November 29, 2012

The afternoon started with us leaving the resort at 3:30 pm. All 3 families piled into a taxi along with our guide who would take us to the orphanage to visit our children.  The plan was to meet the children today and than receive them forever tomorrow.  Our first stop along the drive was to pick up diapers and formula to bring to the orphange.  We also brought with us a bag of clothes and toys from home for the children living in the orphanage.  Shae-Lee was grinning from ear to ear, she kept saying, I just cant believe we are finally going to meet my baby sister.  I think this wait for her has been the longest and hardest, and she was so thrilled to be moments away. We finally arrived at the orphanage.   Everyone was so excited after all these years to finally be walking up the concrete stairs to meet the Director who would than bring us to the children, still so unbelievable that we were moments away.  It didnt feel real.  As we all walked into the Directors office, she offered us a cold drink of water. We all eventually sat down and our guide talked to her.  We had no idea what was being said.  Our guide Thuy, than gave us the most amazing news, the director granted permission to take the children home with us tonight.  Needless to say, we were in complete shock.  The wait for us to meet our children, had been one continuous delay after another so to be told that we would actually be given permission to bring our children home with us, 1 day early, away from the concrete walls and wooden cribs without bedding that they were currently living in was the most wonderful news.  The 4.5 years that it had taken us to get to this place was filled with delays and dissapointment, so for the first time,  to receive such a surprise was completely unexpected. We thanked our Director over and over, the power was in her hands and it was very kind  of her to use her power in a positive way.  The time had now come, we were now to meet our children.  We once again, walked down the concrete steps, outside along the wall and through the concrete courtyard, we were shown the rooms of our children, and there she was, our beautiful Bao Yen.  We picked her up and of course Shae-Lee couldnt stop grinning.  Her baby sister, the one she has been waiting months for, was finally with us, and she would be with us forever.  We didnt receive much of a reaction from Bao Yen, she came to us, she sat on our lap, Shae-Lee spent time holding her.  Bao Yen was still in her element, she had been use to many caregivers, so we were probably to her, just another caretaker.  The time we spent at the orphange was approximately half hour, we took pictures, the nannies took turns holding the children again.  We went out to the concrete courtyard, many children came, they were all fascinated with us.  The time had now come to leave. We said our Good-byes, the nannies gave the children kisses and we once again piled back into the taxi, but this time with a armful of children, seemed very surreal.  On our route home, we stopped off at the same store to buy some formula, we were completely unprepared to accept our children today so we needed to buy milk for our babies to drink.  I call them babies, they are two years old, but they are toddlers in a 12 month old body.  They are babies in every sense, there diet consisted of rice and milk, they didnt receive the nutrition they require to grow.  There development will catch up, but in the meantime they will need to learn to eat solid food, food that will strengthen them and allow them to catch up in there development.  I have no doubt that now that they have been removed from there current living situtation they will thrive and grow in a fast way. They just need the proper nutrition to get them back on target.  Once we got back to the Hotel, everyone was estatic, everyone was thrilled to be able to walk into there rooms with children in hand.   We made plans to meet for dinner in a short while, we have come to know the other families quite well and our time is often spent together so it was nice to be able to have dinner tonight with our children with us this time instead of just talking about them.  Tomorrow would be the big day, the Giving and Receiving Ceremony at 4:30, the day that would finally make us a family of four.

On our way to meet Jayda Bao Yen

Buying milk and diapers for the orphanage

Directors office

Minutes before meeting Jayda

And here we are, a family of four