The Munn Family Times

2008-07-02T17:04:00.002-06:00

stub·born : \ˈstə-bərn\ adjective

(1): unreasonably or perversely unyielding : mulish

(2): justifiably unyielding : resolute

(3): suggestive or typical of a strong stubborn nature

(4): performed or carried on in an unyielding, obstinate, or persistent manner

(5): difficult to handle, manage, or treat

2008-04-18T20:33:00.004-06:00

The Plight of the Spoiled Shoe Shopper

Jake and Olivia both have a little cold so we were in the bathroom a bit ago while I doled out medicine for their coughs and runny noses. After taking his medicine, Jake said, "I'm thirsty Mommy. I'm thirsty for water!" I turned on the faucet and picked up his cup and filled it for him, all the while Livi was chiming in, "I'm thirsty, too! I want water, too!" I left the water running in the sink while I picked her cup up to fill it with water, too. I thought to myself that Jake has no idea what it means to be thirsty. Not really. Neither do I. Perhaps Olivia has known thirst and hunger, but if she has she was thankfully too little to remember it.

As they finished their water, I rinsed out the measuring spoon and returned the medicine bottle to the cabinet. I noticed how many other medicine bottles are in there. Something for colds and coughs - nighttime and daytime varieties, as well as medicines strictly for colds and then others strictly for coughs. Allergy medicines, Tylenol, Motrin, vitamins, sore throat spray, antiseptic and analgesic spray for cuts and burns, and a box of Barbie band-aids. (Jake's Diego band-aids are in the kids' bathroom.)

We came down to the living room and I sat down on the couch to get ready for lullabies where my sweet babies climb up into my lap for their two bedtime songs. I look over to the door and from where I'm sitting I can count 7 - that's SEVEN - pairs of Jake's shoes that are on the shoe rack by the back door. Olivia has four pairs there, and an entire drawer full in her room. I would estimate she probably has about 25 pairs of shoes in all. Jake has more shoes in his room as well.

I look across the room and there's a soft, fuzzy throw blanket and two pillows sitting in the chair. I notice the lamp on the table by the window. All we have to do is pull the pretty silver chain and the light pops on.

All of this took place within a matter of minutes. My eyes were welling up with tears. I wonder how many people would give anything for my blanket and pillows, or perhaps a drink of water from my bathroom sink. How many would give anything for medicine for their child or a pair of shoes for their feet? Many would say we are spoiled, and we are. God has blessed us. I don't understand why we have running water, electricity, medicine and money to buy the things we need. I don't know why we have more than so many others in this world. I'm sure I don't love my children anymore than a mother in Darfur or Vietnam or North Korea loves her own.

I don't know what to do to fix the world. I can't fly to Darfur and take $1000 to a homeless refugee family. What are we supposed to do, really? Sponsor a child? Well, I adopted one. Does that make me holier than thou? A great big NO. Is my work done? Absolutely not. So what do I do? Put my spare pennies in the jar at the bank to help one community in Africa have fresh water? Honestly - pennies? The whole community is going to have fresh water because of pennies collected at my bank? Is that really possible?

I have no amazing ending to this post. I wish I could tell you I've come up with the perfect plan. That I've figured out how to save the world! The fact is, there is no perfect plan. We can't save this world. It's doomed. It's in the Bible, you can check it out. What I would like to do is just pray like crazy for Jesus to come back today and rapture me and my beautiful family into heaven and away from this sad world. That would be WONDERFUL!!! It doesn't fix the problems in Darfur or Vietnam or North Korea (or the 100's of other poverty stricken places in the world.) Most of those people aren't saved. It's my job to spread the word of God to them, but I'm apparently too busy buying shoes for my children to do that.

Nope, no amazing ending here. Just depressed about the state of this world, the people suffering and the fact that I feel helpless to do anything for them. I can do all I know to do though. I can pray for them and I can take care of my own sweet family and try to raise children who will go into the world and preach and teach the gospel to others.

Oh, and I can go shoe shopping. Does anyone else feel like the most spoiled person in the world?

2008-02-23T23:28:00.000-06:00

~ Update on Jake ~

Thank you all so much for praying for Jake!!!! God is healing him more day by day. The Valium Jake was taking didn't seem to be helping at all. If anything, it was making things much worse. Jake was miserable and in an incredible amount of pain with his neck and the Valium made him completely loopy and unable to sleep for more than just a couple of hours at a time. We had a few very bad days at our house.

By Wednesday, I realized that the swelling on the left side of his neck was getting much worse. At some point it finally occurred to me that the swelling was on the same side as his ear infection and I gradually started to put two and two together. The doctor put him on antibiotics Wednesday for the ear infection and Thursday he seemed a bit better pain wise, but was still unable to move his head to the right. We went back to the doctor on Thursday for more bloodwork and x-rays on his neck to check for an absess. The x-rays were clear and his white blood cell count had gone down a bit which meant that the infection was getting a little better. This was all very good news! The doctor determined that what started out as an ear infection had moved into the lymph nodes which was causing the extreme swelling. She gave him an antibiotic shot to help speed healing of the infection and we were sent home to wait. If the swelling and fever hadn't gone down by the next morning, we were going to do a CAT scan to figure out what the swelling was all about. Friday morning he was still miserable but the swelling seemed to have subsided a bit. We went back to the doctor and she was very happy to report that the lymph nodes were definitely shrinking! She could feel a dramatic difference despite the fact that I couldn't tell it by looking at him. No CAT scan was needed! Praise God!!

