Rejected! (by a taxi driver that is)

Hi all (it's Barbie),

No, thankfully our visa has not been rejected. Just me - let me tell you the story.

Yesterday, I was going to go visit the Ambassador's Pagoda. I flagged down a taxi and when I tried to get in the back, the door was locked. He opened the passenger door and asked where I was going. He looked at the address while I again tried to get in the back. He handed me the address, said that he would not take me, slammed the passenger door shut and drove off. I am not quite sure what I did to deserve the rejection, as that has never happened before. (And Julia was not even crying at the time. She can get a pretty good scream going in the taxi as of late and I could see us being kicked out of one, but never refused from the get go!)

The pagoda was pretty. One odd thing - while I was there, I witnessed a monk dressed in his garb, talking on a cell phone and getting on his scooter. It was like two different worlds meeting, and my mind did not know quite what to do with this.

The hotel staff here is very kind. It is slightly chilly in Hanoi right now and because the hotel does not have heat, the staff was worried about our children. So yesterday they went out and bought space heaters for the rooms of the 3 adoptive families, so we can survive this "cold" front. Little do they know what these three kids have in store.

Well, again my time is up with Julia and the computer. We hope to hear good news tomorrow and find out that we can really go home next Thursday.

Miss you all,

Barbie