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!

Here is a new picture of our beautiful Olivia. We are so blessed that another adoptive mom, Susie, took several pictures of Olivia while she was in Ninh Thuan a couple of weeks ago. Susie has adopted two precious girls from Vietnam. Her youngest daughter was adopted from the same orphanage that Olivia is in.

We get lots of questions about when Olivia is coming home and for people who have just learned of our adoption, they often ask how long she's been in the orphanage. Only rarely do people ask me what life is like for her now or what her life has been like for the last 27 1/2 months. I'm not even sure how comfortable I am sharing with family and friends the details of Olivia's young life - much less the strangers of the world who read our blog. I do feel compelled to tell everyone a few things though.

Mike and I have never been out of this country. We are so incredibly naive. We don't know what it means to suffer. Although neither of us grew up wealthy, we've never been without food or a home. We've never been without the love of parents. We've never been afraid and had absolutely no one permanent in our lives that we could trust. I can't fathom what it's like to be a young child and not have a Mommy to run to. I was blessed to have the most wonderful Mama in the entire world. I have also been blessed to have an amazing mother-in-law, Granny and step-mother who I love very much. I have never known a moment of my life where someone didn't think I was the world to them. Whether it was my Mama and Daddy, my husband or my son - I think that every second of my life I have been someone's focus, someone's priority. I am blessed. I am a child of God. There are no words that can describe that kind of love except to know that He gave His son's life for me. There isn't a person in this world I would give my son's life for. Not one.

Olivia has not had a Mommy or Daddy with her for the vast majority of her young life. I have no doubt in my mind though that there is a woman in Vietnam who has ached for her every single day since she last held Olivia in her arms. Her birthmother gave her the name Thi Diem My. That's part of her heritage. Actually it's bigger than that. It's a part of HER. It's a part of Olivia and a part of her birthmom. That's why we've chosen to keep the name Thi - the name she was given by the woman who gave her life. She had choices. Even the poorest of the poor have choices. She chose life and I am in tears right now thanking God for giving her the courage to choose life. I have no doubt that Olivia's birthmom thinks of her each and every day. Perhaps her birthfather does, too. I am thankful beyond words that our Father in Heaven has watched over her every second of her life since the moment of conception. She has always and will always have a Father who loves her unconditionally, who loves her while she's awake and while she's asleep. He loves her even when she doesn't think anyone else does. I have news for Miss Olivia Frances Thi Munn. She has a Mommy, Daddy and big brother right here in the great state of Arkansas who think she hung the moon and stars in the sky! We have dreamed of her for so long that we don't even remember the beginning of our love for her. I have dreamed of her since I was a little girl myself. I have loved her since I wasn't much older than she is now. My baby girl. She is God's gift to us. We are so blessed. I want to make sure that you know that if you know nothing else about Olivia's life - we are blessed to be a part of it. She isn't the lucky one. We are.

WE ARE BLESSED.

ADOPTION UPDATE!!!

We received an email today from our wonderful program director, Jynger, that Olivia's dossier has been sent to Hanoi!!! It will now be reviewed along with our dossier and then be sent back to her province to be reviewed. For most of the families who have already traveled, they received travel clearance about 3 weeks after they received their dossier update!!! This means that we could be hearing about our G & R (giving and receiving) date in just THREE WEEKS!!!

I've been praying (and had everyone I know praying!!!) for us to leave by the end of October and I absolutely believe that we will. I have complete FAITH in an awesome GOD!!! Mike and I are so incredibly excited!!!

I'll keep everyone updated as soon as we are! We also have some new pictures of Olivia and of course 10,000 pictures of Jake I'd like to share with everyone. Because of our s--l--o--w dial up, it takes to long to download them. Hopefully we'll have satelite internet in the next couple of weeks and you'll be swimming in photos of our two beautiful children!!!

Please keep praying for Olivia and all of the children and caretakers in her orphanage in Ninh Thuan. We also have some fellow Dillon friends with children in an orphanage in Vinh Long, so please pray for them as well. We're all incredibly anxious to bring our children home. Let us also never forget to pray for the children left behind. We will no doubt be haunted by them for the rest of our lives once we visit the orphanage. They are already in my thoughts and prayers.