Other Children in the Orphanage

I thought I'd post photos of the other children I met while in the orphanage. All were adorable.

I've decided to create a blog to memorialize our experience adopting Nathan from Vietnam. Included are photos and emails that I sent regularly to friends and family from Vietnam.

Enjoy.

Adoption Updates

July 7th

This will be the last update I send from Vietnam.  We
had our appointment this afternoon with US Immigration
and got the visa for Nathan to come to the US.  This
is the last step in the process.  We've got a flight
out of here for tomorrow (Friday) at 11:35 a.m.  We
get into LA on Friday at 4:45 p.m. and we'll spend a
little over a week there with Gary's family.

Today and yesterday were rough days.  Nathan was
throwing up a lot and had a fever.  It was still
happening this morning, so we took him to a good
western clinic and met with an Australian doctor.  He
had to hook Nathan up to an IV and get some fluid and
an antibiotic into him.  Nathan perked right up in a
matter of a few hours, after napping with the drip
going on.  Nathan goes back again tonight for a little
more IV, but will be fine.  Tomorrow, he'll start an
oral antibiotic, to make sure this virus is done for
good.  He's smiling and responsive again, which is
such a relief.

As nice as it has been to visit Vietnam again, we are
VERY ready to return to the US.  I wish I'd been able
to shop more, see more, explore more - but hard to do
with two kids in tow.  I hope to come back again when
the kids are a bit older and show them all that
Vietnam has to offer.  It truly is a neat place with
lots to see and do.

More photos to come once we get to LA.  Soon, you'll
all see the little one in person.  He's a charmer!

Thanks for your support and emails.  It has been so
nice to have all of you, especially my aunt Cathy who
is a pediatric nurse who gave get advice and comfort
over email.

By the way, Nathan is named after my grandmother Naomi
who died a few years ago.  She's the only grandmother
I ever really knew and it makes me so happy to name my
child after a woman I loved so much.

Take care,
David

Adoption Update: July 1st

We had the day off today from adoption stuff to do
whatever we wanted.  In the morning, we went to an
open market place to do some shopping.  It was very
crowded with vendors, and the aisles between vendors
were very narrow.  We brought our stroller, which made
it hard, and with both kids in tow, we didn't get to
shop as much as we would have liked.  Hopefully I can
go back alone tomorrow and spend some time.  Really
neat, cheap stuff!

We had lunch at an Italian restaurant - really good
food!  Gary and I both had pizza!  After lunch, I took
Nathan to an international clinic for an exam.  Two
other parents in my group also came along with their
kids.  I was concerned that Nathan has/had an ear
infection.  The doctor, a nice young man from South
Africa, said that Nathan has some fluid in one of the
ears and it looked like he had an ear infection a few
days ago (which is what I thought).  He said that is
seems to be clearing up on its own and didn't feel
antibiotics were necessary.  He gave me some nasal
spray for Nathan to help with the congestion/runny
nose he has.  I'll continue with the pediacare as
needed.  I got Nathan measured and they did a much
better job than his required Vietnamese medical exam
and the orphanage - he's 7.5 kg (I think a little over
16 pounds) and 64 cm long (no idea how long that is,
but he's short).  While I was at the doctor, Gary and
Andy went for a swim at the hotel pool on the rooftop.
Andy liked the pool at the beach resort much better.

We had dinner on the rooftop of the Rex Hotel this
evening.  It was beautiful to see the city lights at
night and the hotel is quite famous in Vietnam.  The
food was good, but many of you know Asian food isn't
my favorite.  Like with Andy's adoption, my visit here
is proving to be a successful weight loss program.  I
think I am down about 5 pounds in the past week.  My
pants are all starting to fall off of me.

Tomorrow we are here in HCMC again.  Then on Monday,
we fly up north to Hanoi.  I'm very excited to see the
north!

Nathan is really coming into his own.  His personality
is more and more fun each day.  He's such a happy,
curious kid.  I don't have my book on what kids should
be doing at certain ages, but I think he's pretty on
track.  He does the GI Joe crawl to get around, but I
think he'll be really crawling very soon.

The best news of the day is that we got email from
Smithsonian daycare and....Nathan just got in.
Evidently, there was an unusual circumstance that
arose and made for an opening for him.  I am delighted
that Nathan can go there from infancy, like Andy.  It
is such a good program and has helped to enrich Andy
in so many ways.  Plus, I don't have the stress of
finding another daycare program anymore.

