So much has happened since our last post!

Where to begin?! First, we got THE call on Thursday morning!!! Before heading over to the U.S. Embassy in the afternoon with Cherie's son, Brian, and the rest of the PLAN families, we spent the morning in the hotel playing with Zachary (and reading books and looking at pictures of Sophie and Reba!). The appointment was a pretty straightforward event - paid $380 / each for the U.S. Visas, then a quick window-meeting with the U.S. Embassy rep., signed one last form, got a receipt, and told to come back a day later to pick up the Passport with the Visa embedded. Outside the Embassy, we got a good group photo with all five of the PLAN families traveling together these weeks (l-r/t-b: Greg, Alivia, Mary, Alyssa, Zachary, Chad, Lisa, Quan, Shaun, Sandy, Nicole, Grace, Kai, Jessica, Eric). We were back at the hotel by about 3pm.

After the embassy appointment, we brought Zachary back to the S.O.S. clinic as a follow-up from Tuesday's appointment to see the resident pediatrician, and to get her opinion on some symptoms Zach had been showing for a couple of days. The pediatrician was excellent and after examining Zachary thought he might have bronchiolitis.

Thursday night, we met the rest of the PLAN families at the famous Thang Long Water Puppet Theater for a 6:30 show. The show was very unique, and well worth attending. Zachary loved it too, but only made it through about 2/3 of the way before getting so crabby that Alyssa had to take him out to the lobby so as not to disturb the other patrons. After the show, we jumped the first cab back the hotel to give Zach some food, a bath, then some shut-eye. Little did we know then what a long night we had ahead of us....

Poor little Zach did not have a good night. He exhibited many of the symptoms of bronchiolitis, including a slight fever. Now we know how hard it can be to be parents -- up all night with a crying baby and not being able to do anything to help, except hold him and soothe him and love him.

Because Zach is not feeling well, we have rescheduled our overnight trip to Halong Bay from this weekend to the beginning of next week. Halong Bay is an incredible natural wonder here in Vietnam and is a World Heritage Site. If you Google it you will be able to see how cool it looks. We are very excited to go, but we need our baby to get 100% better first.

This evening, we received Zach's Visa!!!! That means our paperwork here is officially complete, and we can try to get home earlier than next weekend. We will probably leave sometime during the middle of next week, so Zach can fully heal before we fly with him. Plus, we stil need some time to go to Halong Bay and finish visiting many sites here to remember Zachary's beautiful homeland!!

Tonight we said goodbye to our good friends Greg, Mary and Alivia Bailey from Colorado. They had to get home as soon as possible, so they left on Friday night. We will miss them, but hopefully we will always remain friends as our kids grow up.

OK, we are rambling - blame it on our lack of sleep. We will keep you posted about how Zach is feeling, hopefully only good news!

Waiting for the Call...

Now that we have received Zach's passport and had his medical, the next (and last!) step in the process is our second embassy appointment. That appointment could happen at any time, as early as today, but as late as next week. We were hoping it would happen today of course, so we waited by the phone in the hotel for most of the day.... but unfortunately the call never came. :(

So, at about 3PM, we decided to head out for a little shopping and sight-seeing. We started at a place called Craft Link, which is another non-profit organization in Hanoi that sells hand-made goods produced by local artisans - it was a great place to pick up some nice gifts.

After that, we went to the Temple of Literature / First National University, another "must-see" in Hanoi. It is the beautifully maintained grounds of Vietnam's oldest national university, originally created to study the teaching of Confucius. In the midst of a bustling section of the city, the site is a haven for people to relax and enjoy a historically prominent facility. We thought it was a very interesting place and we took a lot of pictures - there were wonderful buildings and some cool trees!

Then, back to the hotel to put Zach down for a nap - it was another hot day and he was a tired and sweaty boy.

We will wait for the embassy-call again tomorrow. Hopefully we get our appointment this week, because there are two holidays next week when the U.S. embassy is closed - one is Vietnam's revolution day (similar to our independence day), plus Labor Day.

And, we added Adam and Sarah's video to our video-link page. It is so cute - and easy to see why Zachary loves it so much.