Jake hasn't had fever since Thursday and his neck is getting better and better! He has much more mobility now and is in much better spirits. He was laughing and playing today for the first time in a long time. It's wonderful to hear his sweet laugh again!

I can't tell you how worried I've been about him this week. It's a horrible thing to watch your baby in so much pain and not be able to do anything about it. Thankfully all of our prayers worked and God is healing him! Thanks so much to each of you who prayed for Jake and sent words of encouragement. Please continue to pray for him as he continues to heal!! God bless you for being prayer warriors for us!!

2008-02-19T19:52:00.003-06:00

Please pray for Jake

Jake has been sick now for 10 days. We initially thought it was the flu because everyone else in Sparkman has it, including a little girl in his class and all the symptoms fit. He started taking Tamiflu last Monday so we expected it to be over within a couple of days. (Mike also had what we assume was the flu but he's all better now.)

Jake was feeling better by the end of last week and we went to his cousin's birthday party on Saturday. He roller skated and had a good time but seemed tired. He woke up Sunday morning with a fever again of 102. By Sunday evening he had a stiff neck and couldn't turn his head to the right and he was in a lot of pain. I looked up stiff neck and fever on the internet and meningitis came up. Needless to say, this Mommy became very very concerned.

We went to see our wonderful pediatrician, Dr. Green, in Texarkana yesterday and he fit Jake in early because of the concern of meningitis. His white blood cell count was high, so they ended up having to do a spinal tap. They wouldn't let us be with him during the procedure so I spent those fifteen minutes praying and reading my Bible through tears. They brought my sweet boy back to his room and he said, "It only hurt a little bit." He's so tough. I'm so proud of him. They gave him a shot of Ativan and we waited about 45 minutes for the results. They were NEGATIVE for meningitis!!! This was a wonderful blessing from God! They also swabbed Jake for the flu and he hadn't had it. Dr. Green determined that this was a virus and there was nothing he could take to get rid of it. They called all over Texarkana trying to find a pharmacy that carried liquid Valium and finally located some. So, we're home now and only have Valium for the spasms and Ibuprofen for the fever.

Jake is in a TREMENDOUS amount of pain with the muscle spasms in his neck and of course also feels terrible from running a high fever and being sick. Despite being on Valium, he still has trouble sleeping through the spasms. He is drinking fluids but hasn't eaten much over the last several days and he's incredibly weak. I ask that you pray for complete healing for him. I know God can take this virus away today and I pray that he will. Please pray for comfort for him until God heals him. The Valium makes him very dizzy. It helps with the spasms enough that he sometimes wants to play but he can't because he's so dizzy. He also hates the taste of it so we have to hold him down to give it to him. He is absolutely miserable right now. Jake is the sweetest child in the world and would pray for you endlessly if you needed them and especially if you asked for them. So, we ask that you pray for our sugarbear.

2008-02-08T17:05:00.000-06:00

Do I not have the two cutest kids in the whole entire world?!?! You may have noticed Olivia's new short haircut! I think it looks awfully cute, despite the fact that it was in NO way intentional, at least on my part. Miss Olivia decided to cut her lovely locks a couple of weeks ago and she proceeded to do so all by herself. I was a VERY unhappy Mommy. It had just gotten long enough to put into a real ponytail! She also cut it on Wednesday afternoon, so we had to make a mad dash to the salon before church to see if we could do something to fix it. Mike's cousin Mindy did a great job. It's a bit peculiar looking in the back still, but Mindy managed to blend it really well. Olivia cut it right in the middle of the back of her head! UGH!! Needless to say she was in a good bit of trouble, so I don't think she'll be doing it again anytime soon. It's funny that cutting her hair actually made her look older and much taller! She's super cute no matter what her hair looks like! Her brother is also ridiculously handsome if I do say so myself :<)

2008-02-08T16:36:00.000-06:00

Buddy the Bear votes for Huckabee!

Buddy the Bear is the current class project at Jake and Olivia's preschool. He goes home with each of the families and we take him on little adventures. We take pictures of Buddy on his excursions and then each family will share their outings with Buddy through photographs and words in a class book. It's a very cute idea I think. We were the first family to have Buddy so we bought him a toothbrush, blanket and a little red suitcase. The last family to have him bought him the cute camo outfit you see in the picture. Although we already had a turn with Buddy, I asked to take him to vote. The elections are an important event taking place in our country after all! So, Buddy joined us on our voting adventure. As it turns out, Buddy is also rooting for Governor Huckabee :<)

Speaking of the election, can I just say how ELATED I am that Mitt Romney has dropped out?!?! Proof that prayer works!! I couldn't have been more surprised yesterday when he announced suspension of his campaign. I am overjoyed!! If you haven't already, PLEASE make a donation to Huckabee's campaign ASAP!!! He needs our help to get to the White House! He can't do it alone. PRAY PRAY PRAY for the primaries tomorrow in Washington, Louisiana, Kansas and next Tuesday District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia. If you live in one of these states please prayerfully consider voting for Mike Huckabee and encourage others to do so as well! Then GO VOTE!!!!

2008-02-04T16:42:00.000-06:00

VOTE TOMORROW ~ TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5TH!!!!!!

Obviously I'm voting for Mike Huckabee tomorrow! If you wondered why I'm certain he's the right man to be our next President, there are a few reasons below. If you want to know more about Huckabee, please check out his site at www.mikehuckabee.com. If you still aren't sure who to vote for, give me a call or email me! I would LOVE to tell you why Mike Huckabee is the man for the job.

