Time flies when your having fun??

The past two days have been quit the challenge. Olivia has proven to be a little pendulum, happy and silly one minute and very unhappy the next. OK, more minutes of unhappy until this afternoon but things are looking up. She woke up yesterday happy enough but that only lasted for a very short time. I got her dressed while Elliott showered and got dressed. He came out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist to get clothes out of his suitcase then returned to the bathroom to get dressed. For some reason he frightened her, later she would tell out Holt SW she thought he was a ghost. All that white skin I guess. After that I went in and showered and got dressed when I came out I was putting on my shoes and looked over at her sitting on the bed. She had her backpack and was trying frantically to stuff all her new belongings into it just sobbing. I went over and picked her up and she kept crying something I didn't know. I think she thought I was leaving her alone. I held her and rocked her until she calmed down and she hasn't let me out of her sight since. She won't even let Elliott hold her anymore. Needless to say, my arms, back, and legs are killing me from holding her constantly for the past two days. She started feeling warm, she wasn't eating well (we were told she is a good eater normally) and she also hadn't had a BM since we received her so today we took her to the hotel doctor. Sure enough, she has tonsillitis. The Dr. gave us a RX for some Augmentin, some nose drops for decongestion, and a stool softener. Last night when we had walked down the street for dinner a man tried to get us to ride in his rickshaw, since we were on our way to dinner we asked if he would come back this morning at 10:00 and we would take a tour with him ( he only wanted $4 for an hour tour around the lake). So after the Dr. we went out to see if he would come back. Sure enough he was there promptly at 10am, only he brought a friend with another one. We agreed to take both (I couldn't imagine him bicycling around, pulling all 3 of him by himself anyway). I got in one with Olivia and Elliott got in the other. Olivia was thrilled! It was really fun once I got over the terror of actually being in a little cart on the streets with all VN crazy traffic. They took us around pointing out things in very limited English and we finally came to a stop to tour HCM Mausoleum. They waited outside while we went in to the tour. After we walked across the grounds through all the security check points and just entered the actual building of the mausoleum, Olivia flipped out. Crying and yelling something. No-one around spoke English although several people tried to calm her in VN. I just thanked them and high-tailed it out of there and went to find out guys with the rickshaws. She calmed down once we got outside but I got a little turned around and ended up outside on the street but luckily Elliott came walking up (he had finished the tour). We made it back to our guys, I took Olivia to the bathroom (Asian "squat" pots....yuck) and we went on to ride to see the Temple of Literature, VN first university based on Confucius. Again, we barely started to enter and she flipped out again. This time pounding on my chest, crying, and yelling something. I again, made an about face and headed back. She was so upset that as I walked people surrounded me to talk to her (I'm sure asking her if she was being kidnapped) I began asking "do you speak English" over and over again to everyone who came up to us, and believe me, I was surrounded by people. After only a few seconds one woman said "English, English" and grabbed my hand and led me to a young woman we spoke great English (we actually had bought a few T-shirts from her a little while earlier). All this while Olivia is still screaming. I explained the situation to her, that I'm her new Mom and that she had only been with us since Tuesday. She quickly tells me that Olivia is yelling, I don't want to go there, I'm afraid. She helps me calm Olivia down and tell her that I won't take her there and that she is safe. Before I know it she is telling the crowd that had formed that I had adopted her and that Olivia was going to the US to live. They were seemed so happy for her and Olivia was handed some cookies that put a big smile on her face, another woman gave her an orange, I tried to pay for them but no-one wanted any payment. Now these are street vendors mind you. Olivia had a nice long conversation with many of them while the woman and another man who had joined the group told me what they were saying. She told them I was her Mommy and that she was going to America to live with her new big family and that (get this) all the other kids at the center (orphanage) were jealous and that she was very happy but very scared and that she was going to learn English and wear nice clothes, and that her Daddy looked like a ghost but isn't one but that she isn't used to him yet (HA HA) and on and on. I guess she really does understand that she knows what is going on. Pretty smart 4 year old huh? Eventually Elliott came out after his tour to find his celebrity daughter and dumbfounded wife there. We got back in the rickshaws and headed back to the hotel. Olivia talked to the driver all the way back, chatting happily. As we rode up to the hotel, what looked like another American couple snapped a photo of us. When we got out they came up to talk to us and we found out they actually from Ireland and were there to adopt their very first child, and 4 month old baby girl. They were so thrilled to meet us as they hadn't meet anyone who spoke more then broken English since they arrived on Tuesday. We ended up going into our hotel and visiting with them for three hours!! I took Olivia to the bathroom and she finally relieved herself of 3 days of build up and has now had several doses of Augmentin and is ssssooooo much happier. I think a combination of getting out into the fresh (smoggy) air, being able to talk about what she is going through with people who understood her, finally getting her system straight and the medicine helping her sore throat have all made for a much happier little girl. She still wants to to hold her but no more tears since we left the Temple of Literature and it's been a good 5 hours now. I will tell you, it is taking every bit of Maternal instinct in me to do this and I am exhausted!

On the official side of things, yesterday we applied for her passport and yeah (Praise the Lord) they did allow us to do an expedited passport for hopefully we will have it by next Wednesday at the latest and then we'll just have to get her Visa physical and have an appointment with the US embassy for her American visa. If we get the passport by Wednesday morning we can probably have the physical in the afternoon and the Embassy appointment on Thursday morning, pick up the Visa on Friday and leave here as originally scheduled on the 3rd. It could, possibly maybe, happen even sooner. Now wouldn't that be something!!!!

Hugs and Kisses to my kids at home! We miss you!!