I figured it was in my best interest to post more pictures of my sweet little girl!!!!

She is doing so well here, each day she is smiling and laughing more.

We are trying to get her on a schedule, she seems to be a party girl who thinks sleep is not for her..... But, we are working hard at changing that.

She is eating like a champ and seems to enjoy jar baby food..... In Vietnam she was about 12.9 lbs at her SOS appointment and her first Doctors appointment is Monday here so I am curious to see how much bigger she has gotten.

We had the biggest laugh the other day she had on size 3/6 month Gap pants and we were playing with her and lifting her up and her pants fell off!!!! Her butt is so little 3/6 month are still big, I wonder if they make baby suspenders????

If the weather is nice tomorrow I will take her swimming and get some pictures of her in the pool, she is priceless in the pool.

Better go see what her and Dad are up to.

Vietnam..... Where do I begin?

Vietnam is a country I will be forever thankful to for allowing me to adopt a wonderful little girl.

In this I will share my opinion of our trip to Vietnam, I will stress that this is only my opinion.

Our trip to Vietnam was the first time Jon and I had been outside of America, needless to say it was a real eye opener.

We stayed in the Old Quarter so it was helpful as far as getting around, we could walk every place we wanted to go. We stayed at the Hoa Linh Hotel, it was a decent hotel and for $28 a night it made it even better. They are very friendly there and I would stay there again.

The draw back about the area we stayed in is it was very dirty and anytime you went outside you about had to beat off the people trying to sell you things. That gets old VERY fast, you get tired of them trying to guilt you into buying something from them.

We walked around a lot checking out all the little stores and we got to the point that if they were nice and friendly then we would buy from them but, if they were rude and pushy we would just move on.

The traffic is a bit hard to deal with at first but, I promise you that after about 3 days you will move around just fine. I got annoyed because everyone parks their scooters and some cars on the sidewalks so you have to walk in the street. Also, people will drive down the sidewalk to get around traffic, so you not only have to watch them on the road but, on the sidewalk too!!!

We took our Babyhawk baby carrier and it was a life saver! We did not buy a stroller while over there(it would have been great when we were out to eat) but, I would not push her in a stroller on the road, traffic was to scary for me to do that.

We basically ate at two restaurants, Bobby Chinns' and Mama Rosas' the food was good and safe.

I got very very sick while over there with stuff coming out of everywhere and also broke out in hives..... We had eaten at a local place and we think I got some food poisoning. I had more stomach problems over there then I have ever had in my whole life, I seriously lost between 15-20 lbs (I could stand to loose it).

The heat in Vietnam is like NOTHING I have ever felt and I have lived in Florida. We were in the north the whole time so I can not even imagine being in the south. Don't bother bringing cute clothes. By the end of the day all my clothes were just hanging off of me. I am not a sweater and over there I sweated through my shirts, you just feel nasty so when you shower at the end of the day you will feel like a new person.

Be prepared for all sorts of strange smells.... People are cooking lord knows what on the sidewalks. We saw a guy gutting live black birds on the sidewalk, so be ready for anything. You will notice that there are not stray animals running around and there is a reason for that..... People eat cats and dogs over there (a Vietnamese friend told me that). Also, if the restaurant has a picture of an animal on it that is what they are serving.... When we went to Nam Dinh we pasted a restaurant with a picture of a cat and a dog on it, and that's what was on the menu. (we traveled with a couple that spoke Vietnamese so they were able to translate stuff for us).

When we were shopping if I felt the price was fair they were offering I would pay it, I just got sick of trying to haggle over $1 or $2. I mean come on, I don't hesitate to pay $4 for a Latte and these people are so poor. I did buy several of the hand stitched wall art and payed $90 instead of the $120 she was asking.

Chances are very high that your kiddos will get sick when they come to stay with you, remember they have never been in AC and are not use to going from hot to cold like we are. Take lots of little people medicines.

Now onto the best thing out of Vietnam, our daughter!!! Cami is such a brave little girl, it took her about 2-3 days to really accept us once she did she wanted nothing to so with anyone who had taken care of her before we got there, she would not even look at them and would hide her face in our chest. When it was time for us to leave she let them hold her and tell her goodbye but, we had to stand right there or she would scream. She figured out right away who we were to her.

Our girl is scary smart, she inspects ans studies everything and everybody. She wants to know how things work. When we got home and we showed her how the toys work on her jumparoo and walker we only needed to show her once and she got it, not to bad for a little one who never played with toys until we got her!!

She loves the water and I am sure will be a great swimmer in no time.

Each day is better and better with this little girl and when she smiles at us it just makes everything better.

Finally some pictures for you!!!!

It's kind of a mish mash but, I hope it buys me some time.

A couple fun pictures of Cami, the one is Jon and I signing "the book" at the G&R, the one of Jon, my Mom and I is the first time we met Cami.

