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!