Sometimes on the way to a dream you get lost and find a better one.

Many years ago my friend Kimmy Swimmy gave me a little plaque that had that saying on it. At the time, I was going through a difficult breakup with an old boyfriend and it really struck me as just the right thing to focus on. Obviously I'm deliriously happy that I got lost on the way to that particular dream. Mike Munn is the best dream I could have ever imagined! That song that says 'God blessed the broken road that led me straight to you' is exactly how we feel about each other. I would never have allowed myself to dream this big!

Anyway, back to the saying. I lost the little plaque sometime or another and as it turns out it was under the edge of the carpet in my bedroom in the house I lived in before we were married. I found it after Mike and I got married and moved furniture around. It held a really wonderful meaning for me then. I was so grateful that I found the better dream by marrying my amazing husband.

At some point the glass on the plaque broke so I cut out the saying and put a magnet on the back of it and stuck it on the refrigerator. I've noticed it occasionally and smiled at whatever was going on in my life at the time that it seemed to reflect. Today my friend Mary called and commented that I finally had just what I had always dreamed of. I told her that it wasn't exactly the dream I had, but that it was still great. After we got off the phone, I went over to the refrigerator and read the little magnet.

Sometimes on a way to a dream you get lost and find a better one.

I have dreamed of having a little girl for as long as I can remember. At some point in my dreams she had blond ringlets just like I had. Other times she looked like various boyfriends who I thought I might one day marry. Later she became Chinese, then Korean and finally Vietnamese. I had great dreams for this little girl of mine. She's been an assortment of ages in my dreams upon becoming my daughter. Newborn, 13 months old, 4 months old and finally 2 1/2 years old.

Having Olivia isn't everything I ever dreamed it would be. I got lost on the way to that dream and found a better one. Life with Mike, Jake and Olivia is better than any dream I've ever had.

The first picture of us as a family of four!

All dressed up for church on Christmas Eve

(Just for the record, I have the two most gorgeous children

on the face of the planet!)

Jake & Olivia

Finally a picture of my beautiful babies for all the world to see! This is the photograph I sent out in our Christmas cards. I took these just a couple of days after we got home from Vietnam and trying to get these two to sit still next to each other, smile, and look at the camera all at the same time was absolutely impossible!!! They were funnier that way though and definitely show their true characters! Several people have laughed at me for having Olivia in overalls, but I wish you could see her feet, because she was also wearing rubber boots! They both looked so cute in overalls and their rubber boots. I can't tell you how much fun these two have together. They have their little sibling arguments over toys occasionally but for the most part they are great friends and love playing together. I never thought our house could be more filled with laughter than it already was - but it is! God is so good to put four goofballs together and call them a family! I am blessed to be the goofball Mommy.

(Now that I've figured out yet another way to add low quality pictures :<) I'll try to add them more often until of course that program falls apart, too. My poor computer.)

Tummy bugs & Christmas presents

I am sad to say that three-fourths of the Munn family have spent at least part of the last week sick with the stomach flu. Amazingly, Miss Olivia has yet to show any signs of tummy bugs. That's very good news of course for her (and me) but the rest of us have been down right miserable! Jake is such an angel though. Even when he's sick he tries to be sweet and funny. He felt terrible yesterday though. He spent the entire morning on the couch and then took a 4 hour nap. This is definitely not normal behavior for him. He's not usually one for being a couch potato. I'm very happy to report that he's much better today. Mike is really the only one still not feeling well. Send up a little prayer for my wonderful husband if you don't mind.

It has been warmer today and not raining so we finally got to go out and play today. Olivia jumped on the trampoline for the first time and had so much fun! She and Jake are absolutely hysterical together. He laughs at everything she does and she just goes around with wide eyes in amazement at all the stuff to play with. For her of course, this is like living in Disney World. It's sort of sad to me that in a few months she'll be just as spoiled as the rest of us. I'm glad of course to be able to spoil her, but I try so hard to make Jake aware of all he has and here I have this child who is aware and I'm just going to make her rotten. What a peculiar situation.

We had a very good Christmas despite me being ill over the holiday. Luckily Mike and Jake waited until after Christmas was over to get sick. The kids didn't sleep well at all on Christmas Eve so they weren't as animated as I had anticipated they would be on Christmas morning. They had a big time though. Santa brought them a kitchen and that was a big hit with both of them. Jake was of course thrilled with anything that had Lightning McQueen on it. Olivia got a tricycle at JuJu and Daddy Don's and you would have thought she had just been given a Porche. She was so happy.

Aunt Cerra bought them both four wheelers. Yes - four wheelers. Gas powered, electric start, 90 CC four wheelers. Two of them. Holy cow and thank you. That's all I can say about my silly sister and her extravagant gifts. She doesn't have children of her own and she has taken mine to spoil much to their delight. Jake was elated of course and much to our surprise, so was Olivia! You would think she had owned one already. She hopped right on ready for a ride with Mommy on her new four wheeler. It was so funny! We have had so much fun riding them this week even though it's been in the 40's and we've nearly frozen to death. The kids are oblivious to the cold temperatures. They just want to ride their new contraptions. Jake has three other battery powered ride on vehicles so he's a pretty good driver, but we're still showing him the ropes on the four wheeler. I think it will be a while before we let go of the reigns. Even though Mike has them governed down a bunch, it still makes me nervous. The neat thing is that they both have remotes so if Jake is doing something crazy or going faster than he should we can hit a button and it kills the motor. They also have alarms so if Jake goes outside and even touches it the alarm will go off. Poor child. It will probably give him a heart attack.

I so wish I could post pictures. One day surely they'll offer something other than dial up out here in the boon docks. By the way, I wanted to let you know that we are about as settled in as we're going to get, so feel free to come visit us now and you can certainly call anytime. A friend of mine told me that she hadn't been calling because she wanted to wait until I was settled in. Call! Visit! I'm more than ready to talk to grown ups again! If you do visit, please remember my motto: houses are for free expression not for good impressions! The house may be a mess, but it's full of love and laughter!

What is the value of a life?
Olivia didn’t deserve to be born
To unwed parents.
She didn’t deserve to be orphaned
As a helpless infant.
She didn’t deserve to live
Her first two and a half years of life
In an orphanage.
She didn’t deserve to be taken away
From the only home and family
She had ever known by strangers
From a foreign land.
What does she deserve?

I have been asking God to help me love Olivia as much as I love Jake. Tonight I realized I was asking for the wrong thing. A mother’s love can fail. She has already been failed by one mother and she doesn’t deserve to be failed by another. I knew what God wanted me to pray. The Holy Spirit impressed upon me not to ask God to help me love her as a mother loves her, but as HE loves her. God’s love never fails.

What is the value of her life?

To God, her life is worth His own. He gave His own beloved son’s life for hers. Olivia was not the property of an orphanage or province nor is she our property. Olivia was never an orphan. She is now and always has been - a princess of the King. She deserves everything God has promised her as such.

In Jeremiah 29:11 God promises, "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

God has plans for Olivia. He has plans to prosper her and not to harm her. Plans to give her hope and a future! She is His princess!

You know what the most amazing part of this is to me? I get to be a part of that life. I get to be the earthly mother to not just one of God’s children, but TWO of his precious babies! He chose me! I am the mother of a prince and princess and God has great big plans for them! I am blessed that He is allowing me to take part in those plans.

In this season as we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, I am certainly reminded of two other innocent children of God born on this earth. I pray above all else that my children live their lives to serve God and others. Thank you God for the gift of Jesus, and thank you God for the two precious children you are allowing me to take care until you return.

Merry Christmas

from a very blessed Mommy of two children of the King

You'll have to try and imagine how cute my kids look together...

I have been trying in vain to post a picture of Jake and Olivia together with no luck. Darn slow internet and goofy computer that I'm quite sure has a virus. Speaking of viruses, I've been sick the last two days with a stomach virus. So far Mike and the kids are fine. My poor Dad has been sick though, too. My wonderful husband (aka Super Daddy!) has been taking such good care of me and the children. Olivia has had no choice but to rely on her Daddy for everything and I think it's been really good for them. I just can't put into words how great we're doing as a family. We had a rocky first couple of weeks with Olivia but things have settled down now and I think she gets that she's one of the family now and we're not going anywhere. She and Jake get along even better than I ever could have imagined. They play together so well and we all just laugh all day. Life at the Munn house is so so good. We are so incredibly blessed to have two beautiful, healthy, funny, sweet children. I actually have another blog post that I've been working on for about a week now. It will kind of tell you what life was like from when we first got Olivia to now. It will be ridiculously long, but an interesting read.

