Happy Turkey Day!

Oh, how much we have to be thankful for - - - EVERY day!! Good health, lots of love, freedoms, family and friends. Thanks, God!!

We normally do Thanksgiving dinner here at our house for my family and Shawn's, but thanks to the generosity of my sweet sister Shelly and my mom and dad, we celebrated at Shelly's this year. I don't know how I could have pulled it off, and they did it beautifully!!

Kai was a great joy; very friendly and fun with everyone! We all had a great time and enjoyed a wonderful meal together.

On a sad note, Shawn's grandfather passed away on Wednesday morning. He had just turned 90, and had lived a full life, but it's always hard to accept, especially at the holiday season. Our prayers are for his family and their peace tonight.

Adjusting to life at home....

Kai is doing remarkably well adjusting to her new home and surroundings - - - the rest of us are working on it! She is a happy girl - - - and just seems as if she's been here forever. She finally slept through the night last night, so that was a good thing. I've had to feed her two bottles overnight prior to that, and getting a good night's sleep was hard. But my mom came and stayed two nights this week to help out while Shawn had to be out of town. I took Austin out on Wednesday for some one-on-one time. He isn't relishing his role as a big brother yet, but I'm hoping that will come in time.

Here are some pictures from our travels back home and once we got here.....Enjoy...and don't ever forget: There IS no place like home!!!!

...And now there are four!

We are happily home, getting over the jetlag, and adjusting to life with our energetic one-year old and her big brother. The flight home went much better than we had anticipated; Kai is a really good traveler!!

And although it was a busy weekend, it was great to get back. My parents and some of our friends did a covert mission to welcome us home with pink bows, balloons and ribbons everywhere along with gifts for Kai and Austin and food supplies galore! Thanks to all our sweet friends and family for making us feel so special and for the love you have for Kai!! She is a lucky girl to be so embraced so quickly.

Kai has been pure joy since getting home, especially considering all the changes she has been through in the last two weeks. She is laughing and is just generally a happy girl! And she LOVES her big brother like crazy - - - it is SO cute to see her face light up when she sees him or even hears his voice. He is getting used to the idea of sharing mom and dad....

I will have more pictures to upload in the next day or so - - - - MANY thanks to you all!!

Meet Kai??

We leave in a few minutes for the airport, but I wanted to let everyone know that we would like to invite whoever would like to meet Kai (and who can) to drop by this weekend! Family is invited to come on Saturday afternoon from 3:00 - 6:00, and friends can come on Sunday afternoon also from 3:00 - 6:00. I wasn't able to send out an e-mail, so hopefully enough people will see this post and can spread the word. Very informal; don't even know how Kai's schedule will be once we get home, but this has been a long time coming, and we want her to meet all the important people in her life!

A fix!

Okay, okay!! I can hardly wait to post pictures just as soon as we take them....there's a lot of sweetness to share in this little girl! She has the cutest dimples you have ever seen...on her knees! We are madly in love with our spunky little Kai and have enjoyed every minute of this special time with her. What precious moments have been condensed into a short couple of weeks - learning so much about her and relishing the discovery of it all!

We leave in the morning and look forward to getting home to see Austin, family and friends. I will try to post one last time in the morning. I think it would be a cool thing for anyone and everyone who is following Kai's blog to write even a short comment following this post so that we'll know who's still with us. Just click on the " __ comments" that shows by the time stamp at the end of the post. Add your comment and submit!

Our hearts are with you all for the wonderful love, patience, kindness and support you have all shown throughout this crazy Journey to Kai (J2K!)- - even from strangers, some of who are still waiting for their own joyful reunions with their Vietnamese babies. I pray every day for the waiting families and for the children; for their peace and happy endings. And I know that God will unite them all in His due time!! Keep the faith!! Of course, this is far from the ending for any of us....it is a new beginning, a new chapter in our lives, and I give God all the glory for allowing us to take this next step.

So...here are the last day's pictures of our little angel....the bathing suit and hat was only worn once in the room (too cold to swim, but does she look ready for the catwalk, or what?!?), and the bow in the hair (look closely) was in there for approximately 2.5 seconds before she pulled it out (sorry, Nicole! I'll keep trying!!). The Vietnamese lady in the picture is the agency's facilitator. She was a tremendous help to us through everything! She is expecting her first baby, but she's had lots of practice with babies, we could tell, and will make a wonderful mother. It was a joy getting to know her as well.

Hope to see everyone very soon!!

No pics, but GREAT NEWS

HOORAY!! We are back from the visa interview, and there were no issues. It actually took less than 5 minutes for the Embassy to look at our paperwork! Our facilitator will pick up Kai's visa later this afternoon, and WE ARE DONE!!

