First week

Our first week in country is almost over, and it's been quite a week. After being out of the hotel for hours at a time at the beginning of the week, we've spent the last 3 days cocooning in our hotel room.

A recap of events and key learnings:

1) getting them on a schedule is going to be difficult. Since Tuesday, they've gotten farther and farther apart. Whenever one is awake the other is asleep, which then leads to two different wake-up times during the night. The longest sleep that we've had since Tuesday is about 4 hours.

2) They definately have different personalities.

Will-- We first noticed at the G&R ceremony, but William is used to a lot of attention. The caregivers kept coming around and taking him back from us while we were waiting to leave. He cries a lot when he doesn't get his way, and likes to be held a lot. Since Tuesday he's gotten better about being by himself (not held all the time), but he's still really vocal when he isn't happy. We're pretty sure that he's about as normal of a baby that there is.



He's now pretty good about rolling around, and he sat up for the first time today.

Ava-- She's quiet. Really quiet. She pretty much sleeps the entire time. If she's awake she's quietly laying around waiting for someone to notice her. We think that this is the self-pacifying that we've heard about that kids from orphanages do. We're making an extra point to pick her up every time we hear a peep out of her -- we really want her to understand that we're going to be here for her and she doesn't need to hold back. She's super sweet and the sounds that she does make when she's happy will melt your heart.





She's learned how to roll over, but isn't really able to roll back yet. She really likes to nap on her side.

3) the kids still have a little cough. If they didn't spit the cough syrup out when we gave it to them, they'd probably be better by now. The dr told us to leave them indoors for 5 days and we're on day 3 of that. I'm starting to get some cabin fever, but maybe we can get out this weekend.

4) Tami is still sick and getting worse and refuses to go to the clinic. I'm going to have to make her go -- she's about to lose her voice.

5) The italian food in Vientam is pretty good. We're having Mexican tonight.

6) It feels weird to walk around with 1.6 million Dong (the equvialent of about $100 USD). It's a huge wad of cash, even if it's mostly 100,000 Dong bills.

7) It's not that hot here if you're from Texas.

8) Japanese tv is very strange, but Sumo wrestling rocks.

9) The Melia hotel executive lounge has the best coffee in the world.

Some pics starting with the trip to Thai Nguyen in reverse chronological order because i'm too tired to put them in the right order. The picture of the building is the orphanage, but not the building where the babies live. The Vietnamese woman holding Will is one of his caregivers (that kept taking him back every chance she got). The picture of Tami and I signing documents was the actual G&R ceremony. That's the point they became ours.