We meet at last...

It seemed like forever as we made our way across the country side of Vietnam. It was bumpy and mountainous...the driver was constantly dodging cows and goats in the road. It was a 7 hour drive two lanes all the way. We thought it would never end...but it did. We finally arrived in Phan Rang (the city where Liam lives). We checked into the hotel which is ridiculously nice. It is right on the beach. This is the view from our room.

We settled in briefly and ate a very good lunch. We did however pass on the braised sand lizard. I had white rice with chicken and Chaunta had braised pork with rice. We were both pleased. Then we quickly loaded into the bus and headed to the orphanage. It was an exciting and nerve wracking feeling as we pulled in through the gates. We would finally meet our son.

We walked up the stairs and saw children everywhere. As we looked around we immediatly recognized Liam with one of his nannies.

He was more perfect that we imagined. He seems smaller than we expected, but he is very round. He immediately warmed up to us. He went right to Chaunta and was smiling and giggling. He is so happy. He never once cried the entire time we were there.


All of the older children were so proud to show him off to us. We watched him crawl (more of an army crawl) and he will walk when you hold his hands. The teenage kids there were very friendly...the loved to practice their limited English skills. And we enjoyed practicing our even more limited Vietnamese skills. There were so many beautiful babies. We could have easily taken several home if allowed. One little boy in particular took a liking to me. He sat on my lap for a long time. In fact, when I wanted to hold Liam, he kept coming back and getting on my lap. It was so sweet.

We stayed for about 2 hours. At the end, Chaunta rocked him to sleep. One of his nannies took him from Chaunta to lay him down. She sobbed as she picked him up. We could see how much she loved him. She said "Thank you" to us in Vietnamese. We too teared up know how painful this was for her.

We return to the orphanage tomorrow morning at 7:30. Then off to court by 9:00. After court, Liam is officially ours. Later tomorrow afternoon we will apply for his passport. We will stay here in this town until Sunday and then return to Saigon to begin applying for his Visa to enter the US. Please pray that it goes smoothly. We miss you all!