Your Donations

The donations have been very appreciated here in Vietnam. We were able to bring 2 very large suitcases full of essentials for the children of the orphanages including medications, educational toys, clothing, etc. One suitcase went to Vung Tau 2 and the other we gave to another orphanage that was in much need here. We also had the chance to hand out candy, pencils, balls and some older 'toys' to the older children at the orphanages of Vung Tau 2 and Vung Tau 3. They were so appreciative and excited! Another big thank you to so many generous family, friends and even strangers who donated to these children. You all made a difference and it was an experience we will never forget.

A wonderful group of family and friends at home also donated cash for us to bring to Vietnam and buy essentials for the children here. Originally it was going to go to Meg's orphanage - Vung Tau 2 but after touring Vung Tau 3 (another orphanage our agency works with)we decided that we wanted the cash to go towards buying items needed by the children here. The orphanage is quite run down and seemed to be the most in need of the essentials to help the kids there do well. Loan took the cash (we changed it into 5.6 million Vietnamese Dong and that buys a lot here in Vietnam) and did some major shopping with it. She was able to take our $350+ in cash donations and buy things like diapers and formula, noodle soup, etc for the babies and young children. Loan also had a wonderful idea: to buy all the text books the older kids would need for attending school this coming year. I absolutely love that 1/2 of the $ went to these beautiful older children who are schooled within the orphanage and help a lot with the babies and the day-to-day work around the place. Loan provided me with a Thank you letter that goes out to the following: The Aubertins, The Morins, Sheri Whyte, The Fabris, The church women of Tara's church in New Brunswick Canada, The Couplands, The Marshalls, and The Glenn family.
God Bless!

Missing them...

Click here.

Vung Tau 2

Click here for our visit to Vung Tau 2 orphanage.

G&R Day

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June 25th in Vietnam

Click here for our Thursday.

June 24th 2009

...and time marches on. Click here for our day.

June 23rd 2009

Today we went to the zoo. Click here.

June 22nd 2009

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Good news

...late coming but good news just the same. Our paperwork left Hanoi and hopefully arrives tomorrow in Vung Tau so we can have our Giving and Recieving Ceremony. If it arrives on time tomorrow, we will have our ceremony on this Wednesday. If it isn't there on time to proceed for Wednesday, we will have it apparently on this Friday with another couple from Quebec, Canada.

From there we have to apply for Vietnamese and Canadian passports and hope like heck it all happens a lot quicker than this first step did. Please send good vibes our way, as we'd love to get home soon.

Too tired to add photos or talk about our day... so I'll do that tomorrow sometime.

Night!

June 21st 2009

Happy Father's Day everyone... click here for our day.

Love and hugs to my dad back home. I miss you and can't wait to get home and give you a big hug. Thank you for all you do. I'm so lucky to call you DAD!

June 20th

Happy Saturday night from Saigon... Click here.

June 19th in Vietnam

Click here to see our day.

June 18th 2009

Click here.

Six

Keaton and Chloe: click here.

June 15th in Vietnam

Today we visited the Emperor Jade Pagoda. Click here for more.

June 14th 2009

One week with Meg! Click here.

June 13th 2009

Follow along - click here.

Meg's first swim

Click here.

June 12th in Vietnam

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Poor Poultry

Video here.

Meg's video debut

Just click here. If the video is slow loading - pause it for a minute so it doesn't keep stopping mid video (that is a note to all those with slow 'high speed' back home. :)

June 11th 2009

Click here.

June 10th in Vietnam

We are loving it here. Click here for more.

June 9th in Vietnam

Click here.

The flight

We flew Cathay Pacific and it was great...highly recommend them. The service was awesome, the meals were okay (although way better than other flights), the wine was tasty too. We got to the airport early because (what can I say...) I was NOT missing this flight. We checked in and ran into 2 other couples that were travelling with us. We ended up seated next to Olivier and Stephanie and we were OFF.

Everyone knows I was concerned about the length of the flight. The longest I'd went in a plane was 5 or 6 hours when we went to St. Lucia. I get very antsy on a plane, I can't stand sitting still in those tight quarters for so long. I did okay and Shaune did great. He is such a 'chill' man and just watched movies and played poker on the mini tv's each seat had on the flight. When he 'decided' he was ready to sleep... he slept. Me on the other hand - could NOT sleep. I went 16 hrs without any sleep on that darn plane... even after taking 2 sleeping pills. Cursed I am! So, the flight felt like an eternity for a while. I watched "Marley and Me" to which I tried to hold back sobs and kinda succeeded. What a movie! I watched some of "He's just not that into you" but barely remember it. I was up and down like a yo-yo and people around me must of thought I had to pee 20x during our flight... most of the time I was just finding excuses to get up and move.

