Meeting little Miss Olivia

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

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

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

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

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