A Vietnam Cultural Tradition

Today was another great day (we won't comment on the night yet again :-) ).  After a lazy morning and pancake breakfast, Logan, Li Lin and I made a run to the local Big C (a close by grocery store located in the basement of a pretty high-end mall) to pick up some baby necessities - diapers, wipes, baby food, formula (it feels weird being back into baby-mode this way!).  On our way out, we stopped by Bread Talk, a great little bakery/coffee shop.  We were going to pick up some Vietnamese buns for lunch, but instead noticed this great sign.

Decorative buns at Bread Talk

With these cute little carriers, I could carry 5 iced drinks in one hand!

Yep, that's right.  29 000 dong for a sandwich and drink.  Sounds like lots.  But basically a US dollar is worth about 20 000 dong.  So, for about $10, we bought six sandwiches and drinks, and had enough leftover for the $1.50 cab ride home!

While Jadon napped the four oldest and I went for a swim.  Li Lin was persistent in trying and finally was able to swim the width of the pool without any help whatsoever (other than a cheering daddy close by).  She and Hudson have improved tremendously.  I figure a couple weeks here will be worth two levels of swimming lessons! 

A gorgeous group of wonderful kids!  We are blessed!

When Jadon woke up we hopped into a cab and headed out to the Golden Dragon Water Puppet Theater. 

Hudson liked the water buffalo

Li Lin and Rykauna posing with a life-size model of a water puppet

Daddy and Jadon carrying the Ho Chi Minh City Tour Book.  He really likes it!

Now water puppets are as traditional a Vietnamese thing as their hats (which many people do wear around).  They have been preforming this type of show since the 1100s... that's over 900 years!  It was fascinating.  The 50 minute show had 16 scenes plus a musical prelude.  There were 6 musician/singers/chanters (three on each side) playing a variety of traditional drums, flutes and string instruments.  The puppets were controlled by  men standing in water, hidden behind some  .  The puppets themselves are made mostly of wood and the whole show plays out on water.  It makes for some interesting and really life-like movements.  The play depicts activities in traditional Vietnamese rural life - farming, working with oxen, fishing, kids playing - as well as scenes involving dragons, lions and phoenixes.  We all enjoyed it and Jadon was at times swaying along with what is likely some familiar music.

Procession celebrating the nation-wide exam winner

Li Lin liked the "Dance of Fairies"

Two men plowing with water buffaloes

Dragons squirting water

A fire-breathing dragon in the last scene

After the play we walked behind the theater, through a sports/activity area with ping pong, tennis, basketball, volleyball, a fitness center including zumba classes to a buffet restaurant where we ate a great meal for about $8 each.  In contrast, a box of imported cereal like Fruit Loops (which unfortunately we have resorted to for breakfast a couple of times) would be about $6!  Much better value tonight!

Here's our buffet from the outside

and from the inside

Sara and Jadon

Hudson and Logan

Rykauna and Li Lin

Continuing to expand the variety of meats.  Amazing shrimp... jumbo snails!

I was crushing the shells until a waiter brought me a toothpick to fish out the edible inside.  Mmmm

Jadon went down better this evening.  He has quickly grown accustomed to being cuddled and snuggled to bed, and seeing as he likely went through many, many nights of his life falling asleep on his own, Sara does not mind the extra snuggle time it takes to help Jadon feel the love that surrounds him.  Here's hoping for a better sleep tonight!

All the paperwork is done! Now we wait.

We woke up and had to scramble out the door to go to the Tam Duc Cardiology Hospital for a follow-up on Jadon.  This is the hospital at which he received his surgery.  We wanted a follow-up with a cardiologist to see how things are going and to get an all-clear for flying.  It is interesting that here, as in China, there are entire hospitals dedicated to one medical speciality.  This one is the heart.  I guess with such large population densities this makes sense.

