Happy Birthday Tri

Yesterday was Tri's 5th birthday (in months that is)!  How did we celebrate?  Well we took him to Paris.....Paris Cafe for dinner.  He didn't each much (he's a cheap date), but we relaxed in comfy chairs with a sumptuous meal.  This cafe is just on the main floor next to our building.  It's a nice place to go for a coffee, or a "pain o chocolate" while I upload images (since they have free wifi).

Loan, our agent here in Vietnam, called today to say she would try again to talk to the orphanage about getting Cai into our care.  We've not heard back.  But the nanny said that she would be off Oxygen tomorrow, so we are keeping our fingers crossed that we will be able to bring her home tomorrow.

Update 25 minutes later.  Virginia is on the phone to Loan right now and I'm awaiting the news....

Vanilla Frappe anyone?

As a new age Dad, I thought getting Tri used to some of the finer things in life was important. Waking up in the middle of the night, listening to him scream for his bottle, I would, in my sleepy daze, try to make his bottle as quickly as possible. In order to dissolve the formula, it's necessary to shake the bottle. When in a hurry, I'd shake that thing up so fast in every direction, that the result was somewhat of a milk vanilla frappe, with about half the bottle a thick froth sitting at the top. Well, three feedings in a row, he would down the bottle and then about 4 minutes later, up the whole bottle would come! Virginia was sure I was doing something wrong, while I was sure he had some sort of a bug!
Well, you will not be surprised to learn that Virginia was correct! Apparently our little Tri is a more down to earth kind of guy! He has no need for those expensive sorts of drinks, and instead he's happy to stick with a plain old bottle!
No news on Cai, other than that Virginia thinks that she is looking stronger!

To Swing or Not to Swing - That is the Question!

Many of you have been asking for video. Unfortunately, I forgot the firewire cable to download the video from our DV camera. We don't use the regular camera for taking much video because the quality is not as good as our DV camera. Today I went to about 8 different stores before I found one that sold the necessary cable. Unfortunately it doesn't work, so I'll have to try again later.
In the mean time, here is a video and a question. It shows Tri in a swinging crib. We think the crib is awesome, and you can buy one for as little as $60, we're thinking of getting the next model up at $80 complete with mosquito net which would be beneficial to prevent dengue and malaria in Indonesia. However, I can't find any for sale online in North America, and it makes me question whether they may be unsafe. Any thoughts would be appreciated. You can leave them here by hitting the word "comments" below this post, or email us your thoughts, or let us know when we speak to you on the phone.


In other news, Cai didn't seem any better today. I could feel the fluid in her longs vibrate as she breathed. Once again, the Doctor (a different one this time) didn't give any predictions on length of stay, saying instead that it depended on her.
Today, Tri's paediatrician indicated that we probably wouldn't catch Scabies by visiting and holding her, so we're hoping that the scabies laundry routine is finished, and perhaps Virginia's psychosomatic symptoms will subside :)

A Full Day at the Hospital

Since Virginia had a chance to spend time with Cai yesterday and I had father-son bonding time, today was my turn to head to the hospital. I had mixed emotions about going. I certainly thought that since she was our little girl that we should go and spend as much time as possible with her. But at the same time, she isn't yet our little girl, and we can't give her the care we want to.
We've been busy getting Tri rid of scabies, and we don't want to contract it ourselves and then give them back to Tri. So I wasn't sure how long I would stay with Cai today.
However all of that changed within the first half hour of being with her. I've held many babies in my life and thought they were cute enough; but I certainly wasn't that fussed about them. I've never been the type of person to say "oh, let me hold the baby". I've always been willing to help out, but it's never been a strong desire of mine.
Below is a photo of Cai. You can see the oxygen in her nostrils, the pic line (for the IV) in her hand, and a little green and purple fan that I brought today to keep her cool. Beside the fan is little "Purple", Virginia's special little lamb (a gift from our nephew Christopher).
Well within that first half hour, Cai entered my heart and is now most definitely my little girl. In April, our good friends Eric and Kathy and their two kids Josh (2 years) and Natasha (5 months) came to visit us from Australia. We spent a little over a week at our beach house, and it was funny how over the course of that week that their little girl grew on me. Well it only took a few minutes for Cai to grow on me and is now indelibly stamped in my heart.
I was impressed at how responsive she was. She makes good eye contact and was able to follow objects with her eyes. She seems to be a good size (it's hard to believe she is two months younger than Tri) but she clearly does have pneumonia. I had the opportunity to speak with the Doctor today. She speaks English quite well. She explained that as soon as Cai is able to get taken off oxygen, then she can be discharged from the hospital (and I assume we can take her home). When prompted for how many days that would be, she wouldn't say. Let's hope it is soon!

