HE'S HOME!!!

thinh arrived home last night at 2:15 am with a huge smile and a gorgeous bouquet of flowers for me!!! more details to follow...

time to catch a plane!!!

the day has arrived, at least for thinh and mai, to head on home! thinh is feeling much better and claims to have made up for lost meals and ate everything in sight yesterday! so happy to hear!!! he was going to do a little last minute shopping before heading to the airport for the long journey home! they catch their plane at 11:49 am vietnam time and then via hong kong to jfk in new york for an arrival time of 8:00 pm eastern time. thinh is hoping to be home in our house by 2 am saturday morning! can't wait!!! then ice fest in downtown chambersburg this weekend and my (sigh) gallbladder surgery monday and then teeth pulled for b in 2 weeks and so on and so on...

Almost!

Well, thinh's trip is really winding down fast. it is already thursday morning there and at this moment he has 25 hours left in vietnam. today they are being tourists and eating and shopping. sounds good to me! thinh is still feeling full fast and bloated and has a slight headache, but seems to keep trucking along! he is frustrated because he got lots of shots and is taking malaria pills and does not feel his best and his sister took pretty much nothing and is feeling fine...although we all have our theories on that issue!!! lol anyway, he did not have much to report and there was lots of happy chattering in the background so i did not want to keep him! thanks for all the calls and gestures of support and help to me and the boys these last two weeks...it definitely made it a lot easier to handle!

OH NO!

my poor honey! thinh was sick yesterday! he was not able to go windsurfing, but did manage to go on a hike with everyone and then for a walk on the beach with tony. appearantly a lot of europeans vacation in vietnam and they sunbathe a little less clothed than we americans, so he and tony saw some interesting sights! he missed out on a good meal out of soft shelled crabs and lots more seafood since he feeling bloated, feverish and other intestinal issues! he said he is doing a little better today and dreading the 4 hour drive back to saigon. thinh mentioned that their vehicles only go about 60 top speed but they do not drive even that fast. he said the trip should only take about 1 - 1 1/2 tops by our standard of driving!

Beach

Thinh called last night and instead of hearing many vietnamese voices in the background, all i heard was the sound of waves crashing into the beach! what a beautiful sound and thinh sounded so happy! they are staying at this very posh resort this week and living like kings and queens. he said it is gorgeous! all 5 of them got massages and he and tony were going wind surfing too. he gave me the link for the resort, check it out, looks awesome! http://www.tiendatresort.com/

Finding Fun in January!

Never send daddy and andrew to get their haircuts 'cause this is what happens!!!!

Bowling after church

Brandon still learning to love Tazzy...

a visit to grandma grandma to play "golf".

never leave a full bottle of baby wash with a 6 and 3 year old!

chilling on a rainy sunday afternoon

shopping at lowes with mimi and papa

bombarding papa for his attention

Just Another day in Paradise!

Just got off the phone with thinhy and he is sounding much better! Yesterday he was able to get a hold of his friend, Tuan Ly, and spend the day with him. Tuan showed him his house, his daughter's school, a factory he is building and then the whole family went out to eat with him and his wife who is six months pregnant. In the late evening they picked up Tony at the airport and were all currently packing up to head to the beach for a few days before going back to Saigon to fly back home on Friday. I must saying hearing about the beach and 90 degree weather did make me a bit jealous since it is cold, wet and dreary here today.

i think thinh is...

HOMESICK! poor guy sounded so sad on the phone last night! thinh's entourage left their extended family and made him very sad since he probably doesn't know when he will get to see them again. also on the trip back to saigon, he saw a very bad motorbike accident and covered his sister's eyes so she would not see it. all this combined made him homesick. when he called he did get to talk to my parents quick and he sounded a bit happier after joking with them.

so, he was going to call a friend he grew up with in manheim who moved back to saigon and see if they could visit him. and, his brother was flying in and tony is always lots of fun! i hope he gets back to enjoying the trip again soon!

oops! missed a call!

