Very proud Daddy and big brother!!!

Jake has been so excited these past two days about his baby sister! I have to admit that as thrilled as I am about Olivia, I'm also a little sad for Jake. His whole world is about to change. He's been our entire focus his entire life and now he's going to have a baby sister to share our time with. Knowing Jake though, he'll be happy to share his Mommy and Daddy. He's an incredibly sweet boy. I know I'm a bit biased, but he really is a sweetie. He's incredibly affectionate and loving. I have no doubt that Olivia will be smothered with kisses as soon as he sees her. She's going to be a very lucky little girl to have Jake as her big brother!

Waiting, waiting and more waiting!

Things have been so wild at our house the last two days! We are all just floating on air! We also got some very exciting news today - certainly not as exciting as yesterday's news though. Kimberly Alls (our wonderful social worker) called this afternoon and after wracking her brain for the last day remembered where she had seen our Olivia before. She saw a glimpse of her in another referral video. Needless to say, she was thrilled and called us immediately. She's mailing us a copy of the video in the morning so we can make a copy of it. There's only about a second of her on it, but we can't wait to see it! Hopefully if anyone from Dillon travels to Vietnam in the next couple of months, or if some of the other adoptive parents are able to bring their children home in the coming weeks we can get current pictures and videos of Olivia. That would be such a blessing! We are optimistic that the first families to receive referrals will be able to travel within the next month or so. They are certainly in our prayers.

As difficult as the waiting has been thus far, it will no doubt be much harder now that we know our baby girl's face. We know where she is and what she looks like, yet we can't get to her. It's a feeling I can't even begin to describe. For those of you with children, just imagine what it would be like for one of your kids to be 2 years old, in a foreign country, living in an orphange and you're helpless to do anything for them. You can't see them, can't bring them home, can't even call them or send them a teddy bear. For some reason we aren't allowed to send care packages. I'm not sure why. I would very much like to send Olivia some pictures and a fuzzy blanket and teddy bear. For now all we can do is send her our love. We are so grateful that God has been taking care of her while we wait to bring her home. We are also grateful to her birthmother and the nanny's and directors of her orphanage. She looks very healthy. I just hope that someone holds her when she's hurting and loves her and gives her kisses.

We love you Olivia and will bring you home as soon as we can!

Introducing Miss Olivia Frances Thi Munn!!!!

We are absolutely elated to share our first pictures of our daughter with you! We received "THE CALL" this morning jut after nine a.m. from our angelic social worker, Kimberly Alls that we have a referral!!! After hearing about her, I woke Mike up to tell him. We are BEYOND excited!!! After reading her information, we called our social worker back to tell her YES (which we had already done in the first call, but darn protocol says we have to read her paperwork first!) Then she emailed us her pictures. This is the first time we've seen our daughter's face! She's absolutely gorgeous!!!!!! Breathtaking!!!! We are IN LOVE!!!! She was born June 22, 2004. Mike has already dubbed her his Little Junebug. Jake calls her V. I've taken to calling her Livi lately. Regardless of her name, WE LOVE HER!!!! We can't wait to bring her home. The wait for travel clearance will be 3 to 6 months. Without going into ridiculous detail, the reason for the delay is sending paperwork back and forth between the US and Vietnam and between Hanoi and her orphanage. We have been praying for months for Olivia to be home by this Christmas, so please please pray with us for her to be home soon! We so desperately want to have our little girl in our arms where she belongs. She has a Mommy, Daddy and big brother who can't wait for her to come home! I should also probably mention she has grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and countless friends who want her home ASAP, too!!!

Hurry home Olivia! We love you so much!!!

Here is a picture of Jake in his cool new Lightning McQueen car. He has been flying all over the yard the last couple of days! He's feeling much much better now and I couldn't be more thankful. Aunt Cerra also bought him a Lightning McQueen helmet which is a good thing, because he definitely thinks he's a race car driver! Could he be more adorable?!?!

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AUNT CERRA!

On the road to recovery!!

I'm happy to say that Jake is on the road to recovery! He was admitted into St. Michael's in Texarkana on Saturday and we were able to come home Tuesday afternoon. He has been a VERY sick little boy. His breathing was much worse on Saturday and he was still running a high temperature so he had to spend several days in the hospital. After just one day of IV antibiotics his fever was gone! That was such an amazing answer to prayer! He's still on two different antibiotics and breathing treatments, but he's doing much much better. He's able to play and act like a kid again. I was just so thankful to see his smile again! I missed his sweet little grin. He was a very good boy in the hospital. The only thing that really bothered him was the IV. Being tied to a pole wasn't much fun. Especially when you were in a hurry to get to the potty! By the last day though he was going all over the place pushing the pole by himself. His favorite part of being in the hospital was the play room and the Icee's that came with lunch! I definitely recommend St. Michael's pediatric wing. They were so good to my Jakey Poo.

He's able to get up and around again but he can't play for more than a few minutes at a time and he can't get hot or he'll lose his breath. He has to take frequent rest breaks and breathing treatments when it gets very bad. He's still a million times better than he was though. His wonderful Aunt Cerra told him in the hospital that when he came home she would buy him the big Lightning McQueen car from Wal-Mart. It's the big drive in car that goes 5 miles per hour. As soon as we were in the car in the hospital parking lot, he was asking to go to Wal-Mart for his car. Aunt Cerra met us in Magnolia, and true to her word, bought Jake his very cool race car. He's been speeding all over the yard in it! Unfortunately it's been incredibly hot here this week, so he can only stay outside for a couple of minutes. I'm sure within a week or two he'll be down at the big pond in it and we'll be trying to figure out where he is!

