Our Travel Plans

We leave in 2 more days!! We depart in the afternoon on Friday, June 6 and arrive in Hanoi, Vietnam on the morning of Sunday, June 8. We will meet up with my mom in the LA airport!

When we all land in Hanoi, we will be picked up by a hotel shuttle, go to our hotel, and SLEEP!! We will then have at least one full day to recover (Monday), tour around a little, and do our shopping (diapers, formula, baby food, etc.).

Our adoption ceremony for Kien will either take place on Tuesday or Wednesday. We probably won't find out the date until we arrive in Vietnam, but I was told today that it will probably be Wednesday. That would give us an extra day to recover, so we shall see...

On that day, Steve and I will go with the 3 other families in a van to the province where our babies are. It is a 3 hour ride. Kevin and my mom will stay at the hotel in Hanoi. We will then meet BOTH Kien and Aria!! We hope to have a decent amount of time there at the orphanage before heading over to the adoption ceremony (it could be up to an hour, as I was told today). Then we will have to say good-bye to Aria... And we will go elsewhere for the adoption ceremony, and Kien will become OURS!!! :) Then we have a 3 hour drive back to Hanoi with a baby who will wonder what in the world is happening to him!!! We have forewarned Kevin that his baby brother may not be too happy when he first meets him. ;)

After that, we have to get a passport photo of Kien, apply for his Vietnamese passport, apply for a visa appointment at the US Embassy, have a medical exam done at the SOS Clinic, and then go to the Embassy for the visa interview...and finally receive his visa to come home!! This will all take a few business days to accomplish.

Families who have traveled before us have all raved about how wonderful Hanoi is! So apparently there is lots to do and lots of great shopping. The idea of doing all that with 2 children kinda freaks me out...so we will see what we can manage! ha :)

The plan is to fly out of Hanoi on June 18, arriving home on June 19. Kien will become a US citizen as soon as he lands at the LA airport!! :)

Of course, we still hope and pray that there will be a change in this plan in order to accommodate having an adoption ceremony for Aria as well on this trip... But in any case, we're very excited to be bringing home our baby boy!!!