Thursday May 3rd, 2007 10pm

I swore before I left that I was going to be the best adoption blogger ever....HA!!!
Well, maybe I can win for the WORST adoption blogger ever!

I have started about 10 posts...but can't seem to finish. Maeve has been colicky...so it seems that each time I try to sit down and type she needs to be held. And Daddy just doesn't seem to always have the trick. :P

So for now, I am not going to try and go back...I will probably tell about the day we met and the G&R and such when we return.

Today we finally had our first Embassy appointment. And apparently we got the "tough interviewer" . But we found him OK. He told us to expect our next appt and visa sometime in the middle of next week. Hopefully we can have it all wrapped up by our expected departure date of Friday the 11th. We are pretty confident that all will be fine.

It is H-O-T here. And H-U-M-I-D. And just like in New England, it is the humidity that makes it tough. Every couple of days there will be a day where the humidity is low. That is when I feel like I can enjoy the city more.

Hanoi is an interesting mix of new and old. Modern and traditional. It really is all very fascinating. You walk by a shop blaring pop music and advertising "fashion" and then you are approached by a woman wearing a conical hat selling pineapple from baskets that hang from a plank that she carries across her shoulders. I don't know what these are called. And I think these are some tough women....those baskets look heavy. VERY heavy.
The streets and sidewalks are busy and crowded. The vendors sit on the stoops of their stores trying to get people to come in and leave some U.S. dollars. They all accept our dollars. They sell EVERYTHING. And they will bargain with you. Some better than others. Some not at all. We have seen everything. Each street is named for what they sell. IE: Hang Gai is silk street....most of the stores on that street will sell silk items. our hotel is on a street that sell Paint and paint products. Paint brushes, rollers, turpentine. There are a couple of other stores and a restaurant. I mentally name the streets as we walk them. We walked down a street and it was selling hardware: nails, hammers, tape measures...etc...I mentall named that Home Depot street. The street that has all this gold stuff for temples and religious stuff I named Gawdy street. We have seen spice/herb street, baby street, shoe street, glasses/sunglasses street, aluminum street....etc....Anyhow, I think it is neat. Everywhere you turn there is men trying to sell us lighters and women trying to sell us t-shirts. We were eating breakfast one morning in a cafe, we were sitting next to some open windows and the t-shirt ladies tried selling to us! They never give up! :) Hey, you have to give them an "A" for effort!

They set up little "portable restaurants" on the sidewalks too. A pot and grill and all these little plastic stools for people to sit on while they eat. And some of these do big business.

Children are playing and adults are congregating on the sidewalks. The sidewalks are just BUSY. And the motorbikes! they park all their bikes on the sidewalks. All this makes it very difficult at times to navigate through. Some places/streets are far more crowded than others.

The first day here, we thought we'd never find our way around. Now it all seems so familiar. I am not a city lover, but this is a nice city.

The best thing about Viet Nam is the people. Most people are just so nice. and EVERYONE loves to see us with the babies. Just about every day we go to Hoan Kiem Lake and sit on the benches, enjoy the shade and people watch. And they watch us. People come and ask: "Viet Nam Baby?" they love to give advice. And to make the babies smile. The older generation usually tell us that Maeve is too hot, or too cold or she has a cough...etc...I knew this before coming, so we usually just smile and thank them for the advice. Although, I have to admit that after a week+ of advice it is getting tiring. I like the way another family put it: It is like a whole city of In-laws! LMBO! But still, I know it is just the way and that they mean well. We don't want to direspect them and their culture. But I have to admit that it will be nice to NOT be getting so much advice when we go out at home.
The younger generation, for the most part, just like to make the babies smile. ANd hold them. In a previous post I posted a picture of a couple of girls who came over to us at the park and wanted to hold Maeve. But my favorite encounter has been when 2 boys came over to us to smile at the baby. I'd say there were about 6 and 8 years old. They just smiled and proudly said "baby" in English and poked Maeve. Then they conversed in Vietnamese and the older boy said : "Very beautiful baby" in english. I thanked him very much and he seemed so proud. Then they ran away. The people here really love the babies! as we walk we get LOTS of SMILES and such. You don't see alot of children here that are younger than 3. I guess they just do not take them out from what I understand.

I am sorry that I have not been updating this. The days go by so fast. I really can't believe we have been here for nearly 2 weeks already! All of sudden yesterday I started panicking about all the stuff we have not done. I had my Lonely Planet book all tabbed and highlited...and I didn't even take it out until yesterday!

We will do what we can, if we can. We are here to adopt, not to tour.

Maeve has been crying alot. On Sunday it got so bad that I started crying too. We just do not know what to do. The past 2 days have been better. I hope it continues this way. :)
We are pretty sure that Maeve is the most beautiful baby in Viet Nam though. ;) And when she does smile or coo it makes us melt. And she totally has Pat wrapped! He is putty in her hands! LOL! He loves to be holding her and "showing her off". She cries and her runs to pick her up. And Pat is at the point that he nearly feels bad for all the other families....I mean after all, they must be jealous that we got the cutest and most beautiful baby. LOL!