Day 2 with Olivia!!

We just returned to the hotel from day two at the orphanage. Olivia is just precious. She fell asleep in Mike's arms today and it was so sweet. They also let us feed her lunch which consisted of rice, beef, shrimp and soup. It also had some vegetables in it. We were very impressed with the food they feed them. I also found out that Olivia still drinks from a bottle, which is great. That will give us lots of cuddle time! She sat in my lap and Mike tried to feed her but she would turn her head and bury her face in my chest. I took the spoon and she ate a few bites. I figured since she fell asleep in Mike's arms for the first time we were even since I got to feed her first! She's just the tiniest thing in the world. I can't convey to you how tiny she is. Her little arms and legs are just tiny tiny. She has such soft skin and she smells so sweet. Her hair is soft and she has the absolutely smallest nose I've ever seen in my life! I don't think Jake's nose was this small when he was a newborn!

Tomorrow is our g&r and she'll be our daughter forever. Of course we already think of Olivia as our daughter, but tomorrow it will be official! I just can't believe it. It's surreal. Happy happy happy!!!!!!!!!!! I'm also happy that she'll be able to hear Jake on the phone tomorrow! He'll be very pleased. We talked to him last night and told him we had been to see Olivia. He was disappointed that we hadn't already gotten her. Only one more day Jakey Poo!

The orphanage is so nice and we have loved getting to spend so much time there. I think we've been very lucky to have been here early enough to visit the orphanage and our children three times. I held most of the babies today and one of them is brand new. She still even has a black belly button. She can't be more than a couple of weeks old. All of the nannies are just absolutely amazing. I know that Olivia has been incredibly well cared for. How much they love the children is obvious.

I think we'll go have lunch now and go for a swim at the beach on the South China Sea. This is without a doubt the most beautiful place we've ever been. It's amazing. Hope all is going well at home. Give Jake love for us!! I'll try to post some pictures later tonight.

Here is our first moment with Olivia! She had wet hair from just getting a bath! She was even more beautiful than we could have ever imagined!

The first of MANY moments she'll spend sitting in her Mommy's lap!

Snuggling with Daddy!

Our pretty girl spending some precious time in her Daddy's lap!

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!!!!!!!!

Hello from Vietnam!!!

I just wrote a very long post all about our trip so far and somehow lost it!!! I don't have the energy to type it all again. We are exhausted!!! It's 11 p.m. Saturday our time I think. I'm so confused. I'm just too sleepy to think. Anyway, we're in Vietnam and it's beautiful and amazing. We're leaving at 6 in the morning headed to Ninh Thuan. We'll finally meet Olivia tomorrow afternoon! I can't believe it!!!!!! We talked to Jake on the phone tonight and that definitely lifted our tired spirits. We miss him so so so so so much. We're thrilled to finally be here though and meeting our girl. Vietnam is lovely and the people are so kind. I can't wait to tell you all about the trip tomorrow. We'll see a good bit of the coast line as we drive 7 hours up to Olivia's orphanage. We can't wait!

We miss you all and can't wait to get home to everyone especially our sugarbear, JAKE! If you see him give him a kiss from us. Hopefully I'll have pictures of Miss Olivia to post tomorrow night! Goodnight from Vietnam!

Today has been an extremely tough day. I knew that leaving Jake was going to be hard, but I had no idea how hard. I've been crying for about a week now in anticipation of this day, and crying every five minutes all day long today all while trying to keep Jake from seeing my sadness. I've completely devoted the last two days to Jake and tried to make them as fun as possible. We have the Christmas tree up and decorated and he even has one of his own in his room. He's very proud. He's the sweetest boy God ever put on this planet other than Jesus Christ. Jake runs a very close second.

Right now I'm feeling every emotion possible. I'm incredibly sad about leaving Jake, yet thrilled to finally be travelling to bring Olivia home. I'm anxious and worried, happy and heartbroken, tired and exhilarated. How can all of this happen at once? My poor body.

