One week in

Well, hard to believe it's been a week since we arrived and tomorrow will be one week since meeting Lucas. Seems like we've been away for so much longer already!

We are much more adjusted to the jetlag, but it gets dark here around 5:30 pm so by 8 it feels really late and we are ready for bed. This week has been busy with appointments (ceremony, Vietnamese passport and Canadian passport applications) so we haven't done alot of sightseeing. It has been a huge help having my mom here to hang out with Maiya while we do some of the paperwork. They have been very busy making crafts and cards. It also helps since the contact lens insertion and removal is quite an ordeal and it is tough on Maiya to hear Lucas screaming and see us holding him down. Having someone to distract her helps.

Contacts - well, not sure I will ever get used to it! Wearing contacts ourselves is really NO help whatsoever in knowing what to do! We got one in the first try this morning, but had quite the episode this afternoon! You can't even imagine how freakishly strong a baby's eyelids are! We basically try to get a small slit open and slide it in. Taking them out has proven more difficult for us actually - some luck while he's asleep but no luck awake. We lost one yesterday after coming up from the pool, and thinking there was no hope we'd find it happened to look down and saw it in the seat of the stroller! One fell out in the hallway today right when I looked down so we must have a contact lens guardian angel looking out for us.

We made it out to the Diamond Plaza and the Tax Centre so far, both places we visited last time we were here. We are amazed at how much high-end expensive stores have taken over. There were some 5 years ago but now they are everywhere. The Tax Centre still has some good souvenirs so my mom had her first bargaining experience. Most places will quote foreigners exorbitant prices, often exhalting the one-of-a-kind quality of it, despite there being 10 other stalls with the exact same thing! With some negotiations and walking away you can usually get a good deal. (This is for the mass-produced stuff like fans or tshirts - we will go to some hand-crafted stores too, and there while we will negotiate, I always try to make sure to be respectful of the time and labour put into each piece). Anyway, Maiya got a nice fan with some of her souvenir spending money from our friend Mel, and she LOVES it! Mom made some nice purchases too. Hoping to get some ao dais this weekend (traditional Vietnamese dresses ).

We have been lucky in the health department so far, until a stomach bug hit my mom today. She thinks it was something she ate so hopefully it will be out of her system by tomorrow. I have been feeling much better the last few days, since discovering The Coffee Bean! My Starbucks withdrawal is cured now and I am enjoying the Ultimate Mocha Ice Blended coffee - a little pricey but oh so worth it. I keep planning to get a latte but it is so hot outside that by the time we get there I am too hot!

The weather has been pretty good with mostly just a downpour in the afternoon. Rained hard today and was like a steam bath outside when it stopped!

There is one other family from Quebec here right now adopting the cutest little guy (next to Lucas of course!) so hopefully we will get together with them this weekend to hang out. They are in another hotel so we have only seen them for official stuff so far but will have some time to relax now.

I can't get all the blog features to work with the iPad and PlayBook so I can't put labels by the pictures at this point. I will try to attach one of mom and Maiya at the Tax Centre, one of Brett and Lucas by the Canadian Consulate, one of me introducing Lucas to frappucinos, and videos of today's rain and Lucas in the pool. The pool is scary with the contact lenses, hence the panic in my voice at the end when he gets his face too close to the water! (sorry - I think the pool one is sideways!)

A few more pics from the orphanage and ceremony

Today was a busy morning with lots of paperwork. Luckily Janice did a great job with the hotel we are at and its within a 10 minute walk of most of the places we need to get to. The paperwork always seems to confuse me why there is so much,but as with adoption you go with the flow. We just put our trust in Loan to guide us, tell us where to stand, what to sign, how to take the craziness that is Ho Chi Minh all in stride. We wrapped up some paperwork. That will allow us to apply for the Canadian passport as well as applied for the

Vietnamese passport. We have a break Thursday but meet at the Canadian consulate friday to finalize in person the Canadian passport. We also ventured out to a coffee shop, leave it to Janice. To sniff out the Starbucks of Vietnam. Off to the Diamond plaza to see things that are way too expensive. We spent a lot of time here 5 years ago but were blown away how much has changed, was very posh this go around. Although we haveseen a big change overall here since 5 years ago. Much cleaner, more cars,more high end cars but still a ton of bikes! Their economy was growing at 7 percent up until this year. So back to Lucas the one thing we have found out is that he loves his food which is awesome, but his system doesn't seem to likeitas much as he does and he spits it back up its a good thing we have laundry in suite. Off to bed now. Will likely be up at 5 as the sun comes up, seems to have been the pattern.

Introducing Lucas Khanh...

At 11 am on Tues. August 21st, Lucas officially joined our family. Here are some pics from the last few days. The video is from Saturday when we first went into the orphanage to meet Lucas.

Another day

Well, we survived another day! Jetlag seemed to be worse yesterday for some reason so Maiya is crashing at 4pm then up at 2am, and since my mom is sharing a room with her she is getting the worst of it. Everyone napped this afternoon and despite some resistance I managed to drag everyone out for dinner for our first dinner outside the room. Hoping we will maybe be on track for tomorrow now.