A very special day

We'll start with last night, when we had a casual dinner ordering-in at the hotel with the Baileys. The kids (Zachary and Alivia) played together and the adults ate pizza (Hawaiian) and watched a movie (Bourne Ultimatum). Another opportunity to spend time together with other families, which is always fun!

Today, though, much happened. The morning started with a return visit to the immigration office in Hanoi, where Chad picked up Zachary's passport!!!

Then, we took in a tour of the Hoa Lo Prison (aka, Hanoi Hilton), which is a famous site here in Hanoi, and located right next to the hotel. Actually, only a portion of the original prison even exits today, because a majority was razed, to make room for the hotel where we are currently staying. It does not seem altogether that unusual, considering how fast Hanoi seems to be growing, with high rises being built at many locations. The prison itself was originally constructed by the French in the late 1800's to house Vietnamese political prisoners, but was later used by the Vietnamese to house captured U.S. soldiers (like John McCain, for example) during the U.S.-Vietnam conflict. Like a visit to Alcatraz, a visit to the Hanoi Hilton is a way to see the horrors of prisons in general and the hell experienced there by the prisoners.

After lunch, we took Zachary to his final medical appointment as a prerequisite for obtaining his Visa. We got to spend time with Cherie at the medical clinic, which is always nice. The doctor that checked Zachary out told us that he is in good overall health (still with a lingering congestion issue, which we are treating with a prescription inhaler now). His vitals: he is a little over 2 feet tall, and weights just over 14 pounds! He has gained a little under half a pound since a week ago!

With Chad fighting a little head-cold himself, we played it very casual tonight at the hotel, and are looking forward to going to bed early. Zachary is sleeping for 2-4 hour stints, and falls back asleep quite quickly after his nighttime bottles.

OK, hope this hasn't been too boring - but as we are teaching Zachary, sharing is fun! :)

Lazy Sunday... busy Monday...

It is a little after 5pm here in Hanoi on Monday, 8/27/07, which means it is just about 6am in Boston. We just got back from an afternoon wandering around the Old Quarter. We know it is time to come back to the hotel after being out when our shirts are entirely soaked through. :) Zachary was a champ this afternoon, staying awake most of the time, and snoozing for small intervals when he had seen enough. The Old Quarter of Hanoi is a trip; thousands of tiny streets and alleys, crammed with people and shops, and, of course, motorbikes with their horns blaring at all times. One would think that with the narrowness of the streets, the amount of pedestrian and motorbike traffic, and lack of traffic signals, there would be loads of accidents, but surprisingly there are almost none. In fact, we have seen but one minor fender-bender in the entire time we have been here, and that was on the way into town from the airport on the day we arrived. Somehow, everybody here just understands the unwritten rules of the streets and everything seems to move along just fine. We have attached a couple of pictures of the Old Quarter (one of a very cool bayan tree that is apparently 1000's of years old, but still thriving, even now being surrounded by modern buildings), but really the pictures don't do the area justice - we took a couple of videos, so check out the video-hosting site and you might just get lucky. While there, you may see the cute video of Zachary watching an adorable video that his uncle Adam and aunt Sarah made for him. If Zach is every crabby and starting to cry, we just pop on the video and he is all smiles!


We got a call from Cherie's son Brian today, informing us that we have a couple of appointments tomorrow - in the morning we are supposed to pick up Zach's passport, then in the afternoon we have our medical appointments. Things are moving very quickly!!!!

One week and counting...

Well, we have been here one full week. With no real agenda today, we set out on foot with the Barans towards the French Quarter to check out a couple of sites. After a stop by a nearby larger grocery-store (where we bought Zach some more baby food that wasn't available at the smaller grocery store at our hotel - we needed it because when we gave him peas this morning for the first time this morning, he told us "politely" in not so many words, "I don't like peas."), then a quick lunch at Restaurant Bobby Chinn (just average, but we didn't try the famous mac-n-cheese...), we headed over to the Hanoi Opera House, which is beautiful from the outside and supposed to be even more spectacular inside - unfortunately, though, it was closed to visitors today, so we will have to return sometime in the next couple of weeks. We ventured further to the Vietnam Revolutionary Museum, which provides a historical perspective of, well, you probably guessed, Vietnam's many revolutions. It was an interesting museum, but really, Zachary mostly enjoyed the big globe ("look mommy, I'm on top of the world!!"). After that, on account of the continued extreme heat, we were pretty tired, so we came back to the hotel for a little attempted shut-eye; but Zach would have none of that. We played in the room for a while, then met Greg, Mary and Alivia Bailey for dinner at the hotel restaurant (they recently relocated from the Lucky Star to the Somerset). The Baileys are a very sweet couple from Denver, and their daughter, Alivia, is beautiful. She is just about the same age as Zachary, having been born on 2/16/07.

