I got Maia's passport today. With her passport in hand we are able to make an appointment at the Clinic for her medical checkup.
We took a cab to lunch at an american place called AL Fresco's. Unfortunately we got into the wrong cab. I noticed the meter spinning way too fast. The trip should be about 15,000 dong, our meter said 215,000 dong. The driver kept saying VIP taxi vip vip. finally we settled on $16 US, about 5 times what it should have been. Oh well, it was fun arguing with him.

After lunch Hyoung from Plan met us to take us to the SOS Clinic for our appointment. We, all the families thought her name was Loan, and called her that until today we found out that is another person at Plan and her name was actually Huong. She is wonderful.

Somehow our appointment got lost in the computer and we were delayed a couple hours.

We found our doctors are not Maia's favorite. The nice French doctor tried his best to work with Maia, but she would not have any of it. She worked herself into such a frenzy she threw up all over me. Then she threw up all over me again. When we finished the exam Laurie asked if he had other kids get this upset he calmly said "no, never like this" I think we are in trouble.

After a nice nap and a long talk with the boys we went out for a quick dinner. Maia had a quick dance with her dad and shared a little dinner with her mom. She continues to get more comfortable with us and her personality is shining through.
We got a little more information on her background today.

Here is the official story.

At 19:45hrs on February 19, 2008 when Mr. Nguyen Manh Hung, a Guard on duty at the entrance of the Center, was in the reception-room he heard a crying voice of a baby. Mr. Hung held a flashlight to inspect the surroundings. When he looked towards the main entrance he saw a bundle of something placed near the main gatepost. He went to the entrance and found a newborn baby laid on the piece of nylon. Mr. Hung brought the baby to the reception-room and informed the people in the tour of duty about the case. After that he held the flashlight to check the outside of the Center's entrance but found no one. Mr. Hung returned to the reception-room. He and the people in the tour of duty made an examination of the baby and found that this was a baby girl of 3.7 kg of weight. She wore 3 shirts (a white elastic one, a yellow woolen one and a white cotton one printed with breeding animal). She wore a white cotton trousers and took a nappy, wearing a white hat with a scarf wrapped round the neck. She was wrapped in a patterned yellow felt blanket.

Within an hour, there was no one coming to the Center to take the baby back.

So we affirm that this is an abandoned baby and make the report with the witness of a resident living near the Center and confirmation of local authorities. We decided to take the day February 19, 2008 as the birthday of the baby and name the child Nguyen Mai Hoa. The baby is transferred to the rearing room of the Center for care.

We think her dates would be fairly close. 3.7 kg is 8.15 pounds. She is about 9 kg now ( 20lbs) and is a perfect fit for the 18mo clothes we brought for her. We will be unable to get home much sooner than we expected, No flights out of here on Thursday and Friday gives us an overnight layover in LA. Hoping to touch down in Chicago Saturday around lunch time.