Our First Day as a Family of Three

Our first day as a family of three was wonderful. Jackson slept through the entire G&R and all the way back to Hanoi (2 hours). We got back to our hotel around 1pm and the men immediatly left to go apply for the baby's passports. We had lunch around 3pm then took naps. Our facilitators came back to our hotel around 10pm for us to fill out a few more forms that had to be turned in this morning (it's 2:58am here on Tuesday). This morning we will go have the babies' Visa photos taken then at 2:30pm today we will go for our first embassy appointment.

Now for the good stuff, Jackson is perfect. He's so cute and so good. Every now and then he will let out one little cry, only a seconds worth then he's fine. Brad said that he is warning us of what he could do if he didn't get his way, like cry all night long. He does still have the scabies but it's not as bad as in the photos we got a few weeks ago. His face isn't really that broken out but it is really bad on one of his hands. That hand is covered in bumps and what looks like tiny blisters. I put his medicine yesterday afternoon though and washed it off last night so hopefully it kills it all the first time. Last night he had a hard time falling asleep. We were ready to go to sleep around 12pm but he wasn't feeling it. We each held him for about 30 minutes before he quit crying. I don't know what was wrong. He was clean, fed, clean diaper, I had given him Tylenol Cold and Mylicon. I was clueless. I think maybe his tummy was hurting though because it sounded like a cry of pain. He didn't have a bm all day yesterday so I'm thinking that maybe the formula I'm using has him constipated. We'll see what happens this morning and take it from there.

His 3-6 month clothes fit him just fine. He looked so cute yesterday, all dressed up for the G&R. Today we will probably go for a more relaxed, casual look. Brad says he's wearing his LSU outfit but we'll see. I don't know if that is appropriate for his Visa photo.

He's not fat and not skinny, just right. I'm sure we'll get official measurements at his medical appt. though. He is taken really well to both Brad and I. He's alert; he likes to try to hold his head up and look around the room. He also likes to check us out. We haven't seen him laugh yet. Maybe today.

He has such bad congestion. When he takes his bottle especially, you can hear him wheezing really bad. I've given him several doses of Tylenol Cold & Cough but as of last night it wasn't phasing his illness. I wish I had an antihistimine incase it's his allergies. If it's not better today we'll see if we can get our hands on some Benedryl. One of the fathers traveling with us is a family physician so I may have to get some help from him.

For all of you who were worried about the "speech". It went perfectly, without a hitch. There were no ummms, no pauses, and it was intelligently worded. Of course Brad had nothing to do with it. Only one father was asked to speak on behalf of the group. Obviously Brad bowed out graciously without looking back.

The orphanage let me keep the outfit that Jackson was wearing when we picked him up. And guess what; it was that same red sweater that he was wearing in his pictures. I was so so fortunate to be able to keep it.

The other two babies are so cute too. They all seem to be really good and happy babies. They don't cry much and have just fit right into our families'.

We asked our facilitator last night for her best guess of when we might go home and she thinks that we should be able to leave by the 28th as planned, assuming everything goes well. Please keep us in your thoughts. We are nervous about our upcoming embassy appointments. That's usually where things go wrong, so we're not out of the woods yet.

PS Our skype still isn't working. We've emailed skype customer service and our adoption agency for help. Hopefully, we'll be able to call home soon.

Raegan