that we could come home without her (temporarily), or that we'd have to 'live' over there for an extended period of time, we are still planning to go over there and just hope for a smooth adoption.

It could be the stupidest thing either of us have ever done, but we both think its worth taking this risk for her. Obviously, things are a little stressful as we get ready. Its a little dissapointing not being able to fully commit to the excitement, I'm pretty sure that will fade once we have her.

We'll do our best to keep everyone apprised through this blog while we are over there. If you are religious, or are considering dabbling in Godliness, now's the time we need everyone praying and wishing for a smooth adoption.

Thanks again to everyone... leave tomorrow night for what promises to be an interesting, exciting and stressful journey. Talk to you soon.