17. December 2008 by Mark.

We made it! Not that there was any doubt but I was pretty exhausted even before the trip started.

Troy did fine on the flight from Hanoi to Taipei, having taken a good nap at the Hanoi airport. He did not sleep on the plane but was content enough and it was great that EVA gave us a bulkhead seat with an empty seat adjacent. Here we are:

My travel group split up in Taiwan, with the others headed to San Francisco and Troy and me headed to Los Angles. The connection was only about two hours - the perfect amount of time. Here’s my group and the babies. From left to right it’s Kyle, Kari, Brendan, me, Troy, Jamie, Victor, and Madison.

The next flight was a bit tough, at least at first. It was wonderful that I had the entire center bulkhead section (3 seats) and the bassinet on the wall in front of me. However, Troy was overtired. I spent close to 3 hours trying to get him to sleep, walking up and down the aisles of the plane with and without the Ergo carrier, as my meal slowly got cold. Eventually, I put Troy on the floor to play, ate, and then lay him down in the carrier and zipped it shut. He was unhappy but he was not overly loud about it. Before long, he drifted off to a fitful 7 hours of sleep, allowing me the same. So, all in all, it was a pretty good journey, given the possibilities when traveling with babies. There was no screaming fit, no problems with air pressure, no diaper blowouts, and no projectile vomiting. Here we are just after landing - right before we learned that immigration was completely shut down because the computers were down:

All I can say is that I was lucky to have Troy with me. An agent took pity with me and took me around the huge unmoving line of people directly to the special processing desk for immigrants. There, they processed Troy’s I600 visa (and my passport) in barely enough time for me to change Troy’s diaper. We grabbed the bags and were out the door to a small group of friends and family, including impatient brother, Evan.

I swear Evan grew while I was gone. He seems to have turned from toddler to kid in my absence, and he weighs a ton (or so it seemed when he insisted on me carrying him).

Evan really did his best with Troy and he’ll be a wonderful big brother. Of course, there were several meltdowns over the course of the evening, but that is to be expected (and was not helped by Evan having missed his nap to be at the airport). Here’s Evan giving Troy his first bottle:

The difficulty sleeping on the plans seems to have helped with the jet-lag adjustment. I let Troy have a brief nap in the afternoon then put him down for good at about 8:30 in the crib in Evan’s room. Troy woke up crying a few times but I was able to get him down each time until about 2:00. We were up for about an hour and Troy got a bottle. Troy slept the rest of the night with me, soundly, finally waking up around 8:00 pretty much his normal self. I felt a heck of a lot better too.

Only 18 years to go!

Posted in Milestones, Travel | 1 Comment »

15. December 2008 by Mark.

We’re ready to go. This afternoon and evening was a blur of visa appointments, airline office visits, and last minute shopping for gifts. Troy was a trooper, being dragged all about well past his bedtime. In some strange way, I think all the dragging him around from place to place while smashing him against me in the carrier is actually good from an attachment standpoint.

Troy is sleeping and I’m drinking the last of a bottle of red wine from Hanoi. It’s peculiar but serviceable. I still have to shower and pack the bags. Tomorrow morning, we’ll be up early for breakfast and hopefully there will be enough time to eat breakfast and buy some formula and coffee before the driver comes, at 9:00 to take us to the airport. Hanoi-Taipei-Los Angeles is my routing and the schedule is to be home Tuesday at a bit before 2 p.m. local time.

To close things out, here we are, with Troy’s visa:

Posted in Hanoi, Milestones, Travel | 3 Comments »

12. December 2008 by Mark.

Well, when we last left off, Troy had woken up from his nap and my blog was still about 4 days behind. Let’s hope I can wrap things up tonight.

After the medical exam, we got visa pictures for the babies and then were free until Thursday, when we were to fly to Hanoi. I went back to the hotel for nap for Troy. He has a strange affinity for terry towels, which he likes to use for comfort when he sleeps. Fortunately, the Duxton hotel had plenty.

In the afternoon I hung out with Victor and Jamie, a couple from my group who adopted a daughter. We walked around, shopping and checking out potential restaurants for dinner. We finally took a break at the rooftop bar of the Rex hotel, one of the great rooftop bars of the world…

For dinner, we went to “Blue Ginger” which I believe was popular with a number of adoptive parents from my agency.  The food was very good but in retrospect, it was a bit much for the kids to sit through the 6 or 7 course menu we ordered.  It did not help that I got turned around and led us in the exact opposite direction on the way home.

Posted in Tourist, Saigon, Travel | No Comments »

3. December 2008 by Mark.

Sure enough, I soon met my traveling companions, Kari and Kyle, from Oklahoma, and Victor and Jamie, from San Francisco. Kari and Kyle had had a rushed connection in San Francisco and there was some concern the luggage would not make it.

Our flight to Ho Chi Minh city was pretty uneventful. The best part was realizing that we were flying right over Troy’s orphanage. I took a picture of the map from the plane (click to see full-sized)

I also wrote some blog posts on the plane that were lost when my computer’s battery died. Sorry…I’ll try to recreate them tomorrow.

Anyway, after a scary bit where it seemed 4 of my travel companions’ bags were missing, the luggage was located and we were off to Saigon. We’re staying tonight at the Park Royal, which is a nice hotel far from the city center and near the airport. This choice because we need to head back to the airport in the morning to fly to Danang…

One thing we learned today was that the Minister of Justice will be attending a conference on Friday and thus our G&R has been moved to Sunday. We’ll therefore visit the orphanage tomorrow and Friday but not have full custody until Sunday. I hope this makes the adjustment easier for Troy because it will be stretched out in a way, but we’ll see.

I spent the afternoon and evening roaming the city with Victor and Jamie (Kyle and Kari were beat after their 4 flights in a row). My first meal was some awesome Pho (pretty much the national dish), at Pho 2000 a legendary place that Bill Clinton visited.

I also took care of some things I needed/wanted to do before T-Day. I got a Vietnamese phone SIM card, a haircut, and a massage, among other things. I’m somewhat jealous of the other couples who can simply hand their baby to their partner and get a massage or take a break every so often. I won’t have that luxury - but, I’ll get lots of one on one time with Troy instead.

In case you’re wondering, news from the home front is that Evan is doing swimmingly without me. He’s in good hands.

There is much more to say but the jet lag is hitting me hard. It’s off to bed.

Posted in Saigon, Travel | No Comments »

2. December 2008 by Mark.

I’m in Taipei, where my flight from LA arrived about 1 hour early (4:40 a.m). The flight was fine and was able to sleep about 10 hours of it, which should set me in the right direction for adjusting to the time change. My flight to Ho Chi Minh city is at 7:20. The airport is awafully quiet at this early hour. I’m looking forward to meeting two other families adopting from the same orphanage - they are en route from/via San Francisco and will probably show up any minute. Nice that the airport has wireless internet but power plugs seem nonexistent and my computer is on empty. So I’ll sign off for now!

Posted in Travel | No Comments »