Together again!!!

We drove out to Dallas on Saturday to see our good friends, Mandy and Arnaud who we traveled with in Vietnam! It was exciting to see Olivia and Anna together again and Jake and their son Louis were finally able to meet. It's funny that like us they have a biological 4 year old son and then we both adopted 2 year old girls from the same province in Vietnam. It was meant to be! I can't imagine having traveled for three weeks with anyone else. God blessed us so much by putting us with this amazing family. We had SO much fun together while we were gone and being together Saturday was just like old times - well except for the insane motor scooters and constant worrying that we dealt with in Vietnam! All four of the kids got along famously and we were so happy to see Mandy and Arnaud again. To be able to spend three entire weeks with another couple and still be able to call them great friends says something about a relationship I think! They are a wonderful family and we are so blessed to have them in our lives.

The only bad part of the day was that my wonderful friend Erin was supposed to drive up Saturday with her family as well and her son came down with the flu and then her other son got sick as well. Send up a prayer for them! Erin no doubt has her hands even more full than usual. Erin also adopted a little girl, Selah, from Ninh Thuan and we really really wanted to be able to finally meet her in person! I talk to her on the phone all the time and she has become one of my closest friends and I haven't even met her yet! Perhaps over the summer we'll all be able to get together. Mandy and I were both so sad that she wasn't able to come.

Anyway, we spent the day at Mandy and Arnaud's house and then went to the Dillon International Lunar New Year Celebration (TET). It was also great fun and we were finally able to meet another Ninh Thuan adoptive Mom, Kim-Lan and her beautiful family and a couple from Oklahoma who are just beginning their process to adopt from VN. Christi - it was very nice to meet you!

Here are a few pictures from the day.

Here are our four beautiful children playing at Mandy's house.

L to R: Louis, Anna, Jake & Olivia

I love this picture! Here we have Mandy & Anna along with me and Olivia. Mandy has become such a good friend of mine. I couldn't have made it through Vietnam without her and I depend on her just as much now as I did then. We'll get through the terrible two's together!

Here is a cute picture of Anna and Olivia with their balloons. They are so adorable! Little Anna is just precious and I can't believe how much they have both changed in the two months since we've been back. It will be so neat to watch them grow as friends here on the other side of the world from where they were both born.