Another Day, More Sunshine!

Following a much better night, we had another great day! 

Jadon is two years old.  However, in many ways, he is much younger.  Babies with cardiac defects are delayed in development, due to low oxygen available to their bodies - so all milestones are usually met later: crawling, walking, talking, growth etc...  Babies in orphanages are also delayed, oftentimes significantly.  Studies have shown that a child raised in an orphanage loses 1 month's growth (height) for every 3 months in an orphanage.  Developmental delays, while much more difficult to measure, follow much the same trajectory.  This means that due to being in an orphanage, 26 month-old Jadon is developmentally around 18 months old.  However, due to his significant heart problems, he is even less than that!  His eating and sleep patterns are those of a child somewhere between 6 months to 1 year.

In behaviour and speech, Jadon appears to be slightly older than one.  He is tiny, his neck is somewhat wobbly, he is still unsteady as he stands and he can only say a few words.  However, it is amazing to see how much he has progressed in the few days he has been with us.  He is babbling on and on already.  He is starting to choose walking over crawling to move from one place to the next.  He is showing increased muscle tone and is absolutely curious and wondering and observing the world around him.  He is definitely learning so much so quickly!

Jadon is almost always grinning, which means he is almost always up to some mischief!

This morning we headed off to a non-denominational church for ex-pats living in Vietnam.  It is officially sanctioned by the government and we figured we would be best off attending one like this while we are here.  It was wonderful to sing some great worship songs together and we heard a nice sermon about reconciliation, forgiveness and showing kindness from Colossians 3.  It is a timely topic because with the stress and emotions of the adoption, particularly with Logan and Jadon having been sick, and therefore a lack of sleep for many of us, there can be times of short-temperedness!  Lots of opportunity to practice what we heard!  We met some very friendly people, some of whom suggested eating spots.

So, for lunch we went to a restaurant called Wrap and Roll.  You can order either pre-wrapped rolls (like spring rolls, sushi type rolls, etc...) or wrap-your own.  Here is a sampling of our lunch.

Tasty Spread

Wrap your own pork, vegetables and vermicelli noodle

Pre-wrapped Saigon Platter

After Li Lin had a short nap, we went out for a late swim.  Jadon once again enjoyed the constant splashing.  He didn't mind the floating ring, but he did get frustrated that he could not reach the water to splash as much as he would like.

Once again enjoying the pool - the four males in the family!

 For supper, we used another resource shared to us at the church earlier today.  One of the drawbacks in staying at the Riverside Apartments where we are ate outside of the downtown core is the lack of readily available, well priced restaurants.  There is a restaurant on site which serves some tasty grill type food, but the cost is fairly similar to what we would pay in Canada. 

Pizza and Quesadillas from the poolside restaurant

There are a couple of restaurants just outside the gates, however, the well priced tasty Vietnamese one seems to close quite early (more for the breakfast/lunch crowd).  So where do we get good well-priced food?  We were told about a website www.vietnammm.com, where you can order food from dozens of different restaurants.  So tonight, in Vietnam, we enjoyed some great Indian food delivered right to our door!

The kids are absolutely loving having a new younger brother.  For the most part things are going pretty well.  Li Lin really likes Jadon but she was coughing some today so we asked her to keep her distance from Jadon to minimize the chance of him catching any bug she might have.  That made her sense more keenly her lost place as the 'baby' of the family and her behaviour showed it today.  Sara had a good heart to heart with her at nap time and that seemed to help.  Rykauna in particular is also working hard on maintaining her sister-sister bond with Li Lin and even let Li Lin hop into bed to sleep tonight!  We have great kids!  Here are a few group 'selfies'.  Jadon seems to know when to smile for the cell-phone cameras!

Seflie edited by Rykauna

Kids having fun

Hudson and Jadon wearing matching shirts!