In case I don't write agan in the next couple of days, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!! We are also thrilled that the other Dillon families who have been in Vietnam the last few weeks picking up their children are all either home or on their way and will be here by Christmas. This is such a huge blessing and I am beyond excited for them! This will no doubt be the best Christmas of my life. They just keep getting better and better!

Merry Christmas!

Love,

Mike, Casey, Jake & Olivia

HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY, JAKE!!!

My sugarbear's 4th birthday was yesterday. I can't believe how the time has flown. I'm sure Olivia will be 4 before I know it, too. He has been SO excited about his birthday. He is as such an incredibly fun age. Santa Claus has also become very real to him. We have frequent discussions about where Santa lives and yesterday he watched The Polar Express for the 10,000th time so he could see the North Pole. He requested and had a Lightning McQueen (from the movie Cars) party. It was a big hit. My friend Stephanie and I bought a jumping castle together about a year ago and the kids love it more than anything else. Jake got lots of good presents including a child friendly digital camera from us. Hopefully I'll be able to post some pictures by photographer Jake in the near future. Olivia had a good time at the party. She was shy and quiet at first because of all the people, but by the end of the night she was jumping around the jumping castle and running across the room to jump in my nephew Chase's arms. Jake and Olivia both had a really good time and we were all beyond exhausted last night! I'm beginning to wonder if I'll ever get over this jetlag. Everyone tells me it's normal for it to be worse coming this direction than going that direction, but it's been a week! I am starting to feel a little less tired though.

Speaking of feeling less tired, Miss Olivia slept in her own bed last night until 4 o'clock this morning!!!!!!!! This is HUGE!!!! I was so excited. It was very nice to snuggle with Mike again. I've sure missed cuddling with my husband these last few weeks! When she woke up I went and got her and put her in bed with us and she fell right back to sleep and slept until 7. This is such an amazing improvement. You just don't know! Now if I could get naptimes going well, we'd be a happy bunch. I've tried several different things with Olivia at nap time and none of them work. She's absolutely exhausted so I know she needs a nap. It's not that she's out grown naps. She just hates hates hates laying down. When she realizes that I'm going to start trying to get her down for a nap that's when the screaming starts. Yesterday it went on for over an hour before she finally fell asleep. I've tried walking her, rocking her, singing & not singing, laying down with her in assorted places, letting her lay on top of me. None of this works. She just screams. This is as you can imagine frustrating beyond belief. Our social worker keeps telling me to think of her as a newborn and that she was born when we got her so I should expect her to sleep like a newborn - which is of course very unpredictable. I'm trying to remember that. I really am trying, but it's difficult when I'm watching a 2 1/2 year old scream bloody murder. I'm sure that it will get better with time.

Other than nap time, things are going great! Olivia and Jake get along really really well. I'm so happy about that. She's really just a funny funny girl. She and Jake together are just as I expected - a total riot! They are so much fun! Well, except at Wal-Mart because neither one of them wants to ride in the buggy. Mike had been trying to figure out how to keep me from shopping at Wal-Mart so much and I think he's found a way. Right now I've put in a Baby Einstein DVD to see if she'll watch it and this is the first video she's been interested in. Jake is still fast asleep. He woke up around 3 crying his eyes out. I held him for at least half an hour before he calmed down. He never would tell me what was wrong. I thing he must have had a bad dream. It was so terrible. My poor angel. He never wakes up during the night. He's the best sleeper in the world. Probably why I'm having such a difficult time adjusting to Olivia's sleeping. Mike reminds me that Jake wasn't born this way and that I "conditioned" him to be a great sleeper and that I can do the same thing with Olivia. I had a lot more time and energy when Jake was growing up though! I have a 4 and 2 year old now! Holy cow!!!!!! How in the heck did that happen? I wish you could see Olivia. She's sitting in a little mushroom chair with her pink pj's on and a little Vietnamese flag on a stick in her mouth. Well, now she's trying to stick the flag in the vcr. Oh dear. I'm never going to get this post finished!

Alright. I have to get back to being a Mommy now. By the way, Happy 1 week as an American girl, Miss Olivia! (Now she's naked and saying bath. I've got a busy day ahead of me!)

Alive and well in the great state of Arkansas!

Just wanted to let everyone know that we are home! We made it home about noon on Friday. Our trip was essentially uneventful thank goodness! Olivia did really well on the trip. She slept a good part of the time. She did much better than we thought she would. She even tolerated the car seat on the way home for about 30 minutes. Then she screamed the rest of the way (another hour of so.) Considering she has never been strapped into anything in her life, I think she did pretty well. It was all we could do to drive (sort of) the speed limit. We were so beyond ready to see Jake as you know. Judy and Don took the rest of the afternoon off so they could be home with Jake when we arrived with Olivia. I'm not sure I can even put into words what it was like to see him after being gone so long. Mike was getting Olivia out of the truck and he - being the most wonderful husband in the whole wide world - let me go into to see Jake first. Judy and Don opened the door and there was Jake bundled up in his coat. The most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life. Oh my goodness. He had a huge smile on his face and he said, "Mommy?" Like he just couldn't believe that I was actually there in front of him. He ran into my arms and I picked him up and he hugged me so so tight. I just held him as tears welled up in my eyes and he put his hands on my cheeks and just looked at me in amazement. He really couldn't believe his eyes. I was certain he had grown at least 4 inches. He's enormous compared to Olivia! I didn't remember him being nearly that heavy! He was definitely a sight for incredibly sore eyes. I've never in my life been so thankful to be home. Finally - a family of four - and very much complete.

Jake was also incredibly excited to see his Daddy as you can imagine. They are best buddies. Jake says he's Daddy's hunting buddy, and my sugarbear and baby. He's the sweetest thing! He was thrilled to finally see Olivia, too. He has been the best big brother! He's been even better than I could have imagined. He helps her do everything. He even gets her toilet paper when she uses the potty. It's so cute. I am grateful to say she also likes him, too. That was of course a big worry of ours. Jake has been our only baby for 4 years so we didn't know how he would react to suddenly having to share his parents and we didn't know how she would react to having to share them, too. We have devoted 100% of our time and attention to her the last 2 1/2 weeks, so we weren't sure how she would like having to share that time. They've both done great. She and Jake just play and play and run all over the house. I was so worried that she would be clingy when we got home and never let me put her down, but she's being doing awesome. The only times we really have problems is with sleeping. That's a big big big big issue. I'm not sure what we're going to do. She's sleeping in the bed with us but she flys all around the bed and wakes up crying - often screaming - all through the night. She absolutely positively refuses to lay down without me there with her and she doesn't like it then either. Time. It will all come in time. I have to keep reminding myself of that.

As I speak she is peeking around the Christmas tree trying to see our cat, Crookshanks, as he hides from her. She was absolutely terrified of the cat for the first two days, but he's growing on her. She even meows at him now. It's very cute. A lot of people ask me if she likes her room and oddly enough I think she prefers Jake's room! She loves Hot Wheels of all things! She and Jake have had so much fun playing with cars and riding in his big dump truck. I can't wait until it's warm enough for them to ride in his gator outside or on his motorcycle. It's been in the 30's here since we got home. Very peculiar weather! She also has a baby doll with a blanket that she has started playing with. She lays the blanket out and lays the baby on it. This is what they do with the babies at the orphanage. I'm glad to see her taking such good care of her baby doll. I think that says something about how she feels about the care she received herself as a baby. Perhaps I'm reading too much into that, but maybe not. Who knows.

Jake's 4th birthday is this Thursday! He's having a Lightning McQueen party and he's beyond excited! I can't wait. He will have such a fun time. This is my favorite time of year. Jake's birthday and Christmas. Now if I could only get over this wretched jet lag, I'm sure I could properly enjoy it. No doubt many of Olivia's sleeping issues will get better once we figure out when night and day are again!

That's about all the typing I can manage this morning. I'll do my best to share some of our unsual and amusing Vietnam stories in the coming days. I have to take the lap top up to our dear friend Cori who loaned it to us so he can get our pictures off of it and onto a disk so I can share them as well. A plug for Cori here - if you live near Magnolia - call the Computer Dr. if you have any problems at all. He's a genius when it comes to computers.

Please keep us in your prayers as we continue to adjust as a family. It will be a long bumpy road, but I have no doubt the destination will be worth it. Thanks for all of the prayers while we were gone. They were definitely felt!

