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.

Travel, Arrival and the Coffee House...

Thanks for being patient with my updates. I am still feeling the effects of jet lag and getting back to normal life as I know it. I am also trying to work through over 600 photos, not all mine may I add, to determine what to post. Hope you don't mind that my trip will be broken down into a couple of posts.

We flew Cathay Pacific, which was a great airline. Their seating and service were amazing. Do I have to go back to US domestic airlines? I have been spoiled and wasn't even in first-class. It really helped make the first 16 hour flight go smoothly. Yes, I did enjoy the 16 hour flight on the way there. I got half-way through my book, finishing the other half on the way home. A few naps here and there. I watched 6 movies between our flights there and back. We had two meals and one snack. We were cracking up as the snack was very similar to our "Cup of Noodles". All we had were chopsticks, guess they were preparing us for our meals in Vietnam.

We left at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning New York time and arrived at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday night in Ho Chi Minh City. Amazing! Our friends picked us up at the airport and we went back to their house to eat Domino's pizza for dinner. Yes, they have Domino's in Vietnam. After settling in we headed for a good nights sleep.

The next morning we had orientation and off to Master's Cup Coffee House where we would spend most of our time over the next 3 days. We couldn't get over how beautiful the area we stayed in was. I felt like I was in Florida. Below is our friends Grant and Molly's town home.  The picture below that is looking off the balcony from our bedroom.

The coffee house is just around the corner from their town house. We all broke out in a sweat on the walk over. They told us Vietnam has two seasons, hot and dry or hot and wet. We were in the in between season, so we got hot every day but some dry and some wet each day.

The first floor is the cafe with tables to eat.

The second floor has two speaking rooms where the Vietnamese people can come and practice their English. They have one "speaker" for each room (usually an American), or more than one in our teams case, who takes a 4-5 shift to sit and talk with the Vietnamese about whatever. I loved the concept. The Vietnamese people want to learn English as it helps them to get better jobs. they are so eager to learn and can sit for hours and talk. I am amazed at some of them who come for most of the day, or drive an hour each way just to come to the coffee house. They are so friendly and we really enjoyed our time connecting with them.

 More to come...

Home again...

We arrived back in New Jersey from our Vietnam/Hong Kong trip late Thursday night, but didn't climb into bed until 2:00 a.m. Friday morning after a long wait at the airport for our bags and then the drive home. Sleeping in our own bed was wonderful!

Now to deal with the jet lag. It was a 12 hour difference the last couple of days we spent in Hong Kong and they say it takes one day for every hour difference to get your body adjusted again. It has not been awful, but by 4:00 p.m. I am feeling it and if I stop to sit on the couch I would fall asleep, by 9:00 p.m. I am starting to see double and can't wait to get into bed. I then wake up around 4-5-6:00 a.m. and have been forcing myself to go back to sleep for a bit. If what they say is true we have 3 nights down and 9 to go.

I will add pictures over the next several days of our trip, but will share our homecoming with the kids. It was so good to be able to wrap our arms around them and hug them. We were blessed to be able to talk to them almost everyday through FaceTime (an iPhone/iPod app and completely free). I think it made it a lot easier for us and them. MeMe and Grandma said they did great and we are so thankful for such wonderful grandparents to help us out so that we could go.

We walked into the house with this sweet sign greeting us. 

We picked up Brayden on Friday from Grandma's and got to see Sarah after school on Friday afternoon. They each got a few gifts from our trip. Sarah a ponytail holder, iPod purse and a Harajuku purse. Brayden a "Tin Tin" shirt, Cars 2 Legos and racing car Crocs. Oh, and we can't forget the little Star Wars toy that came out of the cereal box that our friends we stayed with had which includes stickers, tattoos and a notepad. Yeah, everything little counts with this kid. The best part was it didn't cost us anything.

We headed to IHOP for dinner/breakfast. Ahhhh, tasted so good! Sarah and Brayden gave us an AMAZING photo book of their time with MeMe and pictures of what they did each day. So sweet!

It is so good to be home with our kids again. Love them so much!!!

We had an amazing trip and look forward to sharing with you more over the next week.

Ready to go...

MeMe arrived today and everything has been prepared for us to head out on our trip to Vietnam tomorrow. I can't believe it is finally here. We are excited and ready to go. Brayden was ready for us to go as soon as MeMe got here. He has been asking for the past week when she would arrive. I know they are going to have a blast with her here.

Our flight leaves tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. We fly straight to Hong Kong, a 16 hour flight and then have a layover for a couple of hours and fly 3 more hours into Ho Chi Minh. We will arrive their time Wednesday early evening, with it being Wednesday morning here in the states.

To be honest despite the cramped space of the flight I am looking forward to the 16 hour flight. I know that sounds crazy, but from a Mom's perspective I get 16 straight hours of my husband's undivided attention, time to read a book, watch a movie or 6, take a nap and don't have to worry about any responsibilities. LOL! Come on now that sounds pretty nice right. I just wish I had a comfy couch to go with that time instead of a tiny airplane seat. I will let you know how it all went once we get back.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday we will be spending time at the coffee shop our friends we are visiting run. Sunday we will be visiting the orphanage we are giving the money to. Monday will be our free day. Tuesday we fly to Hong Kong and Wednesday will be our tourism day there. Thursday we fly home.

I never thought I would be going to be Vietnam but feel so blessed to be a part of this trip and the privilege to be able to go. Can't wait to share with you how it was.

The shirt Sarah is wearing our the shirts for our team. Jason and our friend Dennis Bloom who is going on the trip designed them.

Easter Weekend...

We had a fun Easter weekend, full of activities. We started with coloring Easter eggs with the cousins on Friday morning.

Saturday we celebrated Donna, Sarah and Sophia's birthdays. They all share April birthdays, so we always have a 3 girl birthday party.

Lastly on Sunday we rejoiced in the fact that our Savior is risen in deed, and...

for chocolate bunnies.

Happy Birthday Sarah...

Sarah goes back to school today, so yesterday the four of us did whatever she wanted. We had a quiet morning at home, sleeping in from a long weekend and watching The Muppet Movie, which the kids got for Easter. We went to Red Robin for a late lunch, where she got to open all her presents and cards.

Sarah got for her birthday a P.S. Aeropostale, Amazon and Itunes gift cards, $145 cash (whoa!), a Swatch watch and her beloved Osiris shoes. After lunch we headed to the mall (again) to spend some of the cash she had gotten.

We stopped at Claire's to pick up some jewelry and sunglasses. I think she made some very stylish choices. Next P.S. to spend some of her gift card. Last stop was 16 Handles too, her new favorite ice cream spot.

We have had a blast this week with Sarah. Happy Birthday to our beautiful girl. We love you!

Celebrating a little early...

We have been celebrating Sarah's 11th birthday throughout this past week.

On Wednesday night her best friend Cayla spent the night and we spent Thursday doing whatever Sarah wanted, which was having monkey bread for breakfast, getting pedicures, shopping at TJ Maxx and going to the mall (again).

 Cayla got her a tennis racquet and a special homemade card.

Gorgeous toes! Brayden and I dropped them off and came back after running an errand. The lady that was sitting next to Sarah on the other side told me when I came back that I had a kind and lovely daughter. I completely agreed with her, but so nice to hear others see it too.

Off for some shopping and then lunch at the mall. These girls (and little boy) can be pretty silly.