Below is a shot of Tri in the bathtub. Every night he is coated in a cream that is supposed to kill the scabies and then in the morning, Tri needs to be bathed to remove the cream. We have been moving him from one blanket to another and one carriage to another as we try to clean everything he touches to remove the scabies.

Below is a shot from when we had already moved from one carriage to another, and so we used the "Baby Bjorn" to carry him. The good news is that tonight was his last treatment!

Disappointed Daddy and Mommy

Well, we had hoped to bring Cai home with us tomorrow. Unfortunately, we are not allowed. As you can imagine, we are very disappointed. The deal is this: we are not yet the parents and as such the orphanage makes all medical decisions for our little girl.

And they have decided to keep her in the Children's Hospital for another 5-7 days.
That will seem like forever.

And we have no choice but to respect their decision. The people who work for our adoption agency have done all they can for us and for Cai and we are really greatful for that, but the orphanage gets the last word, so she stays put- for now.

So, I (Virginia) went to see her today. We can visit between the hours of 11am and 4pm.
Cai has been moved from the ICU to a "regular" room. Let me try and paint a picture for you. As I walked through the maze of hallways, strewn with people sleeping on mats, children being fed or changed, and filled with laundry being dried on makeshift lines, I finally found the third floor of the wing where Cai is staying. She is sharing a room with four other children and their parents/caregivers.

It is NOT a large room. There is no air conditioning and rooms are connected, kind of like a pod-classroom you would have seen in the 70s. So it is not quiet! There is a window that looks onto the courtyard; Cai's crib is near the window. Sadly, it does not let in relief from the heat, so Cai's nanny (a woman hired by the orphanage) fans her with wild abandon.

Her nanny is a lovely lady; I just wish I could understand her! I wish I could understand anyone there. No one speaks English, so my visit was limited to cooing over our poor, sad little girl.

The conditions are far from hygenic and although the nursing staff clearly tries very hard, there are just too many patients and too little space. As you will see in one of the pictures, the nannies/mommies/caregivers stay 24/7. They sleep on the floor underneath the babies' beds (notice the two people under the crib and Cai is in top corner).

Cai is, as you can see, not looking her party-ready-best. While her Mohawk might be considered fashionable on some New York City streets, it is not so cool on a baby. As I said before, we will be shaving that soon! Then she and Tri (and I am told John is going to join them - mommy won't) will all grow hair together.

She is still on oxygen and she has a feeding tube. I THINK I understood that she will be losing the equipment tomorrow. I hope so.

She is responsive - sort of. But the most shocking thing is that there isn't much life in her eyes. Boy are we going to work hard to change that. As I remember, Tri was a little bit like that and now he is quite the little charmer. While Cai seems to be even more distant, I am sure a lot of love will help her along.

Her breathing and coughing still smacks of pnuemonia and I think she is still on antibiotics. I sure hope not as she would have been on them for over 2 weeks, now.

And so, we wait.
It will be a long, long 5-7 days. We really hope that will be shortened.
Until then, we will continue to visit: one of us will stay with Tri and one will go in to see Cai each day. That is the best we can do right now.

Please send your positive energy our little girl's way; she can use all the good vibes she can get.
Virginia

Mixed News

Well today has been another adventure. We arrived to the hospital to meet with Loan, the TDH represntative in Saigon. We immediately proceeded to go find our little girl, Cai (said like "guy" with a K [John says rhymes with Pie....clearly we have different brains!]). This was easier said then done. I'm not sure that the Children's Hospital #1 in Ho Chi Minh City has heard of an electronic registry. At right is a photo of Loan, the adoption agency's representative, trying to find our little girl - all the names are posted on the white board. Now THAT is technology!