A few of MY personal reasons are that he's 100% pro-life. He's not sort of pro-life most of the time, He's ALWAYS PRO-LIFE - ALL THE TIME! He has more on the job experience as a leader than any other candidate. He is the only candidate who the Gun Owners of America calls a leader who “…has proven himself to be a steadfast friend to gun owners and the Second Amendment.” He's been a member of the NRA for 15 years and is a member of the NWTF and Ducks Unlimited. As Governor of Arkansas, he cut taxes 100 times and left us with an $850 million surplus which he encouraged congress to give back to us in refunds. The question isn't really why Mike Huckabee, it's why not Mike Huckabee! There isn't a better qualified person for the job. I hope that you'll pray about who to vote for tomorrow and by all means - VOTE!!!

MIKE HUCKABEE ON THE ISSUES:

SANCTITY OF LIFE I support and have always supported passage of a constitutional amendment to protect the right to life. My convictions regarding the sanctity of life have always been clear and consistent, without equivocation or wavering. I believe that Roe v.Wade should be over-turned.

MARRIAGE I support and have always supported passage of a federal constitutional amendment that defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman. As President, I will fight for passage of this amendment. My personal belief is that marriage is between one man and one woman, for life.

HEALTH CARE Our health care system is making our businesses non-competitive in the global economy. It is time to recognize that jobs don't need health care, people do, and move from employer-based to consumer-based health care.

TAXES I support the Fair Tax. (Casey's input about Fair Tax: That means the end of the IRS. That means the end of taxes coming directly out of your paycheck. With the Fair Tax, you only pay tax on NEW things at the time of purchase. That way it's not just the hard working tax payers of America paying the government's bills - it's everyone who makes a purchase.)

EDUCATION I have been a strong, consistent supporter of the rights of parents to home school their children, of creating more charter schools, and of public school choice.

EDUCATION We need a clear distinction between federal and state roles in education. While there is value in the"No Child Left Behind" law's effort to set high standards, states must be allowed to develop their own benchmarks.

IMMIGRATION We have to know who is coming into our country, where they are going, and why they are here. We need a fence along our border with Mexico, electronic in some places, and more highly-trained border agents.

WAR ON TERROR I believe that we are currently engaged in a world war. Radical Islamic fascists have declared war on our country and our way of life. They have sworn to annihilate each of us who believe in a free society, all in the name of a perversion of religion and an impersonal god. We go to great extremes to save lives, they go to great extremes to take them. This war is not a conventional war, and these terrorists are not a conventional enemy. Iwill fight the war on terror with the intensity and single-mindedness that it deserves.

2ND AMENDMENT RIGHTS The Second Amendment is primarily about tyranny and self-defense, not hunting. The Founding Fathers wanted us to be able to defend ourselves from our own government, if need be,and from all threats to our lives and property.

To learn more about Mike Huckabee, go to www.mikehuckabee.com!

2008-01-30T22:54:00.000-06:00

"My faith is my life - it defines me.

My faith doesn't influence my decisions, it drives them."

- Governor Mike Huckabee

I love that quote. If everyone lived their lives that way, think how much better this world could be. I strive to live my life that way. My faith is definitely my life and it drives all of my decisions.

I hope your faith is strong. I hope you believe that God is in control of our country and our 2008 Presidential election. I hope that you'll pray for God's will to be done in this election. Regardless of who you end up voting for, please pray for our country to turn to God. Please pray for a God fearing President who puts all of his decisions in the Lord's hands.

2008-01-17T16:03:00.000-06:00

We've got spirit yes we do,

we've got spirit how about you!?!?!?!

You'll notice at the top of our blog I am now a Huckabee Ranger. I have pledged to raise $500 for Mike Huckabee's campaign. If we could personally give Mike Huckabee $1,000,000 for his campaign, we would. We back him 100%. I realize that not all of you are going to agree with all of his views. Though if you're a Christian, you probably agree with many of them. I've certainly made no secret of the fact that we support Mike Huckabee for President. Our country was based on Christian values and we believe Mike Huckabee can, with God's help and the help of the Christians in this nation, turn our country back toward God!

Mike and I are not wealthy people. We're not even middle class, but we know Mike Huckabee can't get to the White House without our help and your help. We have already made a $100 donation to Huckabee's campaign and will donate more as the Lord allows us. Would you be willing to do the same? I ask only that you pray for God's leading and give to Huckabee's campaign as you feel led. Donate as much as you can, but remember that you can make a difference in the outcome of this election even if you can only donate $5.

Please keep this incredibly important election in your prayers and donate as you can. Help me reach my fundraising goal!!!

2008-01-10T11:25:00.000-06:00

365 days~12 months~52 weeks~8760 hours~525,600 minutes

Anyway that you look at it, it's a year.
A year of seemingly endless tears.
A year of trying to make sense of God's will.
A year of getting out of bed in the morning,
even when you don't want to.
A year of being as angry as you've ever been.
A year of wanting to crawl into a cave and hide.
A year of trying to put it out of your mind.
A year of making sure you remember even when it's hard.
A year - an entire year.

I know from the experience of losing my Mama that it's the hardest day there will be. It makes it permanent. For the first 364 days you somehow rationalize that it's not real - that you're having a nightmare and you'll eventually wake up. When it becomes a YEAR, there's no pretending anymore. It's life as you know it and there isn't anything you can do to change it. Life goes on whether you want it to or not. God wills it to go on and it does.

After a year passes you catch yourself before you grab the phone to call him. You catch yourself before you look in the direction of where he should be. That awful pain in your heart catches you before you move.

