Today we spent most of the day in our hotel room waiting for Ellie to call us to tell us that it was time to go to the government office for the Giving and Receiving Ceremony. At 3:30 I had just about given up hope and drifted off to sleep on my bed. Moments later our phone rang loudly and jolted me awake. It was Ellie calling to say that she would be at the hotel to get us in 15 minutes to go to the ceremony! So we rushed around getting ready and were out the door in minutes.

The cab dropped us off on an extremely busy street and we picked our way among uneven sidewalks, concrete slabs sticking out of the ground, and motorbikes that decided that they could not be bothered to wait their turn on the road. Once inside we waited with Ellie, the orphanage director, and one of the assistant directors. After 10 minutes or so, the head official arrived and we were ushered into another room. We all signed some papers (here, “sign” apparently means scribble something like your initials – they were not happy when I wrote my name out in full, but then decided it was OK – I guess they don’t have print versus script here).

The whole “ceremony” was maybe five minutes long. I gave gifts to the director and assistant director (who was not even in the room for the ceremony) and that was that.

We picked our way back to the main road around the corner and tried to remain safely out of the way while Ellie hailed a cab. It took a bit of doing but she got one and we arrived back safely at the hotel. So now little Georgia is officially ours and stuck with us forever, poor kid!

Just some other thoughts… The hotel is gorgeous and the staff members are the friendliest I have ever come across. They honor every request with a smile. The housekeeping/room service is called “Delighted to Serve” and they certainly are! They all fuss over Georgia and ask all kinds of questions about her. They are surprised to hear that she was born here and are convinced that she is Chinese. The room is beautiful and the complimentary buffet and evening snacks at cocktail hour are delicious. So is the food from room service (which we have ordered several times while waiting for phone calls telling us when and where to go next). If you ever come to Saigon, this is the place to stay!