March 5th (Thursday) At about 9pm we received the Article 16 letter that gave us authorization to adopt Piper. The authorization is conditional on the BC provincial government also authorizing the adoption in an Article 17 letter. We had decided that we would travel 2 weeks after receiving the article 16 letter to give us time before the adoption to visit friends, visit Natalie's first family and pick up my dear friend in Da Nang that would be with us with her young son through the adoption process. Rather than booking online like I would normally we decided to get the flight center to help. This way if we needed changes, we had a person to email to help us. We booked ticked to travel on March 22nd. Travel was just beginning to get complicated, it was clear that the best route would be through Taipei, Taiwan.
March 12th (Thursday) Things were starting to change, my spidey senses told me we needed to change our flights and go NOW! That evening while I was out having drinks with my colleagues, Steve slid into flight center and got our flights moved up to March 14th (Saturday). We had 3 month visa's to enter Vietnam and planned to do visa on arrival as we were arriving one week before our visa entry date.
March 13th (Friday) At about 4:30pm I did some checking and found that Vietnam suspended the visa on arrival option. We called the Vietnam embassy in Vancouver but no one answered and the message said they were open Monday and Wednesday. I went into problem solving mode and started asking for help. The travel agent called the embassy and got through! There was a lady there that could help us if we called straight away. After we spoke to her, we provided all of the documentation she needed. She would have the visa's ready for us when we landed in Vancouver the following night at 8:30pm. We flew from Victoria to Vancouver. The flight was delayed but we knew we had plenty of time in Vancouver so we kept even heads. Once we arrived at the airport, we jumped in a taxi and headed for her condo building downtown. She met us downstairs with the visa's. No problems. We took the taxi back to the airport. then I left my brand new iPhone x in the taxi!!!! As though there was not already enough going on! I realized it when we were in the international section of the airport. We called the taxi company who had no record of our fare. The only options were to come to the taxi office tomorrow to get it, or have the taxi company drop it at my house. I asked if the taxi was still at the airport. He said "yes". I asked him to ask the taxi to wait as I was on my way to him. I then found out that the only way out would be to go through customs and immigration. I found some airport security and asked for help. They took pity on me. One of them went out to the taxi and grabbed it and brought it back to me. We were back on track with a couple hours before our flight left. Win!
March 14th (Saturday) At 1:00am our family was called to the agent at the gate. I took a deep breath knowing that so many things needed to all work out for us to get to Vietnam. We were ready to take it all in stride what ever happened. The gate agent needed to double check the validity of our Visa's. I suspect that they wanted to see if they had been revoked. Right away, confirmation came that all was fine. At 1:40am our flight from Vancouver to Taipei took off. It was a 263 seat airplane. Only 60 seats passengers were on board. We all spread out. It was a 12 hour flight.
March 16th (Monday) With the time change, we arrived in Taipei at 5:30am. Our flight to Hanoi would leave at 3:30pm. We knew that anything could happen in the 10 hour timespan before we were scheduled to leave. We held hope that we were meant to be in Vietnam. The flight left without incident. It was about 3/4 full. Steve and I were the only Caucasians on the plane....and the only ones without masks on. Some people wore full paper hazmat suits and double masks. We had filled in an online health declaration in Vancouver before we left. I can't even begin to tell you how overjoyed we were to arrive in Hanoi, Vietnam. I am still amazed at all the things that had to go just right to make this happen. Our friend Son picked us up at the airport. We have not seen him in 4 years! We were so excited to meet his new wife and beautiful 18month old son. Natalie and his other Son, Quoc connected right away like no time had passed since they last saw each other 4 years ago! Our other friend Gioi was moving out of his 2 bedroom condo in the same building Son and his family lives in. He was getting ready to rent his empty condo so we get to be his renters. It is such a perfect place- 2 bedrooms, large living space with a grocery store and anything else we need close by.
March 17th (Tuesday) The Health Authority and local police came to interview and assess us. They took all of our information and suggested we self quarantine for 14 days. We need to take our temperatures and record any symptoms twice a day, and send the info in daily. We are healthy and happy, Vietnam is really like a second home to us. The one hard hard part is that we won't see a couple of friends this trip. My girlfriend Linh is like a little sister, she is in Da Nang. It has been far too long since I have seen her but it will have to wait a bit more. Our friend Manus lives in Hoi An, one of our favorite places. He was recently married. We looked forward to meeting his wife and new son and picking up some photography tips. Despite this- we remain overwhelmingly grateful for the privilege of being here at this unprecedented time.
I read something today that resonated with me.... by Dr. Lindsay Jernigan. Paraphrased, she said to look at this time as an act of mass global cooperation intended to protect the collective whole. It is like a global deep breath...and agreement between humans around the planet to be still. Be still, in hopes that the biggest wave can pass without engulfing too many of the vulnerable amongst us. wishing you all well! xo
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