Ngom Lam (Very Good)

To quote myself, "There are not a lot of mornings like this in a lifetime". It is really hard to put into words the emotions a day like this brings. Having experienced the thrill of having a baby of our own, there is a completely different dynamic at work when you are walking into a room full of abandoned babies, knowing that one of them has been set aside to join your family.

I did not sleep well last night at all - a lethal mixture of jet lag, an overwhelming sense of anticipation and a nagging concern that I might never see my pink Mossimo polo shirt ever again. When morning finally rolled around (actually, it was when Olivia woke up singing...morning was still a ways off) we all basically bounded from our beds. By 8am we were on our way to Ben Tre Care Center. The orphanage is only about a mile from our hotel so it did not take long to get there.

It was almost surreal walking into the room where our son has spent the first 18 months of his life, scanning the cribs for the beautiful face that we have memorized from a scattered collection of email photos.

Our eyes met from across the room...OK, not really. We went over to him, and as expected, he totally freaked out and was only interested in being held by his nanny. I can understand why he would be attached. She has been his primary care giver for his whole life and it is very rare for him to have contact with other adults, so having a phalanx of big nosed Americans march in certainly is a shock to the system.

We spent about 2 hours at the care center, just hanging out with the kids. We try to hold as many of them as possible, just so they get some extra loving. There are about 10 infants in the care center right now, with Jonah being the 2nd oldest.

We were able to go back in the afternoon for the same amount of time. By the end of the day, Jonah was starting to warm up to us a little. He is still not too keen on being held by anyone except his nanny, but he is going to have to get used to it fairly quickly since we get to take him with us tomorrow after the official Giving and Receiving ceremony.

Here is what we have gleaned about the little guy so far. He does not show a lot of emotion (we affectionately dubbed him Stone Cold Steve Austin today), he needs to work on his sharing (being one of the oldest and biggest kids means you get your way), he is potty trained (in Vietnamese...well see if WE have any clue that he needs to pee), he is a big fan of Kriss Kross (he was wearing his overalls backwards today), he is a huge Minnesota Vikings fan and he is probably the most adorable young man in Vietnam.

We tried to give him a lot of breathing room today because we did not want to overwhelm him, but tomorrow he is going to be smothered whether he likes it or not. Olivia cried when we had to leave today because she was going to miss her baby brother. I hope that this is the start of a beautiful relationship.

Culinary Update: We have eaten so much good food I can barely stand it. Multi-Course meals that have completely shattered my expectations that we might lose a little weight while we are over here.

Rock Star Update: Today we visited a market and everyone wanted to come up and touch Olivia. She is being a really good sport. Much more patient than you would expect from someone not used to the Paris Hilton treatment.

Luggage update: Still no luggage, BUT they think they might have found some of it. We will not know for sure until we get back up to HCMC tomorrow evening.

Scooter update: We saw many more of them.

Closing remarks: Sorry that this was such a long entry, but I wanted to try and capture small taste of what transpired today. It really was the experience of a lifetime.