We're still in Hanoi, but we did get Olivia's visa today! Unfortunately, we couldn't get a flight out today, so we're stuck in Vietnam another day and night, but we're flying home tomorrow. Our flight out is at 5:25 p.m. Vietnam time on Thursday which is 4:25 a.m. Thursday Arkansas time. We hope to be back in Magnolia picking up our sugarbear by 5 p.m. on Friday. We now have an overnight layover in SanFrancisco which is depressing because we'll be SO close to home and yet still so far away. Yes, at this point we actually consider California to be close to home. I can't wait to have my feet on American soil! We also can't wait for Olivia's feet to hit American soil, because the minute they, do she'll be an American girl! She's really doing great. We are all bonding well and she is just a sweet funny girl. She will blow you all away in time. She'll no doubt be very shy for a while, but once you get to know her she's hysterical. She does the funniest stuff. She and Jake and going to get along great. I'm going to have my hands full!

We took advantage of our extra day and visited the Hanoi Hilton today. That's the name they use for the prison here that kept many Vietnamese war prisoners by the French and also the US POW's. It was really humbling. It made us thankful to only be stuck here two extra days in a very nice hotel. We really can't fathom what it must have been like for those soldiers who were shot down just two days after Christmas who spent 5 long years imprisoned here. Being in Vietnam has really put a lot of things into perspective for us. It's an amazing country and we're so thankful to have spent so much time here and mostly to have the awesome gift of a beautiful daughter from this country. We are still beyond ready to come home though!!! We miss Jake!!!

Anyway, we're flying out tomorrow so please pray for our trip. At this point who knows what could happen! The other family that was waiting for a visa was able to fly out today so they are already on their way home. We'll see you in just a couple of days!

STUCK IN VIETNAM

We packed up our bags, checked out of our not very nice hotel, and headed to the American Embassy to pick up Olivia's visa at 1:30. We were very happy people!!! At 1:35 we were NOT happy people anymore. Two of our group got their visas, and us along with another couple did not. Apparently there was a glitch in the computer system and our file was lost in cyber space. Obviously that doesn't sound like that big of a deal. Just resend it right? Well, once it's in the system you can't put it in again and you can't resend it. Great! So they were trying to contact the software company all day to figure out what to do but of course they are asleep in the US and unable to assist anyone. This completely sucks. It SUCKS. I was balling in the embassy office. The two families who got their visas left for the airport and headed for the US, while us along with the other family waited - and waited - and waited. Finally they declared that we would not get our visas today but to come back at 8:30 a.m. and he felt certain they would have it by then. I'm not a big believer in certainty anymore. We scrambled looking for a new hotel, trying to get to the airline office by 5 and lug around TONS of luggage all while Olivia napped on my shoulder. This has been such a fun day. Hmmm.

We got a room at the Hanoi Horison Hotel which is a five star hotel. No doubt the first one Mike and I and most certainly Olivia has ever stayed in. It's very nice and the food is yummy. It's nice to be somewhere clean where there aren't small living worms coming out of the faucet in the bathroom. (We didn't see the worms at the last hotel, but two of our other families did. Yuck.) This hotel is lovely. We thought we would be here one night and could swing it. Yeah right. Not with our luck. Even if we get Olivia's visa in the morning, there are no openings on the flight from Hanoi to Taipei, so we're stuck in Vietnam until THURSDAY. We are trying desperately to be optimistic and count our blessings. It of course could be much worse. We could be stuck here until next week or longer. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE pray for her visa to be here in the morning. We DESPERATELY want to come home. No, we NEED to come home. I can't put into words how much we miss Jake. This has been just a horrible horrible day and we're all at our wits end. One bright note for today was that Santa arrived at our hotel tonight and Olivia saw Santa for the very first time and got her very first Christmas present. JAKE - guess what it was!!! A FISHING POLE!!!!!!!!! I know you will be pleased that your baby sister has her own fishing pole! It's very cute. She's very tired though - as we all are- and whimpering behind me on Mike's hip as I type as quickly as possible. We're going to our room to call Jake and give him the very sad news that we're coming home two days late. I beg you to pray for us to get her visa and make all of our flights to be home by Friday afternoon. Please also pray for the other family with us here. If they get their visa tomorrow, they'll be able to fly home tomorrow night. We'll see you all soon.

Jake - we love you more than words can say and we'll come get you just as soon as we can. Hang in there Sugarbear! We love you!!!! Mommy and Daddy (and Olivia!)

We're coming home!!!

I am incredibly thrilled to tell you that we're scheduled to fly home on Tuesday night!!! Our visa appointment is on Monday afternoon in Hanoi and we can pick up Olivia's visa on Tuesday and head to Arkansas! We are THRILLED!!!!!!!! We're flying to Hanoi in the morning, so I have a lot of packing to do. Please remember to pray for us as we continue to travel throughout Vietnam and of course across the ocean home! This will be Olivia's first plane ride and of course we're a little bit nervous about that. One thing we would specifically ask you to pray for is our trip on Tuesday. We should be able to pick Olivia's visa up at 2 and our flight is at 5:25. The trip to the airport is an hour long, so we'll be cutting it a little close. Please pray for all to go well picking up the visa so that we can make our flight on time. If we don't we'll be in quite a pickle. Please also pray for our other three families that are traveling with us. We are all ready to come home! While you're praying, if you would send up a few prayers for Jake, Daddy Don and Amy we would appreciate those, too! Daddy Don and Amy have both had pneumonia and JuJu took Jake to the doctor today and he doesn't have pneumonia, but is taking breathing treatments at home. Please pray for Jake not to get pneumonia again and pray for DD and Amy as they get better.

We should be home in time to have lunch with Jake on Wednesday!!!!!!!! We are SO SO SO SO excited!!!!!!!! I know many of you will want to see Olivia asap, but please give us a couple of days to get adjusted to being a family of four and get over the jet lag. This will no doubt be a huge adjustment for all of us and we have no idea what will happen when we get home. We just know that we'll need a bit of time to get settled. Also, unless I'm completely wrong (which of course never happens lol) Olivia will be scared out of her mind at all of the new people wanting to look at her. She's a bit shy at first and she's just now coming out of her shell with us so I can't even imagine what she'll be like around strangers. Be patient with her! She's worth the wait! I promise! She's just a doll and I mostly can't wait for she and Jake to finally be together.

This may be my last post of the trip, but be prepared for a ridiculous amount of pictures when I get home! We can't wait to get home. We'll see you next week!!!!

Jake - you better get ready because Daddy and I have three weeks worth of hugs and kisses to catch up on and Olivia has 2 1/2 years worth to catch up on! You're going to be a very busy boy! We love you sugarbear and we'll see you soon!

Finally! I'm sharing Olivia's beautiful smile with the world for the first time! My dear friend and traveling partner, Mandy, allowed me to use her computer to put it on the blog. (She insisted that I write nice things about her - wink wink) This was actually the first time we even saw Olivia smile. We were standing outside the Park Hyatt anxiously looking for Brangelina when I for whatever reason decided to throw Olivia up in the air. Just like her big brother Jake, she LOVED it! She and Mike now do this almost constantly! They have such a good time together. Getting smiles out of her is getting easier and easier. She and Mike also like to play hide and seek and throw me on the bed and tickle me. Also without prompting, she opens Oreos and eats the white stuff first and she loves Dr. Pepper. I know Daddy Don will be pleased. I'm sure we'll convert her to Diet Mt. Dew when we get home. Don't worry everyone - we don't keep our kids hopped up on caffeine. It's just an occasional treat.

We had our meeting with CIS this morning and we were approved! We are taking Olivia for her mandatory health exam in the morning. We got her passport today! We are supposed to hear tomorrow about our interview date for Hanoi. This will determine when we can come home. They are only open Mon, Tue and Wed, so we would VERY MUCH like for our interview to be Monday so we can be home by the end of next week. Please please please pray for us to have our interview Monday and for everything to work out so that we can come home to our sugarbear!!!

All of the other families are doing well. We are all just anxious to get home. I do have one other prayer request. There is another family here using another agency that are having a LOT of unusual and very difficult problems. I won't go into detail but please pray for this family. God will of course know who you're talking about!

We love you guys and can't wait to come home!!! Enjoy Olivia's smile. I can't wait to have a picture of her and Jake smiling TOGETHER!