It's been a year and although a year is a long time, for us surely it's only been a few short hours. The pain is still so fresh and our wounds are still open. Why is it harder today? We have gone on breathing everyday just as God willed and then today we awaken and it's January 10, 2007 all over again and we don't understand how it's been a year when he was JUST HERE. He was just here. It hurts - it hurts as if it were that day again. You relive the day just as it was all day long. Where you were, where he was. What you did, what he did. You remember the minutes, the words spoken, the smell of his shirt. Surely it hasn't been a year, and yet it has.

Jesus himself spoke the words, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." We have made it through the last year simply resting on Jesus Christ. If the Lord wills it, we will make it another year and then another... and the wounds will remain but God will comfort us and PRAISE GOD - WE WILL SEE HIM AGAIN ONE DAY!

A year has passed and we mourn him still. We love him still. Today even more than yesterday, we remember this man whom we loved so much. Because it's been a year today since he met his Savior face to face and at least today, a year later, we can say thank you God for taking him home to be with You in heaven.

I took this video just a few hours before Daddy Don died. Jake was spraying him with Silly String in our living room and they had so much fun. It's been too hard to post it until now, but this is how we want to remember him. Laughing and playing with his grandchildren - that's what his life was all about.

We love you Daddy Don and we miss you.

2008-01-09T13:20:00.000-06:00

Who do YOU want to be your next President???

Someone located my blog via Mike Huckabee's blogroll and left a comment so I went and checked out her site as well. She had a link to a really cool site where you can do a quick survey about how you feel on certain issues and it will give you the name of the candidate who most matches your beliefs. Not surprisingly, I was most in line with MIKE HUCKABEE!!!!!! Anyway, check out this site:

http://www.vajoe.com/candidate_calculator.html

and see who you're most in line with. I hope that it's Mike Huckabee, and if it's not... well, perhaps you should pray about it :<)

2007-12-28T11:37:00.000-06:00

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "One year ago today... Olivia officially became ou...": How sweet! A mere child smiling as he kneels alongside a slaughtered animal ~ What a parent you are to teach and instill in your child that ending the life of an innocent animal is sport!

Listen, I love a spirited conversation as much as the next person, but if you're going to leave a sarcastic comment on my blog, you should at least have the guts to leave your name with it. (You could also leave your comment with the correct blog post.)

Also, unless you are a strict vegetarian who owns no animal skin products (that doesn't just include fur, but also leather watch bands, jackets, boots, shoes and leather covered BIBLES to name a few) you really have no right to say anything about hunting. I assure you that hunting animals in the wild is far more humane than raising animals up simply to be slaughtered, pumping them full of chemicals, and then carting them around numerous times from auction to auction then to the slaughter house in huge trailers with no room to move around and NO food or water.

And just for the record, we don't hunt simply for sport, although we do get a lot of enjoyment from carrying on our ancestors' tradition of hunting. We hunt for FOOD. 90% - that's NINTY percent - of the meat my family eats in a year comes from deer, turkey and ducks we kill. Unless you want to start paying our family's food bill so I can buy some of your steroid filled cows from the grocery store, I suggest you keep your sarcastic comments to yourself.

For that matter, if you don't like the content on my blog, why are you reading it in the first place?

2007-12-17T12:23:00.000-06:00

And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.

Acts 5:41,42

I rejoice, I rejoice, I rejoice! I will never cease to teach and preach Jesus Christ! I can't imagine the suffering the apostles endured, but I gladly suffer shame today and everyday of my life in the name of my Lord. I will always speak His truths boldly and be thankful that I am His child.

2007-12-14T12:31:00.000-06:00

Happy 5th Birthday, Jake!!!!

(we love you more than dirt!)

Jake's 1st time to go "duck huncking" with his Daddy!

December 2007

October 2007

Yellowstone 2006

Pensacola Beach 2006

Christmas 2005

Halloween 2005

Choosy moms choose Jif and so do their kids! 2004

Fall 2004

Snuggling in the warm laundry 2003

My sweet baby February 2003

2007-11-30T09:52:00.000-06:00

NEW PICTURES!!!

I understand some of you would like to see new pictures of my sweet babies!! Sorry about that :<) I am mostly a MySpacer these days and I have lots of new pictures of us on my page. Just go to http://myspace.com/caseymunn and you can look at my slideshows or click on "my pics" and it will take you to my albums. You don't have to sign up to look at the page, but you ought to sign up anyway!! It's lots of fun and I've found lots of old friends on MySpace.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas season so far! I've been decorating for three days and I'm still not done! I LOVE LOVE LOVE Christmas!!! 25 days till Jesus' birthday!!!

2007-11-21T23:55:00.000-06:00

One year ago today...

