Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Detained, confined and tortured in Hanoi

Okay, I'm not sure John McCain would agree that our torture in Hanoi was anything like his, but we have basically been on lock down in the hotel because everytime we go out, one of us gets sick. Today, it was reported in the local newspaper that 1,000babies were brought to local hospitals this month for respiratory infections- almost 4 times the norm. The torture part is more about this adoption process where the Vietnamese and the Americans don't seem to be coordinating their efforts. In frustration yesterday, my Dad- in full Judge Horowitz mode, went to the American Embassy to ask for help on our paperwork. The local guy told him that we SHOULD NOT be here and should not have come until they had approved all of our paperwork. (not exactly what we were hoping to hear)They don't seem to care that the Vietnamese have leagalized this child as ours, they want things to go on their timetable. So now it's time to bring in the big guns. My brother has graciously, amazingly offered to use some of his State Dept. connections thru NBC/GE to get to the Ambassador here and get us some answers. The agency has not been of much help, and I'm sure they will be none too pleased to have us go around them, but we can't just sit by and wait to get Phoebe out of here. My parents leave on Monday, regardless, and I'll be here alone for 2 days waiting for Jeff to arrive. Then a week after that, we are both booked to leave on the 28th. Hopefully, we can make something happen by then. Fingers crossed for all of us!

xoxo nancy

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