Comments on Olivia's life as a Munn

Olivia is doing much better! I know that all of your prayers have made a big difference. She went to bed last night without fussing and also this afternoon for her nap!!! This is a MAJOR improvement! She also very happily took a bath without fussing. We went to eat last night with Mandy and Arnaud and another family from Dillon who are here now and we had such a great time. Mike would tickle Olivia and she would laugh and laugh! It was so funny. She smiles a lot more now even when it's not coaxed out of her! She's quite a character. I think she'll fit in just fine with us! She and Jake together are going to be a riot. I can't wait to see it!

We called to talk to Jake this morning but he was already asleep for the night. I hate it when we miss him, but we can call him this evening when it's his morning. It's already 1:27 p.m. on Saturday here and all of you back home are fast asleep. It's 12:37 a.m. there. Mike looked for Saturday morning cartoons this morning for Olivia but couldn't find any on the tv. We did see Bob the Builder speaking Vietnamese last week! That was quite a treat. Jake would have loved it. Daddy Don said that he's doing just great. They have been hunting together and Daddy Don and JuJu have become quite attached to our sugarbear. It's not hard to do! I'm really thankful that he's going to have had this time with them. Most children won't ever have the opportunity to form such a strong bond with their grandparents. I wish my Mom were still here. She would absolutely adore Jake and Olivia, too. Just in case my Dad happens to read this by some technological miracle, we love you, too!

I was fitted yesterday for a traditional Vietnamese outfit that's called something that I can't spell. It's pronounced ow-yie. The yie would rhyme with dye. Ow is like when someone smacks you and you say ow! Anyway, they are just gorgeous. Olivia and I will have matching ones. She also has a little pink on and I put her in it yesterday and put her hair up in pigtails and she looked so so so precious! I can't wait to see all of your faces when you meet her. She is absolutely darling.

As much as I love her, it's a chore to carry that child around all day! She refuses to let Mike carry her and it's not always appropriate for her to walk holding our hands, especially on the streets. It's kind of wild here. Scooters are zooming everywhere! I can't really explain what I mean by that. They are EVERYWHERE. They even ride on the sidewalks! Crossing the street is absolute insanity! Also, the Vietnamese people on the sidewalks sometimes try to pick her up or touch her and that's not ok with us. It's very important for attachement that we be the only ones who hold her for quite some time. I suspect this will be difficult for a couple of sets of grandparents I know! Regardless, she doesn't want to get more than an inch away from me anyway. She follows me all around the hotel room. It's really cute.

Let's see - things Olivia likes to do. She loves to color and she loves to pour food like Cheerios from one thing into another and stir it around and eat it with a spoon. We bought her a Barbie purse that has a cell phone, keys with clicker, compact and sunglasses in it. Whenever we go somewhere she finds her purse, puts on her sunglasses and prepares to leave. This is completely unprompted and untaught. Isn't that bizarre? She just knows that little girls get their purses and their sunglasses. She looks so cute in them too because her nose is SO tiny that her sunglasses can't even sit on them. Her head is fairly wide though so they stay up.

She apparently smashed one of her index fingers recently at the orphanage and last night the entire nail came loose from the nail bed. I have never seen such a thing. Mike trimmed it off this morning so it wouldn't catch on anything, so she has no nail on her right index finger.

She seems to be very healthy except for a cough and cold that we are treating. She is SO smart. She can do just about anything and she mimics everything we do. It's wild. I can't believe how smart she is. She's been going to what they call Kindergarten. It's what we call pre-school and it's obvious. She's very bright and has a gorgeous smile. I can't wait until she's really comfortable with us and smiles and gives kisses all the time.

This has gotten long! I so wish I could send pictures. You'll just have to wait and see her for yourself! (Jake, you're going to love being a big brother to Olivia! She's a very sweet little girl. You two are going to have lots of fun together. We can't wait until we get back so we can take you home and we can finally all be together! We love and miss you sugarbear!)

Thanks for all the prayers! Keep them up. We also love hearing from home so please feel free to leave posts or email us. We can't wait to see you all!

Our laptop has officially quit working so I most likely won't be able to send out anymore pictures. I'm very sad about this because we finally saw Olivia's smile today! She's absolutely gorgeous when she smiles!!!! You are all just going to love her! We heard this morning that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were in Saigon if you can imagine! So Mike looked in the paper and there was a picture of them saying they were staying in the Park Hyatt. We asked our waiter where it was and found out it's just around the corner!!! So of course being the lunatics that we (Mandy and I) are, we all trotted down to the Park Hyatt in hopes of seeing Brangelina. No such luck. We finally gave up after about an hour and a half. Mandy and Arnaud spoke to the manager who happens to be French and he said that it would be impossible for us to see them because they would be going out a back entrance or something. It was crazy but we had fun anyway. While waiting at the hotel for her, I threw Olivia up in the air and she had a HUGE smile on her face! We were so excited! She has such a beautiful smile! She has really good looking teeth too which is of course good news. Now she loves for me to throw her up in the air or twirl her around. She'll just smile and smile. She's definitely coming around. I can't wait to see the real Olivia emerge. She also pointed to a picture of an elephant today and said a Vietnamese word. This is all good progress. We are pleased. We're having some problems with her not wanting to lay down for naps or bed and she doesn't like going into our staying in the hotel room. We're working on it though. I know it will get better. This is tough. I'm not going to pretend like it's not. Mike and I are having a really hard time trying to do the best we can. She won't go to Mike anymore which is of course really hard for him because he just loves her to death. It's also hard for me because she's not crazy about me either, but she tolerates me pretty well. You have to understand that this is all normal though. We didn't expect her to just miraculously know we were her Mommy and Daddy who love her and will never leave her. It sure would have been nice though!

If I can ask for you prayers, please pray for God to comfort Olivia and allow us to comfort her. Pray for her to let her guard down and let us in. Pray for us to know the right things to do and say. Pray of course for our paperwork that we'll be able to get home ASAP and pray for Mr. Jake back at home and everyone taking care of him. Thank you guys so much for your prayers! We can't wait to get home so you can all see Olivia's gorgeous smile in person! Give Jake kisses and hugs for us if you see him!

P.S. Steph, I miss you! It's been a whole week since we talked on the phone! I was going to call you, but realized it was the middle of the night there. I'll try to call you soon though. Sometimes I just need to talk to my Stephanephanie :< )

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!!!

It's Thursday at 3:47 p.m. so I'll be the first to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving! I'm definitely missing the mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes, and most of all the green bean casserole! We made it to HCMC (Saigon) yesterday afternoon about 5 p.m. 7 or 8 hours in a van with Olivia and Anna was an experience. Olivia actually did incredibly well. She slept through a good bit of it and checked out the scenery a bit. Poor Anna had a bit of motion sickness though. She's such a happy baby though. She smiles and laughs all the time. Olivia is spending a lot of time checking out her surroundings from the comfort of her Mommy's hip. She did great yesterday with no crying. She HATES the bed though. She doesn't want to lay on it under any circumstances! This is obviously a problem. Actually, it's not just the bed, it's the hotel room in general. Mike thinks it's because she's spent her life in a place without windows or doors so she feels very confined. I think he's probably right. He finally had to walk up and down the hall with her today until she fell asleep. She was SCREAMING in the hotel room. I'm sure they heard her all the way down in the lobby and we're on the 7th floor. I am heart broken for her. I can't even begin to try and imagine what must be going through her head. As far as she was concerned she was perfectly content and happy living in the orphanage where she had spent almost all of her life. Then here we come speaking a strange language that she doesn't understand and we take her from the only life she's ever known on a van for 8 hours and into a bustling city with people everywhere going every direction. Then we seclude ourselves into a small room without open windows and doors and expect her to be fine with it. We don't know what else to do though. We can't very well sleep on the sidewalk. This is very very frustrating. I know it will get better with time, but right now it's just plain tough.

I'm also getting very homesick for Jake. I had been doing really well up until now, but we've hit the 1 week mark and it's definitely starting to set it. I just need to smell his hair and kiss his sweet cheeks. I need yucky boo boo kisses and for him to hold something behind his back and say in his most adorable voice, "Mommy, I have a surprise for you!" Usually it's gum or a diet Mt. Dew. He's such a sweet boy. Oh my goodness. I miss him so so much. I actually ache for him. My arms are aching for him. I don't know if that makes any sense at all.

