Back home...

We are back home after a WONDERFUL vacation. We actually got home from Florida on Saturday afternoon and then hit the road on Sunday afternoon to Maryland to go meet our new nephew and came home Tuesday. 

I hope to start posting some pictures from our trip by tomorrow. Stepping back into routine here has us a little busy, plus as most of you know you need a few days to recuperate after a Disney vacation. It is exhausting fun.

Yahoo!!...

Today is the day!! We told Brayden this morning. No tears or jumping up and down, just simple excitement.

Thanks to going to Aunt Christy's house the day after we get back we had a little bit of a buffer with the suitcases being out. Brayden thought the suitcases were packed for going to visit her.

We are all looking forward to the week away together. I know it will be a memorable time for the four of us.

It's a surprise, Shhhh....

Can you keep a secret? We are taking a trip to Disney World this Saturday for a week.

Since the beginning of the year we have been planning a trip to Disney and have been keeping it a secret from Brayden. We wanted to keep it a secret from Sarah too, but because of missing a couple of things at school we felt she needed to be aware of the work she would need to makeup. When we told her she was ecstatic and could careless about school work.

Our plan is to tell Brayden Saturday morning. We are waiting to the last minute because I can't deal with all the questions of when are we going.

Brayden has no concept yet of time. Here was a conversation we just had today -
Brayden: Mommy, when are we going to Aunt Christy's?
Me: Two weeks.
Brayden: Two sleeps?
Me: No, Two weeks. Fourteen Days.
Brayden: I thought you said two weeks?
Me: I did. Two weeks is fourteen days. Seven days make up a week. Fourteen days make up two weeks.
Brayden: Oh. Two weeks. Does that mean now?
Me: No. Two weeks means two weeks.
Five minutes pass...
Brayden: Mommy, when are we going to Aunt Christy's?
Me: (long sigh)

Now we will just have to deal with our little guy's curious questions from our house until we arrive in Orlando. We are staying at a timeshare there in Orlando and will be going to the Disney parks for 4 days with 2 days off to relax and enjoy the pool.

We can't wait!!! We will be sure to video Brayden's response to the surprise and post it on the blog once we get back.

Hong Kong...

We arrived in Hong Kong on Tuesday evening after a 2 hour flight from Ho Chi Minh City. We took a bus to our hotel, The Salisbury YMCA. This hotel is not what you would typically think of a YMCA. It was right on the harbour and we had a beautiful harbour view.

The lobby, I didn't think to take one of our room, it was small but very nice.

This was the view from our breakfast table. We had the same view from our room just higher up.

The great ladies on our team - Angela, me, Joanne, Casey and Tricia

Every night at 8:00 p.m. Hong Kong has a show called the "Symphony of Lights" which is the largest permanent light and sound show according to Guinness Book of World Records. It utilizes lights on 33 key buildings on Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. It is beautiful right there on the harbour with all the night lights. We were all amazed by the size of Hong Kong, it blows New York City right out of the water. 

Both nights we were there we went shopping at some of the street markets. I still had gifts to pick up for the kids. Shopping is everywhere you go in Hong Kong. You walk down the street and there are stores. You go down in the subway and there are stores. Everywhere you turn there is a store you could shop at. We took the subway to get to the different markets, which took a while to figure out the first night but Jason and Dennis had it all figured out by the second night.

Wednesday on our full day we took a ride on the Peak tram up to Victoria Peak which has a gorgeous view over Central, Victoria Harbour, and the surrounding islands. The peak has a lot of history dating back to the 19th century because of its panoramic view, we could see why once we got to the top.

A little cloudy this day, but started clearing up later.

Our team - Jonathan and Casey Weber, Joanne Melhaldo, Tricia Wright, me and Jason, Angela Colindres and Dennis Bloom

We enjoyed our last meal on the trip at Ruth's Chris Steak House. The guys were so excited!

Dennis' birthday was the next day so we celebrated a little early.

This was an amazing trip. Again, I feel so blessed to have been able to go and take part in all that we had opportunity to do. I would do it again in a heartbeat. I loved being with Jason on this trip, so many times he has been able to go on these kinds of trip and I have stayed at home to take care of our babies but as they are getting older I know I will now have more opportunities to go with him. We would love to take Sarah and Brayden on some of these trips with us. We will see what the future holds. :)

Thanks for stopping by to hear all about it.

This and that...

Here are a few miscellaneous pictures from Ho Chi Minh City

Everyone rides motorbikes or bicycles, there are very few cars and there are no lines to stay in. It seems kind of a free for all when you are driving.

They don't have car seats for children. All the children ride with their parents on the motorbikes. They make it work.

Lots to balance on this motorbike.

Molly took some of us to the street food market with her to see what it was like. The fruits and vegetables were so colorful. Molly does most of her regular shopping at the grocery store as they won't give her a good price unless she has a Vietnamese friend with her.

Had to capture these frogs all tied together so they don't jump away, but for a good price you can take as many as you want home to cook and eat.

This is the alley for one side of the market. People drive their motorbikes all up and down it.

I didn't take any pictures of the meat market, not very appetizing. I guess all these dried fish aren't that appealing either.

One of the mornings our team visited the Cu Chi tunnels which are an immense network of connecting underground tunnels used by the Viet Cong guerrillas as hiding spots during the war. We were smiling in this picture getting ready to go into one of the tunnels, but not so smiley after coming out. After almost having to crawl 20 meters through one of these tunnels where it was dark and hot I don't have any idea how the Vietnamese did it.  They say there was over 18,000 Vietnamese who lived throughout the tunnels.

The guys had an opportunity to shoot AK-47, M30, and M80 Assault Rifles as they have a shooting range available to tourists. They were pumped!!

