Thursday November 8th

First set of donations for orphanage donated by Magazine Fundraiser



As you all know I decided to take my blog private. I was reading the Embassy statement about increased NOIDS on Adoption Integrity and the Embassy mentioned PAPS BLOGS. It gave me a unsettled feeling to think about the possibility that the embassy could be following our blogs. With all my paperwork problems I decided it was better to play it safe.

We headed to the big mall here because I wanted to go shopping for my fundraiser donations. I am so glad I decided to bring the money to Vietnam and shop here. The money goes so much farther and I did not have to mess with transporting the items overseas. I am happy with my first purchases. I got 5 sweaters, 20 pull on pants, 25 button up shirts and 5 winter hats. I hope to clear the citimart out of baby bath, lotion and shampoo tomorrow.

We went on our daily evening constitutional tonight. One goes in Mark's backpack and the other in my front pack. Like I said we were invisible before on the streets of Hanoi until the babies came along. 2 babies must be very rare and very lucky. People here make such a big deal about 2 babies. They want to touch us and the babies. Makes you feel like a celebrity. We got lost on or evening walk. Mark took us down a back alley and for about an hour we got lost in these residential back alley ways. I thought we would never find our way out of these mazes. We walked until way past dark. Imagine us, 2 Americans with babies strapped to them walking down these thin alley ways where foreigners are probably ever rarely seen. We actually caused a traffic jam. They were running out of their houses to see us. Kind of interesting to see how the people really live. Not the part of town the tour guide would bring you to.