Well...maybe one more week

Hello faithful blog readers,

Congratulations on sticking with the blog reading for this long. It's been a long time and it's going to be a bit longer. We didn't learn anything today about the progress on Julia's visa, so we're not going to be able to come home on the 23rd. We're disappointed, but I think at this point we are going to be very surprised when the Visa does come through.

Tomorrow I will go to the airline office and try to change our tickets. We will try to change the flights for the 30th of December (pending flight availability). We hope that we will all be able to use those tickets, but if we don't have the visa, then Thomas, Helen, and I will come back and leave the other two girls here (insert big frown here). We knew all along that this would be a possibility, but we didn't think it was a highly likely possibility. Besides the obvious reasons that I would be disappointed for having to split up (missing each other, not having each other to help, Barbie being away from home even LONGER, and Julia delaying further her entry to her new home), it would be a bummer for me that I would not get to see the process through to the end that we have been breathing, eating, and sleeping for the past 2 years. Oh, well...you do what you have to do, eh?

There's not much to report other than that today. We stuck around the hotel much of the day checking the email every hour to make sure that we hadn't received any news. We did hear a response from the government that they could not ensure that we would get our visa when we hope to get it. I guess that we already know that.

I must also tell you a little bit about our agency's representative in Hanoi, Mr. Hien. Mr. Hien is a great young man who helps with paperwork with the DIA (Vietnam's intercountry adoption agency), helps us through the paperwork process in Hanoi, helps get accommodations for us, takes me to the airline office to change flights, helps me negotiate with hotels and travel agents, helps us plan things to do, and calls us at least once a day to check on us and see how we are doing. He has been most helpful during our time here and we are most appreciative of him. He always has a smile on his face and a kind demeanor. While waiting for paperwork, meeting in the hotel lobby to discuss scenarios, calling him to ask for advice on restaurants, and other interactions, I have had the chance to talk to this fellow for several hours, and he is a genuinely nice guy and very helpful. When we first got here, he made sure that we had his cell phone number and he told us, "If you need anything you call Mr. Hien." I asked him, "Even at 3AM?" Mr. Hien replied, "Of course!" I am thankful for Mr. Hien. He has been very helpful and I consider him a good friend.

A couple notes on Julia: I think that at this point she knows that Barbie is good cop and I am the bad cop. Right before I came down to the hotel lobby to blog, Barbie was sitting on the bed next to Julia, and the little girl was crawling around and trying to stand up. She was supposed to be going to sleep. I looked at her and said, "Julia" and immediately she laid down and stared at me. I think as soon as I left she probably got back up and started playing. Another thing about Barbie, Julia, and me...Julia now gives kisses. She puckers up and screws up her face and says, "MMMMMM" and then accepts a kiss. She is very free with her kisses with Barbie. However, she usually turns away from me. However, sometimes when I tell her not to do something, sometimes she starts kissing me to try and get me to forget about what she was doing. I think I'm in for a rough 17 years.

Talk with you later.

Doug