Journey to Forever

Hi all - thanks again for all the messages and news from home. Today is Thursday April 21 at 12:50 pm. Caily just went down for her nap - pool side. She absolutely loves the water and watching the boys "frolic". Yesterday was a rough one. We went to the Hanoi passport office to get her Vietnamese passport then back to the room to pack up and then off to the Canadian Embassy to register for her passport and check her citizenship paperwork. Very confusing paperwork process. I think they need a process redesign and training :-). Anyway, after everything was done, we needed to rush courier the docs to Singapore for CIC approval. I hope all the paperwork is right or we have to stay longer. Needless to say al the parents were tense because it's so important that everything be done right. Thank goodness for Robyn and Jason who really helped me a lot with the photos and paperwork. I don't know what I would have done without the help of them and Kevin/Lisa who had all navigated this process before.
Even so it was not easy on any of us. the poor kids felt the stress - Caily in particular because there were times I had to ignore her screams for a few extra second. It was aweful. Then we had to take a cab to the new hotel that freaked her out more. Even supermom couldn't calm her while I unpacked. Eventually she and the boys went for dinner and we just sat and talked about the day. She had lots to tell me - like: enough with the gogogo. Ok, I promised to spend the day lounging by the pool. She was ok with that and settled down. The 30 minute bath and towel cocoon did the rest. We were both out by 9 and up at 7:30 - different people

She looked out the new window overlooking the beautiful West Lake and said "mmmm" smile... Ya girlfriend the intercontinental hotel in Hanoi is a world away from the hai duong orphanage!!!! I figured i'll be paying this adventure off until she heads to University we may as well splurge a bit + watching Miranda and the boys relax and have fun makes it worth every extra "dong".... Look at the pics above and tell me you don't agree...

Xoxo

Live from Vietnam