Jadon was given a clean bill of health.  We were told that the shunt that was put in was still working well.  It was suggested that his complete surgery should occur within 1 year of his palliative fix.  That was 6 months ago so we are likely looking at a surgery fairly soon.  We will see once we get home to Sick Kids.

After the appointment, we headed home for a short time.  I took the older 4 swimming once again, while Jadon slept.  The kids are really enjoying the almost daily swims and are improving a lot.  Hudson can now swim comfortably with confidence across the pool.  Li Lin is also learning to swim, bit by bit, without her floating device.  It wouldn't surprise me if by the end of our trip she can swim the width of the pool by herself.  Rykauna and Logan have been really good in trying to help her learn.

Sara and Jadon and I then headed out for the last of the paperwork.  We went to the Vietnamese Passport Office to apply for his Vietnamese Passport.  We then went to the Canadian Consulate to apply for a Temporary Canadian Passport.  This will be issued once they get the clearance from the Embassy in Signapore.  We can leave Vietnam once these arrive... sometime late next week.

As we were wanting to leave the consulate, we saw torrential downpours and winds!  We are just exiting the rainy season here and have had a bit of rain some afternoons, but nowhere near the intensity of what we saw yesterday!  We waited about 15 minutes before we would even venture just outside to catch a taxi!

Hard to show the intensity of the rain and wind

Back at home, it was once again ordering from Vietnammm.com.  We tried a Viet place, and order some chicken, beef, shrimp, squid and frog!  The food was quite good though delivery took a really long time - the poor driver showed up soaked from riding here on his motorbike/scooter.

Our grilled frog... everyone was keen on ordering it, Dad was the only one eating it!  Rykauna did have a taste.

Detailed anatomy of the leg!

Another early night.  Everyone is exhausted.  The emotional toll, though maybe not obvious, is still there for all as we navigate this addition to our family and relationships are altered and formed.  It also doesn't help for Sara and I that Jadon sleeps like a little baby - meaning waking up every couple of hours, flopping around, unsettled.  Our sleep has been limited.  This from a little guy we were told slept through the night!  Eventually we will either get more sleep or get used to the deprivation :-).

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!

He's All Boy!

After yesterday's good day, we were hoping that things were going to level off for a while.  Last night made us question that!  Jadon just would not sleep unless he was being carried in someone's arms.  We think he may of had a sore stomach as he did act colicky.  Though he is almost 2 years, 2 months old, in many ways he acts/seems like a year old.  We definitely have a baby in our hands.  We tagged-teamed and managed to get about 3 1/2 hours of sleep each.

This morning we had to head out the door fairly early to go back to the orphanage for a medical check-up for Jadon.  His doctor at the orphanage heard we had brought him in to the clinic because of his ill health.  He figured he could use some antibiotics and wanted to see him.  He was given a 'clean bill of health'.  As Rykauna put it, "He's not sick, he's just sickly".  We look forward to the day when we can say "He's not sick, he's healthy!"

Electrical wires - good luck finding the correct one to fix!

Sara feeding Jadon enroute

The four older ones at the orphanage waiting for Jadon's doctor's appointment to be over

Since we were out and about, we took the opportunity to stop by the Ben Thanh market and get a bit of shopping done.  Some of the kids had really been looking forward to this.  Though we did not stay long enough to satisfy everyone, we did manage to get some things bought.  As always, it is hot, so on exit we found a corner store and everyone bought some sort of frozen treat to cool down.

Then it was back to Riverside Apartments.  By this time, it was Jadon's nap time, so Sara stayed upstairs with him.  Rykauna also figured she should get some English homework done.  I headed downstairs with the three others to enjoy the sun and the pool.  About one hour later, Sara, Jadon and Rykauna joined us.  It seems none of them were able to accomplish what they had set out to do!