Olivia officially became our daughter! As anyone who knows me well or frequents this blog knows, I am not generally an "emotional" person. I tell you what though, today has been more emotional than I thought it would be. I think most people are in awe of their children whether adopted or not, just as I am, but mostly today I'm in awe of our situation. I just feel incredibly blessed to have this beautiful family made just as God intended. It wasn't in the usual way, but man, I think that makes it even better. I look at Olivia now and I can't believe how far she's come. I could rehash what she was like when we first adopted her, but you can go back in the archives and read about it. For that matter, you probably remember. She wasn't fond of us to say the least and we had a really tough time for many months. Now she's just one of the gang and I not only forget that she's adopted, I forget she's Vietnamese. She's just Livi. I see her only as my daughter. I don't see a little girl who was an orphan a year ago. I just see my very silly and strong willed Olivia. She's a handful but I sure do love her. Loving Olivia as a daughter didn't come naturally to me as it does to some who adopt, but God has over time blessed me with a very special love for her. The last year's ups and downs I've mostly kept private, because that's what they are - private. I will say that I couldn't love a biological daughter more than I love Olivia. She and Jake are absolutely precious to me and I would fight to the death for them. Do I love them the same? No I don't, and I hope I never do. They are separate people who I love differently. The important thing is that I love them both more than anything in the world. Actually, they are third on my list after Jesus and Mike :<) So today we didn't do anything particularly special for our Forever Family Day. We ate at The Fried Pie with Bro. Jack Daniels, who has been here preaching our AWESOME revival, took naps, went to Camden, then went to church tonight where 5 people's souls were saved!!!! I'd say that's a pretty good way to spend our day! I think we ended up with 15 salvations this week - PRAISE GOD!!! It's been amazing watching God work! Tonight in church Olivia yelled out "amen!" It was such a sweet moment. My babies are so precious! Bro. Jack asked for all of the ministers in the church to raise their hands and Jake raised his. Even at the age of 4 he says he's going to be a preacher. He's said it since he first started talking. I couldn't be more proud of these two amazing kids. They both love the Lord and they love to pray and sing. Oh my, I could go on and on about my blessings! I tell you what, I sure have plenty to be thankful for!! Mostly I'm thankful that my family of 4 is finally spending it's first Thanksgiving ALL together!!! I love Vietnam, but I'm super thankful that I'm spending Thanksgiving this year in ARKANSAS!!!

So I've told Olivia several times throughout the day about how she's been with us for a year now and she gets all excited and her little eyes sparkle. Mandy, you should be proud of me telling her about her "story" all day! I don't think of it as her day though as much as I do OUR day. It's the day our little Munn family finally became complete. So Happy Forever Family day to us!

Also, a very special Happy Forever Family day to our great friends The Mulliez's!!! We can't imagine what life in Vietnam would have been like without you guys and little Miss Anna! We love you so much and are glad to have you also as part of our forever family!

2007-11-20T16:38:00.000-06:00

One more cute picture of Jake with my deer! You get a better view of the rack and well, let's face it, Jake's so adorable that I could post a million pictures of him!

2007-11-20T14:06:00.000-06:00

I killed this ten point the first day of deer season last weekend!!! It's the biggest deer I've ever killed, so I was excited to say the least. Until TODAY, Mike hadn't killed one bigger this season so I was winning our personal big buck competition. We are both HIGHLY competitive and I'm unhappy that I'm now behind him. He killed an 11 point this morning. I still have a buck tag though, so it's not over yet :<) Olivia was actually with me when I killed this buck, but she wasn't as cooperative with pictures as Jake, so you get to see his smiling face! He gets SO excited when his Mommy (or his turkey Daddy) kill a deer. Olivia was not as impressed, but she likes deer hunting. It was really neat spending so much time with the kids one on one this week in the deer stand. We switched out who took J & O over the week so we each had time with them and it was really nice. We all had a good time. I would post a picture of Mike's, but I'm still stewing over the fact that he's winning so it will have to wait for another day!

By the way, HAPPY (almost) TURKEY DAY!!! Don't forget to thank God for all of the blessings in your life!!

2007-11-20T14:01:00.000-06:00

It turns out that supporters of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee are the most likely to be happy. Huckabee has a relatively high proportion of support among evangelicals, who tend to be happier than most people.

- from a Yahoo! news report today at http://news.yahoo.com/page/election-2008-political-pulse-11202007

I just thought it was interesting that evangelicals tend to be happier than most people. Hmmm. Wonder why that is...

By the way, if you haven't chosen a Presidential candidate to support, you should definitely check out Mike Huckabee. He's BY FAR the best one in the bunch!

2007-10-08T12:25:00.000-06:00

The hardest job you'll ever love...

That's what the Army says, right? It's the hardest job you'll ever love? I'd have to disagree. I think the job of pastor is the hardest job you'll ever love. The second hardest job?? PASTOR'S WIFE. Right now though, I'm not loving it. In fact I'm not liking it at all. I think there must be some unspoken thing between pastor's wives that they don't tell the wives of men who are feeling led to the ministry. Those women out there who are already pastor's wives don't tell those women how hard it's going to be because if they did we might possibly do everything we could to talk our husbands out of surrendering. (For the record, I wouldn't have done that even if I HAD known how hard it was going to be.) The fact is that I'm SO PROUD of my husband. I sit in church 3 times a week and listen to my husband from the pulpit in amazement. He is God called, God ordained and God FILLED. He is an incredible blessing to me and I can't imagine him not preaching. I just didn't know what my role would be in this. I had no idea what life would be like as "The Pastor's Wife." I feel like that should be written in blood on black velvet. It's very daunting.

For whatever reason, a pastor and his wife (and their children, God help them) are held to a higher standard. We live in our little fish bowl and everyone feels they have the right to peer in anytime they want to see what we're up to. They rarely feed us though. Does anyone honestly think I would intentionally hurt them or offend them? Does anyone honestly think that I would say something to hurt their feelings ON PURPOSE???? I have never in my life had every word I say critiqued in such a manner. Everything I do and say goes under the microscope for inspection. I'm FAR from perfect. I have never claimed to be. I also don't understand why it's easy to forgive a regular person for their imperfections, but so difficult to forgive a pastor or his wife. Why in the world are we put into solitary confinement for saying the wrong thing when normal people simply get a slap on the hand? I'm perplexed. I'm frustrated. I'm tired.

I was told this week - not very nicely (and along with LOTS of other things) - that I'm not a "cookie cutter pastor's wife." (My first thought on that of course is why would I want to be?) Anyway, I read something today that was written by another pastor's wife about the same sort of thing. I'll stick her words in here for you to read for yourself.

