Honeymoon is over

Sorry, no good photos to share today.

All the new sights and sounds finally took their toll on Lilah, and she is definitely going through some adjustments. The honeymoon is over. Her world is turned upside down and she is realizing it. It's hard to think that she'll have to go through this all again when we go home. We took it really easy today and made sure she got all the naps she needed, which seems to have been all day. Considering what she's going through, she is an incredibly good and sweet baby. We had some good fun today, reading her board books and watching a few minutes of cartoons. At lunch, we even "danced" at the restaurant to an Eric Clapton song (Running on Faith) while I was rocking her. Not a bad song for a memory like that. Despite the Vietnamese tendency to criticize your parenting here, I was called a "good father" twice so far, which I take as a special compliment coming from them.

Since we've been here, we've met with a few very interesting people. One was an international development director from Australia (think Feed the Children) who checked into our hotel at the last minute after his previous arrangements didn't work out. He is responsible for 11 SE Asian countries, and shared an incredible insight into how and why poverty persists in these countries. Another was a US grad student from North Carolina conducting field studies of economic development in Vietnam, and has been living here and speaking the language for about 5 mos. He was able to answer questions and share information I've been craving since I got here. His understanding of global businesses and how they impact Vietnam was fascinating, and supported much of what we had learned from our Australian friend.

All 6 cases from the group before us at our orphanage were approved with no issues including another father traveling without his wife, and everyone is going home on time. As much as I'm enjoying it here, I think I'll be ready to go by next week, so I'm hoping things go well.

Tyler