What a doll!!

We have made it, but with a catch. It looks like we wil be delayed a bit due to problems with paperwork, so we won't be able to have Mya officialy until Wednesday at the earliest. But we have met her and it was great!! She took a little while to warm up, but she is a real ham!! She loved to show off. It drew us in very quicky. It was such a great first day. We played with Mya and her friends a lot, watched her eat, and get a "bath". They loved to play catch, play with bubbles, look at books, munch on fruit snacks and cuddle. They were pulling Mallory around all over and she loved it. Mya looked at the pictures of us that we sent over a couple of months ago and just laughed realizing it was us. Very fun! We will be able to see her every day until it is official. We hope today goes as well as yesterday. It has been amazing to see her homeland. We have drawn a lot of attention, especially Mallory. The kids love to say "hello" to us and just laugh. For any of you waiting to get your kiddos from An Giang, it is a great place. These kids are so loved and well cared for. It was told to me before we came over, but it has been so good to see it for myself. We will post again after the next visit.

We have arrived

We made it in at 11:00 local time last night. We all were able to sleep, we had a great breakfast and now we are headed to An Giang for a few days. We will meet Mya in just a few hours!! It is hot, even at 7:30am, but we were expecting it. We will post as soon as we make it to the city.

Our bags are packed and we are almost ready to go. We leave tomorrow and arrive in Vietnam late Saturday night. We leave Sunday morning for the province where Mya has lived her entire life, about a 5 hour drive. We check into our hotel and head to meet her, yea!! We are supposed to have what they call a Giving and Receiving ceremony on Monday where she becomes a part of this family forever. There is a possibilty that this will be pushed back to Wednesday and if so we will visit her at the center a few more times. It will work out. We will then head back to Ho Chi Minh City and begin the process to bring her home. It will take 1-2 weeks to accomplish this. Right now our plan is to come home on August 3 arriving home on the 4th. We could be home sooner ar later. But as we wait this time we will be getting to know her and she will be learning about her new family. We are amazed that this is finally happening!!

Prayer requests for us as we travel:
1. Ability to make our flights
2. Travel safety
3. Ability to sleep when we should to be rested when we reach Mya
4. Eyes to take in much of Mya's homeland in order to share it with her as she grows
5. Know what questions to aks her caretakers
6. Timing of all our appointments
7. Trust God's timing in everything
8. We would be a good ambassador for our agency, country, and faith
9. Bonding, bonding, bonding with Mya
10. Mya would not be fearful, but learn to trust us quickly
11. We will learn how to communicate through the language barrier
12. Health


We will try to post before we head to the province.

New Picture, our first real smile

Sadness and Gladness

This has been quite a month. We have been waiting so long for news of travel and in the midst we received some news of the death of a very dear friend. We have realized that our delayed travel has allowed us to be here rather than in Vietnam to receive that news. I thank God for answering our prayers in his wisdom, He is fully aware of the bigger picture. We have grieved and will continue to do so for a long time. In the midst of our saddness has come news of a due date!!!! We will have held our little one by this time next week. We will leave for Vietnam on Friday, meet Mya on Sunday and she will be ours on July 23!!! Wow!! I was 15 minutes from departure to take Mason to camp when we got the call. We still took the planned mini vacation to take him on the 12 hour drive to camp. He will have to meet us in route to Vietnam, taking his first solo flight to get there. He thinks life couldn't get any better. So, I have returned home with 5 days to prepare for our trip and the arrival of our girl! My head is spinning a little, but it is great to know we will be leaving so soon!! Mya here we come...

No news is so hard to report

I realize it has been over a month since I posted. We have gone through this time with no progress and I cannot begin to expain how tough it is to wait patiently. The wait will come to an end, but at the moment that is hard believe. Our paperwork is still in Hanoi waiting for approval to move. As far as we know, nothing is wrong. So, we wait. That is definately the buzz word in the process. We have been told to look towards the end of July for travel, but right now I cannot count on that. We need to see something move before we can let our hearts go again.

Our longing builds each day. A couple of weeks ago we received pictures of Mya looking at pictures we sent her of the family. I cannot explain what a treasure that is. I hope it will make our first meeting with her better. We are so excited to bring her into our lives and we have dreamt about it for over a year. For, her it will be such a new situation with out the ability to really process what is happening to her. We are trusting in God's grace to poor over all of us when the time comes.

Finally decided to take the plunge

Well, after months of following the other bloggers, I have decided to journal our journey. We started down this road in March of 2006. Our hearts were stirred and off we went. In August of 2006 we visited a waiting child list from Vietnam and were drawn to a beautiful little girl. At that time she was matched with our family. We have worked diligently since that time to do everything required. The easy part has been what was required of us; paperwork, appointments, paperwork, errands, paperwork. You get the idea. The waiting has been the faith building side of it. We have been given the peace and patience that are NOT from us. There is a verse that has become a lifeline...

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 14:13

I cannot explain to anyone exactly what it is like to wait without a solid "due date." When we began we thought we could have Mya home by April and now we are hoping to travel in June. It may not seem like a big difference to others, but to us it feels like years! Our life somehow has felt like it has been on hold since last summer. I am sorry if we have been withdrawn from any of you during this time, please know it has not been intentional. As our time to go is getting closer, I am finding myself even more distracted. As much as the wait has been long, my confidence in the Lord's hand in all of it has grown so much deeper. We have known all this time that the date of our meeting has been set, and we have to trust that God's timing is perfect. Not only are we being prepared for Mya now, she is also in His perfect care through each and every day. Many days we need a reminder, but through all of it He is faithful! Our hope is sure!

Well, this wasn't meant to be negative, quite the opposite. The whole family is excited to go get our girl! We are all planning to make the trip and even Mallory is ready to go since the immunizations are behind her! We are waiting for our paperwork to travel through about three more stops before we find out the day we will bring her into our family forever. Her paperwork has been sent to Hanoi to be matched with our. So stay tuned for info to follow in the next few weeks about our plans. Pray for us as we wait and prepare!