We finally found her in the ICU. Unfortunately, they said no photos were allowed.....or perhaps this was fortunate. She was rather sickly looking. Half her head is shaved, she has an IV in her arm, and is on oxygen. Our poor little girl. We will be shaving the rest of her head so she can ditch the silly mohawk; she and Tri can grow their hair back together. Their first brother/sister activity!



We had to take turns going in to see her as Tri was not allowed in the hospital. And when I say hospital, don't go getting an image of sparkling clean hallways and sanitary rooms. Not quite. (the next two pictures show you the hallway of where Cai is to be moved). So it is better that Tri had to take turns waiting outside with mommy and then with daddy. He was happy as can be - slept most of the time we were in seeing Cai.



Cai will be staying in the hospital until Friday at which point we have arranged to have her given to our care. We are taking her to our pediatrican (who we really like). He will then make a recommendation as to whether or not she'll stay with us at home or go into the fancy hospital (the same one Tri was in). If she can, she'll stay with us and we will take care of her. Dr. Jonathan feels this is likely the best place for her (as long as it makes sense medically) so she can get lots of love.





And we are getting pretty good at giving medication!

Speaking of which, Tri has a rash all over. Mostly a heat rash, as it turns out, but he also has scabies. So, we are in treatment!! Cai has scabies too, so this will be a pretty diligent household for the next little while. We spent the evening boiling clothing and sheets!!



How romantic!



As for Cai, we hope to take pictures of her tomorrow; she is being moved from ICU as she is now stable. One of us is going to stay with Tri and the other will go to be with Cai for a while.



And then, we hope, she'll come home on Friday!!



Keep your fingers crossed!

Our new little girl

We're off to the hospital to meet our girl. We'll have photos to post in a few hours. Who knows, we may even be able to take her home today.

New Arrival - Again!

Well from the previous post, you may have gathered that we've had a 2nd proposal for a child. Our little girl comes from the same orphanage. From the photos you will notice that they were taken on the same day with the same background (May 21) as Tri's original photos. She is currently in Saigon at the children's hospital with pneumonia. We will be there tomorrow morning at 10:00am to meet her. Of course, Tri is a little blasé about the whole affair, as he's been friends with her for months. In fact, my niece Maeve noticed in one of Tri's original photos that he was lying next to a clearly Asian baby, as the top of a head with jet black hair was visible to the side of one of his photos. I think that the hair in question belonged to our little girl.

Double the Pleasure?

I awoke this morning at 0100 to give Tri his feeding. He wasn't eating, so I opted to put him on the floor to nap for a bit hoping that he would awake with an appetite. While waiting, I opened my email and read something that made me see double! I will write more on the next post, and I will include Virginia's reaction.

Attempted Abduction - Alas, Aborted!

After Virginia's medical appointment, we headed to Paris Cafe for lunch. While there, as usual, many people took an interest in Tri. This little girl wanted to take Tri home to be her baby brother. We explained that she would have to get her own. However, we offered her the chance to come home with us to be Tri's older sister. She considered this for a while, and then ran away from the crazy, scary people!

BIRTHDAY HELP???

Wow, this being a mom thing is wonderful. Already, my son is helping out his daddy!!
You heard it folks, Tri wants you to help his daddy with birthday ideas, so GET ON IT, FOLKS!!
:)

Seriously, we'd love to have your comments on our blog, so feel free to say hello!
It helps us feel like we aren't so far from home.

And we do miss you all!
xo Virginia

Sleep or no sleep?

