We have made it to Hanoi!!

Hello from Hanoi! It took us awhile and there were a couple of bumps (not just from turbulance) but we're here. So here is a breakdown of our adventure so far:

The flight to Toronto was fine albeit really bleeping early! In Toronto we had a couple of hours to kill so we had a snack and wandered around. Then was the flight to Hong Kong. Very very long (I keep forgetting how long the Canada to Asia flights are!). It was pretty smooth except of course for when we were flying over Japan, then things got a little rocky. Anybody who has flown over Japan knows that the air currents are very unpredictable and often cause moderate to occassionaly severe turbulance. We experienced some high moderate. Enough to make me feel a little green lol. The it was fine. 15 hours and we finally landed in Hong Kong. We dragged our sore and exausted bodies around Hong Kong airport for the 4 hours between flights. Then we proceeded to gate 22. Around 10 minutes before the boarding time we're told it is at another gate. Everybody piles onto an airport bus and we get taken to the new gate. Once there we quickly realized there was no plane yet so it was apparent that we'd be waiting awhile. so all of us, including the pilots and flight crew, hung around waiting for the plane. It finally arrived about 20 minutes after the time it was meant to take off. But the best was yet to come...when we made it to the desk to go through to the plane we were promptley told that we were not on the list for the flight but becuase we had boarding passes we could get on but we would get no meal and our luggage would stay in Hong Kong...say what??? Apparently the Cathay Pacific person in Toronto erased us from the Hanoi flight by accident. So then this dude is getting impatiient and saying it is Air Canada's problem and we had to make up our minds right away if we wanted to go as the plane doors were about to shut. What about our bags we asked politely?? No guarantee they will be sent after and anyway not his problem. So we politely (lol) reminded him that in fact it was Cathay Pacific not Air Canada that messed up so it was his problem and no we would not get on a flight without knowing if we see our luggage again! so the plane left and we were trundled off to the Cathay Pacific service desk. Pat was expecting a fight but once they realized it was their fault they booked us on the the next night's flight and gave us a voucher for the airport hotel and meals.

So the next stage of our adventure was an unplanned night and day in Hong Kong. Oh well, we decided to make the best of it. actually the night was a complete write off. After no sleep for 30 hours it took all the remaining energy we had to get ourselves to the hotel room, shower and pass out...and I mean pass out!! after about 10 hours of sleeping like the dead we got up, had breaky and went into the city to explore (I will add pics in a bit). Hong Kong is pretty cool. Very hilly with lots of little alley ways and streets to explore. We unfortunately did not have enough time to really see a whole lot but we spent about 5 hours wandering around. Then it was back to the airport to see if our next try to make it to Hanoi would be successful...it was as we are here!

We were picked up from the airport by the agency rep and her family and driven in to Hanoi to the first hotel where we will be staying. we will staying at 3 hotels during our stay lol. The first is right in the old quarter of Hanoi and we will be here for 2 nights. It will give us a chance to explore the city and be right in the thick of things (I can hear all the honking as I type). Then Tuesday we head to Hoa Binh province where we will likely stay until Friday which is when the G&R will probably take place. Up until friday we will spend the days in the orphanage with Van and then go back to our hotel at night. we'll do this until the G&R then we will take Van back to Hanoi with us. We are quite excited by the prospect of being able to hang out at the orphanage with the nannies and other children (and Van too of course!!). It will give us a chance to see how he has spent the first 10 months of his like. something precious we'll be able to share with him. It will also give him time to get used to us and hopefully make his transition a little easier.

Anyway, that's all for now. I am going to have a quick snack then early to bed. Get a good start on exploring Hanoi tomorrow!!

We will post Hong Kong Pics a bit later :)

Meg

Here are a couple of our Hong Kong pics:

Leaving in less than 12 hours!!

Well our trip is upon us!! Crazy days! We have a taxi picking us up at 4:30am tomorrow (ugh). The latest is that our agency rep in Vietnam thinks our G&R will be at the end of next week. We are hoping that we'll be able to at least visit him in the orphanage. It seems we will in all likelihood be in Vietnam for 3 weeks minimum.

Packing is done, pets are taken care of...all we have to do is try and get a few hours sleep...

My next blog will probably be from Hong Kong...possibly Hanoi.

We're coming little man!

3 more sleeps!

I say 3 more sleeps but chances are there will be little sleeping on Thursday night so perhaps it is better to say 2 more sleeps :) We leave Ottawa Friday morning at 6am and arrive in Hanoi at 6pm local time Saturday evening. So gate to gate it will be 25 hours of travelling barring any unforeseen delays. We decided that to make our long haul flight more comfortable we would pay a little extra to get the emergency door seats with the extra leg room. The last time we flew Cathay Pacific we practically needed the jaws of life to extricate ourselves from the seats when we arrived in Hong Kong. So a little money goes a long way in this case, especially when you are tall like us!

We have a 2 hour stop in Toronto and a 4 hour stop in Hong Kong. Hong Kong airport is awesome and like a little city so I don't mind hanging out there for a few hours. The shopping opportunities are always a little tempting though. We still don't have a date for the G&R but we hope we'll still be able to get down to the orphanage to see him. So now we are in the last mad rush to make sure we have everything and that everything at home is taken care of. I think we're pretty much there other than gifts for the director of the orphanage and our agency rep. If anybody who has gone before has any suggestions please feel free to post :)

Date still holding

Just a quick little blog because I feel like it :) The date of leaving May 21 is still holding. No word of a change yet. The flights have been booked. We leave Ottawa Friday morning at 6am (yikes!) to catch our connecting flight to Hong Kong at 9:30am. We arrive in Hong Kong at 1pm on Sat then leave for Hanoi about 4 hours later. We hope we'll be able to change the flight back, both because it means 3.5 weeks in Vietnam if not (we're hoping things will move a bit more quickly once there) and because it is a red eye flight that leaves Hong Kong at 2:30am and arrives in Toronto at 5:30 am lol.

So if all goes well and there are no changes, we'll be jetting towards our little man this time next Friday...woohoo!!!!

Tentative date

Quick update - We have a tentative date to leave May 21 (next Friday). We haven't gotten confirmation yet so we are trying not to get too excited...ok, we have not been able to control our excitement unfortunately although are trying to! We sent off our passports yesterday so things seem to be happening. We truly never thought this day would come. When we have the tickets in our hands we will finally allow ourselves to believe that this is truly truly happening. We will continue to update as information rolls in :) Happy Tuesday everybody...and here's hoping the Nucks can win tonight (for the record we're Leafs fans but any Canadian team doing well is great these days!).

Happy mother's day indeed!!!!

We got the email today!!!!! We can book our flights!! WOOOHOOOOOO!!!!! We can't believe it is finally happening. We just are in shock!! Of course until we're on the plane (and then until we have him in our arms) we won't fully relax but OMG this is the closest we've gotten and it looks like green lights all around. Thank you everybody for all your support and crossed appendages!! Apparently it worked. I will update with flight details when we get them.

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Update? Nope

Hello faithful readers. I thought I would do a little post just so you don't think we've forgotten about you. Well the wait continues. No news since last Wednesday. We are still under the assumption that everything is still good and that we are simply waiting for the paperwork to make its way back to the province so we can get a date for our G&R. Happily the Stanley Cup playoffs are on to keep us distracted. We did hit a couple of stores last weekend to get larger clothing. There are a lot of pieces that are too small now. We've had to clean out the closet. Such is the life of waiting parents.

As always I hope my next update will contain news...good news of course...