Off to bed now.  Still working on putting together
some photos to send.  Stay tuned.

David

Adoption Update: June 30th

All is well here in Vietnam.  We've had Nathan for
five days now.  The first two days were really rough;
we thought he was a little sick, but now think it was
that combined with separation anxiety from leaving the
orphanage.  They really did provide excellent care
there - as strange as that may sound.

We drove back from Phan Thiet to Ho Chi Minh City
(HCMC) last night.  It was a long trip (3 hours).  You
should see how people drive here - you just have to
close your eyes sometimes and say a prayer!

Today was spent at the local Vietnamese hospital and
Immigration.  We had the kids looked over at the
hospital (basically a quick check up to make sure they
were generally healthy) and then off to Homeland
Security for an interview to confirm that we are
adopting children who are true orphans.  We went
shopping in town this afternoon - Nathan did great.
Must have been weird for him to see such busy, loud
street scenes - this place reminds me of a poor New
York City, just to show you how busy it is.

We are staying in HCMC over the weekend playing
tourist.  We then go up north to Hanoi on Monday.  We
have our second meeting/interview with Immigration on
Thursday, July 6th, then we can go back to the US with
Nathan.  I think we'll leave here either Friday or
Saturday, July 7th or 8th.

Andy is a great big brother.  Loves being silly around
Nathan, which Nathan doesn't seem to really
understand, but Andy likes to perform for him.

Sounds like my neighborhood was evacuated at 2:30 in
the morning the other night.  Not being in DC right
now, I can't fathom the mayhem the rain is causing.
Caught a brief glimpse on TV the other night, but hard
to watch much when you've got TWO kids.

I'll try and send some new photos tonight sometime.
Got tons of great ones now.  Got to go relieve Gary
now so that he can send an email to everyone.

Hope all is well with all of you.  Can't wait to
introduce you all to Nathan.

David

Adoption Update: June 28

The past 24 hours have been kind of tough.  We are
almost certain that he's got an ear infection.  He is
okay as long as he is being held, but you need to be
standing up when you hold him.  Very tired arms right
now.  He is napping right now, so I was able to sneek
away and send this email.  We had a local doctor come
to our room last night - he actually checked over all
of the babies, but I question his credentials and
schooling.  He prescribed some medicine for Nathan for
a runny nose and some congestion, he's got that too,
but another parent emailed their doctor at home and
said we shouldn't use the medicine prescribed.  So, we
are sticking with tylenol and pediacare for now.

Tomorrow we leave Phan Thiet and our beautiful beach
front hotel for Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) again (about a
3 hour drive).  Should be interesting if Nathan is
still sick.  Once we are there, I know a very good
clinic to take him to for an exam and proper
medication.  We'll be in HCMC until Sunday.  While
there, we need to take the kids for a Vietnamese
medical exam and meet with immigration.  We'll be back
in the Renaissance hotel, which is very nice and
should allow me to easily send more photos.

On Sunday, we fly up north to Hanoi.  We'll sit around
there for a few days until we can have our appointment
with the US gov't to finish the process.  I suspect
that we may return to the US around July 7th - but who
knows because there are so many things that could put
us behind still.  Our hotel in Hanoi is supposed to be
amazing.  We didn't go up north last time, so it will
be cool to see a different part of the country.

Today, while Gary stayed behind with Nathan, I went to
the sand dunes of Mui Ne (about a 30 minute ride).
You can sled down the sand slopes on a sled, but once
we got to the top, Andy decided it was too steep and
too scary.  It was beautiful though - orange sand
right off of the coast of the south China Sea.  Like
nothing I'd ever seen before.  I took photos and video
to share.  Reminded me a bit of the one scene in one
of those Star Wars movies.  On our trip back to the
hotel, we stopped for a few minutes at an anchient
temple along the water.  It was built in the 9th
century...can you imagine?  It was really interesting.
Pictures of that to share soon too.

Andy is being a great kid on this trip.  He loves
spending time with us, no matter what we are doing.
He's not showing any signs of jealousy and offers to
help with Nathan (as much as he can).

Things here are so different.  You can't imagine the
poverty here.  Our poor are so different from those
here.  Yesterday we went shopping for some baby stuff
and I couldn't get over how cheap everything was.
While out, I saw a Seiko watch (gold and silver) and
bought it for under $10.  No telling if it is real,
but it is beautiful.

Got to run now.  More updates and photos soon.  I hear
we are missing lots of rain in DC - major flooding and
things are closed.  Evidently, Andy's school was
closed Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week -
not sure about the rest of the week.