Flights are confirmed for Friday (another HOORAY!), so we should be home (can I say HOORAY three times in one post??) at around midnight Friday!!

Just had to share the great news with everyone back home.....I will take and post some more pictures before we leave for you Kai crack-heads out there (HAHAHAHA!!)!!

LOVE TO YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

New pictures of cuteness!!

Thanks, Amy J., for reprimanding me about not posting pictures! She is, after all, the cutest little thing I've ever seen!! Enjoy!!

Hang tight - -

Kai's medical examination was today and everything looked great! Another hurdle out of the way - yay!!! She is 19.6 lbs. and 19 1/2 inches tall - - - a sturdy and healthy girl!!

Unfortunately, we found out this afternoon that the Embassy was closed today and will be closed again tomorrow for meetings. Ugh!! That means that we can't get Kai's visa until Wednesday at the earliest....which means we won't be able to fly home Wednesday after all!! We had just received our itinerary; now we've got to change it again and hope that there are seats available on Thursday. We will continue to have faith that God's got it covered (He does), and we will get home at the right time.

Fun with Kai!

Yesterday we toured the Hoa Lo Prison, where John McCain spent time as a POW. Prisoners were subjected to torture, inhuman living conditions and execution. There was even a guillotine they had used. It was chilling, to say the least.

BUT! We have had a great couple of days with Kai! She continues to do well, and I think she has accepted the fact that we're not going anywhere.

The best news of all is that we are confirmed on flights back home next Wednesday!! WOOHOO!! I can't wait to begin our lives - at home - as a family of four. God continues to bless us!!

Here are a few pictures, including one of that AWESOME smile I told you about. We are seeing it more and more!!

How cute is this....

....funny girl face?? Here are a few pictures from the last couple of days of our sweet little angel! We haven't had the greatest weather (major flooding before we arrived and a typhoon is expected to hit the area tomorrow afternoon!), so we haven't been able to do as much as we had hoped. Thank goodness we have a 3 bedroom apartment to stay in so we can move around quite a bit.

Kai is an extremely active one-year old!! And she has been very clingy to me....I had forgotten the art of eating, brushing teeth and making bottles with one hand while holding a baby on my hip! She is really warming up to Shawn, too, as we knew she would.

We bought a stroller and she just loves riding in it! Every day as the weather would allow, we have taken walks around to different parts of the city. Yesterday we went to the Old Quarter and had lunch at an outdoor cafe around Hoan Kiem Lake. The waitress brought Kai some corn on the cob and she LOVED it! We had to ask for a second piece to get through lunch - - wish I had a bucketful! :)

Kai has been very sad at bedtime; crying for a long time before going to sleep. But last night - no tears!! I think we are making significant strides in her adjustment to us - - - what a relief! She is SOO snuggly and sweet and funny! She makes this hilarious, huge-smiley face when she thinks something is funny - - like when she passes gas! And she is really smart. She helps Daddy put the key card in the door, knows how to push the buttons on the tv, goes to the door when she wants to go somewhere, and so many other things that tell us she understands. What an awesome time we are having getting to know her!!

Thanks to everyone for all the best wishes! Hopefully we will be home next week and can see everyone very soon!!

AHHH! I can post again!!!

I'm not sure why, but for the last two days when I've tried to login to post on the blogsite, it gave me instructions in Vietnamese - - and more detailed instructions than the usual e-mail address and password, so I have been STUCK, unable to post. ANYWAY!!! I logged on tonight and for some reason it's back to English, and let me just say HALLELUJAH!! My Facebook friends have been able to see some pics, but not everyone, so.....with no further adieu.....I am so happy to share some pics of Kai!!!

She was really open to us when we were at the orphanage, laughing and smiling. We spent about an hour there before we were told it was time to leave and go to the G&R Ceremony. The nannies were very sad you could tell, but I also saw how much love they had for Kai and - as we left - I was overcome with gratitude for these two ladies who had cared for Kai, day in and day out with oh-so-little in the way of resources. I hugged them both profusely and thanked them for the good care they had given to her. They didn't speak a word of English but I'm sure they understood. Shawn couldn't believe how dirty the orphanage was (and it was), but seriously.....it's not like these people can bop down to the local Wal-Mart, buy some 409 and scrub sponges and give the place a good cleaning every couple of weeks! This country is P.O.O.R.!!! It's really unbelieveable and humbling to see how some people live.