(grandpa and grandma quach catching some zzzz's)
last night we needed to get out of the house! so we went to cluggys, our little amusement center, for about 3 hours. the boys had a blast and i was happy to have a "break" while they ran around. i had my cell phone along, but it is so noisy in there i never heard it ring. but thankfully thinh called later at home and we were able to chat for a few minutes.

they are headed to saigon again by bus. thinh said he fell asleep last night in a hammock and it was great! i think his body has adjusted to the time change since he seems to be getting better and more sleep. he is anxious to see his brother tony who is flying in on sunday. then the real fun will begin!

yeah...another call!

I was putting laundry away when i heard the cell phone ringing away...so i went flying down the steps to answer it and sure enough if was thinhy!!! it is amazing that he is almost 9000 miles away and yet he sounds right next door on the phone. anyway, yesterday they took a ferry to the next town and went fruit picking! he could not remember the names of the tropical fruits they picked but he said it was yummy, cheap and fun! again, he was amazed at the amount of motorbikes right along side the cars and big trucks and they all drive nuts! and, he said he feels like he is in the middle of nowhere, yet everyone has cell phones and reception too! his cell is not able to pick up any service so thankfully he is using grandpa quach's phone!

today they are going fishing. he is probably hoping to catch enough fish for dinner...we shall see! he loves hearing stories about himself growing up there. one story they told him was how he used to love to go crabbing near his house. one day a crab grabbed hold of his finger and would not let go. so he told his cousin who was with him to go get his mom and grandma quick because he was probably going to die! thinh also mentioned how his sister has 2-3 "bodyguards" with her all times. when they come back from somewhere and she takes her sandals off to go into the house they turn her sandals around so she can just slip into them and off she goes!

sidenote: andrew just informed me that when he is married he is going to let his wife go on lots of vacations and he will stay at home and do all the work and she will be so happy!!! love him!!!

okay, so he is still having a great time and claims he is getting fat!!! can't wait to see that! this after telling me about picking mangoes and bananas right off the tree and all other fruit is like .10 or less a piece. sounds lovely!

just when i thought...

i would not be getting a call tonight...thinh called!!! he was excited to tell me about the home where he lived that they went to visit yesterday. he laughed because it is not what he remembered. he wasn't sure if it was because he was little, but he said it was much smaller than he remembered and the ponds around it had all dried up and they took the house off the stilts and built it on a platform. a cousin now lives in the house. another uncle just cried and cried when he saw thinh because of all the years that have gone past without seeing him. again, thinh mentioned how poor everyone is there, but the people are so friendly and laid back. for example, it would have taken 10 minutes to get to his childhood home if travelling the way americans do, but it took over an hour in the bus because just stop in the middle of the road to talk to each other and just go any which way they please. thinh also talked about how many of the jobs are farming and they just hang out and wait for the harvest or if they are shrimp farmers, well that takes 4 months for the shrimp to grow big enough to sell, so they just hang out in hammocks or chill with family drinking coffee. no worries, no stress, just enjoying life money or not!

the house he is staying with this week has 10 people staying in it right now. no screens on the windows and a wide open doorway. i asked about bugs and he just laughed. yesterday he saw them with a tennis racket or so he thought was one. here it is a bug zapper thing to get the mosquitos and other creatures i don't want to even think about! mai did his laundry today also. one bucket to wash, one to rinse and hang to dry! how "green" is that!

they are going back to saigon for the weekend and wait for another brother to fly in on sunday. then next week they are going to the beach...he can hardly wait for that! he says he misses us like crazy...we sure do miss him!

woohoo another phone call!!!