David

Adoption Update: June 27th

Yesterday was a really big day for us.  We had the
Giving and Receiving (G&R) ceremony.  This is a
ceremony in which the Vietnamese officially hand over
the baby to the adoptive parent(s).  We decided it
best for Gary not to go, just in the gay issue was an
issue - he stayed behind at the hotel with Andy and
played on the beach and went swimming.  The G&R was
very nice.  It was held in a warm, but lovely
conference room in Phan Thiet.  The caregivers from
the orphanage came and the Vietnamese government
officials spoke at the ceremony.  They asked that one
parent from our group speak too - Kathy, a single,
adoptive mother, spoke for us with tears in her eyes
about how grateful we all are.  After the ceremony, it
was time to say goodbye to the caretakers - this was
really hard.  In Vietnam, the care these kids get is
very good and they were very bonded to the children.
Lots of tears and emotions as we parted.

After the ceremony, we went and applied for the
children's passports.  This will take a few days to
get approved and we'll wait here until then.  Then we
are back to Ho Chi Minh City for a brief visit for a
required medical exam.  Then up north to Hanoi to meet
with the American Embassy to finalize the adoption and
come home.  Sounds like it might move quicker than we
thought and we could possibly come home as early as
July 4th - but no real telling.  Wouldn't it be cool
to bring Nathan home on Independence day though?

Nathan is a great kid.  He slept through the night,
despite them telling us that he should get two
night-time feedings.  He can pull himself along on his
stomach (that GI Joe crawl thing), roll over front to
back and back to front, sit up, makes rasberries and
is very alert.  I'd forgotten what it was like to have
a baby, but it is quickly coming back to me.

Of the four kids being adopted in our group, at least
two have fevers right now.  We have a doctor coming to
the hotel today to visit with the kids and look at all
of them.  Nathan has a bit of a cold right now, but it
doesn't seem to bad.  Can't tell if it is the start or
end of the cold.  He's not the best eater, which could
explain why he is so small (about 16 pounds at 8
months).  We got growth points and vaccination
information yesterday from the orphanage - I am amazed
at how good their record keeping and care was.

More photos later.  It is hard to send them from this
computer, but when we are back in Ho Chi Minh City, it
will be much easier to send them.  We are all doing
well.  The hotel is just gorgeous - wait 'til you see
the photos.  A vacationer's paradise!  The food is
just like a remember - not great, leaving me hungry
and my pants are getting looser each day - better than
any Weight Watchers diet for sure.  Andy is doing okay
with the food - scrambled eggs for breakfast and lots
of chicken nuggets and french fries for lunch and
dinner.  Can't worry about bird flu and eating eggs
and chicken - they say it is fine as long as it is
cooked.  Great chocolate mousse here for dessert -
thank heavens!

More later.  Got to get back to the room and help
Gary.

David

June 25th

Today was an amazing day!  I'm pleased to introduce
Nathan Binh Krupnick Goodman to you.  Attached are
some photos we took of him at the orphanage today.
We've got tons more, but the internet connection here
is slow and hard to send more than this today.  More
photos to come.

Today we went to Nathan's orphanage and got to spend
about 4 hours with him.  He took a quick nap while we
were there and ate a full bowl of something that
looked like a rice cereal.  He was one of maybe 2
dozen babies in this orphanage.

Nathan is a cutie.  They just cut his hair because it
was a super long mohalk - now it is more normal and
uniform in length - funny how baby hair grows.  The
care at this orphanage is very good.  Nathan's
caretaker in particular is very good and has cared for
him since he was a day old.  Nathan smiles when I kiss
his cheeks and shows a lot of interest in what is
going on around him.  He is much smaller than Andy
was, but feels solid and seems very healthy.  He's got
strong legs and can support himself with help.  He can
roll over and sit up on his own.  His personality
seems pretty mellow - didn't cry while we were there
and his caretaker said that he really doesn't cry
much.  He's got a great smile with four teeth.

Tomorrow we get Nathan for good at the Giving and
Receiving ceremony.  After that, it is back to our
amazing hotel here in Phan Thiet on the beach.  Andy
loves it because in a 10 minute walk on the beach, we
saw two live starfish - one burried himself in the
sand and the other walked along the beach, a live
crab, a huge oyster or clam, a jumping sand fish, a
gecko, and lots of bats in the night-time sky.

More later.  Enjoy these photos.

David