To Vietnam and Back: The Anticipation

Our day started at 5:45 am. We had to wake up really early to catch our flight at 8:40 am to Dong Hoi, Quang Binh where we would finally meet our beautiful baby girl. Our taxi would pick us up at 6:45 am to get us to the airport an hour before our flight. We were travelling to the airport with Mary, who was also in Vietnam to adopt her daughter from the same area as Jayda. Heading to the airport during rush hour traffic is never fun,but we eventually made it. Of course, excitement always follows us. We met our guide Thuy, who was running late because she also got stuck in the rush hour traffic. We showed our E-Ticket at the Vietnam Airlines counter, it seemed like hours (which was actually probably only 10 minutes) as the lady at the counter thought it would be good to make us sweat a little as she scrutinized our passports, holding them close to her face, scanning every detail of our passport. At the end all was well and we received our Boarding Pass. As we passed through security, I never even thought that they would follow the same liquid regulations as we do in Canada, but yes they do. I was carrying several large bottles of lotion and soap that was well over the 100 ml limit and were being brought as gifts to present to the Director of the Orphange. As our flight was soon to leave, this was a little bit of a problem as it was too late to check this in as baggage. Our wonderful guide Thuy, to the rescue, emptied out her backpack, threw in all of our large bottles of lotion and soap and ran back to the ticket counter. At this time, they were making a last call to board the shuttle that would take us to our flight. We watched and watched for Thuy to return, and whatever tricks she pulled, she returned back with her backpack with all of our lotions and potions and was able to receive permission to carry it on our flight. Whew!!! Finally, we boarded our plane, the last leg of our journey to finally meet Jayda Bao Yen!!! Our flight was short and uneventful, only 1.5 hours long. As we exited of the plane, it felt like we were in the Tropics, a far cry from cold and rainy Hanoi. If we had known what a beautiful place Dong Hoi was, I think we may have planned our trip a little differently and flown here as soon as we arrived in Vietnam. Our taxi was a short ride to our resort, a interesting ride, a very quaint little town with not much to do. As we pulled up in our taxi to to the resort, it felt like we were finally in paradise. An unbelievable place, beautiful white sandy beaches, warm tropical breeze, absolutely gorgeous. As we arrived and checked in, we were told our rooms were not quite ready so we decided to enjoy lunch on the sandy beach. We finally met the other couple , we had been corresponding with by email, they had been staying here for a few days earlier, they have already been in Vietnam for the past 3 weeks waiting for the adoption to be official, they also have a son from a previous adoption from Vietnam
After lunch our rooms were finally ready, we were excited to get settled in, put on our shorts, hang out the beach until the time that we would finally take our final taxi to meet Jayda. It has been a long journey, but so worth it, now that we are only moments away.
Enjoy the Pictures. Some of them are in mixed order, not sure why