3 years ago today...

After missing our connecting flight from Hong Kong to Hanoi I cried until the airline agreed to put us on a flight that was leaving in 20 minutes to Saigon. We ran as fast as we could to the gate and barely made it onto that flight. We flew all the way to the South end of Vietnam. We got off of the plane and went to retrieve our luggage only to realize that our suitcase that we packed all of our baby supplies in had been lost somewhere between Los Angeles and Saigon. We then stumbled with the rest of our luggage (me completely angry with myself for idiotically packing all of Lila's things in one bag) from the international wing of the Saigon airport to the domestic departure wing down the street to buy tickets to Hanoi. Once we got to the ticket counter we took about 45 minutes trying to explain to the night crew that spoke basically no English that we needed 3 tickets to Hanoi ASAP. With tickets finally in hand we made it through security and began waiting for our flight. An announcement is made and of course we cannot understand any of it except for what sounds remarkably like my mom's first and last name. I was so excited that they must be paging us to let us know that our suitcase had been found! I left the waiting area and went back out of security and ran down the street alone to the other wing of the airport with people staring at me like I was insane. I reached the building and was stopped by a security guard with a very large gun that spoke no English other than "no enter". After 15 minutes I convinced him with hand gestures to take me to the lost luggage area only to be told, "No find it, we'll keep looking for green bag". I was so frustrated that I didn't even try explaining for a 6th time that our bag was grey and orange since that color combo was not on the handy chart they kept trying to show me to help me explain our bags. At this point I realized, "Oh crap". My flight is leaving any time and I am alone with no I.D. I had left it all with Logan and mom in the waiting area...the waiting area on the other side of security. I ran past the security guard with the big gun at the international wing this time he just shook his head at me, down the road, and into the building our plane was leaving from. I got in the security line and smiled and waved really big as I walked by and miraculously was not stopped (apparently they somehow remembered the spazzy pale redhead). We finally boarded the plane and started making our way back to the North end of Vietnam. Mom and Logan passed out on the flight and I wrote a letter to Lila and then read a Cosmo magazine with a Vietnamese teenager next to me. When we finally landed in Hanoi we were exhausted. I remember there was a big picture of a cheeseburger on the wall as we were getting off of the plane and we realized we were also starving. Unfortunately our relief of being done with our flights was short lived as we realized we had no idea how we were going to get to our hotel. Since we had not arrived on time, there was no one waiting on us. Nobody knew we had even made it to Vietnam. We walked out to the cab area and were swarmed with people arguing over us. It was extremely overwhelming and was getting pretty heated when a man that we learned was from Chicago stepped in and arranged for our transportation (eternally grateful to him). We were so excited in the cab! It was so awesome seeing Vietnam for the first time! We had a nice conversation with our new friend and cab mate from Chicago. Unfortunately our new friend was dropped of at his apartment first. After dropping him off and pulling through a bunch of dark alleys was about when we realized, "crap...the cab drivers only acting like he knows where our hotel is". Of course only an idiot would fly all the way to Vietnam without writing down the address of their hotel to hand the cab driver. As I previously stated, only an idiot would pack all the baby stuff in one suitcase. Guilty on both accounts....so we drove around aimlessly until I was able to dig through enough stuff to find a phone number to the hotel and a cell phone. Finally I just gave the cab driver my cell and he talked to the guy at the front desk until we got there. Expensive cab ride and expensive phone call, but we had finally made it. It was 2am. This is when we realized that our agency did not even know that we had made it to Vietnam. They had checked for us earlier, but had been told that we had not arrived. There was no packet for us and we had no idea how to find out when we would be going to the orphanage. We randomly decided that we should get up at 7:00 so that we wouldn't miss our ride to the orphanage since we had no idea when we were being picked up. Obviously we didn't sleep well. We basically passed out for a few hours and then shot out of bed to try to eat breakfast. Then we realized we should probably stay in our room in case someone tried to call so we grabbed a couple of bananas and ran back to the room. We finally received a call telling us we would be picked up in an hour. I searched through all of our luggage and between the stuff we had packed and the things my mom had packed in her luggage "just in case" I was able to come up with a dress for Lila, a pacifier, a blanket, and a couple of toys. Logan and I went down to the gift shop to try to find some baby supplies. We stared at the diapers for a while and then realized we had no idea what size to buy. We looked at the formula and cereal and realized we had no idea what kind to buy, so we left with two bottles and a random size of diapers that we hoped might fit. We grabbed our gear and headed to the lobby to wait for our ride. We met the two other families that were going to be riding to Ba Vi with us to meet their children as well. Before we knew it we were all on the surreal ride to the orphanage. After an eternity our van pulled up to the gates of the orphanage that I had stared at so many times before in pictures. We pulled in and got out of the van. My legs felt like they were floating as we walked towards the yellow building with rows of rooms opening to the outdoor hallway. I had memorized this building in pictures yet it seemed so impossible to actually be walking towards it. We stopped at the first room and glanced in to see several babies and one of our fellow families meeting their baby for the first time. We kept walking down the hall and looking into rooms with babies. When we finally approached the last room the woman from our agency walked in ahead of us and I new that we were about to meet our daughter. We walked in and looked around and....no Lila. I felt sheer panic for a moment (oh my God, is she in the hospital, is she sick or hurt) before one of the nanny's emerged from a back room with our daughter. It seemed like she had been asleep and they had hurried and tried to wake her and give her a quick bath when they realized we had arrived. So our little Lila was angry and wet. She was so tiny and so perfect. All of a sudden nothing mattered except letting our daughter know that she was ours and we were hers and that we would move mountains for her. Any fear we had or trials we had faced during our journey were now so insignificant they seemed laughable. The only thing we could think about when our little girl was placed in our arms was that we were meant to be together. A lot of events had to unfold and a lot of people poured a lot of love into creating our family. I will never take that for granted. I am full of gratitude for every person and event that helped bring us to our daughter and our daughter to us.