Anyway, I want to write about a few interesting things here. Number one, Ho Chi Minh - the deceased and most loved president of Vietnam whom they renamed Saigon after - looks just like The Colonel from KFC. (If you are Vietnamese and reading this by chance, please forgive me for saying that - but it's true.) There are statues and pictures everywhere of him and on all of the money. There is also an actual KFC around the corner, but we haven't checked it out yet. We'll be here probably until at least Monday or Tuesday and then we'll fly to Hanoi once we know what day our Visa interview is. Please pray for it to be next week so that we can be home by the end of next week or the first of the next week!!!! That would be such a huge blessing to us. We love Vietnam but we're SO ready to come home.

Secondly, the potties. Most of the places we go they have western potties which are like the ones we use in the US. They also have squatty potties everywhere. These are potty "holes" that you obviously squat over. We were expecting that. So far I haven't had to use one, but I'm a country girl, so it really wouldn't be that big of a deal. I've been squatting in the woods my entire life. I know I know, too much information. The weird thing is that when we were at the orphanage Olivia's Nanny took her to the potty and I followed. She pulled her pants down (they don't wear panties by the way - I of course think this is fabulous and perfectly normal) and had her squat on the bathroom floor. NOT over the potty, just on the floor. She said ssshhhh sssshhhhsssshhhh and Olivia teetee'd on the floor. Ok. Interesting. So then when we went to the G & R ceremony yesterday at a government building, she took her to the potty there and did the same thing. Just right on the bathroom floor and didn't clean it up either time! I was puzzled and of course a bit, um, grossed out. Especially since I thought back to all of the wet bathroom floors I had traipsed across recently. So I asked Thomas about it, who is our Vietnam facilitator and attorney here who works for Dillon and he said that's just how they do it here. What? Oh dear me. I'm very happy to say that Olivia has only used the toilet since we've had her. We had to introduce it to her, but she took to it quickly. She's also like her Mommy and doesn't like to use unclean ones! She refused to potty on the way to HCMC from Ninh Thuan yesterday. That's 8 hours! My girl has a good bladder! She went at the hotel when we got here. She'll also go to the bathroom or tug at her pants when she needs to go. We're very happy that she's potty trained! We put her in diapers at night, but she hasn't wet them yet. She's doing just great. If only we could get this hotel room/bed situation figured out we'd be perfect.

She started waving bye bye and blowing kisses last night and this morning Mike got the coveted FIRST KISS!!! It was so precious. He was beaming of course! I have gotten several since then as well, but he got the first one. Lucky Daddy! She's just a sweet, beautiful girl and we are very proud to be her parents. We can't wait to see her with Jake. He'll love her to death. I can just imagine all the yucky boo boo kisses now! For those of you who haven't been fortunate enough to receive one, those are VERY wet open mouthed kisses from Jake on the cheek. Although these days, he tends to give puppy kisses more often which are obviously little licks on the cheek. Yucky, but sweet! I miss them very much.

I have a million more stories, but they'll have to wait for us to come home. I also am not sure I'll be able to post anymore pictures because the laptop we have isn't working properly right now so I'm having to use the hotel's computer downstairs. You can all see the MILLION pictures I've taken when we get back. If you see my Jakey Poo, give him a big hug and kiss from his Mommy, Daddy and baby sister. He talked to her on the phone yesterday, but she hasn't started talking for us yet. She's still holding herself in a bit. She's opening up little by little but it will take time. HAPPY THANKSGIVING everyone!!! Enjoy some casserole for me and some turkey for Mike.

Please pray for us and our traveling partners that we'll receive our passports and I-600 interviews tomorrow and we'll get our visa interviews next week!!! We're ready to get back to the good old USA and make Olivia an official American girl!

As I type (one handed) Olivia is fast asleep in my lap! This has been such an awesome day! She is ours FOREVER!!!!!!!!!! She is doing really well. Checking everything out. Very cautious yet will sit in our laps and snuggle a bit. She's tiny!!!!!!!!!!! I brought all 2T and 24 month clothes and the only outfit that fits her is a dress that ties in the back. Oh dear me. We're going to have to do LOTS of shopping in HCMC tomorrow. Mike is off applying for her passport. She cried for 5 minutes when he left. I think that's a good sign. Regardless, he'll be sad she cried but tickled that she cried for him. She is absolutely precious! (Jake, you will love her to death! I can't wait for you to meet her!!)

I would like to say a huge thank you to Daddy Don and JuJu for taking such good care of our sugarbear while we're gone. They are the best grandparents in the world. Jake is doing really well. He misses us and asks about us a lot, but he's doing well so far. Please remember to pray for him.

I'll may not post any more pictures until we get to HCMC tomorrow night. Olivia is a cutie and loves to chat on her Barbie cell phone. Leaving the orphange today was very bittersweet. It has been her home for 2 1/2 years. The people there have been - and will continue to be - her family. It is a beautiful place and full of more love than you could ever imagine. I wouldn't trade this trip for anything in the world. It has been a blessing to us to see her country and her people. We will definitely make many more trips here when our children are a bit older.

I'll try to write more later! Sleeping beauty needs her rest!

Day 2 with Olivia!!

We just returned to the hotel from day two at the orphanage. Olivia is just precious. She fell asleep in Mike's arms today and it was so sweet. They also let us feed her lunch which consisted of rice, beef, shrimp and soup. It also had some vegetables in it. We were very impressed with the food they feed them. I also found out that Olivia still drinks from a bottle, which is great. That will give us lots of cuddle time! She sat in my lap and Mike tried to feed her but she would turn her head and bury her face in my chest. I took the spoon and she ate a few bites. I figured since she fell asleep in Mike's arms for the first time we were even since I got to feed her first! She's just the tiniest thing in the world. I can't convey to you how tiny she is. Her little arms and legs are just tiny tiny. She has such soft skin and she smells so sweet. Her hair is soft and she has the absolutely smallest nose I've ever seen in my life! I don't think Jake's nose was this small when he was a newborn!

Tomorrow is our g&r and she'll be our daughter forever. Of course we already think of Olivia as our daughter, but tomorrow it will be official! I just can't believe it. It's surreal. Happy happy happy!!!!!!!!!!! I'm also happy that she'll be able to hear Jake on the phone tomorrow! He'll be very pleased. We talked to him last night and told him we had been to see Olivia. He was disappointed that we hadn't already gotten her. Only one more day Jakey Poo!

The orphanage is so nice and we have loved getting to spend so much time there. I think we've been very lucky to have been here early enough to visit the orphanage and our children three times. I held most of the babies today and one of them is brand new. She still even has a black belly button. She can't be more than a couple of weeks old. All of the nannies are just absolutely amazing. I know that Olivia has been incredibly well cared for. How much they love the children is obvious.

I think we'll go have lunch now and go for a swim at the beach on the South China Sea. This is without a doubt the most beautiful place we've ever been. It's amazing. Hope all is going well at home. Give Jake love for us!! I'll try to post some pictures later tonight.

Here is our first moment with Olivia! She had wet hair from just getting a bath! She was even more beautiful than we could have ever imagined!

The first of MANY moments she'll spend sitting in her Mommy's lap!

Snuggling with Daddy!

Our pretty girl spending some precious time in her Daddy's lap!

Meeting little Miss Olivia

This has been an unbelievable day! After 3 1/2 long years we have finally come face to face with our beautiful Olivia! She is absolutely angelic. I know no other way to describe her. She's just breathtaking! She's also incredibly tiny and delicate, which I honestly wasn't expecting. She looks bigger in pictures! She's a tiny little thing and as light as a feather. Just as sweet as can be!

I'll start at the beginning. We arranged for a wake up call at the hotel in Saigon this morning. We were supposed to be downstairs ready to leave at 6 a.m. we woke up at 12 till 6. Apparently the guy at the front desk didn't understand some part of what I wanted. Anyway, we made it down quickly and boarded a van for Ninh Thuan. It was Mike, Mandy, Arnaud and I along with our driver and Phuong. I think that's how you spell it. Her name is pronounced like fun except the u sounds like oo instead of uh. Anyway, we rode for 7 hours to get to Ninh Thuan. I thought it was a lovely drive. Vietnam is absolutely gorgeous. Lots of mountains and beautiful greenery everywhere! We stopped at a little market and bought some fresh mandarin organges. That was a great treat. You can eat fruit here if it's peelable, otherwise you have to pass on it. Anything that has been rinsed in the water could be dangerous to eat. Mike and I sat on the last row of the van and Mandy and Arnaud sat in the middle. We really could only see out the side windows which was apparently a good thing because Mandy was very nervous about the driving she could see out the front window! The vans and scooters just drive all over the road and there's constant honking. It's absolutely wild. You can't imagine it unless you've been here. It's a gorgeous drive though and you get to see so much of the countryside. We were so excited to see the shore! It's completely different than the beaches in the states of course. It borders the South China Sea and it's beautiful. I'll try to get some photos tomorrow.

