This morning we woke up in a crowded hotel room for one last time. As we maneuverred around luggage and packages, finishing up our last minute packing, we commented how ready we were to go home. Today was going to be the ‘longest’ day of the trip. After a short flight to Bangkok, we have an eight hour layover there before the ten hour flight to Istanbul followed by another hour flight to Ankara. Unfortunately, there are no later flights from HCMC that can connect with the Turkish Air flight to Istanbul. Under our initial plan, flying from Hanoi to Bangkok, however, the Bangkok layover would have been 12 hours so we consider ourselves lucky in that regard.

We had done most of the packing the day before and only had to check around the room for misplaced items. It’s amazing how many things end up under the beds in hotel rooms when you have a five year old. Because of the anticipated delay at the airport to deal with Alyssa’s visa situation, we planned on arriving at the airport at least two hours before departure so left the hotel around 10:00 AM for a 12:30 departure. Quite astonishingly, the bellboys and our cab driver were able to fit all of our bags into a single cab and off we went with me in the front seat with Jessie and Nancy and Patsy in the back with Alyssa on their laps and a mountain of luggage behind them. I’ll be so glad to get home and not have to face lugging those large suitcases around for a while.

Along the way to the airport, the surroundings started to look familiar and then I remembered that the location where we had done Jessie’s ‘G&R’ was on the route to the airport. Sure enough, in a couple of minutes, we passed the building that we had waited outside with Jessie and her birth mother six years ago before completing her adoption. Passing by this place immediately brought back many memories from our trip to get Jessie. I say ‘G&R’ in quotes because, with Jessie, there was no real ceremony. Nancy and I sat at a table with Jessie’s birth mother and completed the final adoption paperwork. The table was in the foyer of the government building we had just driven by and we were surrounded by other people who were standing in line at counters in the foyer. We had asked to take pictures and were told that was not possible. Patsy was forbidden to participate or even watch. And, as I mentioned earlier, we had to wait outside for a long time on some hard wooden benches with a crowd of people. The contrast between the two G&Rs could not be greater, but the end result was the same — each provided us with a healthy, beautiful baby girl. For some reason, seeing this building on the way to the airport, made me feel like we had come full circle on our initial decision to adopt a child from Vietnam and I had a real sense of completion and fulfillment as we continued on our way.

In only a few more minutes, we arrived at the airport. At first, it seemed like there was a monster line and that we were going to face a long delay to get to the ticket counter, but then we realized that the mass of people we saw were standing around waiting for arriving passengers. We were able to proceed through the crowd with ease and enter the terminal with no problem.

Fortunately, we were early and the line at the Thai Airways counter was short. We approached the next available agent with our seven oversized suitcases and laid out all of our paperwork to see what would happen. It took only a few minutes before the agent said that Alyssa didn’t have a Turkish visa. I told her we were going to purchase her visa at the Istanbul airport. She hit a couple of keys on her keyboard and came back with “That’s not possible for a Vietnamese citizen.” Fortunately, Nancy had had the foresight to ask the consular office in Ankara to write a letter explaining our situation, which they had done. The letter, on US Embassy letterhead and signed by the Consul General, simply stated that we were a diplomatic family working in Turkey who had recently adopted a baby in Vietnam and that we would accomplish all of the necessary processing for a US visa in Ankara. As an added touch, the letter had a very formal looking red ribbon attached to it. Now, this letter had no real legal status, but we employed it anyway to see how the Thai Airways authorities would react. The agent took the letter to her supervisor and I watched anxiously as a discussion ensured between several people behind the ticket counter. As their discussion continued, they periodically made calls on radios or cell phones. It was clear we had presented them with an intriguing situation. The entire time the ticket agent continued to process our tickets so I was hopeful a successful resolution was on the way. Eventually, that was the case. I was asked to sign a waiver releasing Thai Airways of any repatriation costs should Alyssa not be given a visa in Istanbul. That was no problem and, after 45 minutes of waiting, boarding passes in hand, we started to head to the departure gate.

Of course, we still had to go through immigration control and I had some misgivings that Alyssa’a lack of a visa could cause problems there, too. But, that was not the case. The immigration official was friendly and didn’t even look for a visa in anyone’s passport. He was more interested in the entry forms that the rest of us had filled out when we arrived in Vietnam and we soon found ourselves at the gate.

Again, we couldn’t help but compare our final few minutes in Vietnam at the airport with Alyssa to what we had experienced six year earlier with Jessie. To give you a sense, check out the picture from our departure with Jessie below.  The terminal area had been modernized with many shops and restaurants, but mostly it was much cleaner and, in general, more comfortable. We were all very happy to be on our way home as you can see from this picture of ‘the girls’ at the airport.

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