Olivia & Kennedy

Here is a picture of Olivia with her friend, Kennedy. Olivia is the one in yellow just in case you weren't sure (and shame on you if you couldn't tell!!!) Kennedy is in several pictures we've received of Olivia and she's also in Olivia's video. I had noticed her several times but was very pleased to find out recently that she is being adopted by another family from our adoption agency! Our program director has visited Olivia's orphange several times and said that they seem to be good friends. It does this Mom's heart well to know that my little girl has a best friend. Kennedy's mom, Elaine sent me this picture of our girls last week. They live in Tulsa, so we won't be planning play dates too often, but I do hope that we can get together a few times a year. One of the reasons we chose Dillon International as our adoption agency is because they have such great post-adoptive programs including family get togethers and cultural camps. Since quite a few children are being adopted from Olivia's orphanage by Dillon families, she'll be able to continue relationships with many of the friends she's lived with since she was just a baby. That means a lot to me. She's lost so much in her young life and I'm glad to know that she'll have a link to her past and her culture through other adopted friends from her same province.

Speaking of our program director who has visited Olivia's orphanage, I spoke to her last week about Olivia and mentioned that she was able to hold her the last couple of times she was there. She said that Olivia is very social and sweet. I was tickled! She looks so shy in pictures but of course, she's no doubt confused about the cameras and English speaking people. She better get ready, because if there is one thing I'm famous for it's taking pictures!

I feel pretty bad that I hardly ever post, but I'm sad to say that there is rarely any news to tell! I've spent the last two weeks working on Olivia's room and it has been so much fun! It's so much more fun to decorate for a girl than a boy. It's also much more fun to buy girl clothes. Boys just don't have much to choose from! Olivia's room is absolutely darling! It's about 99% done and I'll hopefully post pictures in the next couple of days. For any of you who can though, you should stop by and see it in person! I'm just a little bit proud. I'm completely and totally nesting! It's nice to have something to keep my mind off the waiting though.

Jake is pretty good at keeping us busy of course. He's absolutely hysterical. For those of you who don't have the fortune of spending oodles of time with him, I just can't put into words what a treasure he is. At least two or three times a day Mike just looks at me and says, "I love him. He's just amazing." I couldn't agree more. We are continually amazed at what a great kid we have. I can't tell you how often I thank God for Jake. He keeps me sane and he keeps me laughing. We took him to the Columbia County Fair Friday night and met up with our friends Todd, Stephanie, Sydney and Laney Scruggs. Sydney is Jake's "girlfriend." They are absolutely adorable together. They hold hands and sit together during church. It's the sweetest thing. Sydney's a good girl and she comes from a good family. You never know! I'll try to get a few pictures posted in the next couple of days and include one of them. They had the biggest time riding rides. Jake was really big enough this year to truly enjoy the rides. He was so excited. We also bought 5 candied apples (the thing I look forward to ALL YEAR LONG!) and we finished eating the last one today. Ah... another year before I can have another one. Next year we'll have to buy extra since Libba will be here to enjoy them as well! It's funny how whatever name your children call their siblings ends up being what you call them. I wonder how long Libba will last. My niece Carolina is still Lina because that's what her brother Chase called her as a child and she'll be 11 in a couple of months.

I would also like to add a great big CONGRATULATIONS to my friend Mary! Her family brought home their daughter last week, adopted from China. Welcome home Miss Vivian!

More Pictures!!

There are several families with our adoption agency that have LID's of August 29th and we've gotten together and started a Yahoo group so that we can rant and rave together. One of them is a family from Dallas. We have lots in common with them. They have a daughter, Anna, who is two and in the same orphanage as Olivia. They also have a biological son who will be 4 soon. Jake will be 4 in December. How weird is that?! The Mom, Mandy, seems really great and we look forward to meeting them in the very near future. We will no doubt be traveling throughout Vietnam with them and our daughters. She sent me a link to a video slide yesterday of a family who is currently in Vietnam. That family adopted their son from Ninh Thuan, where Olivia is, and posted a few pictures of the children at the orphanage. Olivia is in 4 of them! We are incredibly excited to get ANY pictures or information about Olivia, so we are thrilled! If you'd like to check them out go to http://2332357120.slide.com/p/1/craigwkids. Just click on the link and it should take you there. Enjoy! We certainly are!

Yay!!! We finally got our video of Libba!