We arrived at our hotel around 1 p.m. and ate lunch. We left for the orphanage at 2:30 packed with Cheerios, raisins, and stacking cups for Olivia to play with. The orphanage is about 15 minutes from our hotel. We drove up and there were kids here and there outside playing. They are in the process of building another section and also building a play ground for the kids, so there is a bit of construction going on. We all get out and head upstairs where they keep the kids under two. Mandy and Arnaud's little girl is still up there even though she turned 2 in October. Her name is Anna. They bring Anna out and we're waiting waiting waiting. We ask about Olivia and one of the nanny's sends another little girl to look for her. After a few minutes they tell us that they're giving her a bath and she'll be up in a bit. Oh dear me! So we enjoyed watching M & A with Anna. She's a precious little thing! SO tiny!

We played with the other babies up there and fed them some Cheerios while we waited for the arrival of Miss Olivia. Fashionably late of course! A girl after my own heart! Then we saw her walking up the steps. I knew her immediately of course. It was like something out of a dream. She was gorgeous. I don't know if I can think of words to describe it. It was as if the heaven's opened up and Jesus placed this precious gift before us. That's of course essentially what happened! I wish I could tell you exactly what all happened but it's mostly a blur! We sat down on the ground and she sat in Mike's lap first I think - no maybe mine. I don't remember! Regardless, it all went really well. She was leary of course, but she didn't cry and she sat with us and let us feed her Cheerios and raisins. She liked the little stacking cups and we ended up leaving two of them with her. The others disappeared. She looked at us a lot and allowed us to put her hair back behind her ears and cuddle her and give her kisses on the cheek. I think these are good signs! She wasn't overly affectionate though, which oddly enough is also a good sign. Her nanny was fabulous. She was so sweet with her. Everyone there was very nice and the children were all loved and well taken care of. They all loved the nannies as well. The orphanage was very clean. We were incredibly impressed by everything and everyone we saw.

We stayed for about three hours and played with our girls and the other children. It was amazing!!! I'm so so so so thankful that we were able to arrive early enough to see Olivia on two different days before she's ours for good. I can't wait to see her in the morning! We're going back to the orphange to visit at 8 a.m. Oh! One thing that happened after we had been there a couple of hours - Mike and I were sitting on a ledge outside on the sidewalk on the bottom floor and Olivia went into her room with her nanny and after a minute or two came back out by herself and sat down right next to me. It was so neat! I know that understands that we're different than the other foreign people she has seen at the orphanage. I don't know if she gets that she's leaving in two days, but it was obvious that she knew we were there for her. She's just so precious. I can't wait for you all to meet her!!! We took lots and lots of pictures and my laptop battery is dead, so I have to run upstairs and get my cords before I can download them. We don't have internet in our rooms here. I'll try to get a few posted tonight. Thanks for all of the prayers everyone! We still miss Jake terribly but we're loving Vietnam (except for the tremendous heat - imagine Arkansas in August) and we LOVE Olivia!!! 1 1/2 more days and she'll be ours forever!!! God is so so so good!!!!!!!!!!! Lots of love to you all - especially our Sugarbear!!!!!!!!

Hello from Vietnam!!!

I just wrote a very long post all about our trip so far and somehow lost it!!! I don't have the energy to type it all again. We are exhausted!!! It's 11 p.m. Saturday our time I think. I'm so confused. I'm just too sleepy to think. Anyway, we're in Vietnam and it's beautiful and amazing. We're leaving at 6 in the morning headed to Ninh Thuan. We'll finally meet Olivia tomorrow afternoon! I can't believe it!!!!!! We talked to Jake on the phone tonight and that definitely lifted our tired spirits. We miss him so so so so so much. We're thrilled to finally be here though and meeting our girl. Vietnam is lovely and the people are so kind. I can't wait to tell you all about the trip tomorrow. We'll see a good bit of the coast line as we drive 7 hours up to Olivia's orphanage. We can't wait!

We miss you all and can't wait to get home to everyone especially our sugarbear, JAKE! If you see him give him a kiss from us. Hopefully I'll have pictures of Miss Olivia to post tomorrow night! Goodnight from Vietnam!

Today has been an extremely tough day. I knew that leaving Jake was going to be hard, but I had no idea how hard. I've been crying for about a week now in anticipation of this day, and crying every five minutes all day long today all while trying to keep Jake from seeing my sadness. I've completely devoted the last two days to Jake and tried to make them as fun as possible. We have the Christmas tree up and decorated and he even has one of his own in his room. He's very proud. He's the sweetest boy God ever put on this planet other than Jesus Christ. Jake runs a very close second.

Right now I'm feeling every emotion possible. I'm incredibly sad about leaving Jake, yet thrilled to finally be travelling to bring Olivia home. I'm anxious and worried, happy and heartbroken, tired and exhilarated. How can all of this happen at once? My poor body.

Jake is staying with my in-laws. They are fantastic grandparents and Jake loves them to death. He smothered us with kisses and hugs before we left him there tonight. He's very anxious to have Olivia home. He doesn't understand how long we'll be gone, but I think after we packed essentially every article of clothing he owns, he was beginning to get the picture. Luckily, they'll be out at the house everyday feeding the dogs and fish, along with hunting of course, so he'll be able to play with all of his stuff and get different movies to watch, etc. I'm the one that's losing their mind. Mike is pretty upset too, but he's much better at hiding it. It was tough watching him kiss and hug Jake goodnight for the last time in a while tonight though. His eyes welled up with tears, but he held them back. He's a bigger man than me.

Ok. I've gotta finish packing. Yes, we're leaving in 4 1/2 hours and I'm not done packing. This is normal behavior for me! Please pray for us while we're gone and if you see my sugarbear, give him a big kiss for me! The next time you hear from me, we'll be in VIETNAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THE MUNN FAMILY (75% complete!)

I thought I would post one more picture of us as a family of three. Our niece Emma took this picture of us at the SAU rodeo in October. There is definitely room for one more in our family photo but I will always treasure this last one of us as just three. Now that we're in our final days here at home before we leave for Vietnam, we're trying to focus all of our time and attention on Jake. It's wonderful to think about Olivia finally coming home, but it's also sad to leave the life with just Jake that we've lived for nearly four years. He's an amazing kid and he'll absolutely adore Olivia. I have no doubt that the first person he hugs at the airport will be her and not us. He's SO excited about being a big brother. He's the sweetest boy in the world. I know I sound like a broken record, but Mike and I are so incredibly blessed. I can't thank God enough for all that he has given us - especially for our marriage and children.

Olivia's Room!

This is a very cute plaque I bought for Olivia at Canton. So adorable!

Some mirrors for my beautiful girl to look at herself in!

A bed fit for a princess! I wish you could see the pillows. One of them says, "If the shoe fits, buy it in every color" If Olivia is anything like me, she'll try to do just that. The canopy also has iridescent butterflies here and there. I wish the pictures were better quality so you could see all of the little details. Darn dial up. You'll just have to come by to see her room (and more importantly - HER!) in person when we get back fromVietnam!

A desk for her to write poetry at :<) The sign above her desk reads, "Jesus Loves Me." I hope she holds that knowledge within her forever. Nothing else in the world can give her more comfort.

A wide view of her room. Please notice her most elegant chandelier! The pictures don't do it justice! Everyone thought I was nutty when I decided to put a crystal chandelier up, but it looks spectacular! Everyone has been eating their words. The large white word in the inset shelves reads, "Dream." In my opinion if we don't have our dreams, we have nothing. My prayer for Olivia is that she'll always follow her dreams and keep Jesus in the driver's seat.

We're leaving for Vietnam in THREE days!!!!

Please continue to pray for all of us. When Mike asked for prayers for us this morning at church, he asked specifically that they pray that I don't lose my mind being without Jake. Those particular prayers would be especially appreciated! Please also pray for our trip there and back and please pray for Olivia. Pray for God to give her an understanding of what is happening to her. Pray for God to give her comfort and peace. Pray for us to bond as a family and for her to feel safe and secure with us. She has been through so much in her life already. Please also pray for Jake to understand why we're gone and that we're coming back soon. He knows we're leaving and why, but a 3 year old has no real concept of time. He'll just know that we've been gone a LONG time. Pray also for JuJu and Daddy Don! They'll be running around in circles chasing after him. We appreciate the comments, emails, phone calls, cards, and certainly the donations from all of our friends and family, but we ask for your prayers above all else. The prayers of the faithful move mountains. Jesus said so and Jesus doesn't lie! A HUGE thanks to all of you who are praying for us out there! God bless you and your families!

