Thursday afternoon in HCMC.

Although you probably want to know what's happening right now, I'm trying to give you the story in chronological order.

So, Sunday morning I took 2 families to Binh Thanh market while mom kept the girls at the hotel for some rest. I absolutely love Binh Thanh. Okay, confession time. I'm not really sure if it's Ben Thanh or Binh Thanh. Either way, it's a blast.

Kiana slept alot on Sunday and had only a few crying spells. There's a short list of remedies for when she cries now: she either needs food, a clean diaper, Orajel or to be laid down so she can roll around. The only time we are out of luck now is if we are at an appointment and she's in a "lay me down so I can roll around" mood.

Sunday night Thuy had a meeting with all four familes to prep us for the interview at CIS (used to be INS). CIS is very concerned about money changing hands for the babies, so they ask questions about if we ever met the birth parents, if we paid any fees to expedite the adoption, etc. Afterwards she took us all to an incredible restaurant down on the river. It's a huge buffet with I think she said 67 items. It's like a huge Sweet Tomatoes, but all Vietnamese. There was a station for just grilled items: beef, fish, squid, shrimp and chicken. Another station was for Bun: vermicilli noodles with vegetables, meat and broth. There were also many kinds of soup, different rice and noodles dishes, fresh spring rolls, fried spring rolls, fish prepared in every way imaginable, deep fried okra--but without the breading, desserts, salad, and stuff I think I never even saw. It was all outdoors, with each station under it's own thatched roof hut. It started to rain while we were there and the 2 girls had fun playing in the rain. Kiana did well, but like her big sister, she's a heat bomb when you have to hold her. Maia fell asleep on the ride back to the hotel and had to be, literally, dragged from the van and thrown over my shoulder.

Monday morning at 8 am, we had to meet downstairs to go get the kids passport photos. As soon as that was done we were planning on seeing the Saigon water puppets (more about them later), but they were closed so we went to the Reunification Palace, instead. Kiana had a blow out and while we cleaned that up we got separated from the rest of the tour group so we didn't get the entire story. What I did learn is that the building was built by the French in 1864 or 68. It must have been a very modern design in the 1860's. It has long, clean lines, reminescent of a Frank Lloyd Wright design. There's no A/C: it's built with windows to keep out the rain, but it's open all along the floors to let in fresh air. I wonder how they keep everything from mildewing in this wet weather?! When Kirk and I were here before, there were replicas of rural log buildings on the grounds that we could walk into. One of them had been full of Vietnamese musical instruments. I'd been telling mom about these for years and how much she'd love them, and, what do you know, but they were gone! What a dissapointment.

Thuy got us a stroller on Monday, so finally we didn't have to carry the heat bomb all the time. Unfortunately, she doesn't LOVE the stroller like Maia did but she will tolerate it if you keep her moving.

Monday afternoon we were confined to our rooms while we waited to see if we would need to go to an afternoon appt. There are several things to accomplish in HCMC. We need to get the children's Vietnamese passports, we need to get their medical clearance, and we need to get CIS approval so that we can apply for the US Visa when we get to Hanoi. No phone call came on Monday, but it was a good excuse to stay in and play with the kids. Kiana loves to play and laugh...as long as she's not hungry and her diaper isn't dirty. I tell you, this kid's needs are immediate!

We'd been hearing from many people about a new Texas Barbeque restaurant in HCMC that is run by an American Ex-pat married to a Vietnamese woman. After 4 days of very authentic Vietnamese food, we thought it might be nice to have something a little more familar. We asked one of the bell hops here to get a taxi, and who should the driver be but Thanh, our taxi driver from 5 years ago! When we were here getting Maia, we hung out alot with another woman who was here adopting a 2 year-old. She'd met Thanh and used him to drive us everywhere. He'd either drop us off and come get us at at appointed time, or he'd stay with us and take care of the kids while we adults shopped or did our sight-seeing. His parents live in Amarillo and it is very expensive to mail letters from Vietnam to the US. He gave mom a letter to mail when she got home, and his mother was so pleased that she called mom to thank her! He said that he was sorry, he didn't remember us because he meets so many Americans here to adopt babies, but he was obviously very touched that we remembered him. We cheated a bit, because we have a picture of him with Maia and the other baby, so we'd been able to refresh our memory of him before we actually saw him.

So, anyway, the bell hop didn't seem to understand me when I asked for the Texas Barbeque restaurant, but he relayed the request to Thanh. Thanh said, "You want barbeque...very good restaurant." He dropped us off at a happening affair and offered to come back in one hour to pick us up, and we didn't have to pay until he took us back to the Rex Hotel. Now, we'd heard that the wait staff at the Texas joint all wear cowboy shirts, hats and denim, and have to say that's not what we encounterd. The menu on the wall didn't say anything about Texas or barbeque. Instead, they listed grilled delicacies that would make the male readers squirm and the female readers blush, as well as more mundane offerings such as frog legs, eel, etc.

Oops...gotta go pick up Kiana's passport. Later.