Zach had a couple of "firsts" today. For one, he drank water directly from a water bottle. Very cute, especially when he reached for more after each sip. Second, he giggled up a storm at dinner. Despite the bad lighting, there is a pretty funny video that we have uploaded to the site (see the link below).

We hope everybody reading this blog is doing well.

Happy Birthday Mommy!!!

Today was Alyssa's birthday!! Zachary gave her a special birthday gift, his precious smile. He wore his 'I love Mommy' onesie and was such a good boy all day.










One of the highlights of today -- besides the lunch buffet at the hotel :) -- was our trip to a shop called Vietnam Quilts (http://www.vietnam-quilts.org/), which is a non-profit company that hires local women to create beautiful quilts. With very reasonable prices and a broad selection, we were able to find Zachary some special quilts for him to have in his room growing up - just some of the many local items we hope to get for him while we are here!










Also, we think we have learned how to post video to an external hosting source. Check out:

http://picasaweb.google.com/alyssahershman/Videos.

So far, we have had a chance to add just three videos: 1. Zach's pooping video from today-- :); 2. from the pool earlier this week; and 3. a special video from the day we first met Zachary at Ba Vi. In that special video, the nanny that is holding him was the nanny that cared for him most at Ba Vi, and she obviously had a deep bond with him (just remembering her sadness and joy as we left Ba Vi that day brings tears to our eyes immediately). She, and all of Zach's nannies, will always have a very, very special place in our hearts. We hope to be adding more videos as soon as we can...

Nothing too exciting.... except everything!!!

Today was our first day in Hanoi without any official business. We played it pretty casual. We began our day with a long walk around the lake again, this time doing a full loop and visiting the Ngoc Son pagoda and the Bridge of the Rising Sun. Because it was so hot and humid again, by the time we were done our long walk, we were the definition of fat, sweaty Americans. :)

We got back to the hotel and within a minute got a call from our friends Lisa, Shaun and Quan, who reminded us of the hotel's free shuttle on Thursdays to the Big-C, Vietnam's version of super-Target. So, we quickly loaded up and headed out again, arriving in the lobby just in time for the shuttle with some other folks also looking to do a little shopping. On the way, we got to see something very rare and interesting - a Vietnamese funeral procession. We were on a small side-road and the procession was walking. We saw the casket in the back of a van decorated with flowers and the family holding a picture and walking right behind it. All of the people in the procession were dressed in traditional garb. Out of respect, we did not take any pictures.

The Big-C was relatively uneventful - we picked up an inexpensive stroller to have with us here and to use in the airports on the way home, some baby food, throw-away sneaks, etc. Like I said, nothing too major. But, we would recommend the easy trip to any new families coming to Hanoi, because it is a place where you can pick up whatever you might need while here.

Later that day, Zachary met his first "relative"! Alyssa's uncle's girlfriend's brother! In other words, Neil's girlfriend Kimmie's brother, Dr. Kim, who happens to be a doctor in, of all places, Hanoi. Before we left the U.S., Kimmie let him know we were coming here, and we contacted him when we arrived. We spoke with him in the morning and he agreed to meet us at our hotel in the evening. Dr. Kim is an amazing man - he runs a medical clinic in a very poor and rural part of Hanoi, about an hour from where we are staying. He said that he treats people with many ailments, and even travels at times with his staff to the most isolated villages to treat people that are unable to get to his clinic. He told us he had a long day, so we were unable to visit with him that long, but we excitedly made plans to hopefully visit with him at his clinic later during our trip.

