Here is our correspondence from the beginning of our trip. You will notice the tone change on later posts.

"We are really enjoying Vietnam and also the company of Susan and her mom Faye. I know it is almost midnight your time, so I don't expect an answer till tomorrow. By then I might have the answer from Anna, but please reply anyway, just in case we still have not heard from her.

Neither Susan nor we have heard from Anna yet. Don't worry; none of us is panicking or getting frustrated -- just as you advised. We've been following all your advice so far (taking taxis from the airport when we weren't met, or in Susan's case, getting a ride from a friend who lives in Vietnam; resting, relaxing, locating the shopping malls, and exploring the area around the hotel, etc.) What we'd like to know is if we can expect to hear from Anna before the day we will go to Vung Tau. Since it is nearly noon here, and since it is a two hour ride to Vung Tau, we are starting to think we won't go today (February 22nd). Do you know what adoptive families have generally experienced? Do you know what time of day she is likely to call on the first day we hear from her? Today, since you indicated we would hear from her, we are hanging close to the hotel just as you advised, but we are wondering if we haven't heard from her by 1:00 or 2:00pm if we can risk leaving the hotel to see some sites. We absolutely don't want to miss her call because we don't want to miss our chance to go to Vung Tau. What do you advise? For now we'll stay in the hotel and wait to hear.

By the way I promise you I'm not asking you to try to "make things happen" from the States. I'm not worried about that -- I know things will happen when they happen, and I am surprisingly comfortable with that. I just want to know if I can go see the War Crimes Museum or the Cathedral without missing the chance to meet my daughter. You know which one is more important to me, of course.

We are definitely enjoying ourselves and taking lots of pictures. This is a great country!"

I just wanted to send a quick note that we arrived in Vietnam after 28 hours of travel. It is HOT! We are having a lot of fun. We've been shopping and exploring and taking pictures like crazy. Tomorrow, we get Lily. We are pretty excited. I will write more soon.

We are off to try to get a picture of a whole family on a moped. Most people drive mopeds here instead of cars. You see whole families (mom, dad, three kids) on one. We haven't captured this on film yet, but I'm determined.

More homemade Photography. We will get back to the stories...eventually.