Day 8...a Year Later

When we first discussed the idea of adopting from Vietnam, Barry’s first question was if we could drink the water there. I said No. He wasn’t thrilled. In the end though, I do think he became excited to visit the places that he had only read about in his textbooks. The places that he taught about. The plan was always to sightsee in the South (HCMC), before flying to the North (Hanoi) to complete the adoption. That was the plan until the end when we weren’t sure when we would travel. We had been asked to travel without our I-600 Approval. We weren’t too sure of this. Without it, we didn’t want to travel too early; for fear that we would be there even longer after waiting. Nor, did we want to wait too long and hold up the other families that we were traveling with us. Both received their Approvals before us. In the end, we traveled when we did. We did get our Approval before we left, but not before we purchased our tickets. That meant no trip to HCMC first. Barry wanted to see the Chu Chi Tunnels and the Mekong Delta boat trip.

Most of what we did in Vietnam was things that I had read about over the years in the process. Barry was very good about this, mostly because he knew I had heard of things that others before us dud and also because sitting around a hotel room bores him! Of course there were things that Barry found that he wanted to do and today was THE day for him. He wanted to go to the Military Museum. There were a lot of guns, tanks, planes, etc. There were exhibits on so many things, including the Chu Chi Tunnels! I really did enjoy myself though…really. I was able to sit down with Jacob a few times and we did stand in front of the large fans as much as possible. It was SO hot that day.

That leads to a great story...Through the process, you often heard of how people on the street would tell you that the babies were cold. We were told to make sure we had hats for them and long clothes, or at least a blanket or carrier to keep them covered or out of sight. When we arrived, we saw that Donna and Martha were dressing the girls in warm weather clothes. There were often in sleeveless sundresses. We asked them if they had anyone many comments to them about it and they said that they hadn’t. Jill and Jerry did one morning in their hotel though, so they began to put a sweater on her for breakfast. As we were walking out of the museum gates, we were approached by a peddler, trying to sell us books and postcards. He commented that Jacob was too hot! That was a first! He told me that he should be in something cool, like the cotton t-shirt he was wearing. Jacob was in a 1 piece short sleeve romper. He was very nice though. HE took our “No Thank” and walked away. Just to be replaced by another vendor that wasn’t so nice, or accepting of our response. We repeated it and began to walk away. We had NO idea where we were going, we just continued to walk until they stopped following us. The issue was then to figure out where we were and how to get to Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum. That was our next stop.  After walking for a little while, we actually came right to it!  We were VERY lucky.

We didn't go inside.

We took some pictures, people watched,

and observed the guards

Then it was onto another place that Barry picked.  It was called the Memorial House.  We finally were able to grab a taxi.  Barry and I were SO sure that the driver was taking us on a wild goose chase!  We were watching the meter go higher and higher.  It seemed like we were driving for a LONG time, but then out of nowhere, we were there and the fare was resonable.  Still cheap and we were there, so we were happy!  It was small museum in a small old house in the Old Quarter.  It was a representation of what a "nice" house would have been years ago.  It was a small place, for a TINY entrance fee.  It was a nice little stop and the woman working there really took to Jacob and vica versa.