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...