Ok. Maybe this picture wasn't taken today, but this is a good representation of how excited Jake was to see a video of his baby sister - whom he calls Libba! This picture was actually taken at Yellowstone when we were on our trip a few weeks ago. We were all jumping up and down today though when we got our video. We had been expecting it since last week and I was about to lose my mind - which of course wouldn't be a big loss. The video was only about one minute long, but it was still so amazing to see her. She is absolutely gorgeous. She really is. I know that I'm biased, but honestly, she's BEAUTIFUL! I could just eat her up. I love her smooth skin and brown eyes and those pouty lips just kill me! All three of us can't wait to get our hands on her. I want to kiss those cheeks! Jake will no doubt give her huge bear hugs as soon as he sees her. She's going to be very lucky to have such a great big brother. God has truly blessed us with sweet beautiful children! Now if we could just get our whole family under one roof things would be perfect!

When I was pregnant with Jake, I eventually got to a point where I was couldn't sleep at night. I've heard this is preparation for those long nights when the baby doesn't exactly "sleep like a baby." Well, apparently I've come to the same stage in my "paper pregnancy!" I am having lots of trouble sleeping and then I'm exhausted all day long. My mind is absolutely racing! I can't believe that after all this time we're actually this close to having Olivia home. I can't seem to focus on anything anymore. I just think about Jake and Olivia. I can almost see him holding her hand walking into church, him helping her up steps, him feeding her (I can only imagine what all he'll try to feed her!) They are going to be so precious together. He's so looking forward to her coming home. I'm still sick at my stomach thinking about leaving him home while we travel to Vietnam, but I still believe it's the best decision for both he and Olivia. Wow! I'm actually getting sleepy now. Perhaps blogging is a good sedative for me. I may have to post more often!

Like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a distand land.

Proverbs 25:25

Our prayers were answered! After nearly having a nervous breakdown and almost driving my husband insane as well, we received a call this afternoon that we have our log in date!!!!!!!!!!! Our LID is August 29th. To say that we're excited would be a HUGE understatement. I was at the center when Kimberly called me and I'm so thankful we didn't have a client at the time. I was jumping up and down and squealing like a 5 year old who just got a puppy for her birthday! This has been an unbelievably awesome day!

Let me try to explain what this means in case I didn't last night. I was so upset I honestly don't remember if I did or not. Now that we have our LID, the next thing we'll be waiting for is our G&R date, or giving and receiving date. That will be the date of the official ceremony where we are given custody of our daughter by the Vietnamese government. We expect to get our G&R date between 8 and 12 weeks from our LID. That means we could have our G&R as early as October 24th! Of course it could even come earlier, but it most certainly could come later, too. The last group from Dillon who got their G&R's waiting 12 weeks. Please pray with us that we are able to bring Olivia home ASAP!!! We would be thrilled to be with her for Halloween! I better take a bag of sugarless candy with me to Vietnam just in case :<)

Speaking of sugarless candy, can you still bring gum on a plane with you? I'm still puzzled about what is and isn't ok. I'm very concerned about not being able to take my treasured strawberry lipgloss with me on board! My checked baggage is simply too far away! How will I live through a 17 hour flight without any lip gloss?!? I suppose if Mike can live 2+ weeks without a pocket knife surely I can manage a day without lipgloss!

By the way, we're 99% sure that we've decided to let Jake stay with JuJu and Daddy Don while we go to bring Olivia home. I've been trying my best to remind myself that I need to think about what's best for Jake and not for me. Jake would no doubt we happier here playing and being spoiled by his grandparents than flying around the world and riding on bumpy buses in a 3rd world country. It will be so incredibly difficult, but we know God will take care of our family on both sides of the world until we can all be FINALLY together!

I can't tell you how much we covet your prayers. I don't think we've ever needed them as much in our lives - for Olivia, us and Jake. Please please please pray for Olivia's health and well being, for speedy paperwork and travel, for Jake to be happy and healthy and for us not to loose our minds without him! Mike and I could also use a few prayers for patience too please! Oh and while you're sending up prayers, feel free to pray for God to provide financing to get us half way across the world! He has been so faithful to provide for us! We are so so so blessed!

Frustration

I'm on the verge of pulling my hair out. I realize that this has been an incredibly long journey and we're almost to the end and God has perfect timing, etc. but we're SO CLOSE to finally having Olivia home that the waiting has gotten much much harder. Our agency told us last week that our dossier would be hand delivered to the government agency that does adoptions in Hanoi on Monday morning which was Sunday afternoon our time. They said we should expect a log in date (LID) either this week or next. I've been BEYOND excited about this, because it's the last thing we'll wait for before we get our travel approval (TA.) I've been patiently (well - maybe not so patiently) waiting for our LID for several weeks now. Knowing that our dossier was being delivered Monday was VERY exciting!