I am a pastor’s wife of 37 years and early in our ministry I realized that everyone in the
pew had their own philosophy of what they deemed a “Pastor’s Wife” should be. If we went to a church that had 500 parishioners, there were 500 philosophies. Then I realized even my husband had his own philosophy. Then there was mine. I was raised in church and had a few different pastor’s wives so I had developed one, also. One day in prayer I told the Lord that He was going to have to give me the philosophy that would work for me because I would never measure up to all those different ideologies. This is what He spoke to my heart and said. Your philosophy should be as the pastor’s wife -- YOU TAKE CARE OF THE PASTOR!

Oh man!! I can't tell you how that spoke to my heart today. I'm freaking out trying to figure out how to be the perfect "pastor's wife" and do all that goes along with that, when all I really needed to be doing is taking care of the pastor! PRAISE GOD!!!!!! I'm not in charge of the universe! I have been thrilled to be called as my husband's helper. This is a role I have cherished for nearly 6 years. God called me to be a wife and mother. These are the sacred roles God entrusted me with. My job isn't to take care of the flock. That's the shepherd's job. My only job is to take care of the shepherd. Is anyone else amazed when God gives them EXACTLY what they need to hear? I have opened the Bible so many many times and turned to exactly what God wanted me to read to get out of any and every situation I've ever been in. On the occasions when I actually paid attention of course it all worked according to His plan. Well today I'm listening. God told me (via the internet of all things) that my job is to simply take care of my husband. He'll take care of the rest.

He also gave me this verse. At first it made absolutely no sense to me as to what it had to do with my situation but after reading it the third time it finally struck me.

Endure harship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs - he wants to please his commanding officer. 2 Timothy 2:3,4

I want to serve in my church. I want to get along with people and make friends. I want to fellowship and enjoy time with my sisters in Christ. God said to me - That's all great, but you are a soldier. It's your job to please your commanding officer. We often get confused about our reason for going to church. I want to make people happy. I want to teach my Sunday School class. I want to sing well. I want to look nice. I want to make other people feel good about themselves. I want to make people smile and laugh. These are all things I WANT. Sometimes they are also things God wants, but what God wants (and I know this because it's in HIS WORD) is to please my commanding officer. The only reason I should go to church is to worship God and to serve God. Often that entails the things I want to do, and sometimes it doesn't, but regardless - those wants should never overshadow what GOD wants.

Having said all of this, I'm personally feeling a little bit better about my "pastor's wife" situation. Now we just have to pray that the others around me will receive word from God about the same thing! I also will keep praying for God to discipline my tongue and allow me to say only that which will be taken the right way. With God all things are possible. I've just got to keep reminding myself of that.

This wife and mommy are hoping that you have a blessed day and that you'll keep her (and her husband and children) in your prayers :<)

2007-09-29T21:26:00.000-06:00

These are my very favorite pictures of Olivia. I took them by the big pond at our old house. I have them on my MySpace page and lots of my friends have mentioned them to me, so I thought I'd share them with those of you who refuse to join the world of MySpace (Mandy - I'm talking to you.) For those of you who may not know, I'm an aspiring photographer so I'm proud of these pictures. Aspiring was the key word in that last sentence. :<)

2007-09-24T20:05:00.000-06:00

Weirdest comment about Olivia so far

So we're in Wal-Mart the other day and we're rolling down the aisle like normal people do. Jake is helping me push the cart, Mike is beside us and Livi is sitting in the front of the cart. So, this middle aged man in one of the Wally World power wheelchairs rides up to us and says something about Olivia being cute. This is normal. Happens all the time. No big deal. Then he asks if she's Chinese. Another normal question. We say she's Vietnamese. He says, "Ah, I spent some time there years back." Normal response from men his age. We get that a lot. So then he says, "Well, she could be mine, well her Mama anyway. I sure had my share of fun while we were over there. Lots of women. No telling how many kids I got over there." HOLY FREAKING COW! I was nearly ill right there in the store. He said this in front of my children! I was not pleased. I looked at him like he was a lunatic and walked away. For those of you who know me, that was actually pretty nice considering. It's a 1000 wonders I didn't clock him. Apparently being a pastor's wife has been good for me :<)

2007-09-13T08:25:00.000-06:00

Happy 60th Birthday Daddy Don

we miss you & we love you

This is the very last picture I ever took of Daddy Don. Jake was shooting him with Silly String. It was taken only a few hours before he died in January. He should be in Colorado right now bow hunting for elk. I'm writing through tears. I can't believe he's not camping in the mountains right now. I can't believe that he won't be home in a couple of weeks with hilarious stories about bears and flat tires and stuff Cecil said. I can't believe that I'll never argue with him again. I can't believe he's not here to help me practice shooting my bow. As impatient as he was, he was the best hunting teacher in the world. He was a pain in the butt and I loved him so much more than he ever knew. Even 9 months later, our hearts are broken. We are still so broken, but we're blessed to see so much of him in Jake. Say a prayer for JuJu, Rhonda and Mike today if you will.

Happy Birthday Daddy Don. We'll see you soon.

2007-09-11T13:08:00.000-06:00

Sometimes I still feel him,
Little heart within my own.
I’m lost without memories.
A child within me,
But never seen by my eyes,
Never felt by my fingertips,
Never kissed by my lips.
A mother’s love unknown.
Lost for years with a love
I can’t give and can’t receive.
Lost, lost, lost…

missing you today more than usual my sweet love

2007-09-11T10:23:00.000-06:00

MANDY!!!!

