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.