I still haven't heard about our LID, but I wasn't getting too terribly worried yet. That was until I logged onto the Dillon forum tonight. Three other families received an email Tuesday night with LID's of August 29th. We didn't receive an email. Did someone just hit me with a bat? Gosh - it sure feels like it. Oh my gosh. I just want to scream!!!!! I want our LID. Not just sort of, not just kinda - but I want it desperately. I can't put into words what the waiting is getting to be like. For most of the families going through Dillon they've received TA about 8 weeks after they received their LID. That's why it's so important. Our LID will put everything in motion for us to be able to go to Vietnam. I actually take back what I said before. I don't want it desperately - I NEED it. If anyone out there has spare time on their hands, please pray pray pray for us to get our LID and TA and most importantly our DAUGHTER!!!!!

Perhaps I've vented enough for tonight. I'll try to share some happiness! Yes there is some! I've started decorating Olivia room at long last! Her bed is made and adorable. She has a lovely new rug to spend afternoons on having tea parties with her dolls. I bought material today to make her curtains. There are lots of darling pillows and a cute white book shelf with flowers on it. A wicker chair I painted white that will have a lovely pillow on it matching the curtains after I make all of it in the next day or two, but MOST IMPORTANTLY!!!! her chandelier!!! I decided many months ago that a princess like Olivia deserved a crystal chandelier in her room. Everyone thinks I'm nutty of course, but once you see it, you'll change your minds! It's gorgeous! I scoured the internet and looked on Ebay for weeks before I finally came across an amazing deal. If you know me at all, you know that I don't buy anything if it's not a great deal! I finally came across one that was perfect except for one small detail. It had gold detail. Yuck and poo. I bid on it anyway because it was an amazing deal and I got it. I paid $50 for a Swarvoski chandelier. Perhaps this doesn't mean much to most of you, but I assure you it's a fantastic deal! It's been sitting in our bedroom for 4 or 5 months, but I got it out yesterday, took it apart and painted all of the non-crystal parts white. We put it back together and Mike put it up in her room this evening. It's absolutely positively GORGEOUS!!! I'm so thrilled with it. It's perfect. Once her room is all done, I'll post some pictures. Mike assures me that she'll hate all of this fancy stuff and want her room done in camouflage, but I'm betting she'll be happy to have a fancy room and save the camo to wear hunting. She can always hang her first buck in her room to hold her purses!

NEW PICTURES!!!

We were so excited this morning when our social worker, Kimberly, called us to say she was emailing us lots of new pictures of Olivia! We received 9 in all and will be receiving a VIDEO of her next week!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are so incredibly excited about getting a video of our sweet girl! The director of the Vietnam program, Jynger, has been in Vietnam for the last two weeks with the first two families from our agency to pick their children up. They have had some INS problems and are having to stay over another week. Please be in prayer for them and their families as one family and Jynger have left their small children at home in the states and are missing them terribly. Whether or not to take Jake with us to Vietnam has been such a huge struggle. We still haven't decided for sure yet. I just can't imagine being away from him for two weeks much less three. I also worry a great deal about taking Jake to a 3rd world country and not having enough attention to go around for him and our new daughter, who definitely deserves our undivided attention for at least the first couple of weeks. Attachment is a very serious issue especially considering Olivia is already over 2 years old. It's incredibly important that she bond with us early. It will be difficult to give her 100% attention with Jake there also. Oh all the decisions are frustrating!

Anyway, here are some of the new pictures of Olivia. We hope you enjoy them. They have definitely brightened up our day!

Olivia Frances Thi Munn

We were thrilled to receive a new picture of Olivia this week! We now have three pictures of her and not one of her smiling! I can't wait to see her beautiful smile in person. Hopefully it will only be another 2 or 3 months before we finally hold our angelic girl in our arms. I've been busy this week buying her lots of clothes! I had been compiling a wardrobe for her over the last two years and now that we actually have her age, a lot of the clothes I had purchased or inherited were too small. I've been scouring the 75% off sale rack at Stage since we got our referral! I just wish I knew what size shoe she wears!

