Sinchow

That's the Vietnamese greeting for hello. So far, Max and I have mastered sinchow and ca' mon (thank you). He keeps reminding me that it's different than Cambodian.

Today was a big day along the journey of our small adoption. We had our first interview with the U.S. Embassy regarding our application to bring Molly home with us. The entire group of us (7 families) from World Child went to the embassy at the same time this afternoon and had our appointments one right after the other.

Diaper bags, babies broken out into heat rash and nervous parents filled the waiting room at the embassy. I did a major bribe to Max who started to exhibit signs of acting up. I promised, pinkie swears, that if he behaved during the interview, I would take him in a taxi again over the Chuong Duong bridge again. (His passion for cars has been replaced with bridges...) He agreed, and true to his word, he honored our pinkie swear. He also was very patient when we went to get visa photos for the babies (again, en masse) and then again when we had a late lunch at Bobby Chinn's - a famous restaurant here in Hanoi.

Bobby Chinn's has the best macaroni and cheese we've ever tasted! I had a fabulous shrimp curry dish with coconut infused sticky rice and Tom had pad thai which, we think is the what has caused the food poisoning that he now has. (Thank you arsenicum - one of the best homeopathic remedies out there for food poisoning.) The atmosphere was fabulous. Red satiny silks draped from the ceilings as well as creamy white rose buds strung together with fishing line. In the back of the restaurant, there's a big opium den-like room where you can enjoy cancer sticks (I kid you not, that's what it says on the menu!) or enjoy fruit flavored tobaccos for $5 a pop in the water pipes in what they call a "Kenny G, Abba and Gypsy Kings-free zone." For those of us staying at the Melia Hotel, that's most amusing b/c I think we've all been brainwashed with Kenny G at breakfast and dinner in the restaurant. They play the same tunes over and over again and it's just awful! I finally asked them to change the music and they did for at least one meal. Tom interviewed the omelet maker this morning who said she hates the music.

Anyway, back to the more important part of the day. I'm not going to write much about the content of the interview or proceedings because I in no way want to jeopardize or jinx our application. Suffice it to say a very nice young woman interviewed us and the interview lasted about 15 to 20 minutes. After the interview, she reminded us of what her colleague said about processing time and added that they have a heavy caseload at the moment - our seven applications PLUS other families who are also adopting. We are all itching to get home and hope that the sooner it gets done, the better. We've all extended our hotel stays and are somewhat anxious about whether or not we need to change our plane tix too. Only time will tell and there's zero we can do about it now.

Prior to the individual family interviews, an officer spoke to us as a group to say that typically, if all goes well, it takes about 4 to 6 business days to get a recommendation from the CIS office in Ho Chi Minh City. That is, if all goes well. He went on to warn us that some cases do take longer to process (if paperwork doesn't match up etc.) and if need be, there are options if we have to stay longer in Hanoi.

If it takes longer, he explained that we could either go back to America and leave the baby with a guardian in Hanoi or possibly one parent goes home and another stays. Everyone's heart did a collective thud, each parent hoping it wouldn't be one of them, each one hoping that are paperwork is without flaws.

Little Miss Molly has grown on us so much already I couldn't imagine leaving her with anyone or leaving Hanoi without her. She's ours and we're hers. That's already been established as tomorrow marks a week of us being together. Tom and I don't even want to go there - to the "what if" place - and we're trying to stay positive though it all feels rather intimidating and way out of our control.

So, we keep our fingers crossed and our prayers sweet that the paperwork gets processed with ease and without a hitch. The good old expression Let Go and Let God comes to mind and I bow to it. Feel free to send positive energy our way! And for all the other families in the group too, some of whom we've gotten quite intimate with in the past week and hope to stay connected with in the future because our girls are crib sisters.

The next step is to pick up Molly's Vietnamese passport on Thursday from the local police station and then perhaps we will have the obligatory medical appointments either Thursday afternoon or Friday morning. Then, when the embassy approval comes, we go to the embassy again to apply for Molly's visa which usually takes a day to process and then we can come home.

Max told me tonight he was ready to come home. He's eager to see our boat? Then he asked me if I was ready to come home too and I said yes. This conversation was held at dinner in the restaurant downstairs, just me and him. Molly went to bed early and Tom is not feeling red hot and is laying in bed. So off we went on a hot date - just Mommy and Max. We had pasta with tomato sauce for the umpteenth time since we've been here. That and fresh Vietnamese spring rolls have been my staple. I've also had pho, which is perhaps the Vietnamese national dish - rice noodles in chicken broth (or beef broth for beef), and then heaps of fresh herbs including cilantro, mint and lemongrass. It's unbelievably fragrant and eaten with chopsticks. We still have yet to really dive into the Vietnamese cuisine because there are so many restaurants offering western food, especially French.

Tomorrow is a day off as far as the adoption paperwork process goes. Tom wants to see Uncle Ho's mausoleum and I want to shop, maybe even get a massage. They're so cheap here! Or maybe my hair washed and massaged, which is I think only about $5. It's still unbelievably hot. Hot like you go outside for a half an hour and come back drenched in sweat, having to change clothes for the second or third time a day. Thank goodness we found a cheaper place to do laundry. $7 a kilo and it's a block from the hotel. The only problem is they have returned some clothes that don't belong to us. And I haven't a clue what is missing from our laundry.

Molly is doing great and each day she blooms a little brighter. She looks to us like we're the center of her compass now and is surprisingly getting stronger by day! She can roll over with effort, is more adept at pulling herself on her arms for tummy time and is getting better control of her head and neck. Poor little thing has broken out into a horrible case of heat rash today. The a/c hasn't bothered her at all but the heat has, ironically. I gave her a bath tonight in calendula and hope that helps. She only seems to fuss when she is ready to go down for her nap and when she is hungry. Which, by the way, she has gone from 2 ounces in a bottle every two hours to chowing down on 5 to 6 ounces in a sitting. She's a happy little girl and has a smile to melt anyone's heart, especially ours.

Though we get 26 channels of satellite TV, only a handful are in English. BBC World News, CNN, HBO and the Disney Channel (Max has a thing for Kim Possible? I don't even know if it's age appropriate and at this point, don't really care.) Then the rest of the channels are in Thai, Japanese, Chinese, French and Vietnamese. Max was watching cartoons in French today and didn't seem to mind. Tom likes watching all the sports on TV from barefoot soccer to the Asian Cup to badminton by foot. He doesn't care. I'm not a big TV person but what I wouldn't do for some Seinfeld episodes right now...