Nov 14th, 2008....

It's the morning of the 14th, and I will be meeting Tam (her Vietnamese name) today. It's hard to believe, after so many years, that it is finally happening... It's still the 13th at home, so I am still considering it my birthday. The most perfect birthday present:).
Even though the hotel was umm... I'll say, less than desirable, they did have a nice breakfast, and much healthier than our SAD of Cheerios, fried eggs and bacon... and we wonder why we are all sick. I am not sure what it was that I ate .... some noodles which were crunchy and some soft, a variety of vegetables and herbs mixed in, a quail egg (which is where I draw the line... I didn't eat it), and some kind of meat on top which I didn't eat either. There was some kind of soft gummy sweet molasses type of thing wrapped in a bananna leaf. I only took one bite of that because it was kind of like eating chewing gum. I wish I knew the names of these things. The Vietnamese people were laughing at me because I took a photo of the breakfast table and didn't really know how to use chop stix.
It's pouring down rain here, very humid, about 80 degrees right now at 7:30 AM. I took a photo from the front of the hotel which is overlooking a river. There are horns honking constantly with people busily going to work... I suppose.

An interesting 24 hours....

Just got to my hotel in Danang..... and fell asleep exhausted for a few hours. When I opened one of my suitcases, I found that all of my shoes had been stolen..... so, at least I have the one pair I was wearing:( That... on top of the fact that last week the windows were knocked out of my car at the gym, and my purse with ID and credit cards were stolen... had made me a bit untrusting of people. The reason I was stuck in Economy class in the middle seat all the way is that yes, it was a short notice, but I was also waiting for all of my new credit cards to come in. I won't go into any more of the negative stuff... other than just to vent my opinion that Vietnamese Airlines and the Vietnamese airport is THE most inefficient place I have ever been. Good thing I had a 3-4 hour layover in each city because it took that long just to do things ... like pay for extra baggage.....wait in several lines just to do one thing, then pay them extra for stealing my stuff. I think from what I have seen so far, Vietnam has a long way to go in being tourist friendly. Tomorrow can only be better.

I haven't seen anything of the city yet because it was almost dusk when I got here. Apparently Danang has alot to offer, but I leave early in the morning for Hoi An, about 45 minutes away, where the orphanage is. It is there where I will get to meet my daughter for the first time, only after meeting with the orphanage director, I am told. I am not being cynical when I say that I am sure that they will not let me see her until I pay more money.... I was told to prepare for another $1000.00 cash. This is how Vietnam works. I will never purposely enter into any business dealings with a Vietnamese person or the Vietnamese government again... although the end result tomorrow will be the culmination of a 2 year pregnancy and a very difficult labor:)

Here are a few photos, just from the Ho Chi Minh City airport so far. Tomorrow I will have more. I am so grateful I brought my computer.... I tried getting on the internet and my blog site from their computer. Everything was in Vietnamese.. so it was useless.