Hallelujah! Praise God and all those other wonderful beings out there that have helped our trip to the East come together.
Since last week, Tom and I have been spinning around like Whirling Dervishes though instead of trance-induced states of bliss we often end up just feeling anxious and spent.
I am proud to say that the big pieces of the puzzle have finally come together and we are almost there. After much fretting for days, our visas to Vietnam arrived yesterday afternoon. (I'm still not sure what the actual visa fee is but that's another story). Nevermind the fact that no one answers the phone at the consulate in san francisco or returns emails. We finally got through by faxing a desperate plea to the office. Our plane tix arrived by FedEx on Wed. and our extremely patient and helpful travel agent, Todd Gallinek delivered them as promised. (Note to adoptive parents: if you are looking for a travel agent, he's your man!) Our shoulders still ache where we got last minutes shots for the trip (Hep A, Hep B and tetanus boosters) and our house is being overtaken by piles, piles and more piles. Mail and newspaper held, transport to the airport booked AND I've even written a letter to the health insurance company requesting they add our daughter to our policy.
I keep walking around in circles but manage to get things accomplished in my multi-tasking haphazard way of doing. For instance, it occurred to me today as I was waiting for the phone to ring for our pretravel conference with the adoption agency coordinator, that the slipcovers on several chairs needed to be cleaned. So, three loads of laundry later, we have clean chairs and our daughter will come home to a deceptively clean house. I've also been doing a lot of ironing lately. Not because I have to - more because I think these mindless tasks are somewhat relaxing and calming to my otherwise active mind. It gives me something to do, something measurable, while I wait.
After reviewing about 12 possible itineraries (thank you Todd) with all sorts of connections, we decided to go with Thai Airways (one of the world's best - they still do that service thing that the airlines in America have deep sixed for greater profits). We fly THIS Tues. a.m. from Dulles to JFK for a non-stop 17-hour flight to Bangkok. Then we're going to hop on a Bangkok Airways plane to Siem Reap, Cambodia. We are going to stay there (the Raffles Grand Hotel D'Angkor to be precise) for three nights and four days while we explore this unbelievable 1,000 year old Hindu monument.
We got a great rate at the hotel because it's off season but then there's always a reason why it's off season. Like the summer rainy season. I just checked the weather forecast in Cambodia - highs in the 80s all next week with showers and thunderstorms. Come rain or high water though, we still want to go to the temples. No expectations because we will have Max McCall by our side and we may spend more time in the hotel swimming pool than actually sightseeing but that's ok. I'm grateful for the vinyl ponchos I picked up at LL Bean the other day. If we're stuck in the hotel all day b/c of weather, do we still need to take our malaria medicines? We just decided this week to take them b/c according to the CDC website, Siem Reap is one of the areas in Southeast Asia where malaria-carrying mosquitos reportedly exist in great abundance. We'll be fine once we get to Hanoi but until then, Tom and I are both taking an anti-biotic for prevention.
After touring Angkor Wat, we fly to Hanoi late on July 7th. It's a 2 hour flight and we hope to stay at a hotel called the Melia. I say hope because apparently our adoption agency cannot give us a confirmation of where we will be staying. At first, this made me really mad - perhaps just a convenient excuse to vent the stress build up - but I've finally resolved to just let it go. My friend Brenda keeps reminding me to look at the forest, not the trees and when she says that, I'm reminded that we are on a mission to pick up our daughter. If we get her, the rest is merely details and a very small timeframe in our lives. (Like I'm hoping the flight will be????)
I am thankful for so many things right now (we're getting a baby girl!!!!!!!!! a dream come true for me) and one of those things is the experiences I've had traveling in my life. Two trips around the world with a backpack on a traveler's budget coupled with having lived overseas several times eases the majority of my anxieties. So if we arrive at the airport in Hanoi in the middle of the night and there's no room at the inn, well, we'll just pop on over to the Sofitel Metropole - the grande dame of hotels in Hanoi. Right out of the French colonial days which, despite all the bad things that happened, I tend to glorify and dream about.
