First Meetings

Wow. Here it is, 4 am on Thursday morning, and since yesterday we have given 1 bath, 6 bottles and many many kisses to our beautiful baby girl. It has been a wonderful journey so far. It has exceeded any of our expectations, although, it was hard to know what to expect really when it comes down to it! Well, there is so much to tell so I'll get to it.

We got to Hanoi on Wednesday and had time to unpack and get ready for Ava's arrival and enjoy a nice meal also. We got to bed pretty early as we had to be in the hotel lobby at 8am to meet Anna, our Vietnamese liason between the agency and the government here. There is one other couple here adoption as well, and also another lady who is here with a relative and she is adopting a little girl too. We all talked nervously in the lobby and then loaded up into the van. The orphanage is in Hung Yen Province which is about 2 hours from the hotel. The traffic here is unbelievable so I just tried to not look out the front window so that I wouldn't be aware of all the near-misses! Brian and I were in the back with Anna and here assistant and we had a great time talking with them. Anna told us at that time that Ava is a very happy baby and laughs a lot. I cannot tell you how happy that made me!! I had prayed for that exact thing for her so many times. We were all so excited and it just felt so surreal. That is the best word to describe it. Then we pulled into the front drive to the orphanage and silence fell over the entire van. Everything was silent except for the clicking of the cameras and the whirring of the video cameras! My heart was pounding and I thought to myself "don't cry YET!!"

So we were all hurried out of the van and told to get our things and then we were led around the corner of the building and the first thing I saw was two laundry lines filled with baby clothes drying in the breeze..."okay Jan hold it together for a few more minutes...". Then we walked to this tiny room with nannies sitting on the mats with the babies. The room would not hold all of us so Brian and I held back for a moment and then a little Vietnamese woman walked up to me and patted me on the arm and said, "Hoa! Hoa!" (Ava's given Vietnamese name) and she motioned for me to come. As I walked into the room I saw her sleeping in one of the nannies' arms and she was holding the little Minnie Mouse rattle we had sent over to her. Okay, that was it...here come the waterworks!! No more holding back the tears. They handed her to me and....what a precious moment. Brian and I haven't stopped staring at her since! She won our hearts immediately.

The trip back was bumpy and loud and very hot. But Ava slept through the WHOLE thing! What an angel. We got back to the room and she got her first bath from us. Everytime she looks at Brian she smiles. He said she got him wrapped, already. When he first saw her, that was it for him, he was done. She is something! Just content and so far has only fussed when she wants a bottle. She has some congestion so I'm going to try some saline spray and that sucker-thingy! Yikes. That's a new one for me.

She's just B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L. Thanks again for keeping us in your prayers and for your encouraging emails. I KNOW God heard those prayers and answered them beyond what we all asked for. He is so good. We can't wait for you all to see her in person..the pictures don't do her justice. But here are a few and you know there will be lots more to come.

Today Brian has to go do some Official govt. business and I'll stay here with Ava. Then we'll just be hanging out. We may be able to expedite our passports and be able to come home a little sooner. That is if we can catch a flight. Keep prayin' PLEASE! We still have a long way to go before home. But we just wanted to let you know that we just have a feeling of complete awareness that prayers have been heard and answered in a way that, like I said before, we could NEVER have imagined.

Okay, I just tried to download pictures and for some reason I'm unable to right now. I'm not sure what the problem is. I'm so sorry. So I'll send picture by email to those of you that I have your address and then when I get back I will post them to the blog. Sorry about that! Maybe Brian can take a look at it later on.

Love to all.