Back in the US of A

Hey everyone, in case you hadn't heard yet, we made it back home with no problems. Grandma and Grandpa Thompson have been here enjoying seeing their new granddaughter. Heather and I are both trying to recoup on sleep, though that seems to be an uphill battle with an 8 month old on backwards schedule. Not really sure where the line between jet lag and kid lag begins and ends.

Jaidyn seems to be adjusting pretty well to the new environment and array of four pets. We were a little worried she might be allergic, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Probably from now on this blog will slow down considerably as I find myself with not as much time to myself in hotel room. Thanks again everyone for all your support. Give us a call email, visit etc if you want to.

Jacob, Heather, & Jaidyn

Flight Info

Just letting everyone know that we'll be getting into Nashville about 3:36pm on Sunday on Delta from Atlanta. Will be nice to be home. Thanks everyone for all your prayers, comments, emails, etc. They were really encouraging and helped reassure us that there were many more people standing right next to us through all of this. We love you guys!

Visa approved.

Well, final interview complete. No problems, well outside of the fact that the bank denied my check card, most likely cause it's coming from Vietnam. I had enough cash to make it happen, but I'll have to address that with my bank in a couple of hours when they open. Anyways, other than that we just pick up Jaidyn's visa tomorrow. We're not sure if we can leave any earlier than Monday morning or not. We'll just have to see. We called the air line and they said there were no openings but her English was not very good so we will stay up and call our travel agent tonight and see if there is anything they can do. We'll keep everyone posted as to our return date and time. Thanks for your prayers. Just pray now that the details finish working themselves out.

Short Photo Shoot with Jaidyn

We really liked this outfit and thought it was photo worthy. So we thought it might be a nice change to try and take pictures of her from somewhere else besides our hotel bed.




Showing off my new trick

Visiting Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum

Yesterday morning I want to Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum. Heather wasn't feeling good so she stayed in. I really didn't know what I was going to. I thought it was just a memorial and a cool building. So I go through several rounds of security that make get rid of my back pack and then my camera. I get in line that is guarded with multiple armed guards with bayonets. Then I get into the building and think to myself, "wow, it's really cold in here, that's not typical in any Vietnamese building". I go up stairs with lots more guards till we finally get into the "main room", and well...there's Ho Chi Minh. Vacuum packed, and sealed for freshness. Guarded by four guards on each corner. I wasn't expecting that. Oh well, pretty interesting at least.

Here's some pictures I took from the morning.

Good news

We have a 2:00 pm interview again at the embassy. It looks like all the concerns were sorted out. If all goes according to plan we should have our visa sometime tomorrow. Then that should be it! We'll probably try to get a flight out either or Fri or Sat depending on availability. At worst we would leave on time on Monday.

Anyways, God apparently still knows what he's doing!

More delays

In keeping with the theme of this adoption that we have to fight to accomplish everything we are now being investigated by the US Embassy. Apparently they are suspicious b/c of all the babies being adopted out of Phu Tho right now as well as the fact that our babies were a part of an association that they have never dealt with. They are investigating to ensure that everything is legit. Everything is on the up and up and we are not concerned about that it just is a matter of how long it will take them to decide that everything is on the up and up. We have no idea whether it will take a few days or a few weeks. All of this appears to be the result of Phu Tho being so backlogged with families and then now all these families coming through. We had to fight every step of the way to get her and it appears we will have to fight every step of the way to get out of here. Everything here has been a battle the adoption, the hotel, the taxis everything. We are tired and worn out and ready to come home and had hoped that what we were told that we would have visas by Thurs was true. It appears this is not the case and we still hope for Fri but feel that is a long shot. If we do not get her visa Fri then we will have to rebook our flights. Thank you for your prayers so far and please continue to pray. Jacob and I are both feeling ill although today he is better and Jaidyn has been upset for the last few days. Our bottle warmer/sterilizer which we thought was the best thing we had brought died today and we lost a bottle. Not a big deal just means we have to rig up other ways to sterilize things like frequent trips to the kitchen and cutting the disposable liners to fit in new bottles.We are just tired and ready to come home. Please pray the investigation will go quickly and we will still be able to return home on Mon. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.