Anyway, back to our itinerary. We are supposed to have our Giving and Receiving ceremony on July 9th which means, in the eyes of the Vietnamese government, our daughter is officially ours. Then it's weeks (two? three? four?) of jumping through hoops mostly for the U.S. Embassy. So, this means that I will become the mother of a 4 month old baby girl in 10 days. Yes, 10 days. Oh my god. It's getting so close!!!!! Ten days away from a dream coming true. Pretty freaky and very cool at the same time. I hope she likes Tunis Mills and gardens.
My intention is to try to write every day on our trip though I can't guarantee that will happen. We're taking our laptop and plan to stay in email contact. So please keep checking the blog if you want to know our progress. I'll try not to be so verbose.
Anyone have any tips for traveling with a four-year-old on a 17 hour flight?
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Sunday, June 24, 2007
We got THE CALL
Just noticed that I haven't written since my sister Annie's birthday on May 27th. Not much news to write. I confess I got caught up with the swing of summer and temporary amnesia about summer vacation. It's a rather misleading term because who is the vacation for? For the teachers and the kids, NOT the parents.
So I've been full-time on Max duty, enjoying our time together (I think he's part fish he loves swimming so much) and also feeling like I never really get anything accomplished. I'm not sure where the days go but little things like laundry, paying the bills, writing thank you notes, filing taxes, and grocery shopping become Herculean tasks.
Anyway, after months of worrying and not knowing WHEN we travel to Vietnam, the good news is that on Thursday, we got THE CALL. The phone call many of my fellow adoptive parents in cyberspace are eagerly awaiting. We were told that we need to be in Hanoi on July 7th or 8th and that the famous Giving and Receiving ceremony will be July 9th. Holy cow! It's really happening. The McCalls are dancing in the streets.
We've really got to get things moving forward in first gear now. We don't have a whole lot of notice, as you can see, and the frenetic scramble has begun. I thought we'd be accomplishing a lot if we at least got our visas to the Vietnamese Consulate in the mail on Thursday but even a seemingly simple task like that took longer than necessary. Our dance with bureaucracy continues.
Our contact at the adoption agency didn't know what the visa fee was and when he referred me to someone else in the office, that person "thought" it was $45. We couldn't get through to the embassy in D.C. or the consulate in San Francisco to find out what the fees were - funky phone lines I suppose. But we sent tthe applications and our passports anyway, with certified checks for $45 for each of us. Then on Friday, when I finally got a call through to the embassy, a polite young woman said the fees were $65 each for rush processing. So, off Tom went again to the post office to get the money order and overnight the additional money to the embassy. As soon as he did that, I got an email from the consulate saying the fees are now $85. So, we'll do it all over again tomorrow I suppose. At least that's in the works with the intention of moving forward.
Then I've been emailing all weekend long with Todd Gallinek, a travel agent, who has a fabulous reputation amongst the adoptive parent crowd for finding excellent airfares and itineraries. We've been emailing and talking all weekend long trying to put this huge piece of the puzzle in place. It's tricky business and my hats go off to Todd for 1) finding seats for us at the last minute and b) airfares that aren't going to send us to the bank of a second mortgage. The good news is that there are some seats available even at the last minute. The bad news is we're looking at a very long flight. The travel time from door to door will probably be about 25 hours and cross quite a few time lines.
Korean Airlines is out. No seats available and no oppty. to stop there and show Max his native country. That will be another trip for another time. (I had thought maybe we could make a quick trip into to Seoul and meet his foster mother who took care of him for the first four months of his life.) That will be another journey in the future.
Right now, we're looking into the possibility of leaving a few days earlier than required so that we can go to Angkor Wat in Cambodia. It's so close it just keeps calling me to visit. There's talk of flying to JFK, then hopping on a Thai Airways airbus and flying non-stop for 17 hours to Bangkok. Then hopping over to Siem Reap and then to Hanoi in time to pick up our baby daughter. Todd is even looking into possible upgrades (like premium economy or business class) that won't cost us an arm and a leg. I'm all about traveling in comfort. Somehow, this journey is so different than the days when I traveled by bus from Varanasi, India to Kathmandu, Nepal for $8 one way. Times have changed, especially when there's a preschooler and an infant in tow. Adventure, yes. Bed bugs, no.
