Thursday

Our last day in Vietnam and I’m full of mixed emotions. I’m anxious to get
back home and see Wyatt and Ellayna. Plus, it’ll be nice to go back to our
regular lives. There’s a part of me that doesn’t want to leave. This is
our children’s birth country and of fallen in love with people and the land.
I know it’ll be many years before we’ll be able to return and that makes
it harder.

OK enough emotional stuff. After a leisurely breakfast with Susan, Lela,
and LilyAna, we spent most of the day packing, resting, and playing with
the babies. Eastin has another rough night. We ended up giving him a bath
in the middle of the night to calm him down. They both love taking baths.
He does seem better today, but nights are the worse. It’s 7:30pm now and
he’s wailing. UGH. Another very short night I suppose.

Matt stayed with the babies, willingly, while I grabbed a taxi and went to
the Old Quarter. I had a few things to look for yet. It was nice browsing
at my own pace. I even crossed the street completely alone. The taxi
driver on the way back tried to rack up the price on me, but I’ve learned to
ask the price before I get in the taxi. I know the going rate from the Old
Quarter to the hotel, so when he said the price I walked away. He came
around real fast.

I ended up buying a silk shirt as a gift for someone else, but thought I
should try it on first to judge the size. The store owner actually strongly
suggested I try it on when she saw that I wasn’t sure about buying it. The
dressing room consisted of stepping around back amongst a 3ft fridge, an
assortment of shoes into a space just enough to stand in. The store owner
reaches up, turns on a fan and proceeds to help me get dressed! She did up
the buttons and undid the buttons. I hope the person I bought this for
appreciates my Vietnamese dressing room experience.

This is tomorrow or I should say the next 40 hours schedule:

Quoc picks us up at 5am
We fly from Hanoi to HCMC at 7am (flying time 2)
Layover time 6 hrs 30 min
At 3:55 pm will fly from HCMC to Taipei (flying time 3:30)
Layover time 3 hours
Fly from Taipei to San Francisco (flying time 11 hours)
Layover time 2 ½ hours-----this will be busy, we need to go through customs
and gather all our luggage and check back in with our domestic flight. Also
say good bye to Susan, Lela, and Lily Ana as they will be going back to
Nashville.
Fly from San Francisco to Detroit (flying time 4:26)
Arrive in Detroit at 5:30 am on Saturday---- At this time, I’ll be hugging
and kissing Wyatt and Ellayna!!!!!!!!
Then drive 2 ½ hours home.

For those if you in Ohio, it’d be like leaving Thursday 6pm and arriving
home at about 10am on Saturday. From the hotel door step to our doorstep,
that’s how long it’ll be. Do you think we’ll be tired?? Happy for sure,
tired undoubtedly.


See you all later!