I love Dennis' face here. He has the look of a guy who means business.

Here we are getting ready to try Pho (sounds like Fa), which is a popular dish here. It is a Vietnamese noodle soup, usually served with beef or chicken. The soup includes noodles made from rice and is served with Asian basil, mint leaves, lime and bean sprouts that are added to the soup by whoever is eating it. It was just okay for us.

One more picture that we all had a good laugh at...

These kinds of wires (whatever they are-power, telephone, cable) look like this all over the city. How do they figure out what goes to what???

Okay, I promise tomorrow is the last day of pictures from this trip - Hong Kong. Thanks for sticking with me.

Free day...

This was our last day in Ho Chi Minh City, so Molly took us sightseeing to a couple places and then we hit the Ben Thanh Market.

Our first stop was the Central Post Office. The building was constructed when Vietnam was part of French Indochina. It was designed and constructed by the famous architect Gustave Eiffel from 1886 to 1891. It is still an active post office, but also has some shops inside.

We sent the kids a postcard from there. It took a week and a half to get to our house from the day we mailed it.

Our next stop was right across the street at the Notre-Dame Basilica Cathedral, It was constructed by French colonists from 1863-1880. We didn't go inside, but it is beautiful.

The last tourist spot was the Reunification Palace formerly known as Independence Palace. It was the home and workplace of the President of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. It was the site of the end of the Vietnam War during the Fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, when a North Vietnamese
Army tank crashed through its gates.  The day we visited was actually a holiday called Reunification Day. Lots of celebrating downtown.

I had to include this picture of our team member Jonathan. On our way out a Vietnamese couple came up and handed Jonathan their baby and proceeded to take a picture. It was so funny! Grant was telling us that they probably did it to bring the baby luck. A little random for us.

Shopping... We each had a few people to find gifts for, so our team split up and hit the Ben Thanh Market. Molly came with Jason, Dennis and myself and was a huge help in bartering the cost of things. Lots of fun.

After shopping we were famished. Grant and Molly took us to a Vietnamese restaurant that was amazing. It is tucked back in a little alley way that I don't know how you would ever find, but I am so glad they knew about it. The food was delicious. Fried spring rolls, fresh spring rolls, little appetizers with shrimp (below) that I have no idea what they were called and Bún thịt nướng (had to look that up on the internet). Plus the most amazing lemon drink I have ever had. A Vietnamese meal to remember.

Jason trying to eat with the chopsticks. We all did pretty good with them.

We were all exhausted by the end of the day. Molly took us to a spa to get some pampering: $10 for an hour full body massage, $7.00 for a pedicure and $5.00 for a manicure. Those are prices you can't beat! We had fun.

Still more to come...I will share some this and that pictures next post and then Hong Kong.

Be Tho Orphanage...

As I mentioned in a few previous posts our main reason for going to Vietnam was to deliver the money that our youth raised for the orphanage there. On Sunday morning we had an opportunity to visit the orphanage with the national church there in Vietnam.

We took 2 buses from Ho Chi Minh City and drove about an hour to Be Tho Orphanage. The picture below is the final road we turned on to get there, a little different look from where we are staying.

A few times a year Grant and Molly and the national church visit the orphanage and take them a supply of rice and other items. They have built a relationship with the orphanage and the kids enjoy seeing them when they arrive.

There are approximately 130 children/teenagers/young adults at this center. The ages range from 2 months to 25 years old. This center becomes their family as they grow older. Molly told me that sometimes parents or family who have had to leave their children will come and get them on weekends or over holidays, so some still have families but they just can't afford to have them live with them.

All of the pictures from today I got from our team members Dennis and Jonathan, both amazing photographers. These first two pictures means a lot to me. I was thankful when I first saw that one of the guys had taken a shot of this little boy. When we first arrived a girl came over to me and took my hand and lead me over to see this little boy. He just sat there, no emotion, no words. As I took his hand it showed no response to my touch. It was hard. I stepped away and began to take in all the other kids around me. Throughout our time there this little guy stayed in the same place, never moving, different people gathered around him. I don't know anything about this little boy, but the picture of him hasn't left my mind since we left that day.

I know I did what I could for the short time that I was there. I smiled, I hugged, I rejoiced with them over our youths donation, I handed out candy...I wish I could have done more.

Casey from our team.

The girls did some traditional dances for us.

The boys were enthralled by the guitar

I love the smile.

Our youth have a place on the wall in Be Tho

Showing off their new toothbrushes and toothpaste.

 

This little baby is actually 2 months old even though she looks 2 weeks old.

This little girl kept repeating something over and over to me. One of the nationals told me she was saying "Candy, Candy".

Beautiful dancers.

Jason presented the sister who runs the center with the money from our youth group and she was excited to receive it.

The last thing that will stand out in my mind is "Hollister" bags. The center does different things to bring in money to help them, such as making quilts, hand drawn pictures and some other things). One of the other things is to put these Hollister bags together. For those of you who may not be familiar with Hollister it is a store similar to Abercrombie or American Eagle. Now whenever I see these bags or even carry one I will think of these kids at Be Tho and maybe one of their hands put them together.

It wasn't a completely easy morning. It was hard to see how these kids live, even for as good of conditions the orphanage is in. I was blessed though to be able to bring a gift to them from youth half-way around the world. I was blessed to see their smiles. My heart and mind were given a fresh perspective on things and I pray it will forever change me. I don't want to come back home from this trip just to settle back into life as I knew it before, I want to be changed.

More to come...

P.S. I slept from 10 p.m. straight until 7:00 a.m. last night. Felt great. Still dealing with the tiredness in early evening, but we are getting there.