Our Week in Hanoi

Our Week in Hanoi

Sorry we have not been good this week on keeping our blog up to date. It has been a busy week with good progress every day. The girls are really coming out of their shells. They are eating well and now want to feed themselves and use spoons to eat. Each girl has to have her own plate and have really liked their introduction to milkshakes. They have each eaten a little pizza too. Their favorite foods are yogurt, fruit (bananas especially) and fried spring rolls.

Initially, they had to stay in the same room with P, but now they are starting to leave the room and even follow me to a different room.

On the schedule of events this week, here is what we have done. On Monday we dropped our paperwork off at the Embassy Annex. It is in a private apartment building. From the outside it definitely does not look like an embassy, or government building. The paperwork drop off was necessary so the embassy staff had time to review it before our I-600 interview. We had to give them a copy of the home study, our dossier, and the girls’ dossier, which were comprised of Vietnamese and translated copies of their birth certificates, the relinquishment papers accepting the girls into the orphanage, a letter from their birth mother, and the adoption papers showing that we were their parents under Vietnamese law. Y was down south with some other families. T, who is a friend of Y’s who I think works for another agency, was to help us with the drop off, but she was also gone, so T’s part-time assistant, H, arrived with a friend of hers from college to take us to the embassy. H’s friend came with us for the document drop-off. T did not even sign into the embassy and waited outside of security. After dropping off the paperwork we went shopping for groceries and took afternoon naps.

On Wednesday we had our I-600 interview. We arrived about 2:00 and were done by 2:30. The interviewer was very nice and said all the paper work looked fine. She went through each piece and told us they would fax it to the CIS office in Saigon. They would review it and then give their immigration decision in 4-6 business days.

On Thursday we spent the day with the girls. We had no appointments and could just explore the old quarter in Hanoi. We found some web pages to help us find the silk shops in the old quarter. Each block on the street has a different name, depending on what is being sold. Any given street will change from Silk Street to Cotton Street to Basket Street. A good map is a must. We went to purchase the tickets to the water puppet show for Thursday evening’s show.

On Thursday, Sophie woke up a little crabby. It was going to be a long day. We were moving to a different hotel. The first one was small and a distance from all the older part of the old quarter and the grocery store. Sophie was not happy about us packing bags. The new hotel is within walking distance of the lake and the shops we have been going to over the past week. The old hotel was near a fair number of metal working shops and other tradesmen. The new hotel is closer to the tourist area and the shops I want to frequent. Once we got to the new hotel, both girls were better. We walked down toward the lake where the water puppet theater was located and ate a late lunch. The girls ate well and were insistent on feeding themselves with their own spoons. The banana shake was a big hit with both of them. I am doing a great deal of shopping for the girls. The water puppet show was interesting. It featured native music and songs. The puppets are attached to a long bamboo pole and are operated by someone behind a bamboo curtain. They did some amazing things with these puppets. They showed a number of folk tales. The puppets swam, fished and played in the water. The girls were fascinated, at least until they fell asleep. In this hotel, we took two rooms so T could take a break from the sometimes loud activities of the girls. With the move and the water puppet show, the girls were exhausted. P and I decided to try a new sleeping arrangement. The girls fell asleep with P on our bed as usual, but in this room we had a single bed available, so we moved them to the single bed to sleep together. Much to our amazement, they stayed asleep while we moved them. That was good.

They slept from 7:00 p.m. until 6:30 a.m. on Friday. They both woke up happy and smiling. P and I were also well rested. We went downstairs for breakfast. The girls ate fruit, yogurt, juice and spring rolls. P got some of that thick Vietnamese coffee. After breakfast P and T stayed in the room and played with the girls while I went shopping. P and T made sure I had a good map. They played and the girls ate the fruit basket. They ate a banana and a large apple. The apples and pears here are huge, about the size of a large grapefruit. They are also very sweet. Today, we have a 2:00 p.m. appointment to pick up the girls’ Vietnamese passports. After that we go to the health clinic for their immigration physicals. That is the last thing we need before we get their visas to come home.