We got in Saturday morning, Cami did so well on the flights, I was very impressed.

When we looked at her sleeping in her crib for the first time it was priceless.

She is very interested in what is going on around here and she LOVES watching the dog.

My parents are staying at a hotel close to here so we are going to take her swimming today.

I know I am all over the place but, I am working on a post about our experience in Vietnam and some suggestions and information for those of you who will be making your way to Vietnam one of these days.

Off to go watch my girl sleep in her crib that has been waiting for her for a long time!!!!!

Yesterday we had some divine intervention shine down on us!!!!!

We went to the U.S. Embassy to have Jon sign their power of attorney so he could go home tonight and I could stay and finish the adoption. When we get up to the window I tell the lady what we need and she asks us to hold on one second and comes back and tells us our approval just came through and we could do our second interview right now so we could all leave on Friday night together. I almost passed out all 4 of us started crying (me, Jon, mom and M- our agency worker).

They then asked if the other family was with us, they were not because we had just stopped by to take care of our business, so M- raced out and called them and they flew over so they could do their interview too. All of us were crying and hugging and so thankful to be able to go home. The other family was able to get on our flight out tonight so I am very happy for them.

We got to laughing and saying "well coming here and finding out we can get done today and out tomorrow is the least we could do for all the help they have been to us with translating"!!!

Next post will be from home and it will have pictures!!!!!!

Hello again!!!

Sorry for the long delay, I got some sort of terrible stomach bug Sunday and was down for a few days....... I think I lost about 10lbs from it.

Lets see, Saturday we went to Ha Long Bay, it was very pretty. I got abit annoyed because on our boat the workers kept trying to sell us stuff instead of leaving us alone to let us enjoy the sights. We took Cami with us, she did great but, we did not know it was 3 hours each way plus a 4 hour boat ride. That's to much for a little person..... The husband and I got annoyed because if she wouls fuss one of the girls working on the boat would come and try to take her away from us and say "I can do better." Needless to say that pissed us off, finally my husband stood up and looked down on the lady and said "no, do not touch her." This lady would try and pull Cami out of our arms.....

We have no problem at the few restuaraunts we eat at letting the girls hold her but, this lady really pissed us off. Enough about that.

Anyway, before we went on the boat ride we stopped at a small local restuarant and ate lunch. I am not sure if I hae mentioned this before but, the family we are traveling with is Vietnamese Americans and they are a total blessing to us. They tell us what is going on around us and truly have made this trip for us. At the restuaraunt you go up and pick out what you want then they cook it..... I mean we had to pick what fish we wanted what squid and what shrimp. Talk about fresh!!!! Maybe that's how I got sick??? It was very good though.

We also found out the meaning behing Cami's given name Ha Kieu Anh, they told me she is such a pretty baby that they named her after a Miss Vietnam who is a big Actress and Model now. They say our Cami will be Miss America one day!! :)

We had our first Embassy appoinment earlier this week and are waiting on the second, we are scheduled to go home tomorrow..... But, since Miss America has no Visa we are stuck here. Jon is going home tomorrow though and my Mom is staying with Cami and I. We decided to do it that way so hew can get home and rest and when I get home I can rest and he can take care of Cami. We hope to head home Monday or Tuesday.

Please keep sending more positive thoughts our way.

We got Cami's Vietnamese passport this morning!!! One step closer to heading home! We may also be able to get into get her medical exam today. (fingers crossed for that).

It's raining really hard so I think we will stay in and enjoy the AC!!!!

I got my girl to laugh last night for the first time!!!

As much as I would love to say that everything is perfect and wonderful, it's not, Cami is doing very well with all the changes going on in her life but, she has some hard times too. Plus, she is teething..... She knows the husband and I and reaches for us and smiles at us, she makes good eye contact with us and pets our skin. But, sometimes she just cries the saddest cries, it's very heart breaking. Each day she is getting better and I know this will continue.

We are looking forward to getting home and getting into a normal routine, I think that will help out a lot.

Cami is a wonderful happy little girl and we would not change any of this for the world.

I better get back upstairs and give my girl some more kisses!

Yesterday was a down day and the weather was much cooler so we decided to walk around Hoan Kiem lake and have a late lunch at Bobby Chinns' (a must do in Hanoi!!!).

The hubby had decided he wanted to wear Cami in the Babyhawk carrier we brought, that caused some major uproar!!!!! Their were tons of people around the lake and they would all stop and stair at him and some would take his picture.

When Cami is in her carrier, you really don't even see her because she is very little. I have a huge pink sun hat I put on her outside and then she fits down in the carrier.

We also had a first the other day, I had Cami in the carrier and her hat on and a lady came over to look at her and said "oh baby to hot" mark that down as a first here!!!!!