Day out.

Nothing too big has happened the past couple of days. Just waiting around for a call from the US Embassy still. We went down to the french/old quarter again today. I bought a "ty ba". It's a kind of Vietnamese Lute. Looks like the picture below.



Here's a pic of St. Josephs Cathedral in the french quarter.


And then what post wouldn't be complete without another pic of Jaidyn.

Halong Bay

This morning we got our passport and an updated medical report for Jaidyn today. No problems there. Now we just are still waiting on a call from the US Embassy for another visa interview.

Yesterday we took a day trip out to Halong Bay. It was a 3 hour van ride out to the bay, we spent a few hours on a boat and hiked up lots of steps up to a cave. Then rode back.

Here's a few pics.


Halong Bay consist of a ton of mountain and rock formations that go for many miles all through the ocean. Hundreds of "Junk Boats" take people through the bay on day trips or overnight. We just did a day trip.



A stop at the beach for 30 minutes to give Jaidyn yet another first, wading in sand and ocean.




So after the boat tour we were waiting for our bus to come pick us up. There was a restaurant that we stopped and sat at for a few minutes. This was a part of their liquor selection. Apparently the real men drink their liquor with fermenting snakes siting in them for months.

Vietnamese Water puppet show

Tonight we went to a Vietnamese Water puppet show (was only 2.50 a person for the good seats). It was really interesting. Apparently it's an art form that was started by farmers over 1000 years ago and still remains uniquely Vietnamese. Basically behind this stage these puppeteers are waist deep in the water have the puppets on rods with intricate pulleys and levers to make them move. It's more interesting than it sounds. Also had to throw in another pic of Jaidyn just for fun.

Interview and Back by popular demand

So we had our interview today and it went ok but not great. She asked us a bunch of questions and the parts we thought could possibly be a problem didn't appear to be a big deal at all. However there was some other things that they wanted to look into further to make sure it was legit. We think they will investigate it and it will be fine, however, it doesn't guarantee a speedy turn-around time. We'll see. We've appreciated all your prayers, comments, and emails as we've continued through the red-tape nightmare. It has been very encouraging to us. We're addicted to your comments as much as your addicted to our blog ;)

Also, everyone kept saying in various ways that the last video wasn't cheesy and they wanted to see more. So we now give you more. Once again I'm going to put the disclaimer that this is grandma geared. When we first got her she wasn't really able to sit by herself or scoot, so she's showing off her new abilities aquired in just a few days.

Hoan Kiem Lake

We went to Hoan Kiem lake and the old Quarter yesterday with another family. Was definitely fun, and you get alot of practice at saying no thank you in vietnamese (khong, Cam On).

We have our I-600 interview today and apparently our case isn't quite as cut and dry as it could be. Without getting into a lot of complicated details, since our case took so long, it was caught in the middle of some law changes and the province not being fully aware and up-to-date on those law changes. It SHOULD be fine, but there's a little room for problems. We'll see. If today goes well, the rest should be home free apparently.

Yesterday's pics.

Just spent some more time playing. Lots of playing, lots of bottles, lots of vomit. Welcome to parenthood. Eating was going much better until we discovered she appears to have a latex allergy as she was developing an awful rash around her mouth. Luckily we brought silicone nipples too which she absolutely hates!!! The good news is the rash is getting better. The bad news is we are starting all over with coaxing her to eat. We were going to go the the old quarter today and go shopping but Jaidyn had a very rough night so we are going to save that for tomorrow. We will work on paperwork this afternoon and then it will be submitted to the embassy tomorrow. We are supposed to have our interview on Tues at 1:30 so please be praying it goes smoothly and is processed quickly.

More cute pics.


A first music lesson.



Playing with toys.



Just a good pic of a photogenic baby.

The ticklemonster

Ok, so here's a cheesy video of Heather tickling Jaidyn and Jaidyn and I looking at ourselves in the camera. Kind of something that only grandparents might get into, so watch at your own discretion.

Another fun Vietnam Picture

I took this picture on the van ride back from the Phu Tho. It's a sign for a small street side eatery. Look at the picture and take a guess at what they serve. We saw signs for Thit Cho all along the route. Not as much in the city though.

