Oliver is here

Sorry for the lack of blog posts, but I did not have the right converter for my laptop, and the battery had died. It's fixed now, so I'll post just a few shots now a brief note, with a promise of much more coming (and hopefully video) every day from here on out. 

We went to the orphanage in Ba Via on Monday and got Oliver. Its hard to put that experience in words. It was a two-hour bus trip outside of Hanoi past some factories, an area that looks like it's being prepped for a major government development, and then a series of small villages surrounded by rice paddies and water buffalo. The orphanage was small but clean and run by a kind director and nannies. It was clear they loved the babies very much. Some were crying when it was time to hand Oliver over to us. The babies were in a very small one-story building with sides open to the outside. As we walked up we could see the nannies sitting on the floor with the babies. We recognized Oliver right away. At first he didn't want to come to us, but soon we were all sitting on the floor playing. 

For the last few days we've just been getting to know each other back in Hanoi. Ollie is very sweet. He laughs and smiles, and his favorite thing to do so far is to bang on the table with an empty water bottle. He is a very sweet baby. And handsome, we think. 

He isn't sleeping very good. He wakes up every hour and half or so and cries and wants to be held. He seems a little scared and confused at night. That's to be expected, I guess, considering that everything he has ever know has changed dramatically in the last few days. He is very much a mama's boy. He loves Leigh and seems most comfortable when she is holding him. He has also been very good with his grandparents. He likes to play with them, and he as been very good when they've watched him.

He had a rattle in his chest when we got him, so we took him to the doctor. He has bronchitis, so he's on an antibiotic, and the doctor gave him a nebulizer, which he actually liked. He fell asleep with the mask on his face! He also had a pretty bad heat rash, and some bad scars from the chicken pox which worked its way through the orphanage recently. Other than that, he was in good health. He weighs 19 pounds, and has a belly and very chubby thighs. 

Last night we took him out to dinner and he was the hit of the place--all the waiters were fooling with him. Today we may go to a museum about Vietnam's ethnic groups. 

More posts to come...