Jake is staying with my in-laws. They are fantastic grandparents and Jake loves them to death. He smothered us with kisses and hugs before we left him there tonight. He's very anxious to have Olivia home. He doesn't understand how long we'll be gone, but I think after we packed essentially every article of clothing he owns, he was beginning to get the picture. Luckily, they'll be out at the house everyday feeding the dogs and fish, along with hunting of course, so he'll be able to play with all of his stuff and get different movies to watch, etc. I'm the one that's losing their mind. Mike is pretty upset too, but he's much better at hiding it. It was tough watching him kiss and hug Jake goodnight for the last time in a while tonight though. His eyes welled up with tears, but he held them back. He's a bigger man than me.

Ok. I've gotta finish packing. Yes, we're leaving in 4 1/2 hours and I'm not done packing. This is normal behavior for me! Please pray for us while we're gone and if you see my sugarbear, give him a big kiss for me! The next time you hear from me, we'll be in VIETNAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THE MUNN FAMILY (75% complete!)

I thought I would post one more picture of us as a family of three. Our niece Emma took this picture of us at the SAU rodeo in October. There is definitely room for one more in our family photo but I will always treasure this last one of us as just three. Now that we're in our final days here at home before we leave for Vietnam, we're trying to focus all of our time and attention on Jake. It's wonderful to think about Olivia finally coming home, but it's also sad to leave the life with just Jake that we've lived for nearly four years. He's an amazing kid and he'll absolutely adore Olivia. I have no doubt that the first person he hugs at the airport will be her and not us. He's SO excited about being a big brother. He's the sweetest boy in the world. I know I sound like a broken record, but Mike and I are so incredibly blessed. I can't thank God enough for all that he has given us - especially for our marriage and children.

Olivia's Room!

This is a very cute plaque I bought for Olivia at Canton. So adorable!

Some mirrors for my beautiful girl to look at herself in!

A bed fit for a princess! I wish you could see the pillows. One of them says, "If the shoe fits, buy it in every color" If Olivia is anything like me, she'll try to do just that. The canopy also has iridescent butterflies here and there. I wish the pictures were better quality so you could see all of the little details. Darn dial up. You'll just have to come by to see her room (and more importantly - HER!) in person when we get back fromVietnam!

A desk for her to write poetry at :<) The sign above her desk reads, "Jesus Loves Me." I hope she holds that knowledge within her forever. Nothing else in the world can give her more comfort.

A wide view of her room. Please notice her most elegant chandelier! The pictures don't do it justice! Everyone thought I was nutty when I decided to put a crystal chandelier up, but it looks spectacular! Everyone has been eating their words. The large white word in the inset shelves reads, "Dream." In my opinion if we don't have our dreams, we have nothing. My prayer for Olivia is that she'll always follow her dreams and keep Jesus in the driver's seat.

We're leaving for Vietnam in THREE days!!!!

Please continue to pray for all of us. When Mike asked for prayers for us this morning at church, he asked specifically that they pray that I don't lose my mind being without Jake. Those particular prayers would be especially appreciated! Please also pray for our trip there and back and please pray for Olivia. Pray for God to give her an understanding of what is happening to her. Pray for God to give her comfort and peace. Pray for us to bond as a family and for her to feel safe and secure with us. She has been through so much in her life already. Please also pray for Jake to understand why we're gone and that we're coming back soon. He knows we're leaving and why, but a 3 year old has no real concept of time. He'll just know that we've been gone a LONG time. Pray also for JuJu and Daddy Don! They'll be running around in circles chasing after him. We appreciate the comments, emails, phone calls, cards, and certainly the donations from all of our friends and family, but we ask for your prayers above all else. The prayers of the faithful move mountains. Jesus said so and Jesus doesn't lie! A HUGE thanks to all of you who are praying for us out there! God bless you and your families!

Building our nest!

I'm nesting! I've never cleaned so much in my life. It's absolutely bizarre! I have an insatiable need for everything to be clean and in order! I've even rearranged the furniture in 4 different rooms. Very peculiar stuff. I've been telling Jake that we're going to put the Christmas tree up and I may finally get it up today. I realize it's a bit early, but we don't expect to be back home before the 1st or 2nd week of December, so I wanted to go ahead and get all of my decorating done. That way I can just focus on my two Munn munchkins! It's going to be wild trying to get Jake's birthday party all together and finish buying Christmas presents with two toddlers. I can't wait though!

