2004 Vietnam Aid Expedition - Day 5

Friday, June 11, 2004

Subject: Day 5

Hello Fellow Americans!!

I'm having a great time and am exhausted!!  Today was spent doing the medical and dental checkups at the Little Rose Warm Shelter.  There are 60 girls living there that have all been sexually abused.  They also brought kids from other shelters.  All will join us for camp.  The girls were all very sweet and happy to have all our attention.  After the checkups were complete, we sang and danced and had a tour of their rooms.  They served us a very nice lunch then we headed back to the hotel for much needed showers.  Then back to the Shelter for a "show" - they girls performed several songs and dances.  Then a very nice, catered dinner, a few more songs (these people LOVE to sing) and then back to the hotel.

We leave here tomorrow morning at 5:00 am (!!!!) for Nha Trang.  It will be a 9 hour bus ride.  The kids will also take buses.  Then we'll split into "family units" of about 20 kids.  We'll be with that group for the whole camp.

The food here is great, especially the fruit and bread!  I do miss my Diet Coke though!  I'm having serious caffeine withdrawals.

Glad to hear from you all.  Check out our pictures on our blog spot.

www.2004vietnamae.blogspot..com

Chao Ban!

Kathy

Catherine examining some Little Roses.

Open wide!

Kisten doing exams.

Nol doing eye exams.

Never saw a smile from this little cutie.

The Little Roses fixed a wonderful lunch for us.

Yummy!

My sweet little friend, Minh.

Me with Ashley, Minh and another new friend.

Me, Will, Sarah and a bunch of Little Roses.

Me and another new friend. 

Little Roses colorful artwork.

Little Roses colorful artwork.

Little Roses colorful artwork.

2004 Vietnam Aid Expedition - Day 4

Thursday, June 10, 2004
Subject: Day 4

Hi everyone! I arrived safely yesterday and met up with some others in Singapore. We're staying at the Bong Sen Hotel, which is very nice. I ventured out today with Amelia from Charlotte, NC. We were both so nervous but made quite a day of sightseeing and shopping. The traffic here is like nothing I've ever seen - thousands of scooters and bicycles going every which direction. There are some traffic signals though I don't know why. Didn't see any accidents, which is amazing in itself.

We found 2 cyclo drivers who took us all over and then tried to extort money from us!  Lesson learned - negotiate fees before.  So we walked back to the hotel but we were mad enough that the steam carried us! 

Saw so much today - people here live their lives on the street - everything is out on the sidewalk in front of their shops.  It's very hard to describe what it's like - you see a Mercedes one minute and the next you see people who appear to have nothing. 

The rest of the group arrived today and I've met a few of them already.  We have a meeting tonight and then we'll be busy the rest of the time.

I'm having the time of my life and am so grateful for the opportunity to visit this country. 

Hope all is well back in the States.  I saw a bit of the Reagan service this morning as well as a few minutes of Oprah!  Amazing.

Love from Vietnam!

Kathleen/Kathy

2004 Vietnam Aid Expedition - Ready for Takeoff!!

Sunday, June 06, 2004 10:29 PM

Subject: 2004 Vietnam Aid Expedition: Ready for Takeoff!

Well, the time is finally here!  I’m leaving for Vietnam early Monday morning.  I will be flying from Phoenix to LAX, then Tokyo, Singapore (where I'll have a 12 hour layover) and then finally into Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday afternoon.

The last few days have been hectic – getting last minute things wrapped up as well as transitioning out of the job I’ve held for over 7 years.  I’ll start a new job within Honeywell at the Solutions Support Center upon my return.  That will be exciting but I haven’t thought too much about it as I have been completely consumed with preparing for my trip.

I am completely overwhelmed by the generosity you all have shown.  I was able to raise nearly $5000 for Catalyst Foundation and I thank you so much for your support.  Without you, it would not be possible for any of us to make this journey and reach out to these kids.  Thank you again.

We will be posting daily blogs – journals and pictures – at www.2004vietnamae.blogspot.com during our two weeks in-country.  Please keep an eye on us and if you’d like to send comments or an e-hug, just click on the comments link at the end of the blog.  I have also set up a Yahoo account so you can email me at azhoney2003@yahoo.com.  My understanding is there is email access everywhere in Vietnam so I will try to stay in touch.  

Please keep our 100 volunteers and 220 kids in your thoughts and prayers.

Kathleen/Kathy

Welcome to Such Amazing Grace

Hi. Welcome to Such Amazing Grace. I'm a single mom to an amazing and beautiful pre-teen daughter, Grace. Through the miracle of international adoption, I became her mom in April 2005 in steamy hot Saigon, Vietnam.

I've always wanted to blog, if for no other reason than to record our best, and worst moments as a family for us to look back on one day. So here I am 10 years after becoming a mom, as we are preparing for a remarkable journey together. In April, we're going back to Vietnam for the first time since 2005. We are both beyond excited.

But before we go, I want to share my first trip to Vietnam. When I re-read the emails, I feel the excitement like it was yesterday. It was 2004 and I was traveling alone to Vietnam to work with Catalyst Foundation and a team of volunteers from around the US and Vietnam, all of them strangers. It was going to be a two week adventure that I would never forget.

I haven't edited these emails and as the days went by, you can really see how tired I was. We were so busy and going from sun up to sun down in the heat of Vietnam. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the adventure.

SEE YOU IN VIETNAM!!!
Kathy & Grace
www.catalystfoundation.com