Five Years Ago Today

Can it really be five years that we started out on our travels to Viet Nam to be united with our daughter? Holy cow. I feel so damn old now! Just look at those photos below! Not a grey hair on my head. Packed bags full of goodies and clothes for a little girl that we only knew through pictures, but loved her with all of our hearts since the second we saw her referral picture in June of 2008. Four planes, 27 hours of air travel and we had landed in beautiful Viet Nam. Jet-lagged, nervous, scared. Every emotion in the book, I can tell you that for sure. As a family formed by adoption, we have many cherished memories that we hold dear to our hearts. Lucky, we feel that it is something were able to experience. Two weeks went by like a day. I am glad though that we took so many pictures and videos of our trip. Looking back at them brings back some of the happiest moments of our lives. I wish that we could turn the clock back and do this again, the same way, with the same people, Thomas and Cathy, you would be there too :-) ! Sadly, we can’t but we look forward to the day that we return to Sophie’s homeland and experience a totally different reunion, with her foster family and visiting her caretakers at the Holt Child Wellness Center in Binh Duong. They are part of our family too and we always talk about these ‘angels’ with Sophie. She knows she is adopted. She knows that she has a ‘birth mother’. She understands as much as a kid who is about to turn seven can, but she gets it that SHE is special and that God had a plan for her as well as Tricia and myself. We look forward to our celebration of becoming a family on the 9th, or as many adoptive families call it, Gotcha’ Day.

Bags at the front door ready for Libby to take us to the hotel the night before we left!

Dinner at the hotel. A celebration for sure!

Getting ready to leave St. Louis 12/5/08

After landing in Denver. One Down!

After landing in San Francisco.  Two down! The smiling lady in red, also was on her way to China to adopt their daughter. We still chat with her on FB.

One of my favorite videos of Tricia. She almost lost it :-) on the SFO-ICN leg.

After the long 14 hour Trans-Pac haul we arrive in Seoul. 3 flights down!

Finally. 12:01 am on 12/7/08 the final leg, number 4 is complete. We arrive in Saigon.

Our Saigon home for a few days before Hanoi.

We will be adding some updates throughout the week including our Gotcha' Day celebration. Happy travel-versary to us!