Today is the first day of deer season with a rifle in Arkansas. That's a BIG BIG day at our house! Our deer camp is actually in our backyard, so there are people, trucks, 4 wheelers and campers all over the place. There are also a few sleeping bags throughout my house. We have three of our friends from Illinois staying with us. The first week of deer season is always so much fun. Jake is finally old enough to truly enjoy it to, which makes it even more fun for us. Mike has already taken in several deer today. He does such amazing work. I'm so incredibly proud of him! Daddy Don is going to take in mounts for us while we're gone to Vietnam. We are blessed to have such wonderful family.

We're leaving in 4 1/2 days!!!!! I can't believe it! That's scary when I actually count down the days. That's not long! I've got lots more nesting to do between now and then!

Happy Deer Season!

God is so good!!!

We had such an amazing weekend! God has been so incredibly good to us. We had our final garage sale Friday and Saturday. I prayed for $500 and God gave us $516! On Sunday, our wonderful home church, First Baptist Church of McNeil, held a fundraiser for us and raised exactly $2000!!!!!!!!!!!! That's TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS!!!! We were blown away by God's blessings and by the outpouring of love from our friends and family! If you ever want to truly learn to rely on God - ADOPT A CHILD! You have no choice but to leave it all in God's hands!

On a more concerned note, we found out today that because of the upcoming APEC Summit we may experience some delays. President Bush is traveling to Hanoi the 14th and 15th of this month and because of that, the US Embassy in Hanoi will be reducing their non-emergency services from Nov 6th - 20th. As a result, they will either not be taking Visa applications during that time or at least not very many, which means they will probably be backed up by the time we apply for Olivia's visa to return to the states at the end of November. The embassy is only open 3 days a week, so we were already concerned about it taking extra time to get her visa which is why we're expecting to be in Vietnam for 3+ weeks. It is amazing to see how much progress has already been made with Vietnam relations and we are thrilled that President Bush is working so very hard to improve things. We're also a little bit selfish and worried about being in Vietnam for longer than anticipated. Jake's 4th birthday is December 14th and I want more than anything to be home by then. Please pray for relations with Vietnam and also for a quick visa interview for Olivia! We want to bring her home ASAP! We're so so ready to finally be a family of 4 all together under one roof!

We've got tickets!!!

I'm very happy to say that we received our airline tickets by FedEx today! The fellow taking care of our travel arrangements has been so wonderful! For those of you adopting, we're using Todd Galileo and I HIGHLY recommend him! I'm also happy to say that the tickets weren't as horrific as we thought they might be. We spent $4200 for me, Mike and Olivia. That's not chump change by any stretch of the imagination, but it could have been worse. We're so grateful that God saw fit to lower gas prices just in time for us to fly half way around the world! We're flying out of Shreveport, LA early in the morning on the 16th. We'll meet up with Mandy and Arnaud in Dallas and then we'll be together for the remainder of the trip. We'll all fly to LAX and have a 4 1/2 hour layover. My brother (who lives in San Diego) is hopeful that he'll be able to drive up and at least meet us for lunch. Then we're on to Taipei, Taiwan where we'll spend the night. That will be the longest leg of the trip. 14 hours in a plane at one time!!! Ugh! Luckily, we're flying Eva air which has deluxe accommodations which as I understand it are equivalent to business class. More room, more reclining. Sounds nice. Then we'll fly out on the 18th (we lose half a day on the flight out there) and arrive in Vietnam around noon on the 18th. Total 22 hours in the air. Oh my goodness. I'm so excited though!!!!! I can't believe we're finally going. It's completely surreal.

We're having another of our famous garage sales this weekend. We didn't have nearly as much stuff though so we're not expecting to break any records. God has truly blessed our garage sales. Friends and family have donated lots of stuff over the last year to help out. We made $1100 on the first one, then $900, then $1600 on the last one! We made over $300 today and will be open all day tomorrow. We even had some friends call this evening with a desk, chair, framed prints and some linens that we went a picked up. We have such an awesome support system! Our wonderful church, First Baptist Church of McNeil, is also having a luncheon fundraiser for us this Sunday. I'm so overwhelmed by how wonderful everyone has been to us. I know I say this often, but I really can't say it enough - WE ARE SO BLESSED! I hope that whatever is going on in your lives today that you can thank God for it and tell others how blessed you are. Have a great weekend everyone!