Eventually the long leg from Toronto to Hong Kong was over - what a relief! The Hong Kong airport is great! We had some food (delicious pizza) at a place there I can't remember and then hung out and waited for our flight that would take us to HO CHI MINH CITY VIETNAM!!! That flight was a breeze and not even 1/2 full... I found 3 seats that were empty - stretched out and slept for about 2 hrs of the 2 1/2 hr flight.


























...and then we were here. I can't describe the excitement of landing here - Meg's birth country and knowing how close we were to meeting our 3rd child! Loan met us at the airport and I instantly knew why every family that has went before us LOVES Loan - she is amazing and very helpful.

We got to our hotel, check in was a breeze and then we prepared for Meg by packing a little diaper bag and unpacking all our luggage and putting away her clothes, our stuff, and so on. Sleep came easy knowing that in the morning we'd be on our way to her --- finally!

A photo collection from Day 1 with Meg

Click here... warning. There are a lot!

Meg's visit with Dr. Jonathan

Meg went to doctor yesterday and visited Dr. Jonathan again. He remembered her well from her referral check up. He also was kind enough to go over her medical information when Meg was in the hospital here in HCMC. What a wonderful doctor!

Her appt was at 230pm and she did great. She coo'd and smiled for him and was quick to show him how much she likes to roll from her back on to her tummy. She is very little which is to be expected after her long stay in the hospital. She weighs a little over 10 1/2 lbs and her lenght is 22.5 inches long. She is doing well developmentally and is on track he felt. Her physical growth is another story and she is basically the size of a 1 month old baby here because of her hospital stay, intubation, etc. My sweet girl is doing well though and he was happy to see her strong will to roll and how much she likes to play on her stomach and hold her head up high. He wants her to see a pediatrician when we return to Canada and felt that a bit of physiotherapy (exercises) would help her strengthen up quickly.

So... good doctor's visit. I was happy to finally meet Dr. Jonathan who is very well known and respected amongst the adoption community. His walls were covered with hundreds of photos of babies and children he has looked after - many of which were internationally adopted like Meg.

Meg was eating 2 oz of formula every 2 hrs when she joined us. We've convinced her that 3 oz every 2 hrs (during the day) is a better choice and for the most part she is starting to finish these tiny bottles. The doctor wanted us to 'bulk up' her bottles so she has a more concentrated amount of formula mixed with her water. She loves her bottle warm. Dr. Jonathan told us not to offer her the bottle more than 1x. If she does not want it when it is time, do not keep 'offering it' to her til the next feeding time. He said that many children have trauma associated with being force fed or bottle prop fed in the orphanages. He encouraged us to read her signs and avoid insisting or 'encouraging' her to eat anything if she doesn't want to. This was good information to have and not something I would of thought of on my own. She is taking her bottle more readily from us though and is enjoying it more each feeding. She won't be offered any sort of solids (rice cereal) til we are home and she is completely comfortable with us. Her nanny has tried cereal and said Meg hates to have it put in her mouth and kicks up a fuss. So... she is not ready for that from us quite yet.

Well, it is the middle of the night here. Meg slept from 8:30pm til 3:30am (yay!) and I just gave her a bottle and now her and daddy are both back to sleep. I think I'll go join them.

Night (or afternoon to you all back home)!

Its 730am

...the start of our first full day with Meg. My how things can change in the span of 24 hrs! She did great her first night. She is still sleeping right now at 730am! Oh my! I don't expect that to last - a very overwhelming day for her yesterday so she has to sleep it off probably.
She woke 2x in the night (i think, i'm a bit foggy on it) and at 3:30am when she woke up she thought she wanted to stay up and coo and play for about 1/2 hour - we let her of course. She is so precious. I'm just looking in on her as she lay sleeping in her pink and white crib (courtesy of the Somerset) and she is so very tiny.

On today's agenda: we have a doctor's appt with Dr. Jonathan - she is wheezy and rattles a bit when she breathes - all things we expected after her long bout' in the hospital. After talking with Loan and remembering back to how gravely ill Meg was - we feel so blessed to have her. She is such a gift and we will love her so much.

Well, since I started this post we've had a few 'delay's - Meg woke up for the day at 7:45a.m. and we just bathed her(not an easy task let me tell you). So now we will go enjoy our day.