Building our nest!

I'm nesting! I've never cleaned so much in my life. It's absolutely bizarre! I have an insatiable need for everything to be clean and in order! I've even rearranged the furniture in 4 different rooms. Very peculiar stuff. I've been telling Jake that we're going to put the Christmas tree up and I may finally get it up today. I realize it's a bit early, but we don't expect to be back home before the 1st or 2nd week of December, so I wanted to go ahead and get all of my decorating done. That way I can just focus on my two Munn munchkins! It's going to be wild trying to get Jake's birthday party all together and finish buying Christmas presents with two toddlers. I can't wait though!

Today is the first day of deer season with a rifle in Arkansas. That's a BIG BIG day at our house! Our deer camp is actually in our backyard, so there are people, trucks, 4 wheelers and campers all over the place. There are also a few sleeping bags throughout my house. We have three of our friends from Illinois staying with us. The first week of deer season is always so much fun. Jake is finally old enough to truly enjoy it to, which makes it even more fun for us. Mike has already taken in several deer today. He does such amazing work. I'm so incredibly proud of him! Daddy Don is going to take in mounts for us while we're gone to Vietnam. We are blessed to have such wonderful family.

We're leaving in 4 1/2 days!!!!! I can't believe it! That's scary when I actually count down the days. That's not long! I've got lots more nesting to do between now and then!

Happy Deer Season!

God is so good!!!

We had such an amazing weekend! God has been so incredibly good to us. We had our final garage sale Friday and Saturday. I prayed for $500 and God gave us $516! On Sunday, our wonderful home church, First Baptist Church of McNeil, held a fundraiser for us and raised exactly $2000!!!!!!!!!!!! That's TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS!!!! We were blown away by God's blessings and by the outpouring of love from our friends and family! If you ever want to truly learn to rely on God - ADOPT A CHILD! You have no choice but to leave it all in God's hands!

On a more concerned note, we found out today that because of the upcoming APEC Summit we may experience some delays. President Bush is traveling to Hanoi the 14th and 15th of this month and because of that, the US Embassy in Hanoi will be reducing their non-emergency services from Nov 6th - 20th. As a result, they will either not be taking Visa applications during that time or at least not very many, which means they will probably be backed up by the time we apply for Olivia's visa to return to the states at the end of November. The embassy is only open 3 days a week, so we were already concerned about it taking extra time to get her visa which is why we're expecting to be in Vietnam for 3+ weeks. It is amazing to see how much progress has already been made with Vietnam relations and we are thrilled that President Bush is working so very hard to improve things. We're also a little bit selfish and worried about being in Vietnam for longer than anticipated. Jake's 4th birthday is December 14th and I want more than anything to be home by then. Please pray for relations with Vietnam and also for a quick visa interview for Olivia! We want to bring her home ASAP! We're so so ready to finally be a family of 4 all together under one roof!

We've got tickets!!!

I'm very happy to say that we received our airline tickets by FedEx today! The fellow taking care of our travel arrangements has been so wonderful! For those of you adopting, we're using Todd Galileo and I HIGHLY recommend him! I'm also happy to say that the tickets weren't as horrific as we thought they might be. We spent $4200 for me, Mike and Olivia. That's not chump change by any stretch of the imagination, but it could have been worse. We're so grateful that God saw fit to lower gas prices just in time for us to fly half way around the world! We're flying out of Shreveport, LA early in the morning on the 16th. We'll meet up with Mandy and Arnaud in Dallas and then we'll be together for the remainder of the trip. We'll all fly to LAX and have a 4 1/2 hour layover. My brother (who lives in San Diego) is hopeful that he'll be able to drive up and at least meet us for lunch. Then we're on to Taipei, Taiwan where we'll spend the night. That will be the longest leg of the trip. 14 hours in a plane at one time!!! Ugh! Luckily, we're flying Eva air which has deluxe accommodations which as I understand it are equivalent to business class. More room, more reclining. Sounds nice. Then we'll fly out on the 18th (we lose half a day on the flight out there) and arrive in Vietnam around noon on the 18th. Total 22 hours in the air. Oh my goodness. I'm so excited though!!!!! I can't believe we're finally going. It's completely surreal.

We're having another of our famous garage sales this weekend. We didn't have nearly as much stuff though so we're not expecting to break any records. God has truly blessed our garage sales. Friends and family have donated lots of stuff over the last year to help out. We made $1100 on the first one, then $900, then $1600 on the last one! We made over $300 today and will be open all day tomorrow. We even had some friends call this evening with a desk, chair, framed prints and some linens that we went a picked up. We have such an awesome support system! Our wonderful church, First Baptist Church of McNeil, is also having a luncheon fundraiser for us this Sunday. I'm so overwhelmed by how wonderful everyone has been to us. I know I say this often, but I really can't say it enough - WE ARE SO BLESSED! I hope that whatever is going on in your lives today that you can thank God for it and tell others how blessed you are. Have a great weekend everyone!

WE GOT IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We finally got the call!!! At 3:05 p.m. today our most wonderful angelic social worker, Kimberly, called to tell us we finally have our precious giving and receiving date!!! To say that we're elated would be a HUGE understatement!!! We are literally jumping up and down here! I was able to be the one to call our co-traveler Mandy and tell her that in 3 weeks time, we will have our daughters in our arms!!! That was one of the best phone calls I've ever gotten to make in my life!!! This is an AWESOME DAY!!!! On November 21st, Olivia will finally be OUR DAUGHTER!!!!!! Our g & r ceremony will be on the 21st and we have to be in Ho Chi Minh City on Nov 18th. Please pray for us as we scramble to make plans to leave, purchase tickets, pack, and the hardest of all, prepare to leave Jake here while we're gone. THANK YOU GOD FOR OUR G & R!!! Our God truly is an AWESOME GOD!!!! Thanks to all of you who have been praying for us! I'll let you know more details as I know them.

PRAISE GOD! PRAISE GOD! PRAISE GOD!

Our future Baptist preacher! I hope this picture is more clear on your computers than it looks on mine! Jake is so handsome! I've been praying since Jake was a baby that God would call him to preach. This was long before Mike surrendered. I assure you that I never mentioned to Jake that I wanted him to be a preacher, but since he could talk, that's all he's ever said he wants to be. He wants to be a preacher like his Daddy. So, when we bought him his first suit a couple of weeks ago, he was ELATED!!!!! He was completely speechless when we first showed it to him. It was so precious. I have it on video. He LOVES his suit, and he's absolutely the most handsome boy in the world! I will continue to pray that God uses him in a mighty way. In the meantime, I'll just enjoy looking at him in his "preacher suit!"

I can't believe it! It actually let me post a picture of Jake with the "great pumpkin!" I had to make it a very low quality to get it to go with my ridiculously sloooooow dial up, but here it is! This makes me feel much better! We're very excited about Halloween tomorrow! Jake is going to wear what is actually a Lightening McQueen pit crew outfit, but he's going as a race car driver and he'll wear his LMc helmet and drive around in his LMc car. He's going to be so cute! Now that I've figured out that I can send pictures again, I'll be sure to post one of him! As for the adoption, we still haven't gotten our g&r date, but I feel good about it possibly coming tomorrow. Halloween seems like a perfect day to finally get some good news!

I am a "real mom" times 2

I meant to post about this earlier, but with all of the insanity of waiting for the g&r, I completely forgot about it. There was some confusion about Jake's insurance at his doctor's office, so Mike and I went over to the billing office one day last week to take them his insurance card. The woman who waited on us seemed like a nice enough girl. She looked like she was in her late 20's. Then she asked me a strange question. "Are you his real mom?" I was completely puzzled by her question and I garbled out a yes. I looked up at Mike and he was just as puzzled as I was. I laughed about it being an odd question and asked why she asked. She told me a story about another woman who had come in some time before with her adopted daughter. Essentially, she said that she couldn't help the woman because she didn't have her adoption papers with her and she wasn't the girl's "real mom." WHAT????? This is when I start getting irritated. Somehow this all seemed like a logical thing to her. I explained that we are adopting a little girl and that I would be her real mom. Her response in an 'are you stupid?' voice, "Uh, not really." She actually said that to me! She said to me that I wasn't Olivia's REAL MOM!!!! I replied, "Uh, YES - I AM." In my 'I'm fixing to knock the heck out of you' voice. Mike gave me a look that said, 'Let it go, Casey. Please just let it go.' Honestly, I was speechless. For anyone who knows me personally, that doesn't happy very often. I didn't know what to say to this ignorant woman. I'm not calling her ignorant in a mean way. I'm calling her ignorant in a factual way. If she doesn't understand that I am actually Olivia's "real mom" then she's ignorant about what it takes to be a "real mom." Don't even get me started on her need to learn proper adoption verbage. I realize that I've been running a crisis pregnany center for the last two years, so I use adoption lingo constantly, but I think the average person would at the very least believe that an adoptive mom is a real mom. Good grief. I'm still agravated about it a week later.