By the way, we just got new photos of Gopala and she looks just precious. Much of her scabies and/or fungus has cleared up and in the new photos she's smiling and has a beautiful twinkle in her eye. When Max saw the new photos he said, "she just can't wait to come live with us!" Tom and I were so excited on Thursday when we got the news of the travel date. It seems to have come very fast and the timing is perfect. Tom doesn't have any assignments in July or August so our schedule is very flexible. We may end up in Vietnam for 2 weeks or one month depending on how the paperwork processing goes. If it happens sooner rather than later, we may even get to go to Fishers Island this summer which has been a part of our annual summer pilgrimage. Yippee.
Back to the travel stuff, we couldn't do any of this planning stuff until we got the travel date. So now all these big pieces have to come together and they have to come together fast. Immunizations, hotel reservations, plane tix, packing, gift buying for officials, finding someone to water the garden while we're away etc. etc. We've got about a week to do it all and occasionally I get so stressed out that I feel paralyzed and can't do anything.
Here's a sampling of our very sexy to-do list before leaving for Hanoi:
•get plane tix
•get visas to Vietnam
•make hotel reservations for Hanoi
•have pre-trip travel conference with adoption agency
•take deep breathes often
•pack for baby
•pack for Max
•pack for Tom and Sam - with monsoon weather in mind
•get shots like hepatitis A, tetanus boosters etc.
•take cat to spa
•co-host kimberly's baby shower
•skip my baby shower which was scheduled for july 12th but has since been cancelled due to imminent travel plans
•add baby to health insurance plan
•buy travel insurance
•get lots of cash
•take more deep breathes
•get gifts for Vietnamese officials and orphanage caretakers
•pray, ask for help, accept help when offered, keep the faith
•have fun - it's a once in a lifetime adventure
So there it is folks. A brief update in our simple lives which are about to change immensely. Am so excited to finally meet our daughter and am thrilled beyond words that this process has gone so fast and that we are able to adopt a little baby. She's almost four months old - same as Max when we adopted him.
The crib is up, the baby's room is nearly ready but certainly adequate to move in to now and the only big thing left is agreeing on a name. We've got a long flight to figure that one out... Today my Mom suggested "Polly" which would be short for Gopala. That could work. Still leaning towards naming her after our cat Lily...
So I've been full-time on Max duty, enjoying our time together (I think he's part fish he loves swimming so much) and also feeling like I never really get anything accomplished. I'm not sure where the days go but little things like laundry, paying the bills, writing thank you notes, filing taxes, and grocery shopping become Herculean tasks.
Anyway, after months of worrying and not knowing WHEN we travel to Vietnam, the good news is that on Thursday, we got THE CALL. The phone call many of my fellow adoptive parents in cyberspace are eagerly awaiting. We were told that we need to be in Hanoi on July 7th or 8th and that the famous Giving and Receiving ceremony will be July 9th. Holy cow! It's really happening. The McCalls are dancing in the streets.
We've really got to get things moving forward in first gear now. We don't have a whole lot of notice, as you can see, and the frenetic scramble has begun. I thought we'd be accomplishing a lot if we at least got our visas to the Vietnamese Consulate in the mail on Thursday but even a seemingly simple task like that took longer than necessary. Our dance with bureaucracy continues.
Our contact at the adoption agency didn't know what the visa fee was and when he referred me to someone else in the office, that person "thought" it was $45. We couldn't get through to the embassy in D.C. or the consulate in San Francisco to find out what the fees were - funky phone lines I suppose. But we sent tthe applications and our passports anyway, with certified checks for $45 for each of us. Then on Friday, when I finally got a call through to the embassy, a polite young woman said the fees were $65 each for rush processing. So, off Tom went again to the post office to get the money order and overnight the additional money to the embassy. As soon as he did that, I got an email from the consulate saying the fees are now $85. So, we'll do it all over again tomorrow I suppose. At least that's in the works with the intention of moving forward.
