It's Official!

This blog entry is subtitled: Connectivity issues. The hotel that we are staying at in HCMC has been having internet issues since we arrived back here. I wrote a long bog entry last night, only to lose it to cyberspace. My apologies to those that were awaiting word on how yesterday went.

We are officially the parents of Le Phuoc Thanh!

Yesterday morning, we went back to the care center to spend some more time with the kids before the Giving and Receiving ceremony. I am not sure that I mentioned that we are here with two other families that are adopting from the same care center. Our first discovery of the day was that Jonah has great endurance. He cried for a full 45 minutes when we tried to take him for a walk around the grounds. It was a little scary as we started visualizing the same result occuring for the next 24 hours. He REALLY likes the nannies at the care center and is not real keen on anyone coming between him and them.

We left after a couple of hours, to give him some room to breathe, and to ensure that he had a chance to get his second wind in time for the bus ride back to HCMC. After packing up at the hotel, eating another unbelievable lunch with the best mango ever for dessert, we headed back to the care center. The nannies were waiting with the kids all ready to go and they ran them out to the bus, handed them over and then we quickly drove away. It kind of felt like we were robbing a bank.

It was hard watching the nannies as we drove away, knowing that they had cared for Jonah for a year and half and had become quite attached. We will be sending pictures of his development back to the care center so they can see how he is growing up.

We drove to the headquarters of the provincial Ben Tre government for the Giving and Receiving ceremony. One by one, each of the families was marched up to the second floor for the official handover. There were many similarities to a wedding. The told us that this was our last chance to back out (speak now or forever hold your peace). They asked us if we would take good care of him (to have and to hold, in sickness and in health). There was even an official handover (who gives this woman to be wed?). We were also given an opportunity to make a few comments about how we would raise him. We then signed some papers and Jonah was officially ours in the eyes of the Vietnamese government. Woohoo. It is really hard to give the full flavor, but it was a really amazing experience.

Following the ceremony we made the trip back up to HCMC. As I mentioned earlier, we were a little nervous that he was going to cry for the whole 4 hour trip, but he took quite a liking to his Mother. Being away from the nannies, it is natural for him to cling to someone else, and it turns out to be Betsy. I can't say I blame him, I would pick her too...although it is a little hard emotionally that he does not want anything to do with me. As of this afternoon, he still cries if I try to hold him. I am trying to be pragmatic about it, knowing that he will come around in time, but it is still hard because I just want to smother him in kisses. I think there might be an element of having been cared for by only women his whole life, because he is doing fine with Betsy's mom as well.

We are already trying to fatten him up...he is a skinny little fellow. He was basically still just being fed bottles and broth. The nannies said that he was still waking up twice at night for a bottle. After stuffing him full of fried rice last night before bed, he slept until 6 this morning, took a bottle and then went back to sleep until 8. We were pretty pleased with that.

While we were eating dinner last night, Olivia turned to us and said; "It's great having two kids, isn't it?" I could not agree more.