Since you (for some unknown reason) still check my blog everyday, I thought I'd write a post just for you!!! Hope you're having a peachy day!!

2007-08-22T12:59:00.000-06:00

A new post!!! Shocked??

To say that I have received numerous complaints from friends about my lack of posting would be a HUGE understatement!! I'm sorry!!! We spent all last week moving and the weeks before that were spent working our rear ends off on the house. The house actually still isn't done, but we moved in anyway and we'll keeping working on the last of it. I'm never going to finish unpacking. NEVER. The boxes never end. I'm completely overwhelmed and everytime I start to unpack again, I end up making piles and then having nowhere to put them, so they get pushed to the side. So essentially we have lots of stuff sitting on the floor in piles. Did I mention that I'm completely overwhelmed???

To be perfectly honest though, I haven't completely been away from my computer. I have found a new love of myspace. I never thought it would happen but low and behold it has. So, if you're on myspace too come find me! If you're not, then you should be. Hint hint Erin & Mandy. Erin, I miss you bunches and we had so much fun while you guys were here. Jake is still talking about Sam and Silas and Livi's face lights up when she sees Selah's picture. Give them all a kiss for us. Mandy - come home already!! Good grief.

2007-07-13T22:08:00.000-06:00

The all American Munn Family

(with a whole lot of Vietnam in our hearts!)

2007-06-27T22:20:00.000-06:00

2007-06-27T22:13:00.000-06:00

Olivia's 3rd birthday party!!!

As you can see from the pictures, Olivia had a great 1st/3rd birthday party! It's peculiar that she's 3 but just celebrating with her first birthday party. It was a strange day for me. I was filled with thoughts about Olivia's first 2 1/2 years in the orphanage, thoughts about her birth and her birth parents, thoughts about how I had spent those 2 1/2 years while we waited for her... lots and lots of thoughts. It's a very strange feeling to finally be able to give this sweet angel everything she has always deserved. Mind you, she isn't getting EVERYTHING a 3 year old might like to have, but she's got the main stuff - Jesus Christ, Mommy, Daddy, big brother, huge extended family, great church and lots of friends. On top of all that, she was the center of attention at her 1st of many fun birthday parties to come. I don't usually dwell too much on what Olivia hasn't had for the last couple of years, but I sure did on her birthday.

I'm not an overly emotional person. I don't tend to cry about sentimental things or get all worked up about events. I was too busy cooking all day for Livi's party to be terribly sentimental anyway. At the party one of my new friends from our new church asked me if I had cried yet. "About what?" I asked, confused. "About everything!" she said. Meaning of course the party, Olivia's 1st birthday with us, etc. No, I hadn't cried and I would be surprised if I did. After the party was over and most of the guests were gone, I came in the door and saw Olivia standing on a chair looking over the table with all of her gifts and I was absolutely overcome with emotion. Here stood this precious child who never owned a single solitary thing - not even the clothes on her back - and she had a table full of brand new things just for HER! She and I were both a bit overwhelmed. On her 2nd birthday she was no doubt moved from the safety of the baby area of the orphanage to the big kid section placed in a room with 10+ other children that were all older than her except for one other little girl named Kennedy who was Olivia's best friend. There was no party, no gifts, no singing, and no kisses from Mommy. Here she was though just one year later, standing on a chair looking at a pile of gifts that she could never have imagined while her Mommy looked on. I'm not sure I could have imagined the happiness I would feel watching Olivia on her birthday before that moment. I have tears in my eyes right now thinking about how she looked that night. I can't believe I get to be a part of her life. God must really love me a lot to let me be Olivia's Mommy. She is such a precious child. I love her more than I ever dreamed I could. I am the luckiest Mommy in the world to have these two precious children. Thank you God for Jake and Olivia. Their Daddy and I can't imagine life without them.

I can't pass by this opportunity to ask you to remember all of those children left behind. There are 1000's of little children still in orphanages in Vietnam and across the world that may never have a birthday party with a Mommy and Daddy. It is not just a request from me, but a commandment from God to PRAY for these children. It is our responsibility to take care of orphans. Please remember to pray for them and if you have an extra dollar or two (or two hundred) it would be an amazing gift to honor Olivia by making a donation in her name to Dillon International's orphanCare International program that helps take care of the children left behind. You can go to http://www.dillonadopt.com/ to find out how to make a donation. If you want to help Olivia's friends, make the donation for the Ninh Thuan orphanage where Olivia spent the first 2 1/2 years of her life.

2007-06-22T00:00:00.000-06:00

Happy 3rd Birthday Olivia!!!

It's hard to believe that my precious girl is 3 years old today! She is having a Dora the Explorer party and she is SUPER excited!! I think Olivia's Dora fascination is pretty amusing because Olivia thinks she IS Dora. If you think about it, they actually look just alike! Olivia hasn't started saying vamanos constantly yet, but she does love to sing the Dora's backpack song. She only has one Dora video so we don't have much to go on, but she likes that there are lots of dolls and things at Wal-Mart that look just like her.

It's really surreal to be planning this huge party for Olivia. I dreamed of her for so long that part of me thought our adoption dream would never come to fruition. This day is bringing up lots of emotions for me. It would be impossible not to think of her birth mom today. I know she is on the other side of the world today thinking about the little girl she gave birth to 3 years ago. She must wonder what she looks like, where she is and whether or not she's happy. I pray for God to give her peace about Olivia. I pray especially for salvation for Olivia's birthparents. I hope that one day he'll give us the opportunity to find them again in Vietnam. I can't imagine a more perfect way for her birth mom and dad to hear about the love of Jesus Christ than from Olivia herself. Of course, I hope they're saved long before Olivia is old enough to witness to them, but if not, I pray that our family will have a chance to share that love with them.

