Thanks!

We're lucky enough to have received a ton of support from friends and strangers alike over the past few weeks and I'm incredibly grateful. And in the wave of support, we've been requested to help out in various ways. I'm happy to do so. We'll be bringing photos of adopted children back to the orphanages that cared for them. Some purchases are being sent to us to transport to Hanoi. Our bags are already packed with clothes for the kids in Tam Ky.

I feel honored and appreciative to be able to help people. Once we get there we'll find some ways to continue helping, I hope. Amid the adventures of just getting by.

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Visa applications arrived in San Francisco and I'm hoping they'll be back home in a few days. It's the last step.

--UPDATE--
Two hours later the visas showed up. I mailed the apps Monday and got them back four days later. Not bad at all. We are ready to go!

26 Days

That's all we've got here before we split. Stuart mentioned how last time it was so much longer before departure that we actually celebrated our "100 days before we leave" day. This time we won't have to wait even half that long.

Things are progressing nicely, though. I bought tickets to Vietnam (fly out June 11). Then tickets from Hanoi to Bangkok (fly out September 20). I'll buy tickets home while I am there. I finished some updates on the Vietnam With Kids website and plan to do more over the next couple of weeks. I finally arranged all the paperwork, photos, and signatures for our visas and will mail those out tomorrow. That's the only real stumbling block, but we'll keep our fingers crossed that everything works out right (and quickly!).

We're gathering things together to take back to the orphans in Tam Ky (as well as a couple other people living in VN) and selling off a little bit of our stuff, packing away other stuff and just progressing nicely.

Now if I could just fit in more time to work on the travel memoir for our last trip, I'd be super happy.

Progress

We've got our one-way tickets again (someday I'll be able to afford round-trip, but probably after the kids are grown!) and we officially leave at 7:50pm after a full day of work on June 11.

Today we are off to get our new visa pics and send off the applications asap. There are some differences of opinion between what IIG is telling me to send and what the Embassy is telling me is the cost of the visas. Like more than a hundred dollars difference, but I think that stems from 1-month vs. 6-month. There's no way I'm getting a one-month-at-a-time visa. Yuck.

I also got the contract, signed, scanned and the original packed into our luggage. Things are coming along.

We're heading back

It's official: We are going back to Vietnam! I will be teaching at Hong Duc University again starting June 15 and we're thrilled at this turn of events (to say the least). Plans are to live in Thanh Hoa and make visits to several of our places, including the Baby Orphanage and the Home of Affection in Tam Ky.

Right now we're working on getting visas and making arrangements to take care of things while we're away.

We're off on more exciting adventures in just 42 days.