The Giving and Receiving Ceremony. The reason we went to Vietnam.
Our first stop that day, Saturday, July 29, was at a real Vietnamese restaurant. One long table for all of us. That’s the only table in the entire place. No waitress, just an older lady I assume lived there. Our interpreter ordered for us. The meal was delicious. One of the best I’ve ever day. It started with a creamy, peppery chicken soup, followed by pork which tasted like it had been marinated in lime and ginger, duck still on the bone with lemon grass (you just pulled the meat you wanted off the carcass), warm French bread and watermelon. The best watermelon in the world. Vinh Phu Province grows a lot of watermelon. I was so surprised to see these roadside stands selling watermelon all over the place. It was so juicy and so sweet. Wonderful.

Then it was off to the ceremony. It was held in a back alley, in a small room with a long table. There was no air conditioning and it was terribly hot. The windows were open (as in no glass, no screens). There were a total of five families there adopting children. Three communist party members sat at the end of the table. They spoke to all of the families. The speech was amazing. I couldn’t believe what they were saying to us. They asked us to provide as many opportunities as we could for our children, opportunities they knew the children wouldn’t have if they stayed in Vietnam. Wow, I couldn’t believe they admitted that. They also told us that we should view our children as our flesh and blood, because that is what they are now.

Each family was then asked to stand and they asked us a few questions and spoke individually to us.

We were then expected to say something to them. We told them we would love Brian and provide him with the opportunities they asked us to. We told them we loved Vietnam and we would teach Brian about the country of his birth. We said that someday we would love to come back. They seemed to like what we said.

It was time for us to sign all of the adoption papers then. And sign and sign and sign. Whew.

The doctor from the province that arranged for each of these children to be adopted took Brian for us. Then, symbolically, she gave him back to us. Giving and receiving. That is what Brian’s life is about. He was given to us, a precious gift. We received this gift from God and from Vietnam and promised to both to care for him and to love him. I pray we have been able to do this in the past 15 years.

After all of that was completed, it was party time. On the table they had warm soda, lychee fruit, something that I think were called yum-yums or some such, and something like Swiss cake rolls but backwards – the cake was vanilla and the filling chocolate. And the beer flowed. The party officials wanted to have chugging contests. Doug was chosen to drink with them. He couldn’t refuse. He didn’t win, though he still claims he could have!

This was our day, the day of giving and receiving, the day when Brian became our son, our flesh and blood.