(I wrote and sent this 12 hours ago - i am fed up with sending blogger posts via email!!! They never seem to post anymore! Update at the bottom...)

Addy's passport is done! Woohoo!!! And we are just about to take off to go to the SOS International Clinic in order to get her visa physical and then we have one last stop before we are allowed to come home: the final visa interview. I'm not sure when that is but hope to learn more later today.

We are now starting to discuss exactly how long we want to stay. There is a lot we want to do, still, and we all love it here. The kids are starting to freak out about going home (and not in a homesick way! Haha) and Tony is now pricing apartments and rental homes! Eek! I think Noah's had his fill of 'away from home' life. He misses his "stuff". So depending on if and when we get that last visa appointment and approval, we may stay at least until the 17th when our tickets to return are scheduled.

Today we headed out and went to the Hoa Lo prison which was the POW prison otherwise known as the 'Hanoi Hilton'. The kids were bored but I found it fascinating and I'm glad we went. We then hung out in the adjoining Hanoi Towers were we ran into another adopting family here whom I know from the Internet. That was fun.

After our SOS clinic appointment, we are hoping to get dropped off in the Old Quarter to do some shopping and have dinner. We had the BEST dinner from Hoa Soa the other night and I'd LOVE to go back for the full experience. There are a bunch of other places I want to try, too, though. So we'll see.

One thing I highly recommend for others, if you have a hotel with refrigeration in-room is to order cakes. We are on our third cake. The first was a birthday cake for Dalton and we were hooked. They are incredible French masterpieces for under $10 each! It's insanity and has kept me very happy and fat, thankyouverymuch!

Tony and Dalton did some major power shopping yesterday which was wonderful but really just piqued my appetite so that is not a good thing. Haha. Now I have a whole NEW list of things I want to buy. Haha. We also signed up for a hotel excursion to a pottery village southeast of Ha Noi. I am not sure how interested the kids are going to be but it is only 3 hours for the entire excursion so I think it will be worth it to see.

Noah continues to attract attention. Today we were approached by this overjoyed sweet old lady who just needed to touch Noah (this is common) and then promptly took Addison's thumb out of her mouth and told me I need to cut off her ear tags. Hahahah. I am impressed by her English. I knew ear tags were common here but I half expected her to pull out her own personal scissors and cut Addison's off. We don’t even think they are that noticeable but apparently if you are Vietnamese, they are!!! This leads me back, once again, to wondering if perhaps this wasn't the reason for Addison's abandonment. If she was born with ear tags that are culturally frowned upon and her Mother did not have the funds to have them removed, perhaps the social stigma was just too great? It is so sad to consider but definitely a possibility.

Well, off to our Visa physical where we will finally get to hear what this little girl weighs. I guess 14 or 15 lbs. Maybe the kind doctor will slip me something for my ears :-)


UPDATE: It is now nighttime and we are back at home base after a very full day out. The visa physical went ok. Tony and I both felt the stress of it, oddly. Addison weighs 15.5 lbs and is 71 cms (whatever that translates to in inches) and had no fever. In bad news, she does have an ear infection which we knew and we were given Zithromax. The doctor asked a lot of questions about her ear tags and her hearing and other development and tried to get her to do all these things and she just wasn't preforrming. We felt like failures, as stupid as tht sounds. Of course here at the hotel she is on fire and doing everything perfectly and that is what counts, right? Anyway the doctor felt like there might be a structural abnormality with Addison's left ear but she was not certain and wanted us to consult with another doctor but she was booked up. She suggested we come back or just wait until we get home. We are opted for door no. 2. The good news is that the ear with the weird inner structure did not appear to be infected which is good. i know that often abnormalities of the inner ear are the cause of repeat ear infections so I'm glad that ear seems fine.

We went to the Cyclo Bar for dinner -where we all got to sit on Cyclo seats and eat really yummy food. I had crab stuffed with mushroom and onion and it was sooooo good! Then we shopped and shopped until we found ourselves right underneath the hotel a good friend is staying at so we stopped by to visit and meet her new baby. We also got to meet some really awesome traveling families who I know from online so that was really neat. Everyone's babies are so precious.

Taking a taxi back to our hotel tonight in the dark was both beautiful and harrowing. The ride is scarier in the dark thanks in part to a HUGE increase in downtown traffic. This weekend is going to be literal insanity as the economic equivalent of the Olympics comes to town full force. But the city looks beautiful - there are signs welcoming APEC made of beautiful flowers everywhere and the trees are all lit up and there are events and activities everywhere. Incidentally did you all know that Vietnam is now part of the World Trade Organization (as of, i think, yesterday)? I can't even imagine how this will work out - compliace is going to be a HUGE major undertaking!!

So now we are off to bed, Addison has had her first dose of medicine and I am beat!