WE GOT IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We finally got the call!!! At 3:05 p.m. today our most wonderful angelic social worker, Kimberly, called to tell us we finally have our precious giving and receiving date!!! To say that we're elated would be a HUGE understatement!!! We are literally jumping up and down here! I was able to be the one to call our co-traveler Mandy and tell her that in 3 weeks time, we will have our daughters in our arms!!! That was one of the best phone calls I've ever gotten to make in my life!!! This is an AWESOME DAY!!!! On November 21st, Olivia will finally be OUR DAUGHTER!!!!!! Our g & r ceremony will be on the 21st and we have to be in Ho Chi Minh City on Nov 18th. Please pray for us as we scramble to make plans to leave, purchase tickets, pack, and the hardest of all, prepare to leave Jake here while we're gone. THANK YOU GOD FOR OUR G & R!!! Our God truly is an AWESOME GOD!!!! Thanks to all of you who have been praying for us! I'll let you know more details as I know them.

PRAISE GOD! PRAISE GOD! PRAISE GOD!

Our future Baptist preacher! I hope this picture is more clear on your computers than it looks on mine! Jake is so handsome! I've been praying since Jake was a baby that God would call him to preach. This was long before Mike surrendered. I assure you that I never mentioned to Jake that I wanted him to be a preacher, but since he could talk, that's all he's ever said he wants to be. He wants to be a preacher like his Daddy. So, when we bought him his first suit a couple of weeks ago, he was ELATED!!!!! He was completely speechless when we first showed it to him. It was so precious. I have it on video. He LOVES his suit, and he's absolutely the most handsome boy in the world! I will continue to pray that God uses him in a mighty way. In the meantime, I'll just enjoy looking at him in his "preacher suit!"

I can't believe it! It actually let me post a picture of Jake with the "great pumpkin!" I had to make it a very low quality to get it to go with my ridiculously sloooooow dial up, but here it is! This makes me feel much better! We're very excited about Halloween tomorrow! Jake is going to wear what is actually a Lightening McQueen pit crew outfit, but he's going as a race car driver and he'll wear his LMc helmet and drive around in his LMc car. He's going to be so cute! Now that I've figured out that I can send pictures again, I'll be sure to post one of him! As for the adoption, we still haven't gotten our g&r date, but I feel good about it possibly coming tomorrow. Halloween seems like a perfect day to finally get some good news!

I am a "real mom" times 2

I meant to post about this earlier, but with all of the insanity of waiting for the g&r, I completely forgot about it. There was some confusion about Jake's insurance at his doctor's office, so Mike and I went over to the billing office one day last week to take them his insurance card. The woman who waited on us seemed like a nice enough girl. She looked like she was in her late 20's. Then she asked me a strange question. "Are you his real mom?" I was completely puzzled by her question and I garbled out a yes. I looked up at Mike and he was just as puzzled as I was. I laughed about it being an odd question and asked why she asked. She told me a story about another woman who had come in some time before with her adopted daughter. Essentially, she said that she couldn't help the woman because she didn't have her adoption papers with her and she wasn't the girl's "real mom." WHAT????? This is when I start getting irritated. Somehow this all seemed like a logical thing to her. I explained that we are adopting a little girl and that I would be her real mom. Her response in an 'are you stupid?' voice, "Uh, not really." She actually said that to me! She said to me that I wasn't Olivia's REAL MOM!!!! I replied, "Uh, YES - I AM." In my 'I'm fixing to knock the heck out of you' voice. Mike gave me a look that said, 'Let it go, Casey. Please just let it go.' Honestly, I was speechless. For anyone who knows me personally, that doesn't happy very often. I didn't know what to say to this ignorant woman. I'm not calling her ignorant in a mean way. I'm calling her ignorant in a factual way. If she doesn't understand that I am actually Olivia's "real mom" then she's ignorant about what it takes to be a "real mom." Don't even get me started on her need to learn proper adoption verbage. I realize that I've been running a crisis pregnany center for the last two years, so I use adoption lingo constantly, but I think the average person would at the very least believe that an adoptive mom is a real mom. Good grief. I'm still agravated about it a week later.