HOME SWEET HOME

If you check this blog with any regularity, you've probably noticed we've been MIA for several weeks! As soon as Jake's pneumonia was finally getting better, Mike started having pain in his lower back on the right side. This is a very bad sign. This pain can only mean one thing - another kidney stone. He managed on his own for a couple of days before we ended up in the ER. Our doctor wanted to admit him, but he was insistent on toughing it out at home. If it weren't for my wonderful sister, Cerra, and her briefcase full of meds (she has a terrible bone disease called a vascular necrosis) Mike couldn't have made it.

By a great miracle from God, Mike's kidney stone finally passed ending our family's bad health streak. Well, except for the fact that he also had bronchitis. He healed from that pretty quickly though. We were even able to go to our friend Vincent's wedding in Montana as we had planned. Mike, Jake and I drove 5,200 miles in 10 days and covered 11 states. We had a great trip! We spent 3 of those days in San Diego with Uncle Joby (aka my brother, Joe.) We saw lots of sights on our trip, but Jake especially loved the beach and the San Diego Zoo! He loved the pandas most. We had a caricature done of Jake at the zoo and his picture has a panda in it. The artist also drew one of Olivia from her photo. It's one of her at the beach. They're so cute! I'll try to remember to take a picture of them to post.

We're all very happy to be home, especially Jake. The last couple of days we were on the road, he had started to refer to the backseat as his "room." We definitely knew it was time to go home then! He was such an angel though. Even with all of the time we spent driving, he never complained once. We are such lucky parents. Now, if we could only get our daughter home, we could finally be a complete family!

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.

Jake slept with us last night and at some point in the middle of the night he woke up crying. He wanted to come watch tv, so we laid on the couch together and watched a Harry Potter movie until about 7 am. Then he wanted to go to sleep in his bed. He slept until 12:30, but woke up with 105 fever! I know that fever is just the body's way of fighting infection, but 105 is dangerous. I gave him a cool bath and Tylenol and he was better before long. We took him back to the doctor this afternoon. Since Monday he has lost 2 pounds, has an ear infection, and some spots on the back of his throat. He's on antibiotics now. We'll know the results of his blood work in the morning. I hope it's just an ear infection and sore throat. This fever is terrible. He's been laying around the house crying for 6 days now and for anyone that knows my Jakey Poo, this is highly unusual behavior. He's the happiest kid in the world!

The only bright spot in this day was getting the mail. We received our notarized background checks from the state police, so if they also arrived in Tulsa today, our dossier should be on it's way to Little Rock! At the very least it should be there tomorrow and back in the mail tomorrow afternoon. I'm so excited about that! Finally some progress!

Please remember Jake in your prayers! Right now he's asleep on the couch with his Daddy and as quiet as he's been all day. My poor baby.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Jake!

I hope he'll be feeling well enough to smile this big tomorrow!

I haven't been able to post in the past week. Jake has been sick since Saturday. He had a fever just over 100 the first two days and then woke up with 104 on Monday morning. That absolutely scares me to death. I took him to the doctor that afternoon and not finding anything visibly wrong with him (ears, nose, throat, etc. were fine) they did blood work. It was fine, too. The doctor said that he most likely has a viral infection that will go away on it's own. The only treatment for it is Tylenol and Motrin for the fever. I don't like it one bit! I hate it so much when my baby is sick. I feel completely helpless.

I wonder sometimes if Olivia is somewhere in Vietnam crying and no one is there to hold her. I try not to think of it much though. It breaks my heart that my daughter is out there somewhere needing me and I can't get to her. Speaking of Olivia, I think I mentioned last week that the only thing we were waiting on right now was for the notarized copies of our background checks to arrive in Tulsa from the Arkansas State Police. Well, they never arrived! GRRRR!!! I spoke to the wonderfully helpful woman (Trisha) from the state police that has been helping me though and she made new ones up and sent originals to both Tulsa and us. They should have gone out in the mail yesterday so I sincerely hope they'll be to Dillon by Friday. Kelley, our angelic dossier specialist, will turn them right around and send them back to Little Rock to the Secretary of State to be certified along with the rest of our dossier documents. After that they will be sent to the Vietnam Embassy in San Francisco. All of this should take around 3 weeks. Then we'll be referral ready!!!!! I still believe we'll have a referral by the end of the summer and travel by Christmas. I'm praying with faith that she will be home with us to celebrate the birth of Jesus! Please pray with me if you will! The Lord answers the prayers of the faithful and I have to believe that it's God's will for our family to be together at long last!

Speaking of answers to prayers, my sister Cerra is doing very well after her surgery. She's walking some and has cut her pain medicine down dramatically. I'm so very proud for her!!! I know that she'll be running around in circles before we know it. No doubt chasing Jake! My brother Joe (better known as Uncle Joby at our house) was having back problems last week, but he's also doing better. The Lord is always good to my family. We are so incredibly blessed!