We weren't sure if Jadon would enjoy the pool or not.  He really did not like it when we tried to give him a bath earlier.  However, when he saw his siblings in the pool, he thought it might be neat to try.  When I went in with him, he curled up his feet as soon as his toes touched the water.  He didn't seem too keen on getting wet.  Then Li Lin came close by and splashed and jumped up and down in the water.  This caught Jadon's funny bone and he giggled, and leaned forward to try and touch the water.  Once he found out he could splash, he thought it was a blast!  He splashed and splashed and giggled and giggled.  He really enjoyed it.  He stayed for a while until I pulled him in and brought him up for his delayed nap.  By now he was tired and he fell asleep reasonably quickly.

Jadon loves splashing in the water

He is definitely all boy.  He enjoys tossing his toys.  He enjoys banging his toys.  He enjoys swatting people.  He loves pointing at all the motor bikes and trucks going by.  Sara brought him and let him switch the lights on and off once... now he wants to do it continuously, with a big grin on his face.

Logan, who is no longer sick can finally play with his new little brother

Late afternoon we received a phone call from Loan.  She and her husband and 8-month old son came by for a short visit.  She was concerned about his illness and wanted to see how he was doing.  She also brought us some congee (rice porridge) for Jadon to eat (one of his main staples).  Hoping for a better sleep tonight!

A normal day... at last!

Today was a great day!  Nothing spectacular happened, which is what made it great!  No visits to a clinic, no major issues, just ordinary everyday life - as ordinary as can be with a family of 5 kids (that sounds large!), whose youngest has a major heart issue that is uncorrected, often labours to breathe, and occasionally gets blue lips.  I guess this is our new normal!

We woke up later than we have yet - I believe everyone was still sleeping at 7.  We got up and had a pancake breakfast.  We tidied up a bit and then I took all 5 kids (that sounds like a lot!) down to the pool area.  The oldest four hopped in for a swim as Jadon and I sat in the lounge chairs.  He was in a great mood and throwing balls at the kids and giggling out loud when he saw them splashing in the water.  I eventually gave him his bottle and he settled right down.  Sara came down after doing some tidying in our apartment, then brought him up to nap.  The rest of us stayed down for another couple of hours.

Jadon is starting to feel more comforatble and okay in and around home

We then headed upstairs to play around a bit, then walked out of the resort and down the street about 30 seconds to a legitimate Vietnamese local restaurant.

The lampshades were traditional Vietnamese hats

It was the first time as a family of 7(that sounds large!) that we have sat down for a meal together, and it was really nice.

Sara and the two littlest

The three oldest waiting for food.

Here's to more 'normal' days ahead!

Officially ours! Giving and Receiving Ceremony

Lost in all the shuffle with the medical issues is the fact that Jadon, ne Gia Bao, is now officially adopted by us and is part of his forever family!  We received Jadon from the orphanage on Tuesday evening our time.  On Wednesday morning, Sara and I and Jadon and the two girls boarded a taxi to head to the Department of Justice building.  Logan was still not feeling well enough to be out and about and Hudson hung around to keep him company.

We got to the building on time and were soon joined by Loan and the Director of the Orphanage.  We were ushered into an office where we sat on formal chairs, signed several copies of several pieces of paper and were officially declared the parents of little Jadon.

Mom and Dad with the two 'littles'

Most of the new family :-), along with the Official from the Deparment of Justice and the Orphanage Director

Afterwards Li Lin and I headed home to be with the boys while Sara and Rykauna and Jadon ran around with Loan to finish off some paperwork for Jadon's Vietnamese Passport.  Unfortunately, after waiting around a couple of hours, they found out that one form was not signed at the orphanage and so they could not proceed!  Yet another unfortunate surprise!  Rykauna has been an amazing help this trip, stepping up and assisting us as needed (not to mention shooting a pile of pictures!)  Rykauna on this day was excited to be able to eat some authentic Vietnamese food today.  But no durian!

They all returned exhausted from the running around.  Then... pandemonium broke loose! (Gordon Korman reference from our youth)