I'll also take this opportunity to say that I am in no way trying to say that Olivia's birth mom wasn't also her "real mom." It definitely takes a real mom to make the courageous decision to place their child for adoption. That is a parenting decision. Olivia's birth mom was incredibly brave. I owe her so much. To repay her I can give her my prayers and I can teach Olivia about the love it took for her birth mom to choose adoption. Talking about Olivia's adoption and her birth mom will be a regular occurence throughout her life. For the rest of our lives we will hold Olivia's birthparents up in prayer. I pray for their salvation most of all. I pray that one day Mike and I will be given the chance to say thank you to them in heaven.

I am blessed to be a real mom to two beautiful children both given to me by God in different ways. Different, yet perfect ways. Thank you God for the gift of motherhood.

Guess who's still waiting...

Still no news today. I feel like there is an extremely heavy blanket covering me and I just can't get it off. The only other time in my life that I have felt this helpless was when my Mom died. It's the only other time in my life where I felt like I had absolutely no control over anything. I have complete and total faith in God's plan. He can see a much broader view of the world than I can. He knows things I couldn't possibly know. There is a reason we don't have our g&r yet. These are all things I'm certain of, and I'd much rather have God in control than me, but somehow it isn't making me feel much better right now. I think that's the Mama in me. We want to know what's going on at all times! We want specific dates, times and places. I like specifics. Why why why did I pray for patience?!?!

Still waiting. No news today, but of course the day isn't over. Thanks to all of you who have left comments. I just love getting those. Thanks also to everyone for their prayers. I feel them! I wish so much that my internet connection was faster so I could upload pictures. It would make me feel better if I could send Jake's smiling face out for everyone else to see. I wouldn't make it without him. As anxious and frustrated as we are, I know the waiting must be much more difficult for those who don't already have children at home. On the other hand, it will be harder for us while we travel than them because we have to leave Jake at home. I guess no matter how you look at it, this is a difficult journey. The great news is that according to my Father in heaven, the most difficult journeys are the ones with the most reward. In our case we will be rewarded with a precious daughter and baby sister. We wouldn't trade a minute of this journey for anything!

The waiting game isn't a fun game!

I feel like a teenager except that instead of sitting by the phone waiting for a call from a goofy boy, I'm sitting here at the computer waiting for an email telling me we can FINALLY travel to bring our daughter home. My how things have changed! This waiting is much more difficult but also MUCH more worthwhile! We completely expected to hear from Dillon today. I have been on pins and needles for the last two days. Poor Mike. He's about ready to strangle me. When they have the date, Dillon will send us an email telling us the date for our Giving and Receiving Ceremony. We should have around two weeks before the date to plan our trip. So, if we get our g&r date tomorrow and it's set for say, November 8th, then we would leave the states around the 5th.

I'll tell you sort of what our trip itinerary will look like. We will fly into Ho Chi Minh City (also known as Saigon) and depending on what time we arrive, either go to the orphanage the next day or the next. We'll ride a van to her province and we'll meet Olivia that day and then the g&r ceremony will most likely be the following day. Her caregiver will bring her to the g&r and once we go through the ceremony and sign papers, she'll be ours! Then we'll apply for her passport and wait a couple of days for it. Once we have her passport, we'll fly to Hanoi and apply for her visa to come to the states. Depending on how quickly we can get our interview there, we'll wait a few days or a week or better. Some families have been gone over 3 weeks, some just over 2. We're definitely praying for 2, but preparing for 3 just in case. That's a very rough overview of our trip.

