Pho Bang

Today we met our Vietnam travel group at Pho Bang in Chinatown (NYC). Meeting the other parents made the adoption seem less like an idea, more like a reality. They are at the same step in the process as we are (I-600 being submitted on Monday!) and they are adopting their kids from the same orphanage as Mai. We ate Vietnamese food and talked about the trip, like what 4 outfits are you bringing (we are only supposed to bring 4 changes of clothes for the entire trip and get them laundered). We are all superstitious, like finishing the nursery or buying clothes for the kids will somehow make the process go south. The other parents had also been expecting an infant, so they have infant gear that will go unused. We talked about all the annoying, insensitive things people have said to us over these two years about adoption and that even though this has been a long, difficult journey, we would still choose international adoption if we had it all to do over. I am calling them our travel group, but really, its up to the Vietnamese government if we travel together. They assign our Giving and Receiving Ceremony date, which dictates when we will fly over there. But for our children's sake, we hope we can all fly back to the US with three screaming toddlers from Hanoi :-) Their cries will be music to our ears. We ended lunch with hugs and congratulations, then parted ways. Dan and I headed to Little Italy for gellatto, then looked at our Vietnam travel book on the train ride home. What an awesome day!