One more just for the heck of it. This is one of Uncle Joby's favorite pictures of Jake. I just wish you could see how gorgeous his baby blue eyes are!

A few pictures of Baby Jake when he was actually still a baby! Pictures of Jake always cheer me up when I'm frustrated!

I have IMS - Irritable Mommy Syndrome

I'm a bit frustrated today. Our agency sent out an e-mail to Vietnam families this morning that they would suggest we not bring children under the age of 12 with us when we travel to Vietnam to bring our new children home. For any of you who know me very well, I hardly go anywhere without Jake! It's not that I don't think JuJu and Daddy Don aren't perfectly capable of taking care of him, I just can't be away from him for 2 to 3 weeks. Heck, I can't be away from him for 2 or 3 days! I do well just to go 2 or 3 hours without my Jakey Poo. They said they would consider it on a case by case basis, and that's definitely what they're going to have to do with us. This really isn't even an option. I absolutely will not be away from Jake for that long.

One of the things they mentioned was how important the attachment and bonding processes are with the adopted child. I certainly agree with that, but I also have the same amount of concern about Jake's feelings. How would he feel if we left him for 3 weeks and then suddenly arrived home with a new child that everyone wanted to ooh and ah over? I think that they would both be better off getting to know each other before we get home when it's just our little family and then he can show his new little sister off to everyone when we get back to Arkansas. Besides, Jake is very easy going and travels well. We drove to Illinois in one day (14 straight hours!) and he was very good. Also, I'm sure I would be a much more sane and better Mommy to Olivia if I wasn't an ocean away from my sugarbear. I would be too unhappy about being away from Jake to properly focus my attention.

Why can't everyone just cooperate with me?!?! Grrrr!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY, DADDY!!!

Jake and I gave Mike a KJV/NKJV Parallel Bible for Father's Day. He liked it very much. He preaches at lots of different churches and the ones with older members tend to respond better to the KJV while churches with a wider age range of members seem to like the NKJV better. I'm a NIV girl myself! The easier it is to read, the better!

We went to pick my sister up from the VA in Shreveport, but they decided to keep her another night because she has a low grade fever and low blood pressure. Hopefully we'll be able to bring her home in the morning. The trip wasn't a total loss though. We got to visit with Cerra (who is doing remarkably well!) and we ate at the Olive Garden (my 2nd favorite restaurant in the world) and went shopping at the Boardwalk. This was mostly because Mike wanted to go to Bass Pro Shops. Ok. Maybe I like that store, too. We managed not to buy one single thing which is pretty amazing. I tell you what, once I finally know what size clothes Olivia will be wearing, she will own a ridiculously large wardrobe! I love going to Osh Kosh B'Gosh and Carters at the Boardwalk. It's probably for the best that I not know her size now. We might not be able to save and scrounge enough to pay for our adoption!

For those of you who finally found our blog, hello! I can't believe I sent out the wrong address. I don't know why the site is called Blogger and the address is blogspot. Very annoying. Anyway, I'm glad you're here!

My sister Cerra had surgery this past Thursday at the VA hospital in Shreveport. She had her left hip replaced. She was walking on it the very next day and is doing very well. We are going to bring her home in the morning unless something happens between now and then. Please keep her in your prayers!

Jake is spending the night with JuJu and Daddy Don since Mike and I have to go to Shreveport in the morning. I hate missing church, but I'm happy that Cerra will be coming home. I know it sounds ridiculous to most of you, but I already miss Jake and he's only been away from me for a few hours. I feel all out of sorts when he's not with me. I don't know what I'm going to do when he starts school. I just won't think about it for now!

I have some very good adoption news! Our dossier packet is ready to be mailed out from Tulsa next week to the Secretary of State for authentication. I mailed our dossier to Dillon last week and there was only one thing wrong with it. The background checks from the state police weren't notarized. Grrrr! The new notarized ones will be in Tulsa Tuesday or Wednesday and then our dossier will be on it's way! They tell me that it usually takes around 10 days to get it back and then it will go onto the Vietnam Embassy in San Francisco. After that, it will be back to Dillon and then onto VIETNAM!!! Yay! Every little step makes me so excited! I can't believe we're finally so close to bringing Olivia home. This has been such a long road, but I know the destination will be awesome!

P.S. Happy Father's Day to all you Dad's out there, especially Jake and Olivia's Daddy!