We had our G&R on Monday, all went well. It was maybe 5 minutes tops, sign this and this and congratulations!!! Short and sweet. We then went to the orphange, that was hard to see the kiddos needing parents but, they are being well taken care of. I took pictures of all of them.

Our girl is doing great, she is really catching onto the idea that she is the center of our universe!!! Now she will not even look at our agencies people who helped care for her in private care, she wants nothing to do with them and when she first met her she was always smiling and laughing at them. She knows!!!

She is also getting the hang of playing with toys.

She loves having her daddy carry her around and hold her up high!!

We have not done much shopping yet but, thanks to Susan we found Ha Dong silk shop. This place is a must go to here, they make their own silk and then custom make all sorts of wonderful things. I am having pants and a top made and bought a purse to match, I am having Cami a matching out fit made too. The pants are black and the top is a sassy pink!!!

We are still using the hotel computer so can not upload pictures but, when I get home I will share lots!!

And for those who asked, my sleepy pills were Ambian. I had NO jet lag, I may take them on the return flight and the husband will take care of Cami so when we get home I and doing good and he can rest. He said if that's what I wanted to do that would be fine by him. We do have bulk head seating with the bassinet, so that will help too.

My husband is truly amazing me at how well he is adjusting to being a dad. You can so tell Cami is his princess!

We also think she is on track developmentally for her age. She is trying to crawl she can scoot and sit by herself (if you help her up) and she is trying very hard to sit up on her own. We are very happy with the care she has recieved until we got her.

I am amazed at the feelings I have for this little girl, I lay awake and just watch her sleep, she is breathtakingly beautiful!

Tomorrow we head out to Nam Dinh for our G&R, we are being picked up at 6am....

This little girl of ours is sweeter than sugar.

I will start out by saying internet at the hotel will not let me log on with my computer so I am using the hotel's computer so no pictures...... Sorry, I will share photos one of these days.

Our flights over went fine thanks to a little RX from my Doctor... I fell asleep before we left the ground in Chicago and woke up upon landing at LAX and then took another sleepy pill and fell asleep before we left the ground at LAX and ended up sleeping about 13 of the 15 hours on the way to Hong Kong. So I felt great and have not had jet lag, now coming home I know I will get me butt kicked because I can't be a total pill popper...... Or maybe I can and let the husband take care of her..... ;)

We got to meet her at the airport and she did okay with us, not scared, just looking and touching us.

And for others who will soon be coming here, HOT does not even describe it properly!!!!! If I could walk down the street in my underwear I would because it is so hot. Florida in the Summer can not even touch this.

I believe we are going to Halong Bay tomorrow and then the G&R is Monday or Tuesday, so I will update more later.

Gretting from Hanoi!!!!!

I just wanted to drop a quick note to say we are here and have met our girl, she is PERFECT!!!!

I will post more and photos when I have a chance.

Today is the day! The husband woke me up this morning saying "wake up mommy, lets' go make our dreams come true"!!!!!

We have decided that June is our special adoption month, we started this adoption June 2005 by sending in our application to adopt from Vietnam (licenses were not given out until January 2006, so we had to wait). Our Dossier went to Vietnam June 2006 and now here we are June 2007 and we are finally going to meet our daughter.

Today is a very wonderful day to us, the emotions I am going through today I have never felt. I am scared out of my mind because we are first time parents but, I know we will be fine and I am filled with pure joy and excitement.

I would like to thank everyone for all their kind thoughts for our family, it truly means a lot to us.

I am signing off for now from Indiana and will sign back on tomorrow from the other side of the world!

(I know I kind of jumped from one thing to the next but, my mind is all over!!!!) ;)

I am off work today, I work tomorrow and then I am off until after Labor Day!!!!! YEAH!!!!!

My Mom and I stopped in to see my husband at work today...... Well, I think he is getting really nervous!!!! I know he is really excited but, I think it is really hitting home that we are getting our girl. I am doing surprisingly well.... I thought I would have been the one getting all worked up and he would have been the calm one.

I think I am going to have to start slipping the new Dad some Xanax!!!! And, maybe I take one for myself for good measure.....

Thursday night (Indiana time) we will be seeing our girl. Vietnam is 12 hours ahead if us here in the Eastern time zone, so I know that is going to kick my butt, oh well!!!

I am just truly amazed that we meet our girl THIS WEEK!!!!!!

It's getting late on Sunday night, so our last weekend being baby-less is officially over!!!!! We have been looking forward to saying that for a long time.

My mom got in last night, so today we went through all our bags and made sure we are not taking doubles of things then re-packed and got the final weight on the bags. What a pain in the butt!!!! Oh well, its done now and we are good to go.

I can hardly believe in just a few more days we will get to see our daughter for the first time.

I will try to post from Hanoi, of coarse time and baby permitting!!!!!

I am just chillin' waiting for my mom and dad to get here and spoil me, just so you know, they leave in 4.5 days!!!!!