GOTCHA DAY JUNE 1ST

We started our day by meeting in the lobby at 05:30 for our 3 hour bus ride to Lang Son. One more family from New York and New Jersey joined us, so now we were a total 6 families all adopting girls. The hotel packed us a breakfast to go. There was a lot of excitement and anticipation on the bus ride. Bill was nominated by all the parents to make the speech of thanks to the government officials, orphanage officials, birth parents, and caretakers. So he was busy working feverishly to get all his words down, which wasn't easy on the bumpy bus ride.

We arrived to the Justice Department of Lang Son and were taken inside to a large room. Everyone was busy sorting all the packages/gifts we were bringing to give the officials and we noticed some ladies in the room who we all guessed were the birth parents. We were quickly told this was the time we would meet with our birth parents. We would have a few minutes to talk then would be taken to another room for an interview with an official to state it was our wish and the birth mother's wish to continue with this adoption.

At first our birth mother wasn't there, and we were very disappointed, but in just a few minutes she arrived. She was dressed in the local attire of the Nung people and she was quite beautiful and seemed very kind and gracious. We were so thankful to have Mom there to help us translate. They had interpreters for families to use, but it was certainly to our advantage to have our very own interpreter who was personally involved. Thanks to Mom we were able to learn so much more than we would have otherwise. We also were allowed to spend much more time with her than I ever thought we would get to share. We were able to take lots and lots of photos as well as some video, and some very special pictures of her and Thuy. I know in the future Thuy will cherish these photos and all the information we learned. There were some tearful moments in our exchange, but it was wonderful to know Thuy came from a place of love. Her caregiver who had cared for her these last few months was very tearful. It was sad, but made me feel so good to know Thuy had been loved so well in her early months of life.

We then went in for our interview with the local officials. It was very smooth and relatively simple and Thuy's birth mother attended as well. After all the families finished their interview we had the ceremony. A speech was made by one of the local officials. Each birth family and adopted family stood to be recognized. Bill made the speech via an interpreter. He did very well and I was very proud of him.

We signed the "magic book," that makes everything official in the eyes of Vietnam that we are now officially her parents. We allowed Thuy's birth mom to hold her the majority of the time. It was so important to us to allow her to have as much time as possible with Thuy.

We then loaded up for the hottest 3 hour bus ride ever back to Hanoi. Thuy did great. She napped and barely made a sound. Overall the day could not have been more perfect. I couldn't have asked for it to have gone any better.

So we got her, GOTCHA DAY is over and it was a success. Lots of love to all our families, wish you were here. Happy Birthday Cindy & Jeff, we love you.