Kids: We love you and miss you so much. I can't wait for you to meet Meg, you will love her and get a kick out of her expressions and funny antics for sure!

Bye for now.

Some photos of Meg

Click here. If the colors are off or funky it is because I edited some of them on Shaune's laptop and I'm not sure if it is the best thing for editing photos :)

What a day!

The day was in a word: AMAZING. It was super hot and the rain didn't come and we spent many hours in a big van transporting us here and there. I will take the time soon to summarize this special day but we still haven't gotten our room service and I'm ready for bed. Shaune and Meg are both asleep now. Meg is wonderful, beautiful, fun and so sweet. This was such an emotional day and I can't wrap it up into a couple paragraphs... so until I have time I will just say: We are in love. She is perfect. She is so little and she already has us wrapped around her little tiny finger.

I have more photos to share but wordpress (where I've been posting photos and private entries) is not working tonight for me. If (or when) it gets up I will share.

:)

We made it!

Wow, the past 24+ hrs are a blur. 16 hrs on our first flight and 2.5 hrs on our 2nd flight. It was okay but I did get antsy and couldn't sleep - even after taking 2 sleeping pills. Full of adrenaline I guess. I managed a 1 hour sleep on the 2nd flight (Hong Kong to HCMC).

We checked into our hotel a couple hours ago. It is nice and comfy with laundry in the room (handy) and a full kitchen. We ordered room service from Highlands' Coffee and it was delivered fresh (and very tasty) 15 minutes later. I thought of Keaton because we ordered shrimp fried rice and that is one of his favourite foods (rice, rice, rice!)

We've unpacked all of our clothes and put them in drawers. We rearranged our 2 suitcases full of donations as we are dropping those to the orphanages tomorrow.

We get Meg tomorrow! We are leaving the hotel sometime around 7:30am and head to Vung Tau which I think is about 2.5-3 hrs drive each way. There are 4 families going - so exciting! Renny and George have a daughter they will be getting from the Vung Tau 3 orphanage in Ba Ria, Vung Tau. Another couple is adopting beautiful twin girls and I think they are at Vung Tau 1. Jennifer and Brad are also coming along tomorrow - they have a daughter at Vung Tau 1 also.

...and then there is Meg! We will go to her nounou's house I believe to meet her nanny and learn about her schedule, personality, likes and dislikes, etc.

We've packed our little diaper bag and a comfy change of clothing to bring her home in. Guess work is what I'm going on to try and pick something that will fit her - we have no idea how big she may have grown in the past month since our last update.

Arriving here the heat hit us immediately...and it was early evening by then. The traffic is also something else. Our big van rode amongst a sea of mopeds and motorbikes. I will have to video tape the action because it is amazing. Whole families are piled on as they weave in and out of the traffic. It all seems to flow though somehow, although it was terrifying to watch as a mom drove by with an infant infront of her and a toddler holding on the back of her. Zoom!

MUST SLEEP.
I will do my best to update (with photos hopefully) tomorrow evening once we have Meg and are settled in a bit. It's baby time!

Ready

...we are up at our airport hotel and relaxing (ya right!) - I am jumping out of my skin with excitement right now. We are going to order in some food I think and just relax. Shaune is actually working on his thesis tonight of all things... then he can relax and take a break from work and school for the next 3 wks.

We want to take a moment and thank all our family and friends for their support and enthusiasm and joy they've shown to our family the past 2+ years. Meg will be 5 month 3 wks old tomorrow and it took us 26 months to get to her. Amazing!

Tomorrow morning we are on our way. 935am we'll be on our way to her. My heart is so full of happiness, nervousness, anticipation and butterflies! We were told we would go to get Meg at her nounou's on Sunday (Saturday night in Canada!)... the day after we arrive.

Soon she will be with us forever.

Nervous Energy

...I'm full of it right now. Tomorrow is our last full day at home to get things done and packed and ready. CRAZY! I have a pedicure scheduled and that is it. The rest of my day will be spent going over lists (and checking them twice!)

We are so excited!

Telling the kids

Well, I'm finally getting around to uploading the video we took on the day we got our referral... way back on Feb. 20th! I don't know if I'll share the video of Shaune and I opening her photos for the first time, kinda personal and teary (happy tears of course)... but the video of us telling the kids once they were home for the day is adorable (but long).

To watch Part 1 below, be sure to pause the music playlist on the right hand sidebar.

My kids are funny and crazy!

Part 1:




...and Part 2:






I love this photo I took of Keaton after the video was shut off... slowly looking through all her photos. Smitten I'd say!