3. December 2008 by Mark.

Sure enough, I soon met my traveling companions, Kari and Kyle, from Oklahoma, and Victor and Jamie, from San Francisco. Kari and Kyle had had a rushed connection in San Francisco and there was some concern the luggage would not make it.

Our flight to Ho Chi Minh city was pretty uneventful. The best part was realizing that we were flying right over Troy’s orphanage. I took a picture of the map from the plane (click to see full-sized)

I also wrote some blog posts on the plane that were lost when my computer’s battery died. Sorry…I’ll try to recreate them tomorrow.

Anyway, after a scary bit where it seemed 4 of my travel companions’ bags were missing, the luggage was located and we were off to Saigon. We’re staying tonight at the Park Royal, which is a nice hotel far from the city center and near the airport. This choice because we need to head back to the airport in the morning to fly to Danang…

One thing we learned today was that the Minister of Justice will be attending a conference on Friday and thus our G&R has been moved to Sunday. We’ll therefore visit the orphanage tomorrow and Friday but not have full custody until Sunday. I hope this makes the adjustment easier for Troy because it will be stretched out in a way, but we’ll see.

I spent the afternoon and evening roaming the city with Victor and Jamie (Kyle and Kari were beat after their 4 flights in a row). My first meal was some awesome Pho (pretty much the national dish), at Pho 2000 a legendary place that Bill Clinton visited.

I also took care of some things I needed/wanted to do before T-Day. I got a Vietnamese phone SIM card, a haircut, and a massage, among other things. I’m somewhat jealous of the other couples who can simply hand their baby to their partner and get a massage or take a break every so often. I won’t have that luxury - but, I’ll get lots of one on one time with Troy instead.

In case you’re wondering, news from the home front is that Evan is doing swimmingly without me. He’s in good hands.

There is much more to say but the jet lag is hitting me hard. It’s off to bed.

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2. December 2008 by Mark.

I’m in Taipei, where my flight from LA arrived about 1 hour early (4:40 a.m). The flight was fine and was able to sleep about 10 hours of it, which should set me in the right direction for adjusting to the time change. My flight to Ho Chi Minh city is at 7:20. The airport is awafully quiet at this early hour. I’m looking forward to meeting two other families adopting from the same orphanage - they are en route from/via San Francisco and will probably show up any minute. Nice that the airport has wireless internet but power plugs seem nonexistent and my computer is on empty. So I’ll sign off for now!

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23. November 2008 by Mark.

Welcome to my blog! This blog is dedicated to TROY and the journey I am taking to add him to my family. Troy is currently in Que Son, Vietnam, and I am in the final stages of adopting him. I hope to depart from Los Angeles the evening of December 1 (arriving the morning of December 3).

As a consequence of this, Troy will also get a big brother, Evan, and Evan will get a little brother. Evan is also from Vietnam, and I completed his adoption almost exactly two years ago. Evan’s current blog site is here and my blog from his adoption journey is here.

I am limiting access to this blog to selected individuals out of respect for those families whose Vietnam adoption journeys ended prematurely with the current shutdown of Vietnamese adoptions for U.S. citizens. If you know me, you know how to reach me by e-mail and I’ll be happy to give you the password for the protected posts.

By the way, I’m using Wordpress as my blogging tool, and hosting it on my own web space. I’m doing this because 1) Wordpress has better features for password protecting posts and 2) I have had problems accessing the blogger site from Vietnam in the past. I’m using a domain name (www.adoptpoint.com) that I had registered for a different purpose some time ago. Don’t read anything into that. Anyway, you can count on some glitches as I get over the Wordpress learning curve, so please accept my apologies in advance.

Stay tuned for more updates and background on Troy’s story!

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