We're Coming Home!!

So it's been a bit of a crazy day....but it's all good!

This morning Adam, Natasha, and Michael made a trip to the Hoa Lo prison, known by many Americans as the "Hanoi Hilton." 90% of the prison is dedicated to the re-telling of Vietnamese patriots who survived the French occupation, as the Hoa Lu prison held many famous Vietnamese political prisoners over several decades. Americans will know of the prison because in 1964 the first US POW of the Vietnam war was held there when his plane was shot down over Hanoi. The most famous POW to stay was Senator John McCain, who was captured in October, 1967 and released in March, 1973. Interestingnly, there were two small rooms dedicated to holding the memoribilia and pictures of several US POW's. This was certainly anything but the "no spin zone," as many of pictures and captions painted quite a rosy picture, for example, "American pilots were receiving presents from their families in Hoa Lo prison" and "American pilots in Hoa Lo prison went to church" and "American pilots were playing music on instrumetns in Hoa Lo prison." Well, you get the idea...

After a brilliant lunch at the Kangaroo Cafe (an Aussie place)we picked up the Visa for Sarah at 2pm. Actually, all of the Visa's for our group were ready in the morning...much to our surprise! One couple was already scheduled to leave today, and two others went ahead and changed flights and packed quickly since the Visa's were ready so quickly. We decided to stick with the original plan and enjoy our final day and not be rushed.

Then the fun began: Adam and I went to the EVA office to re-confirm everything for tomorrow's flights, only to eventually discover that the EVA booking agent made a mistake last week when re-booking our flights. Adam and Natatsha were all set, but she put Heather and I on the red-eye flight leaving San Francisco on Friday night, not Thursday night....28 hours after our arrival to San Francisoc! Argh! Then she said the flight to Chicago was all booked and there was nothing she could do to change the dates and the best she could do was to get us out Friday morning at 11am, arriving Tulsa Friday night at 9:50pm....talk about a shocker!

So, we had to wait a few hours due to the time differential, then tried calling the travel agent and sent an email, figuring he was the best chance we had to get something worked out, but his hands were also tied. So, what to do? How about calling AA directly? After the "My wife and I are trying to get home after adopting our sweet baby girl, followed by the "awwww...congratulations!"--I had a good feeling they would do something to help us. Well, the Chicago flight was still very full but...the best they could do was to re-route us through DFW so that we would arrive Tulsa at 8:15am instead of 8:50am....WE WIN!!

So, here's our absolute, final, no-holds-barred, no more shananigans, resolute arrival time to Tulsa: 8:15a.m. on American Airlines, Flight 3665 from Dallas/Ft. Worth.

This experience has been everything we could have ever hoped and dreamed. We've visitd so many beautiful areas of Vietnam, embraced the culture, the people, the food, the sights, sounds, smells, scooter ride, and even a hair-cut complete with a head massage! Most of all, we've had a neo-honeymoon not only with one another, but with our new daughter. Sarah has captured our hearts. Yet, we approach re-entry knowing that she belongs first to the Lord before she belongs to anyone else. Our prayer is that we might be faithful stewards over the life of this precious one-God's faithful gift to our lives.

Tam Biet Vietnam! (good bye Vietnam)


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