Away in a Manger

This has been the strangest Christmas Eve that I have ever spent. We woke up this morning, packed up our bags (thankful that we have them), argued with the front desk about our $100 laundry bill, grabbed a quick bowl of noodles across the street and headed for the airport.

Our adoption agency booked the tickets for us from Saigon to Hanoi and since there was only a $10 difference between economy and first class, we were booked in first class. When you are flying domestically in Vietnam, that also means that you get to use the first class lounge which has free food and beverages, yes! It did not matter that we had just eaten lunch, we gorged ourselves on a Christmas Eve feast of peanuts, oreo cookies and soda. The other benefit of First Class in Vietnam is that it is the equivalent of Business Class on an International flight, so there is a ton of space in between seats. It make the 2 hour flight go much more smoothly. We also go another free meal, so dinner was taken care of as well.

We finally arrived at the Sunny Hotel at about 7:30 tonight....and found that it is not so Sunny. We have to have 2 rooms because they only have twin beds, they do not have a baby cot so Jonah is on the floor, the rooms are not very well furnished and are very cramped. To top it off, they are each costing me about $90 a night. So we are paying about twice as much as we were paying in HCMC which was a much nicer venue. I think that it was made all the more disappointing because we are tired from traveling, in a strange city and it is Christmas Eve. Sound familiar? That must be much of what Joseph and Mary were feeling when they arrived in Bethlehem, only to find that there was no where left to stay but a stable. Betsy put it beautifully while we were digesting our accomodations; tonight is our stable night. What a great experience to have on Christmas Eve to remind us that the son of God humbled himself to the point of being born in stable.

While this may have been the strangest Christmas Eve we have ever experienced, it will not be one that I will ever forget. And I will always be reminded of our stable night, and give thanks for the one that occurred some 2000 years ago.

God Bless and have a most infinitely Merry Christmas.