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.