Then I've been emailing all weekend long with Todd Gallinek, a travel agent, who has a fabulous reputation amongst the adoptive parent crowd for finding excellent airfares and itineraries. We've been emailing and talking all weekend long trying to put this huge piece of the puzzle in place. It's tricky business and my hats go off to Todd for 1) finding seats for us at the last minute and b) airfares that aren't going to send us to the bank of a second mortgage. The good news is that there are some seats available even at the last minute. The bad news is we're looking at a very long flight. The travel time from door to door will probably be about 25 hours and cross quite a few time lines.
Korean Airlines is out. No seats available and no oppty. to stop there and show Max his native country. That will be another trip for another time. (I had thought maybe we could make a quick trip into to Seoul and meet his foster mother who took care of him for the first four months of his life.) That will be another journey in the future.
Right now, we're looking into the possibility of leaving a few days earlier than required so that we can go to Angkor Wat in Cambodia. It's so close it just keeps calling me to visit. There's talk of flying to JFK, then hopping on a Thai Airways airbus and flying non-stop for 17 hours to Bangkok. Then hopping over to Siem Reap and then to Hanoi in time to pick up our baby daughter. Todd is even looking into possible upgrades (like premium economy or business class) that won't cost us an arm and a leg. I'm all about traveling in comfort. Somehow, this journey is so different than the days when I traveled by bus from Varanasi, India to Kathmandu, Nepal for $8 one way. Times have changed, especially when there's a preschooler and an infant in tow. Adventure, yes. Bed bugs, no.
By the way, we just got new photos of Gopala and she looks just precious. Much of her scabies and/or fungus has cleared up and in the new photos she's smiling and has a beautiful twinkle in her eye. When Max saw the new photos he said, "she just can't wait to come live with us!" Tom and I were so excited on Thursday when we got the news of the travel date. It seems to have come very fast and the timing is perfect. Tom doesn't have any assignments in July or August so our schedule is very flexible. We may end up in Vietnam for 2 weeks or one month depending on how the paperwork processing goes. If it happens sooner rather than later, we may even get to go to Fishers Island this summer which has been a part of our annual summer pilgrimage. Yippee.
Back to the travel stuff, we couldn't do any of this planning stuff until we got the travel date. So now all these big pieces have to come together and they have to come together fast. Immunizations, hotel reservations, plane tix, packing, gift buying for officials, finding someone to water the garden while we're away etc. etc. We've got about a week to do it all and occasionally I get so stressed out that I feel paralyzed and can't do anything.
Here's a sampling of our very sexy to-do list before leaving for Hanoi:
•get plane tix
•get visas to Vietnam
•make hotel reservations for Hanoi
•have pre-trip travel conference with adoption agency
•take deep breathes often
•pack for baby
•pack for Max
•pack for Tom and Sam - with monsoon weather in mind
•get shots like hepatitis A, tetanus boosters etc.
•take cat to spa
•co-host kimberly's baby shower
•skip my baby shower which was scheduled for july 12th but has since been cancelled due to imminent travel plans
•add baby to health insurance plan
•buy travel insurance
•get lots of cash
•take more deep breathes
•get gifts for Vietnamese officials and orphanage caretakers
•pray, ask for help, accept help when offered, keep the faith
•have fun - it's a once in a lifetime adventure
So there it is folks. A brief update in our simple lives which are about to change immensely. Am so excited to finally meet our daughter and am thrilled beyond words that this process has gone so fast and that we are able to adopt a little baby. She's almost four months old - same as Max when we adopted him.
The crib is up, the baby's room is nearly ready but certainly adequate to move in to now and the only big thing left is agreeing on a name. We've got a long flight to figure that one out... Today my Mom suggested "Polly" which would be short for Gopala. That could work. Still leaning towards naming her after our cat Lily...
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