It was another interesting day in the world of infant contacts! The good news is we got them in again, and didn't lose any today. The lenses cost about$140 per lens (not per pair! ) so we are constantly on the lookout to make sure they stay put. We brought a backup pair just in case but would prefer not to need them! It is scary to go anywhere as we worry about finding them if they fall out somewhere, so we have to get used to that new reality. We are starting to feel more comfortable that they will stay in with regular activities, but haven't gotten used to the panic every time he wakes up or rubs his eyes. I am sure that will come in time but it's definitely a learning curve! The bad news is we couldn't get them out tonight so he is sleeping with them in. It isn't that big of an issue but we want to get in the habit of daily removal and figuring all this out without anyone showing us what to do makes it a bit more challenging! We will hopefully see his opthalmologist before we leave but don't know when that will happen yet.

He had a good day today and we definitely see a difference when the lenses are in. He still can't see much, but he definitely tries to focus more when they are in. I think he's probably around the 6mth mark developmentally. They say there is often a 2 month delay for every month in an orphanage, so given that plus the vision, he is a actually doing ok. He played with toys a bit more today and loves to be thrown up in the air. He did a bit more babbling today and we tried to teach him how to pick up Cheerios, but he doesn't have the fine motor yet for that.

Tomorrow is the big day and we head to our Giving and Receiving ceremony at 10am. After that he will legally be our son and we move onto the immigration paperwork part of things.

We still can't access the blog so hopefully posts are showing up ok. Here are some pics of us at the orphanage Saturday - one is our last pic as a family before meeting Lucas, a happy big sister shot after we saw him,and one of his crib with the gift our friends delivered for us in June.

Day 2 with Lucas

Well, it was a good and bad sort of day! Lucas slept well, only up for a bottle at 1:30am then slept until after 7. We had to do the Nix treatment for his skin last night which is always fun but are hoping that we can get away with not treating ourselves this time. His skin is a million times better than Maiya's was, and mostly the spots are on his feet which is typical. We decided to throw out the schedule from the orphanage as 2 sponge baths and 6 bottles a day were going to be a little crazy to manage for him. He has had very little solid food or finger food and has a hard time even moving a Cheerio around in his mouth. He did a little better today so hoping that will continue to improve as we very gradually introduce more textures to him. Finger foods are tough because he hasn't had the experience with it, can't see what others are doing in order to mimic it, and can't see the small pieces to then coordinate his eyes and hands to pick the food up.

The next big task of the day - the first contact lenses insertion. The good news - I managed to get them in in a relatively short amount of time(I think in under 10 min). This feat did require Maiya's help with the first eye and Brett's with the second to help hold him down. The great news is that we noticed a big difference in him playing with toys and actually trying to visually focus on toys and do some cause and effect kinds of things. He babbled a bit more today it still not a lot. He was generally happy and loves to watch Maiya and was much more interactive. I think we may have to go buy a walker for him to save our backs for the next 3 weeks - he just wants to walk!

The bad news - taking out the contacts was not so fun! He was really rubbing his eyes tonight and after checking for them a million times decided to take them out since his eye was getting red. We tried but no luck, just lots of crying. A baby's eyelids are unbelievably strong and even the ,"jaws of life" would have been given a challenge with these little things! We then lost one of the lenses, slight panic (VERY expensive lenses!) but fortunately found it in the other room. After lots of fussing and tears (some Lucas's and some mine) he finally fell asleep and Brett was able to get the other one out.

So over all a good day (other than the meltdown and overwhelmingness at the end!)- going to get some sleep since Maiya crashed at 5 and will likely wake up raring to go at midnight! The joys of jetlag!! She had a blast in the pool today and loved the ice cream and popcorn party this afternoon by the pool!

Hopefully will venture out more tomorrow - can't do too much before the ceremony since we have no official documents for him yet.

It's a Boy!!!

We are sitting in our hotel room while our baby boy is having a nap in the crib! We had a great visit to Go Vap this morning and met the little guy. The nannies quickly got him dressed and we got our first look at him. My first thought was that he seemed so little - still lots of baby in him! The nannies clearly love him to bits and I think they are sad not to be able to celebrate his birthday with him on the 27th. They all took a ton of photos on their cell phones of him and gave him lots of hugs. He didn't cry the entire time - except when Brett put him back in his crib! He is a mover and wants to be on the go. He loves walking while you hold his hands and crawls like crazy. He loves looking out the windows - our guess is he is responding to the light. He doesn't look directly at us too much at this point but hopefully once we put the contacts in he will attempt to focus more. Maiya got him laughing pretty good playing peekaboo and I think the movement from her hands was drawing his attention. It will be a huge learning curve for us getting used to the fact that he is really only seeing light and large shapes rather than a detailed image but hopefully more visual stimulation will help a bit. We haven't braved the contacts yet and wanted to give him some time to settle in before going through that with us newbies!

We can't post pics of Lucas until the ceremony on Tuesday but will try to add a clip from the orphanage. I. Can't see what the posts look like with the issues we are having accessing the blog but at least the posts are going though. We are thrilled to have him with us finally and he's stealing our hearts pretty quickly!

An hour to go!

In one hour we will be meeting Lucas for the first time! The trip was long but went well, and Loan met us at the airport and helped us get to the hotel. Maiya was a rock star traveller and my mom was very relaxed too! She was excited to finally make it to Japan, even though it was just for 45 minutes! The room is comfortable, pool looks great and breakfast buffet was so good Brett wanted to stay and eat there all day! Having trouble getting the blog to come up with our wifi so am trying to get around it. Hopefully this will work and we will post more details later. Loan says he is such a happy little guy and we are starting to get the butterflies in our stomachs that the big moment is almost here!