I'll also take this opportunity to say that I am in no way trying to say that Olivia's birth mom wasn't also her "real mom." It definitely takes a real mom to make the courageous decision to place their child for adoption. That is a parenting decision. Olivia's birth mom was incredibly brave. I owe her so much. To repay her I can give her my prayers and I can teach Olivia about the love it took for her birth mom to choose adoption. Talking about Olivia's adoption and her birth mom will be a regular occurence throughout her life. For the rest of our lives we will hold Olivia's birthparents up in prayer. I pray for their salvation most of all. I pray that one day Mike and I will be given the chance to say thank you to them in heaven.

I am blessed to be a real mom to two beautiful children both given to me by God in different ways. Different, yet perfect ways. Thank you God for the gift of motherhood.

Guess who's still waiting...

Still no news today. I feel like there is an extremely heavy blanket covering me and I just can't get it off. The only other time in my life that I have felt this helpless was when my Mom died. It's the only other time in my life where I felt like I had absolutely no control over anything. I have complete and total faith in God's plan. He can see a much broader view of the world than I can. He knows things I couldn't possibly know. There is a reason we don't have our g&r yet. These are all things I'm certain of, and I'd much rather have God in control than me, but somehow it isn't making me feel much better right now. I think that's the Mama in me. We want to know what's going on at all times! We want specific dates, times and places. I like specifics. Why why why did I pray for patience?!?!

Still waiting. No news today, but of course the day isn't over. Thanks to all of you who have left comments. I just love getting those. Thanks also to everyone for their prayers. I feel them! I wish so much that my internet connection was faster so I could upload pictures. It would make me feel better if I could send Jake's smiling face out for everyone else to see. I wouldn't make it without him. As anxious and frustrated as we are, I know the waiting must be much more difficult for those who don't already have children at home. On the other hand, it will be harder for us while we travel than them because we have to leave Jake at home. I guess no matter how you look at it, this is a difficult journey. The great news is that according to my Father in heaven, the most difficult journeys are the ones with the most reward. In our case we will be rewarded with a precious daughter and baby sister. We wouldn't trade a minute of this journey for anything!

The waiting game isn't a fun game!

I feel like a teenager except that instead of sitting by the phone waiting for a call from a goofy boy, I'm sitting here at the computer waiting for an email telling me we can FINALLY travel to bring our daughter home. My how things have changed! This waiting is much more difficult but also MUCH more worthwhile! We completely expected to hear from Dillon today. I have been on pins and needles for the last two days. Poor Mike. He's about ready to strangle me. When they have the date, Dillon will send us an email telling us the date for our Giving and Receiving Ceremony. We should have around two weeks before the date to plan our trip. So, if we get our g&r date tomorrow and it's set for say, November 8th, then we would leave the states around the 5th.

I'll tell you sort of what our trip itinerary will look like. We will fly into Ho Chi Minh City (also known as Saigon) and depending on what time we arrive, either go to the orphanage the next day or the next. We'll ride a van to her province and we'll meet Olivia that day and then the g&r ceremony will most likely be the following day. Her caregiver will bring her to the g&r and once we go through the ceremony and sign papers, she'll be ours! Then we'll apply for her passport and wait a couple of days for it. Once we have her passport, we'll fly to Hanoi and apply for her visa to come to the states. Depending on how quickly we can get our interview there, we'll wait a few days or a week or better. Some families have been gone over 3 weeks, some just over 2. We're definitely praying for 2, but preparing for 3 just in case. That's a very rough overview of our trip.

Please pray pray pray for us to receive our g&r date ASAP!!! We are desperate to bring our daughter home and get back to Jake as soon as possible, too. We are so ready to be a complete family!!! On a very good note one of my very best friends, Stephanie, told me a few nights ago that they had been working on having a fundraiser for us! Our church is having a hamburger lunch fundraiser on November 5th to raise money to help us pay for our trip! It was a complete and WONDERFUL surprise! We have been so incredibly blessed by our church, our friends and our family. We're also having another garage sale this weekend. Even when we had no idea how we were going to come up with whatever amount of money we were going to need for the adoption, it's always been there. God has always been faithful to provide.

Thanks to all of you out there who are praying for us. You have no idea what it means to our family! Please pray for quick travel, pray for Jake as he stays home with JuJu and Daddy Don, please pray for Olivia and pray for us that we don't go nuts before we're all home together at last!

P.S. While you're praying, please pray also for the awesome family that will be traveling with us. They are also leaving behind their son with grandparents to bring their daughter home from the same orphanage Olivia is in. We've spoken to them quite a bit on the phone and they are great people. We are so thrilled to share this with them!

But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto our children's children. Psalm 103:17

(Sometimes I just need to be reminded that God's mercy is everylasting. Right now is one of those times.)

I thought I would post a cute picture of my little pumpkin, Jake, next to an actual pumpkin that is about 4 times his size, but my slooooowww dial-up is preventing me from uploading it. Dial-up is pretty much the only thing I don't like about living in the sticks. I would be perfectly content to live in a one room cabin in the mountains with my beautiful family as long as I could have a superfast internet connection and a Wally World not too far away. I suppose I should try to be more like Paul and be content with my situation. At least I'm not imprisoned in Rome, right?!

We haven't heard anything new on the adoption front. We still expect to hear about our G&R date next week and hopfully leave for Vietnam within the next 3 weeks or so. That's what we're praying for! We found out yesterday that because of the upcoming holidays, airfare to Vietnam is going to skyrocket. The tickets that we thought were going to cost about $1000 per person are now looking like they will be closer to $3000 per person. We're not sure how we're going to swing the extra expense, but we know that God will provide. On top of that yesterday, we took the Explorer in to be checked out. It started making a weird noise Thursday night. It turns out that we're going to have to replace the ENTIRE ENGINE. At this point, we're just laughing. If we didn't, we'd cry. Yesterday was a wild day. Jake and I were in the deer stand yesterday afternoon when the biggest buck I've ever had a shot at walked out. Jake was being so good and quiet. I got him out of my lap and standing up, got my gun up with the crosshairs right on the buck's shoulders and - - - - - - click. (For those of you who don't hunt - the clicking sound is NOT good.) My muzzleloader wouldn't fire. HOLY COW! Tried the second time ------- click. The deer didn't stick around for a third try. It was for the best though because Mike ended up going through nearly 20 caps before he finally got it to fire last night after we got home. I was LIVID. I don't know the last time I was so mad. If Jake hadn't been with me I probably would have just thrown the gun at the deer. I was so angry. Sweet Jake - he was just happy and content to have been there to see the deer at all. He teaches me lessons every single day.

Speaking of Jake and his sweetness, he is very excited about staying with JuJu while we're gone to bring Olivia home. Mostly because there is a huge box sitting in Olivia's room right now with 25+ wrapped gifts in it just for him! He'll be able to go to the box and pick out a present everyday that we're gone and if he's having a rough day, perhaps he can have two. He's such an amazing boy. We are so incredibly lucky. I told Mike last night that if God had let me make a list of everything I wanted in a child, I couldn't have even come close to describing how awesome Jake is. God had a bigger vision than I did! Jake is everything we could have ever hoped for in a child and so much more. He is a kiss straight from our Father. I'll hush now. I could go on and on about my baby boy. He's going to be a race car driver for Halloween. He'll be driving around in his Lightening McQueen car. He's VERY excited. I wish Olivia were here to be Tinkerbell. I'll just have to dress her up after we get home and take them around for Thanksgiving! Perhaps someone would give them a turkey leg. Hmmm.

I had hoped very much to have pictures of Olivia's room up for everyone to see, but like Jake's pumpkin pictures, it's not possible right now. I suppose you all will just have to come see it in person!