Family of 4!

Fredrick spent his last night at the orphanage last night...he officially became ours at 3:15pm (4:15am your time)! We arrived at the orphanage at around 1:00pm and changed Fredrick into his new, clean clothes and took pictures with all the caregivers. We shed a few lots of tears and piled into the taxi to drive to the "palais de justice" for the giving and receiving ceremony. We were rushed to get there yet we sat around in this hot, sticky room for 2 hours. They called each family up to the front, congratulated us, and gave us a document...we're waiting for the translation as it's all in Vietnamese. It was a real special moment for all of us. Daddy went to immigration to sign something for Fredrick's passport while the rest of us came back to the hotel. We've been playing and doing lots of laughing (LOL)!! We can hear one of the other babies crying down the hall. We hadn't really witnessed Fredrick's crying UNTIL...daddy, lolli & Nathaniel went to the Big C (big shopping store...kind of like Walmart) to buy some rice cereal. I really should have had it on hand, but we never imagined the ceremony would have taken so long. Fredrick can cry! He was very hungry and very tired. I gave him some prunes puree to help him and he LOVED it but I didn't want to give too much since I don't want to mess up his system. He was not happy. He wanted more! So I gave him another bottle and then daddy finally arrived with the real food! He ate well. John rubbed him down with the treatment for scabies and fell asleep quickly.

We've all treated ourselves for scabies. Tomorrow we go to the international clinic just to have Fredrick checked out. And we will also have his picture taken for his passport. We're leaving for Hanoi a day early (Saturday). We're quite pleased about that...we're hoping the shopping is better and we're looking forward to having a washer & dryer. The sandles I bought Fredrick don't fit and I really need to find some clothes for him as I didn't bring many. We will definitely miss the beach though. I kept telling mom how beautiful it was but she didn't take my word for it and then when we went this morning she was in paradise! We've agreed we wouldn't mind doing a resort vacation here. It is so peaceful. There are no vendors bothering you...you just get to sit back and relax!

I shall leave you with some more pics.