Can't sleep. Can you imagine why?

Well, here we are, Monday morning in HCMC. I woke up about 2 a.m. and can't go back to sleep, so I'm going to take advantage of the time to update everyone.

Our flights over were fairly uneventful, except Kelly had the opportunity to help an exhausted mother for a short time. From L.A. to Hong Kong, there was a family with a small baby (in Kelly's arms in the photo) and a girl around Sarah's age and a grandmother was also traveling with them. Kelly was dying to hold the little one and when we were almost 13 hours into the flight, the father, grandmother and older girl were all asleep. She looked at the mother, who was extremely tired, and asked if she wanted her to hold her baby so she could sleep. Now in most situations, you wouldn't hand your infant to a total stranger but this wasn't most situations and the mother was so relieved. She gave Kelly such a joy and mom was able to get a few minutes rest. Luckily, I kept an eye on the family, because when the grandmother woke up, she saw everyone asleep and no baby. After a second or two, I was able to get her attention and pointed to her grandchild. And there ended Kelly's brief encounter with this adorable child.

When we arrived in Hong Kong, the display in the plane listed our flight to HCMC as leaving from gate 26. We shouldn't have assumed that was correct and of course it wasn't. After getting to gate 26, the screen that displayed the flight leaving that gate was blank, so I went and found the listings for all gates, and it had been switched to gate 1. Luckily, it wasn't really as far away as it sounds.

Once in HCMC, our CHI representatives got us to the hotel, where we got settled in and then it was off to see Sarah. As anyone who has been here knows, the drive through the city is quite the experience by itself. Kelly said now I know how she feels when she is riding with me at the wheel. ;-) She also said the traffic is much worse and scarier in Greece. I find that hard to believe, but I've never been to Greece. It just amazed me that during our time in car, we didn't see more collisions. There was one minor bump of two motor bikes just in front of us. Other than that, just a lot of what I would call close calls.

Our vehicle had a blow out on the way to the orphanage. Don't worry, it was uneventful from a safety standpoint. As one CHI representative got the tire changed, we sat at a little "shop" and drank a Pepsi. The lady there wanted to sell Isaac a coconut, and the CHI rep. was going to buy it for him, but what were we going to do with a coconut?

We then arrived at the orphanage. We spotted Sarah immediately walking across the courtyard with an older girl. We checked in at the office and then they brought her out. She was just beautiful. It's always hard to judge size in photos and even in the video we have of her from April, but she is just tiny. Isaac presented her with the bear he made for her at Build A Bear. It was a hit. A little later, I was away taking photos in another area of the orphanage, but Kelly said all the children were checking out the bear's tail where it comes through her panties, pulling at it and Sarah would put them in their place when they got a little too handsy with her new possession. Kelly picked Sarah up and that's where she stayed most of our visit. Kelly was torn between picking up other children who were tugging at her and holding on to Sarah.

The children swarmed Isaac and one adorable little fella grabbed his hand and was pulling him around without any hesitation. The little guy picked up his shoes and took Isaac to the shoe rack to show him where they keep their shoes.

The visit was over too quickly as dinner time rolled around and the children left to eat. We did get to spend a few more minutes with Sarah as she led Kelly to the area where she eats. It was so cute, after her nanny started feeding her and we were about to leave, the nanny told her to give Kelly a kiss. She looked confused and opened her mouth as to say, hey, I have my mouth full and that wouldn't be good to kiss her right now. We said our goodbyes and headed back to the hotel.

We were all so tired, we just ordered room service. I went across the street to the Tax Market for some water and soda and before I returned, Isaac had fallen asleep. I went to bed about 8 p.m. and as I said earlier, woke up around 2 a.m.

Kelly and Isaac are up now and I need to get ready to go get Sarah. We'll post more later.






This little girl was adorable, although I'm sure at least slightly confused.

Kelly managed a smile after more than 30 hours since we left our house and with minimal sleep.

I was always amazed at the wires in photos on other blogs. Of course I had to take a few shots of them too.
This little contraption was powered by pushing and pulling the steering column.

A man transporting ice. I hope it wasn't all melted before he arrived at his destination.
Enjoying our Pepsi while the tire was changed. The bottles were not chilled and the lady brought the mugs of ice out, so yes, we used it. No residual effect so far.
Sarah has always had earrings on in the photos we have of her and frequently had bracelets. So we also gave her a necklace/bracelet set.


This little girl wanted to make sure Sarah knew her Ba was taking her photo from the second story of the orphanage.

This is the little boy who pulled Isaac around and showed him where he keeps his shoes.

Sarah showed us which crib she sleeps in.