Please pray pray pray for us to receive our g&r date ASAP!!! We are desperate to bring our daughter home and get back to Jake as soon as possible, too. We are so ready to be a complete family!!! On a very good note one of my very best friends, Stephanie, told me a few nights ago that they had been working on having a fundraiser for us! Our church is having a hamburger lunch fundraiser on November 5th to raise money to help us pay for our trip! It was a complete and WONDERFUL surprise! We have been so incredibly blessed by our church, our friends and our family. We're also having another garage sale this weekend. Even when we had no idea how we were going to come up with whatever amount of money we were going to need for the adoption, it's always been there. God has always been faithful to provide.

Thanks to all of you out there who are praying for us. You have no idea what it means to our family! Please pray for quick travel, pray for Jake as he stays home with JuJu and Daddy Don, please pray for Olivia and pray for us that we don't go nuts before we're all home together at last!

P.S. While you're praying, please pray also for the awesome family that will be traveling with us. They are also leaving behind their son with grandparents to bring their daughter home from the same orphanage Olivia is in. We've spoken to them quite a bit on the phone and they are great people. We are so thrilled to share this with them!

But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto our children's children. Psalm 103:17

(Sometimes I just need to be reminded that God's mercy is everylasting. Right now is one of those times.)

I thought I would post a cute picture of my little pumpkin, Jake, next to an actual pumpkin that is about 4 times his size, but my slooooowww dial-up is preventing me from uploading it. Dial-up is pretty much the only thing I don't like about living in the sticks. I would be perfectly content to live in a one room cabin in the mountains with my beautiful family as long as I could have a superfast internet connection and a Wally World not too far away. I suppose I should try to be more like Paul and be content with my situation. At least I'm not imprisoned in Rome, right?!

We haven't heard anything new on the adoption front. We still expect to hear about our G&R date next week and hopfully leave for Vietnam within the next 3 weeks or so. That's what we're praying for! We found out yesterday that because of the upcoming holidays, airfare to Vietnam is going to skyrocket. The tickets that we thought were going to cost about $1000 per person are now looking like they will be closer to $3000 per person. We're not sure how we're going to swing the extra expense, but we know that God will provide. On top of that yesterday, we took the Explorer in to be checked out. It started making a weird noise Thursday night. It turns out that we're going to have to replace the ENTIRE ENGINE. At this point, we're just laughing. If we didn't, we'd cry. Yesterday was a wild day. Jake and I were in the deer stand yesterday afternoon when the biggest buck I've ever had a shot at walked out. Jake was being so good and quiet. I got him out of my lap and standing up, got my gun up with the crosshairs right on the buck's shoulders and - - - - - - click. (For those of you who don't hunt - the clicking sound is NOT good.) My muzzleloader wouldn't fire. HOLY COW! Tried the second time ------- click. The deer didn't stick around for a third try. It was for the best though because Mike ended up going through nearly 20 caps before he finally got it to fire last night after we got home. I was LIVID. I don't know the last time I was so mad. If Jake hadn't been with me I probably would have just thrown the gun at the deer. I was so angry. Sweet Jake - he was just happy and content to have been there to see the deer at all. He teaches me lessons every single day.

Speaking of Jake and his sweetness, he is very excited about staying with JuJu while we're gone to bring Olivia home. Mostly because there is a huge box sitting in Olivia's room right now with 25+ wrapped gifts in it just for him! He'll be able to go to the box and pick out a present everyday that we're gone and if he's having a rough day, perhaps he can have two. He's such an amazing boy. We are so incredibly lucky. I told Mike last night that if God had let me make a list of everything I wanted in a child, I couldn't have even come close to describing how awesome Jake is. God had a bigger vision than I did! Jake is everything we could have ever hoped for in a child and so much more. He is a kiss straight from our Father. I'll hush now. I could go on and on about my baby boy. He's going to be a race car driver for Halloween. He'll be driving around in his Lightening McQueen car. He's VERY excited. I wish Olivia were here to be Tinkerbell. I'll just have to dress her up after we get home and take them around for Thanksgiving! Perhaps someone would give them a turkey leg. Hmmm.

I had hoped very much to have pictures of Olivia's room up for everyone to see, but like Jake's pumpkin pictures, it's not possible right now. I suppose you all will just have to come see it in person!