On the way back to Ha Noi, Kai did a little crying and was upset for a bit. I held her and comforted her....it was all I could do. I really thought that was the end of it, but at bedtime for the last two nights, she is just inconsolable and cries herself to sleep, exhausted, with me holding her, rocking her and rubbing her back. I know she is missing her sweet nannies, but we are doing all we can to help her make the transition. I'm not sure how long that will take, but we will do whatever it takes!

Today was better; we went shopping a bought her a sweater (it's been a bit chilly and almost everything I brought were sundresses!) and some new shoes (all the shoes that I had were too big - - the girl's got 3 1/2 size feet!) and a stroller. We walked all the way around Hoan Kiem Lake with Kai in her stroller. She didn't make a peep for 2 hours! We decided to have an early dinner - Kai had only a little over an hour nap earlier - but it was clear as soon as we got to the restaurant and sat down for dinner that she was in no mood for a leisurely dinner! We left without ordering, and got sandwiches to-go from a cafe attached to the hotel.

Anyway!! I know things will get better, and we are so overjoyed to be with her!! She is absolutely SCRUMPTIOUS and SWEET!

Hopefully, my blogsite will continue to cooperate so I can keep updating the end of the journey for you. We may be flying home at the end of next week rather than the following Wednesday (11/19). THAT would be awesome!!

We got to Skype Austin earlier today, and it was great to see his precious face!! I'm so appreciative of all the help we have had with him....and it's a real comfort to know that he's been well cared for!

More later.....!!

We're here!!!

We arrived today (Tuesday) in Hanoi at about 12:35 p.m. It was about 30 hours of total travel time, and although it is only 6:30 p.m. here, we are exhausted and ready for bed!! The Giving & Receiving Ceremony is scheduled for tomorrow. The in-country facilitator is meeting us in the morning at 8 a.m. for the drive out to the orphanage to meet KAI!!!

I don't know if any of you have heard about it or not, but within the last three days, northern Vietnam has received about 20 inches of rain and there is flooding all around. It was the most rain they have received in that amount of time in over 20 years! We heard about it as we were about to leave, but after checking the flights it didn't look like there any delays, so we just figured we would deal with it when we got here. As we flew in this morning, you could see large areas of flooding. Over 40 deaths have been attributed to the flooding, and you could see why. The devastation was huge!! Now they are worried about disease, post-flood, and lots of people are wearing face masks.

I can't wait to tell you all about the sights and sounds we have seen thus far, but for now I can only tell you how EXTREMELY EXCITED we are to get to meet Kai tomorrow for the first time!!!

Austin is doing well; we got to talk to him earlier today.

Hopefully when you see this next we will have been able to post pictures with our girl!!! YAY!!!!!

On our way!!

We are leaving within minutes for the airport - - - can you believe it?!? We fly to LAX tonight, then to Taipei, Taiwan then to Hanoi, arriving on Tuesday mid-day. Whew!! It will all have been so worth it when we see Kai on Wednesday!! I am hoping to be able to upload a photo from the Giving & Receiving Ceremony, so look for that on Wednesday.

Our plans as of now are to return on Wednesday, November 19th. Our flight gets in at midnight. However, there is a chance that Kai's visa and passport could get issued earlier than what we've allowed for, so we may get to return the weekend before.....that's what we're hoping for!!

I'm already a little sad about being away from Austin for so long. He was very needy today and of course it's because of our leaving. But he's a tough little guy, and I know he'll be okay. Thank goodness for all of his wonderful grandparents who will be taking good care of him while we're gone. Lots of love to Mam & Pop and to Grandma & Grandpa!!

Thanks to you all for your continued prayers for our safe travels! Bon voyage!!!

Leavin' on an airplane....

....in about 34 hours from now!! I'm still not sure it's completely sunk in. I keep having all these thoughts about the actual moment when we will see her face and hold her in our arms - the reality of that - but it still just seems like a dream, a hope, a prayer....

Today is final laundry and putting-it-all-in-a-suitcase day, and I can't wait!! All the orphanage and nanny gifts are ready, the paperwork has all been copied and is ready to take with us, so we just need to pack our clothes and toiletries. I am most excited to pack Kai's cute little girly stuff! I can't wait to see her in a dress!! I just hope it's all going to fit in our luggage and not go over the weight limits!! :)

We had a fun time last night at our trick-or-treating hayride (thanks, T & S!!!)! This has become a tradition of ours that is as fun for the adults as it is for the kids. Austin was a Hot Wheels Racer, and he looked so cool!

I will try to post again tomorrow - - - I thought our flight left mid-day tomorrow, but we actually have until later in the afternoon. I will be SOO ready to go!!