Coming home - the plan...

Today we have our appointment at 2 pm with the US Embassy to get the kids' Visas. Assuming that goes well (fingers crossed) we are done and can go home. All four families had travel plans as late as December 28th in case there was a delay and so we have all adjusted our plans; Kim and her family and Isaac will fly with Debbie and Izzy and me departing Hanoi the evening of the 23rd.. the other two families will leave on the 24th. Our flights go through Hong Kong for arrival in LA on the evening of the 23rd (we get 15 hours back from the west coast and 12 hours back from the east! :)). We then take a red-eye on United to Dulles, arriving early on the 24th.

The exact schedule is:

12/23 Cathay Pacific 792 7:10 pm out of Hanoi - arrive Hong Kong 10:00 pm
12/23 Cathay Pacific 880 11:40 pm out of HK - arrive LA 8:15 pm Term B
12/23 UA 214 11:32 Pm out of LAX - arrive Dulles 7:18 am

Yesterday we had a very nice day. We met a wonderful Australian family at breakfast. They had their two teenage children with them - Lucy who is 19 and her brother who is 17. They were so sweet with Izzy Thu and then the mother - Sue - told me that her two kids were adopted domestically and about how that was etc. Just a lovely couple and we exchanged information and I hope that we remain in touch. They had hired a guide in Vietnam and if the kiddos colds and earaches and the adults are up for it, we may use him to venture out a bit more.

After breakfast we walked and walked and did some more shopping. I ended up buying two beautiful paintings from a lovely gallery. The artists are well known in Vietnam and I imagine will be more and more well-known in the US.

We then went Tao and Isaac and saw the water puppet show - and Emaline was there too! It was a full day and we went for round-two of delivery (pizza!).

Today we will likely be a little more adventurous in the food department.

ps for my MAC team/family in DC! rooting for you ALL as you close the year strong. It's been fun to get a glimpse of it from across the world. Izzy and Debbie and I are rooting for you.