The Paper Chase

It has begun, the infamous paper chase.

We went today to submit our paperwork for Tram's Vietnamese passport. The government has a very unique way of doing things over here. To obtain a Vietnamese passport - it costs 200,000 Vietnamese dong - roughly $15 US. To expedite the process, it costs $300 US. Wow - the problem is, if we paid the $15 US we might get her passport back in 10 days or it could be 4 weeks. If we expedite it, we get it in 3 days - it makes sense, its just a very large jump in fees. It feels more like extortion than expediting.

I had an interesting conversation with the officer that was accepting my paperwork. I got the usual questions -"Were you born here? Do you speak Vietnamese? Why not? Do you like Vietnam? Do you have family here, etc etc." But this guy threw in a new one - he said "You are young, why don't you just get pregnant?" I laughed and told him that I already had a 3 year old and we wanted to adopt a baby from beautiful Vietnam. (good answer, huh?) For a second I thought he was going to ask for my phone number! He didn't. But Hao, one of the other parents - said that I should have given it to him because maybe then he would have waived the $300 expedition fee!!! Oh well - :)

After we submitted the passport forms, we went to a Vietnamese hospital for the official medical exam. Tram did not like that. I am not too sure about the doctor that we saw either. He wasn't very knowledgeable - was terrible with all the babies- it just was not a good experience. He drilled Chris and I about Tram's habits (of the last 5 days, come on!) from eating to sleeping to the potty!!! I think he thought that we were too young to be adopting.

Tram was very upset after the exam. She screamed (yelled, not cried) for a good half hour. Thao (one of the adoption coordinators) finally calmed her down by buying her the equivalent of a Vienna sausage!! Yum yum. I thought that maybe all of the progress that we had made in the past few days was gone - she looked at me like - how could you let them do that to me!! - but after a snack and a good nap she was happy again.

We had dinner with my cousin Tuan and Hao, Connie and Tammy (one of the other couples that is adopting and their new baby). We went to a restaurant that specializes in crispy rice (rice that is "overcooked" in a clay pot). They cook the rice in the pot - then they take the pot and smash it and toss the rice disk across the room where another person catches it with a plate and then serves it. It was very entertaining to watch. Chris and Hao are convinced that they could manage it so I think they are going to practice in the hotel room tomorrow afternoon. (You know how men talk! They think they can do anything!! Hehe) Dinner was pretty good - we had rice, frog, eel soup, crispy whole fish, clams and a salad type dish.

Speaking of dinner - the night before, we had dinner (again with Hao and Connie - but this time with my cousin Ngoc Lan) at an outdoor restaurant. It was the best dinner that I have had in a long time. Rice noodles, rice soup and rice paper along with spicy clams, another salad dish and, uh - its getting late here, I can't seem to remember the rest - I will have to ask Chris in the morning!! But it was good - and for 5 adults and 2 kids it came out to less than $20 US - including drinks and dessert! Man I love it here - great food at a fantastic price.

Tomorrow we are going to go shopping and do a little sight-seeing, maybe the zoo or something. Monday is when all the paper work starts again - we get the weekend off!! Yay. We should have our interview on Tuesday or Wednesday - then we should head on up to Hanoi by the end of this week. Hanoi is a totally different ball game - I have never been there so I am really excited to go there.

Tram is doing much better now. She is still on the inhaler 3 times a day. She doesn't fight it anymore. I think she knows that it really does help her. She is eating really well. She loves shellfish and rice. She eats whatever we eat - so it is pretty easy to please her. We will go back to the International Clinic on Monday I think. She needs to be checked again for her bronchitis as well as the scabies.

Christopher is starting to get a little bit sick - it is starting as a sore throat and I hope that it will end there too! We don't need a sick Daddy and baby!!

Tram called me mommy in Vietnamese tonight. It was so cute!! She is so smart - I swear she said "da-da" and "uh-oh" tonight too!!! She loves to feed herself and she is sooo super clean. She picks up everything that she drops - it is so cute.

Well, I think that is it for now - I will post some video and more pictures tomorrow -



xoxoxox - lan-marie

*ps - kisses from Tram!!