Hanoi, here we come!

Hi all. It’s Barbie again. Sorry for not posting last night, we were kind of exhausted by the end of the day!

We are hanging in there. Julia had a rough morning yesterday. She clings tightly to the first person who picks her up in the morning and won’t let them go. She also would cry for the nannies throughout the morning. The kids at the orphanage call the nannies “mom” which is mei (pronounced “may”) and she would cry like a little lamb “mei, mei.” It is heartbreaking to say the least. She would eat and she slept a lot. Doug took the older kids out to play at a park, while Julia and I stayed in the room and tried to help her adjust to us a little better without continuously throwing new environments into the picture. By mid afternoon, I was slightly discouraged. I realize that this is all normal for her to go through, but it is so hard to watch. But when she woke up from her afternoon nap, we started to see glimpses of our little girl. She started to play with some toys and interact with us and her siblings. We even got a laugh out of her when she spilled some of her fruit snacks onto her face. She was content to sit next to us rather than needing to hang on to us for dear life. It was a very welcome sight. We even ventured out for some pizza for supper (which was a nice break from rice and noodles) and she did well with that outing.

This afternoon we fly to Hanoi (where we will remain for the duration of the trip) to begin the paperwork process to get her home. First we need to apply for her passport, then get a medical exam done and then wait for her visa. The visa is the thing that could hold us up for awhile. We are still hoping that everything will get done so that we can get home on the 16^th. We will keep you updated.

Thomas and Helen continue to do well. They fight over who gets to sit next to Julia, play with her, etc. At one point, Julia was not so excited that they were near her and so I told Thomas that she needed some space and that there would be plenty of time to play with her later. He replied that he wanted to play with her now because when she turned 2 and 3 years old she wouldn’t be fun to play with anymore (referring to how he feels about his other sister!)