For dinner, we met up with John, Jillian and Savannah Weiss, one of the three families leaving this weekend. They brought us to a restaurant they enjoyed and gave us some last minute tips for the rest of our stay. We enjoy them (also, you may recognize Savannah from an earlier post when they were both at Ba Vi).

Hi everyone. We are truly and thoroughly enjoying our experience here so far. After the months of paperwork and preparations, to be able to spend all of our time with our son in his home country is something we cherish and will of course never forget. We also can't say enough good things about our adoption agency - PLAN. Both the U.S.-based and in-country staff are extremely supportive and knowledgeable, and always have the best interest of the babies as their highest priority. We would recommend PLAN to anybody considering adopting from Vietnam.

Anticipating that today was going to be another scorcher, we took advantage of being up early with Zach to take a walk in the city together to nearby Lake Hoan Kiem, where many people were also up and some practicing tai chi by the water. While walking by the lake, as happens at most times when we are out with Zach (as well as other families with their babies), people love to touch and talk to him (and, especially the older women, give thier advice how to hold him) - babies are treated especially importantly in Vietnam, and it is nice to see them light up when Zachary flashes his engaging smile.

After our walk, we expected to try to get a little rest in the morning (Zach did not sleep particularly well last night), then spend some more time in the Old Quarter. Just minutes before we were ready to leave for lunch at about 1, though, Cherie called our hotel room and told us that the U.S. Embassy could perform two first interviews today, and that since we were in the room to receive her call and available, we told her that yes, of course, we could be ready to meet our PLAN rep. in the lobby at 2. After the short drive to the Embassy with one other family, we had our interview, which is really more for administrative than personal purposes. The official (a young American) simply wanted to know things like what information we received about Zachary before traveling, how the process was going, when we arrived, how our agency was performing, etc. Now that we have completed our first interview, there is about a 5-8 day process to finalize the passport and Visa before the second interview and his final medical exam, so I think we will have some days now to get out and do some stuff.

This afternoon, we took Zach to the pool for his first swim. He is such a cutie and he loved the water!!

We love sharing this experience with all of you, and really appreciate all of the wonderful comments and emails we have received. We cannot wait for Zach to share his love with all of you that he has been sharing with us!

The process continues....

We had another very eventful day in Hanoi today! We started this morning by taking Zach to the local SOS clinic to have a doc check out a little rash he has behind his ears, and also because he has been congested and coughing quite a bit. We were very impressed with the facility and the medical staff, and got some medications for his ailments. We are glad we went in, especially because the doctor said that his congestion/cough is now only an upper respiratory infection but if not treated would only get worse. Also, this morning, Chad went with representatives from the other four families in the process with us, and a PLAN representative, to the local immigration office to apply for Zachary's passport. They had originally gone there yesterday, but the office was unexpectedly closed due to some sort of local holiday. So, this morning, it was extremely crowded - but after a couple of hours they were finished and came home. By that time, Alyssa was back from the SOS clinic and Zach had come back to our room from his first play date - with Quan, the son of Lisa and Sean, who live in Medford, MA. Considering how close we live to them, we are hoping they will end up being life-long friends! We spent the rest of the day resting at the hotel, then ventured out in the early evening to the old quarter of Hanoi to have dinner with all the PLAN families currently in Hanoi - both the group of 3 families that are closing out their 3-weeks here, and the 5 families, like us, that have just started. It was a very nice dinner and a rare opportunity for all the babies to be together again since they were previously together at Ba Vi. Tomorrow I think will be our first day without any currenty scheduled appointments, although we are always on-call for our first embassy appointment, which could happen sometime this week. It rained hard tonight for the first time since we have been here, and it looks like it might cool down (to the low 90's) later in the week, which should make it a little easier to trek around the city with Zach. We are looking forward to exploring the city and immersing ourselves in this special culture.

It's Official

Today we had our Giving and Receiving Ceremony which means that Zachary is officially ours. The adoption is final on the Vietnam side and now we wait for our U.S. Embassy appointments so we can bring him home. The ceremony was simple and sweet. We were in a room with all of the other families in our group. We each had to sign in a book and a few other documents. We had to promise to take good care of him and send reports back to Vietnam until he is 18 years old. As soon as it was official, Zachary projectile vomited all over Chad. It was priceless. Happy birthday to daddy!! Speaking of Chad's birthday, we got flowers in our room today from the staff of the hotel. So sweet.