More pictures

Today we started the process for applying for Jaidyn's passport. I went down to the passport office with the other father's and our contact. Heather and Jaidyn stayed in the room and hung out. We're taking small steps in taking her out to see things. She seems to get overwhelmed and overstimulated really easy. We took her out to a restaurant for lunch. The waitresses insisted on holding her and playing with her, so we let them. They had fun and Jaidyn did too, but we could tell it was beginning to be too much. Especially since we had to walk down a street with about hundred mopeds racing by all the time. She did good though. We thought we'd share some more pictures of her today just for fun.

Jaidyn's size

I promised I would post her size once we had her and I was better able to tell you. Well it is still difficult to say. She is very long so 0-3 is short if they are pants and onesies are a tight fit. However the waist of the pants I brought for the ceremony were almost 3 inches too big. The nanny kept trying to get me to get another pair but the other ones I brought were 3-6mo and I told her that was the smallest I had. Didn't think to pack preemie for my 7mo old although it would have been way too short. Today I put her in a 3-6mo outfit and the waist fit (the elastic was tighter) but again it is slightly short but she swims in a 6-9mo right now as far as pants in the waist although I think I will need to in the next few weeks put her in 6-9mo onesies and 3-6mo pants. So hope that clears up her size. Currently it just seems to depend on the outfit. Getting her to eat enough right now is a challenge. The most I can usually get her to eat is 4oz so we are feeding her every 3 hours or sooner if she is hungry. Although once today she ate almost 5oz and that was a milestone but the next feeding was 3 oz so we have a ways to go. Her stomach is just really small and so she can't hold much so we are trying to make up for it with frequent feedings. Guess I didn't get to skip the night time feedings. :) Jacob said he would help so I took pity on him and gave him the 5:45 feeding since we are getting up here by 5am anyway. She wouldn't eat for him so I had to get up anyway. Can't say that I mind though.:)

Introducing Jaidyn Oanh Bolton

Hey everyone, the internet has been down the past day or so here so I haven't been able to post the most important post of them all. Wednesday morning we loaded up in van for the province of Phu Tho. We went to a government building that was basically like a ghost town, went to a room where they had a large sign and the babies waiting for us. We then signed a few papers and somewhere in there the official declared the babies ours. A couple of us gave a short speech and then the official decided we had run out of time and congratulated us. So Jaidyn is now officially ours! She's adjusting really well to us. She's generally really happy, is a SOUND sleeper, and hasn't seemed to have any problem taking to Heather and I at all. We're doing all the fun new parent things of trying to figure out how much formula to give her, figuring out the tricks to make her drink enough, and lots more. Heather has lots of experience with babies and kids anyway so it hasn't been too bad. We think Jaidyn's going to be a daddy's girl though. She likes hanging out with me. I don't think she's seen and played with many men, so maybe I'm just an entertaining side show. Regardless it's fun anyway. :)

Anyways, next step is to start getting her a US Passport and Visa to enter the United States. Thank you all so much for all your prayers and support. Your prayers have been heard, even if it didn't come as soon as we'd hoped, we're thankful to God and trust his timing was and is still good.

Here's some pictures from a fun first day. Woo hoo!

Ceremony tomorrow...

Earlier today we found out that the ceremony is definitely going to be tomorrow (Wednesday). We will be leaving to Phu Tho at 8:45 tomorrow morning to have the ceremony. It's about a 2 and half hour drive out there. Anyways, so we'll let you guys know how it goes!

Woo Hoo!

Bump in the road gone.

So another family, Heather and I got into a taxi and went to the french hospital this morning to go for the new checkup that the province needed. We had talked about just getting an updated document from our doctor, but then it would have to be translated into Vietnamese and then notarized, which would take another two days.

So we went and found out the obvious, were both perfectly healthy and can raise a baby.

Fortunately the hospital had someone there who could translate the documents and we were able to fax the documents to the province by 11:30. There's still a chance the ceremony could happen this afternoon, but we'll see. God showed up to move this hurdle.

Thanks for your prayers, hopefully my next post will be pictures of our ceremony.