Here is a new picture of our beautiful Olivia. We are so blessed that another adoptive mom, Susie, took several pictures of Olivia while she was in Ninh Thuan a couple of weeks ago. Susie has adopted two precious girls from Vietnam. Her youngest daughter was adopted from the same orphanage that Olivia is in.

We get lots of questions about when Olivia is coming home and for people who have just learned of our adoption, they often ask how long she's been in the orphanage. Only rarely do people ask me what life is like for her now or what her life has been like for the last 27 1/2 months. I'm not even sure how comfortable I am sharing with family and friends the details of Olivia's young life - much less the strangers of the world who read our blog. I do feel compelled to tell everyone a few things though.

Mike and I have never been out of this country. We are so incredibly naive. We don't know what it means to suffer. Although neither of us grew up wealthy, we've never been without food or a home. We've never been without the love of parents. We've never been afraid and had absolutely no one permanent in our lives that we could trust. I can't fathom what it's like to be a young child and not have a Mommy to run to. I was blessed to have the most wonderful Mama in the entire world. I have also been blessed to have an amazing mother-in-law, Granny and step-mother who I love very much. I have never known a moment of my life where someone didn't think I was the world to them. Whether it was my Mama and Daddy, my husband or my son - I think that every second of my life I have been someone's focus, someone's priority. I am blessed. I am a child of God. There are no words that can describe that kind of love except to know that He gave His son's life for me. There isn't a person in this world I would give my son's life for. Not one.

Olivia has not had a Mommy or Daddy with her for the vast majority of her young life. I have no doubt in my mind though that there is a woman in Vietnam who has ached for her every single day since she last held Olivia in her arms. Her birthmother gave her the name Thi Diem My. That's part of her heritage. Actually it's bigger than that. It's a part of HER. It's a part of Olivia and a part of her birthmom. That's why we've chosen to keep the name Thi - the name she was given by the woman who gave her life. She had choices. Even the poorest of the poor have choices. She chose life and I am in tears right now thanking God for giving her the courage to choose life. I have no doubt that Olivia's birthmom thinks of her each and every day. Perhaps her birthfather does, too. I am thankful beyond words that our Father in Heaven has watched over her every second of her life since the moment of conception. She has always and will always have a Father who loves her unconditionally, who loves her while she's awake and while she's asleep. He loves her even when she doesn't think anyone else does. I have news for Miss Olivia Frances Thi Munn. She has a Mommy, Daddy and big brother right here in the great state of Arkansas who think she hung the moon and stars in the sky! We have dreamed of her for so long that we don't even remember the beginning of our love for her. I have dreamed of her since I was a little girl myself. I have loved her since I wasn't much older than she is now. My baby girl. She is God's gift to us. We are so blessed. I want to make sure that you know that if you know nothing else about Olivia's life - we are blessed to be a part of it. She isn't the lucky one. We are.

WE ARE BLESSED.

ADOPTION UPDATE!!!

We received an email today from our wonderful program director, Jynger, that Olivia's dossier has been sent to Hanoi!!! It will now be reviewed along with our dossier and then be sent back to her province to be reviewed. For most of the families who have already traveled, they received travel clearance about 3 weeks after they received their dossier update!!! This means that we could be hearing about our G & R (giving and receiving) date in just THREE WEEKS!!!

I've been praying (and had everyone I know praying!!!) for us to leave by the end of October and I absolutely believe that we will. I have complete FAITH in an awesome GOD!!! Mike and I are so incredibly excited!!!

I'll keep everyone updated as soon as we are! We also have some new pictures of Olivia and of course 10,000 pictures of Jake I'd like to share with everyone. Because of our s--l--o--w dial up, it takes to long to download them. Hopefully we'll have satelite internet in the next couple of weeks and you'll be swimming in photos of our two beautiful children!!!

Please keep praying for Olivia and all of the children and caretakers in her orphanage in Ninh Thuan. We also have some fellow Dillon friends with children in an orphanage in Vinh Long, so please pray for them as well. We're all incredibly anxious to bring our children home. Let us also never forget to pray for the children left behind. We will no doubt be haunted by them for the rest of our lives once we visit the orphanage. They are already in my thoughts and prayers.

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!