THANK YOU so much for all of your prayers, phone calls, and emails! Jake would not be doing as well if it weren't for the prayers of the faithful! Please continue to pray for him as he recovers from pneumonia.

My Sweet Baby Boy

Jake has now been running a fever for 12 days. We took him to the doctor twice last week. They assured us (after two rounds of blood work, urine tests, etc.) that it was just a viral infection and would go away on it's own. The second time we took him, they discovered he also had an ear infection and a yucky throat. He put him on antibiotics. Still running fever. I decided sometime Monday that he has pneumonia. Of course doctor's don't work on holidays so it had to wait until today. I called this morning and the nurse told me AGAIN that it's just a viral infection and has to run it's course. I told her I thought it was pneumonia and that I was incredibly concerned about the length of time he's been running fever and how high it's been. "There's nothing you can do except wait it out but I'll ask the doctor about it and call you back." The doctor told us to come back in for MORE blood work. Once we got there, he checked his ears and throat again - all clear - and listened to his chest. Sounds good. I assured him it was pneumonia. WHY DON'T THEY JUST LISTEN TO ME??????? After a great deal of prodding on my part, they sent Jake upstairs for x-rays. As soon as we got them back I opened them up and put them up to the light. A huge spot on his left lung nearly as large as my hand. We got back down to the doctor's office and as soon as he walked in - PNEUMONIA. Imagine that. Jake's Mommy knowing what's wrong with him. Doctors drive me insane. Nurses drive me insane. I just wish that they would listen to me when I tell them what's wrong with my child. Just because I didn't go to medical school doesn't mean I don't have an understanding of the human body and how it works. Regardless, I know my son's body better than anyone else on this planet. I probably know his body better than my own.

Anyway, my baby boy has pneumonia. He gave him a strong antibiotic shot and put him on stronger twice daily antibiotics today. He also put him on breathing treatments. My poor angel has to use a nebulizer four times a day. (A great big thank you to Aunt Cerra for bringing up her extra nebulizer for Jake to use.) He's also on an expectorant. If his fever doesn't drop continuously in the next 48 hours, he's going to admit him to the hospital for 3 to 5 days for IV antibiotics. Jake has never been this sick before. It's killing me and Mike. We can't stand to see him like this. He's lost 5 pounds. In a kid that weighs 37 pounds, that's a lot. Did I mention he has diarrhea? This may be more information than you really want to know, but it's so horrible. He's been potty trained for an entire year, but he's been through 3 or 4 pairs of underwear a day for the last week because it's so terrible. On the way to Texarkana to the doctor today, we had to stop at Fred's in Stamps to buy pull-ups. We had to stop twice for accidents just on the way to the doctor. It's absolutely breaking his heart that he can't wear underwear. He takes it as meaning he's not a "big boy" anymore. I feel so sorry for him. He's so incredibly sick.

On top of all of this, today is the 5 year anniversary of my Mama's death. Pneumonia was one of her causes of death. This is NOT a good day.

Please pray pray pray for my sugarbear.

I want my daughter to come home. I was looking at pictures tonight of the children of other Dillon families who have already received their referrals from Vietnam. They are all so incredibly beautiful. I know that Olivia is alive. I know what country she's in. I know that I have loved her since I was a child. I knew one day I would have a daughter of my own and I loved her with my own little girl heart. It is incredibly difficult to know that my child is somewhere in this world and I can't touch her. I can't feel her breath on my skin as she sleeps next to me. I can't kiss her sweet lips and gingerly touch my fingertips to her cheeks. I can't be there for her when she cries. I have no idea if anyone is holding her in the way she deserves to be held. Who does she cling to when she's scared? I want my baby girl. I don't want her tomorrow or by Christmas. I want her home right now. Right this second. I want to cradle her in my arms and never let her go. Alas, God's timeline and my own aren't in alignment. I should be used to this by now, but I'm not. Not when it comes to my children.

Jake is still sick. Again, God's timeline and my own aren't aligning. Not only do I want Olivia home right this second, I want my son to be perfectly healthy right this second. He seemed a bit better this morning, but then he had fever again after his nap. It's just killing me that he's so sick and I can't seem to do anything about it. Two trips to the doctor, 4 days worth of antibiotics and he's still running a high fever and crying everytime he coughs. It's breaking my heart. There is definitely - FINALLY - a bright light at the end of this tunnel! Jake decided this afternoon he wanted to go to Wal-Mart and get a Spiderman toy! This is good! He wants to get off the couch! YAY! He picked out a Spiderman costume. It's adorable! He looks so cute in it. He loves to dress up. He also wanted a Sprite from McDonald's and decided he might try a Happy Meal. He ate 3 chicken McNuggets!!! This is HUGE progress! He also ate half of his fries! I never dreamed I'd be so excited about my son eating fast food! This is the first he's really eaten in days though so I'm thrilled.

There is a point to all of this of course. God always answers prayers. Sometimes just not when we want them answered. Sometimes he says, "wait." Jake is feeling better. A prayer answered! My daughter will be home soon. I will continue to pray that it's sooner rather than later! I know my prayer for my daughter to be home will also be answered in His time.