After staying up late the night before, I laid in bed for awhile, unable to fail asleep. I did soon enough though and the 4AM alarm came quick! We dressed and headed downstairs. It was very dark downstairs in the hotel, but we made it to the lobby. We soon realized that there was staff sleeping there! They were on the floors and on the furniture. We woke one of them up and soon they were all up and scurrying around cleaning up their "beds" and moving the moped out to the street. Before we knew it, the lights were on and the hotel was alive! The hotel packed us boxed breakfasts and water. Soon the Hylands were down with us and we were waiting for the rest of our group.
Anxious and ready to go
Once the van arrived, we piled in and began the journey to Lang Son. It was a 3.5 hour drive and none of us were eating much for fear of upset stomachs. We did stop once along the way. We talked and giggled a lot. We took tons of pictures of the countryside.
When we arrived the gates of the orphanage, it was surreal! We recognized the yellow buildings from pictures over the years.
Entering the orphanage office building
We were taken to a room with many chairs and a table. We were soon shown the bathroom as we waited. I went and Barry held the door and then I did the same for him. As I was, Jerry came up the stairs and said he would hold it for me, they were bringing Jacob. I forgot that I was holding it for Barry and left. Halfway down the stairs, at the landing, I realized it and paused, but by then, Jill has come for me and I kept going. WHY DID I DO THAT?!?! I will never live it down with Barry. I am not 100% sure he is really upset, as he did say it was nice to come down and see us together, but still. Chalk it up to another "reaction" of mine, like our proposal!
It was amazing to walk into the room and to see him standing there. He was so little. Barry was there soon enough, telling me to get on the floor and "Be the Mommy". Jacob REALLY liked his nanny. When he first saw me, he wasn't so sure about me. This woman had taken care of him since he was 3 months old. We were very lucky though that we had the older, more experienced nanny. She knew the drill and while you could tell how much she loved him, she also knew it was her job to help him warm up to us. I would love to have known what she was saying to him. She kept talking to him and pointing to us. Touching my arm and encouraging me to try to hold him. He would fuss and she would take him back. She walked around with him and his squeaky shoes.
Allison and her shoes
Eventually, he would let me hold him without fussing too much and then she hid behind a column to be "out of sight". Before long, it was time to head to the government office for the official G & R.
As I walked into the room, I noticed a young woman in the back corner of the room. It was Jacob's birthmother. My heart sank, yet it also soared. It was such an amazing feeling to be in the same room as her. As we waited for the officials and the babies, she came and went from the room. Each family was taken out to be interviewed with the birth family. We were last. As we waited with Marie, their birthmother held Zachary. I noticed that ours was crying in the corner and that was it....I started to cry myself. Marie was my rock. She told me it was OK and she was OK. It was a difficult day and we would get through it.
MANY people have commented over the year how luck we are to have met Jacob's birthfamily. We met his bithmom and her mother, as well. In our province, it was the law that she had to be there, or at least sign a POA for her mom to be there in her place. The grandmother told us that they were sure this was the right choice for them and her grandson. With all the accusations in international adoption, it was WONDERFUL to hear from them that this was what they wanted for him. His mom was emotional at first and her mom was encouraging her to "buck it up". but in the end, we did see some smiles from her and it warmed my heart. Unfortunately, we don't have any good pictures of them with Jacob as he wasn't happy with them and when he was OK in the picture, they were upset. We have some video of them as well though.
After all the paper signing and photo ops...
...we were standing around the room when Jacob began to fuss. His nanny come over and laid him down in my arms and gave him his bottle. There were no real goodbyes. I did get the chance to say Thank You again but it was suddenly over and everyone had left. We didn't realize until it was too late, but the person that had brought our birthfamily to the ceremony seemed to speak clear English! We had our own translator and didn't know it. When we had the "free time" before our interview, our birthmother was upset and Jacob was with his nanny.
Jacob had fallen asleep once he had his bottle and we began the drive back to Hanoi. We had told the other couples that we feared the drive home since Jacob was so attached to his nanny. When his eyelids began to flutter open halfway back, we warned them that this was THE moment. We had Sliders ready (VN Pringles). We gave him a couple and were showing him the passing landscape. He did fine the rest of the way. He was quiet, but he interacted with us.
Back at the hotel, I changed his diaper, made him a new bottle, and headed down to Marie's room to hang out while the Dads were applying for passports. The formula prep instructions was in Vietnamese, of course. Over the years, we had always heard that it was a scoop per ounce of water, so that was what I made him. He drank most of it and soon proceeded to throw up all over me! As I was making him another bottle from Marie's can of formula, I saw that hers had pictures for instructions. I saw that it was 4 scoops for 6 ounces of water. I wonder if that was why he threw up, or if it was nerves. Regardless, he did very well the rest of the evening, including the fast bath that I was forced to give him to get rid of the puke. I was trying to avoid it to not freak him out right away.
He looked a little like a deer caught in the headlights 
He slept well that first night, only waking once for a bottle and going right back down.
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