After a brief delay, we were finally issued Brian’s passport. The other woman we were traveling with went to the Thai Embassy to get visas for the children. We had been scheduled to leave Hanoi on a Monday on Thai Air, but were forced to push our departure back one day. Unfortunately, Thai Air only flew out of Hanoi on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. We needed to be in Bangkok on Wednesday because the children’s medical appointment were scheduled then. Our only other choice was Vietnam Air. We had been warned NOT to fly them under any circumstances. They used old Russian jets and sometimes people brought their chickens on board with them. I told Doug to go ahead with Brian and I would fly out on Thai Air on Wednesday. No go. He exercised his authority as head of the household and said we were all going on Tuesday. I finally agreed, on the condition that I would leave the plane and come the following day if there were ANY chickens on board.

It was sad to leave Vietnam. I held Brian up to the van window and told him to take a good last look at the land of his birth. Who knows if or when he would ever return. We drank it all in as we left.

The Lord answered our prayers for the flight. Our plane was a French Airbus. Our pilot said bonjour to us as we boarded. No chickens in sight. I relaxed. Brian did great on his first flight. We had been scheduled to leave around noon and had planned to give him his bottle as we took off. Unfortunately, the flight was delayed and Brian wanted to eat. I think we gave him half before we left and made him wait for the rest. But we had no problems with the flight.

There were five adoptive families in all traveling to Bangkok. Upon landing, we huddled around the table, trying to fill out our immigration and customs forms. Someone who worked there came over to us, took us by the hand, brought us to the front of the line and was a wonderful help.

Bangkok is a Western-style city and we instantly felt at home – except they drive on the wrong side of the street!
We didn’t have chickens on our plane, but we had elephants on the sidewalk!

Our hotel was beautiful and it had a pool.

Brian loved to swim!

The hotel had a delicious restaurant. We found McDonald’s and other western restaurants.


They were filming a commercial while we ate a Tony Roma’s.

We also found a great Thai restaurant within walking distance of our hotel. Their fried rice was delicious! We did pass on the open air restaurant serving immature chicks from the egg and skinned frogs.

Wednesday the children had their medical appointments. No big deal. The doctor lifted Brian’s diaper, proclaimed him to be a boy, and passed him. He didn’t even mention the heat boils which were healing nicely. Thursday we went to the U.S. Embassy to complete our paperwork to get Brian a visa to come to the States. Pictures weren’t allowed and security was tight. We sat in a big, crowded waiting room with a T.V. Doug was happy to hear some news about the Green Bay Packers! We were finally called to the window and answered a few basic questions. That was it. Later that day we received a brown envelope we were told we MUST NOT open. It was for immigration in the U.S. We also got all of Brian’s adoption paperwork from Vietnam. How interesting to learn something of his story.

Some of our group left on Friday. We were scheduled for Monday and tried to change our flights, but weren’t able to do so. Sunday was the Queen’s birthday and Mother’s Day in Thailand and planes were booked solid.

I had missed Mother’s Day in the States, but got to celebrate it with my son in Vietnam. How sweet to me!

By this time we had met up with the man we had traveled with but who went to Saigon. The two boys played together and it was nice to catch up with him.

We used the extra time we had to go visit the Emerald Buddha and the Palace. The grounds were immaculate and all the buildings just extraordinary. Wow.


Pictures don’t do it justice. How sad, though, to see these people making their offerings and praying to a statue of gold who doesn’t hear and save them.

Bright and early Monday morning, we were off. We traveled on Singapore Air again, from Bangkok to Singapore.

What a bumpy ride. At one point, the bottom literally fell out from underneath us. People screamed. Then, as we were coming into land in Singapore, I was gripping the armrest as tightly as I could, waiting for the wheels to touch down, the pilot suddenly stepped on the gas and we climbed up again. Moments later he came on the intercom, told us there was a mechanical problem, not to worry (too late – I was already hyperventilating), and we would circle for a while. That gave me a lot of time to think and pray. I thanked the Lord for the chance I had to be a mother, if even for only three weeks. I asked him to spare all of our lives, but especially Brian’s. He was so small and hadn’t really lived yet. And I asked God that, should something happen, to please not let it hurt. Well, we ended up landing safely, but, as we taxied to the gate, Doug spied a bevy of fire trucks. Oh, my. I had to take a Dramamine before I got on the next flight, this one to Taiwan, then on to L.A.

Brian was fantastic on the flights. We sat by the bulkhead and he was in a bassinet that hooked into the wall.

He didn’t cry at all. In fact, because it was the middle of the night for, us, he slept most of the way between Taipei and L.A. I wish I could say the same for us. The screen was right in front of us and that was annoying. The flight was full, so we couldn’t spread out like we had on the flight west. The armrests didn’t go up even, so we couldn’t lay on each other. It wasn’t good.

We left Taiwan at [11:00] on Monday night and arrived in LA at [6:00] Monday evening. This is after a 12 hour flight. No wonder you get jet lag! Going through immigration wasn’t fun. Which line do we pick – citizen or immigrant? We asked someone who made a vague hand gesture. We guessed. We guessed wrong. She came over and began scolding us for being in the wrong line. Welcome to the USA. After a few hours, we made it through. I was now lunch time for us (we had breakfast on the plane shortly before we landed). Being 10:00 p.m. in LA, everything was closed in the airport. The peanuts we got on the plane didn’t do much for us. The woman in the seat next to us found a pizza somewhere and proceeded to eat it in front of us. I was so hungry. We didn’t sleep at all on this flight, including Brian, because it was the middle of the day. How strange that everyone else on the flight slept. How strange to land in Chicago at [5:30] in the morning.

It was wonderful to be off the plane for good. My parents and my sister met us at the airport and spent a good amount of time oohing and aahing over the newest member of the family.
We washed up and changed Brian. We we were asked what we wanted to do from there, we voted for breakfast!

How good and yet how strange it felt to be home. We were a family – finally. Everything had changed for us, all in a positive way. Brian was now part of our family, forever.