Zachary continues to be a very chill baby. He slept well last night and takes many small cat naps throughout the day. We are still waiting for a poop. Not sure what to do about that :) He is full of smiles and really only cries when he is tired or hungry. I have to admit that his cry is the cutest I have ever heard and I often giggle when I hear it. Someone from our agency brought us a walker and stroller today. So nice! He enjoys the walker and we have yet to try the stroller. I turned on the TV today and he couldn't take his eyes away from it. Chad made me turn it off. Now we know what we'll do when daddy's not home!

At Last

Today was the happiest day of our lives. We went to the orphanage and got to hold our baby for the first time. We were asked to pick him out of a room with a few cribs with one baby in each. I walked right by him because he was wearing a pink shirt with flowers :) Apparently they do not care about gender specific clothing at the orphanage. As soon as I saw him, he gave me a big smile! I scooped him right up and we were in love. Soon after we arrived, a nanny changed Zach into the outfit we brought for him. He looked so cute-everyone loved his outfit and he got lots of laughs from the nannies. We spent a good hour and a half at the orphanage with the four other families in our group. It was wonderful. The nannies take such amazing care of the babies and we could all tell how much they love each of them. The orphanage was super clean, with many cribs, some toys and a few bouncy seats. All of the babies responded very well to their parents.

Back at the hotel, Zach got his first bath. He loved it until I poured water over his head. He wasn't happy about that. He has had a few bottles and even a little cereal. Zach seems to be very chill and happy. He is full of smiles for us! He is able to roll from his back to his tummy and he seems to really like tummy time for short periods of time. Now he is asleep. We'll see how long that lasts.

Enjoy the pictures!

We Arrived!

Well, we arrived in Hanoi on Saturday at 10am as planned. Our flights were mostly uneventful and all on time for the most part. Even our 14 hour flight seemed to go by without a hitch. We even received all of our bags in Vietnam. We were placing bets on how many bags we would actually get at the baggage claim and were very surprised and thrilled to get them.

Our ride to the hotel was an adventure. It is hard to imagine until you are here, but there are people everywhere. Most people drive motorcycles, bikes and some cars. There is constant honking, as it is used to communicate with the other drivers, not as an aggressive statement like in the US. Although there is a system, it seemed to me that people were driving and walking in any direction, whenever and wherever they wanted. We did feel safe the entire drive.

Our hotel is beautiful. Way too nice for us but we are staying for 21 nights, so we figured it would be best to be comfortable. Our unit is an apartment with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, one big common room and a kitchen with a washing machine. It also has a pool, gym, playground and a mall in the lower level. All the people are so nice. We already love it here.

We got the great news that we will be picking Zach up on Sunday morning. We are to meet with the other families in our hotel lobby at 9am and we will be picked up soon after. It is an hour and a half drive to the orphanage. Next time I post, we should have our son with us!!
The pictures I have included are the view from our hotel room. Enjoy!

Zach's Room

We've put a lot of work into Zach's room and it is still a work in progress. We hope to add some things from Vietnam to remind him of where he came from. We can not wait for him to use all of the things people have handed down to him and given as gifts. He's already a well loved boy and we haven't even met him yet :)

Zach turned 6 months today. I thought about him all day. I hope he was happy on his half birthday. He will be in the arms of his forever family when he turns 7 months!

Nine More Days and Counting...

We leave in nine days which seems like it's so close yet so far. We are already in love with this little boy who is on the other side of the world. I often wonder how he will respond to us-his parents who have so much love for him and he doesn't even know we exist. Only time will tell. Some babies freak out when they are taken away from their caretakers. I can only imagine what it must be like to be taken away from everything you've known and loved. Hopefully it will not take Zachary long to realize how much his mommy and daddy love him!

Some families picked up their babies in Vietnam today. That means we have some new pictures to share :) They commented on how great the orphanage and nannies are. It is good to know that Zach is in good hands in a safe, clean and loving environment.