Well, once again the highlight of the day was a phone call from vietnam! thinh called today at 5:30 and was just talking and talking about the trip south to his aunt(his mom's sister) and uncle's house. he said the bus ride was so sad. people are so poor and we are so spoiled! he is also amused/scared of the driving over there! thinh explained it as an army of ants all going different directions and everyone knowing where to go and never bumping into each other...again claiming having no desire to drive there! oh and i need to mention the majority of people are on 200cc or less motorbikes! he also finds it amusing they put their carts or trailers in front of the bikes instead of pulling them behind like we would. appearantly there is a saying in vietanamese about what is in front of you is yours and what is behind you is fair game (something like that!)

i also find it funny that he has his own bodyguard! a cousin of his who is a little older than him, follows him everywhere and escorts him through the streets. he is being well taken care of! he said he is being treated like royalty...food, bodyguards, massages...i hope he wants to come home to his "royalty"!

his body is still trying to adjust to the time change...they are 12 hours ahead. i am just so happy he has been able to call as often as he has been. he wasn't sure about reception for their trip today to visit the home he lived in...thinh is so excited to see it and see if he remembers anything!

also, mason keeps asking me if it is time to wake daddy up yet! that is his daily job at 4 p.m. and he is confused why we haven't woken daddy up this week. i tell him to remember daddy is in vietnam with aunt mai and he goes, "oh" and then asks me again an hour later! too funny!

well thats all for now until the next phone call!

more adventures in saigon

Well...we were so excited to receive another call from thinh! he called at 4:40 am his time and i was like what the heck are you doing up? they can't sleep. they go to bed at midnight and wake up at 4, even mai and if you know her, well she likes her sleep! anyway, he said last night they ate at a restaurant and had a 7 course meal for their party of 7 and even included an entire roast pig! he and mai are super impressed with the service also...he said as soon as you finish a plate it is cleared and your drink is never empty! the bill for the whole group was 50 u.s. dollars! then later they were all hanging out at the hotel cafe outside and a man gave he and mai each a 1/2 hour massage for 70,000 vietnamese dollars or equal to 3.00, yes, 3 u.s. dollars! thinh mentioned again how bad he feels for all the people begging and deformed along the streets there.

so, they were packing up and heading 4 hours south of saigon on a bus to go to his aunt's house. can't wait to hear the next update!!! we sure do miss him!!!

Daddy in Vietnam

Well...the day finally arrived for Thinh and Mai to leave for their long awaited and much anticipated journey back to Vietnam for the first time since they left 32 years ago. Ironically, thinh's stepmother, mary, asked us to stop by on the way to my parents house for him to drop us off on his way to mai's house, and she gave thinh the paperwork from when he and mai joined the haldeman family! it had their boat number, medical records, mug shots...cool stuff! thinh couldn't believe the timing, he had never seen the papers before and was thrilled to have them in his possession.

So, he and mai boarded the plane at JFK at 9:15 and flew directly to Hong Kong and arrived there at 2:45 am our time. they both felt sick and had headaches from the long flight with cramped spaces and screaming babies, so they decided to order some soup and sodas. well, mai took one sniff and got sick in her soup the poor thing! then thinh was shocked at the bill...$127 but then learned it was on $18 in u.s. dollars! they then boarded again at 4:30 am (est) for a 1 1/2 hour flight to saigon.

He called at 8 am here and it was noisy but they were happy to see their parents and finally be in vietnam again. he said traffic is nuts but it is beautiful! thinh called back again around 11:30 and they were at the hotel with an aunt and cousin as well. of course he was bragging about the yummy food and even took a motorcycle ride with grandpa quach! and thinh gave the first poor guy he saw some american money and was then followed by kids trying to sell him stuff and begging for money! his mom yelled at him and said not to give out american money or he will be bugged all the time! turns out she was right. he then gave money to a little boy and his sister wanted to know why she couldn't have some too! his big heart is going to make him very poor over there!!!

meanwhile here at my parents, i had a bad sinus head thing happening on saturday so my parents kept the boys busy. they all slept with me in bed and i woke up tired and sore but feeling a bit better. today we visited my grandma and are getting ready to go bowling. tomorrow home again.