We've been told that with a young baby, we should catch sleep while we can. Last night would be an indicator as to why this is. Tri was up from about 3 am onwards. Of course one of Tri's parents was not aware of this, as he was sleeping while the other parent was busily attending to Tri.
Below is a video of sample of what Tri was like all night. Above is a photo of John and Tri from a few days ago. John is taking the "sleep whenever possible" advice.
Tri has a rash and we are hoping that it is not measles. We're gonna go see a doctor tomorrow morning.
In other news, Mommy is trying to take some of that sleep advice. She's down for the afternoon, and so Tri and Daddy are having a little male bonding time. Tri has been asking about Mommy's birthday. I've told her that we normally don't make a big deal about birthday's, and that Mommy doesn't normally like a fuss, but he seems to think that since this will be the first birthday that he'll be attending he'd like to make it something special. If anyone has any idea's Tri would like to hear them.

Running around today!

After a quick jaunt to the hospital to pick up our medicals, we returned (30 min walk) via the Co-op, a local grocery store.

We now had the medicals we needed to finalize Tri's adoption, but we still needed to print out one more letter about our temporary residency in Jakarta. You'd think this would be a simple task, but not when you don't speak the language. I thought for sure that someone could point us to a small shop that we could print out the letter.

Unfortunately we were consistently told that we would need to go downtown to do this. Instead, I opted to hop on a bicycle and go exploring, sure that I could find someplace to print. Sure enough, within a few minutes....I had sniffed out the internet/gaming cafe. In I went, leaving the bicycle out on the sidewalk unlocked. A woman asked if I wanted to lock it up, and I waved her off, saying it was no big deal.

After about five minutes of deciphering the Korean language on the computer (a Korean kid had last logged in), I was able to get the documents printed. I paid my bill, and went outside to my bike......

Can you guess what had happened???

Probably not. My bike was there, but it was locked up to some other bike and there was no one around!

I figured this was some scheme to charge for bike parking and so I asked around. Eventually I found out that the owner of the cafe had locked it up trying to be helpful. No problem, where is the owner? Oh, he's gone to the market to buy food for the day. I was a little annoyed, but quickly spotted a tavern with cold beer. I was about to go wait it out, when someone came running from the cafe with the key.....crisis averted (though not my thirst!)

Itchy!

Tri and mommy are itchy. We have a rash.



No big deal, but it isn't fair that daddy missed out on it!



We are going to the doctor tomorrow to see what it is!



Scratch....scratch....scratch.

Off to Hospital

A quick wakeup this morning, and we're off to the hospital. We need to get there to get our medical. It's the last piece of paper work holding up our adoption. We will write more later today.



You may have heard Mommy's concern about lack of poop yesterday. Well this morning, we awoke to a grumpy little man, but within half



an hour that all changed as he had a nice big bowel movement.....fascinating stuff....I bet you can't wait to read more!

Our First Day out in Saigon

Well we finally made it out into Ho Chi Minh City. Since the maid was due to come to the apartment today, we decided to get out and about. This was accomplished by walking out the front door of the apartment, taking a right, walking one block and waiting for a shuttle bus into District 1, which is Old Saigon.

The bus takes 5 minutes longer than a taxi and is 1/10 the cost, so one of us was all over this, and the other just wanted to take a taxi.

It was effortless, and we now both agree that this is the best way to get into downtown Saigon.

5 m from being dropped off, we saw a little Art Shop. In we walked, and found several paintings that we are absolutely in love with. The first one was 240. In Vietnam, the currency is the Dong, and about 16 000 = 1 USD. Many times one will say it is 100 meaning it is 100 000 Dong or about USD 6. When we saw these prices, we quickly assembled about 8 paintings. We decided we'd have some for Jakarta, and some for Kingston. When we went to pay, we discovered the prices were in USD, not Dong!!!!! So we are still artless, though we are thinking about getting the original piece that brought us into the shop.

While out and about, we ran into a friend that I used to teach with in Venezuela. Kevin Mulqueen, was there on the sidewalk in front of us. Virginia spotted him first. After Venezuela he moved to Vietnam and taught here for several years. Two years ago, he took a year off and visited us in Indonesia. We had just bought the land, and were waiting on building permits. Here is a photo of us on our land toasting with friends. (I'll have to insert later).

Here is a photo of us on the street.



Upon returning to our apartment, we tried giving Tri a quick feed of pablum. Here is the video. It didn't work too well, and we resorted to the bottle after a few scoops.