As you think of my baby girl today please send up a prayer that she will always put God first in her life and that she will lead a life that brings Him great honor and glory. Pray also for a mommy and daddy across the world that are no doubt hurting today and wondering about the most beautiful little girl ever born. I can tell you that my prayers today will be filled with thanks to God for one of the greatest blessings of my life - my sweet Olivia. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!

Birthday pictures will be coming soon!

2007-06-08T23:23:00.000-06:00

popsicle lips

and the prettiest blue eyes in the whole wide world

2007-06-08T10:35:00.000-06:00

Wasn't I posting about dieting???

I meant to post about dieting but lost myself in a post about sort of bad words. Good grief! So, I've decided that I need to lose a little bit of weight. My jeans don't fit anymore. I can get them on, but can't breath. Breathing is sort of mandatory for life, so I it's either lose a few pounds or buy a new wardrobe. I can't afford the latter, so I suppose I'll have to show the door to the fat cells hanging around my hips (and belly button.) I'm a happy eater. I'm in the routing of eating all day long and into the night. Since I'm a night owl, I'm often eating something at midnight then going to bed at 1 a.m. Apparently this isn't good for you!

So, I like to eat. I eat when I'm happy, so apprarently I've been pretty happy lately! How much I weight is actually completely irrelevent to me. I just want my clothes to fit. I'm not interested in looking hot in a bikini anymore. I just want to look nice in the clothes I presently own. So I bought some Slim Fast shakes a week ago and started having a shake for breakfast. To lose weight you should have two a day, good snacks and one meal. I can't just cut two meals a day cold turkey. My poor body that's used to eating 24 hours a day would go into shock!! So, yesterday I cut the second meal. So I'm having a shake for breakfast, a shake for lunch and then a sensible meal. HA! That sounds like a commercial. Honestly though that's what I'm doing. Those shakes really are quite filling. Not filling like a huge plate of cheese fries with ranch dressing, but filling nonetheless. I'm also eating fruit between shakes and my meal, but no food after supper. NONE. Ugh. This is the hard part. I love to sit at my computer at night and eat raw almonds or strawberries. These foods are of course good for me, but not in the amounts I'm used to eating. So two shakes a day, one meal, fruit and I'm allowing myself 24 raw almonds per day. Those are good for you.

How do I feel? I'm hungry. Not REALLY hungry, but still hungry. It's all in my head though. My eating had become an addiction and I didn't realize it until I tried to quit eating. It sounds like I'm reading a self help book and getting all this grand information from it, but I'm coming up with it all by my little self. My eating is habitual. I enjoy eating my snacks at night. I wasn't hungry, I was just eating to be eating. Why was I doing that? After I don't do it for a few weeks will the desire to do it go away? I sure hope so.

I have another post coming about why my daughter is so incredibly MESSY. Dear me.

2007-06-08T10:13:00.000-06:00

Dieting sucks (can a pastor's wife say that word??)

The pastor at the church we were members of when Mike surrendered to preach wasn't fond of me saying that something "sucks." Apparently the word had a different connotation when he was growing up than it does for us gen-xers. To me it just means that something isn't good. I LOVED (still love) Bro. Danny, who coincidentally is the father to my very good friend Jennifer living in Beirut, Lebanon who often leaves comments on this blog. He of course loves me, too, but he wasn't crazy about some of the words I used. Along with sucks, I also had an affinity for using such words as flippin', freaking, and crap. I think there were others, but apparently I've quit using them to the point that now I don't even remember them! It's amazing how God can start working on those sorts of things. To be honest, I still don't think sucks is a bad word but I don't use it very often anymore. I try not to use words that I wouldn't allow my children to use and I can say with some certainty that I wouldn't be happy to hear "sucks" coming out of Jake's or Olivia's mouths. So, what about freaking or flippin'? Freaking doesn't sound very nice so I'm going to have to leave it back in the late 90's where it belongs. Flippin' should probably be left there as well along with sucks. Ok. CRAP. That's the word I have a problem with. I know lots of people who say the word crap but they don't allow their children to say it. I tend to say it somewhat often since I've banished the rest of my extensive repertoire of "sort of bad" words into 90's exile. I don't have anything left! I'm NOT going to be one of those women who say gee whiz. I'm really not a gee whiz kind of woman. Pastor's wife or not, I don't want to say ANY words that God doesn't like. I really can't picture God sitting up in heaven worrying about me saying the word crap though. Surely that word is ok? If it is though, why don't people let their children say it? Would I let my children say it?? Hmmm...

I can't believe that anyone still reads this blog since I only write once in a blue moon, but I know lots of you still do. I vow to do better about posting. What words are "bad" at your house and what words are borderline? What's a good word to replace my ever present - crap - with? I also say flibberdagibbit. That's a favorite and I'm quite sure God is ok with it. It's also really super cute when Jake and Livi say it :<)

2007-06-07T23:09:00.000-06:00

Pulling my hair out

It’s been one of those days. I could literally pull my hair out of course, but I have instead chosen to eat chocolate despite the fact that I’m on a diet. (Chocolate is much less painful and so much sweeter.) In my defense, I ate one of those Hershey sticks that’s only 60 calories. Surely I can be forgiven that.

2007-05-25T12:33:00.000-06:00

Where have I been?

Well, our computer was full. How does that happen you ask? 20,000+ pictures is how that happens. Goodness gracious. It was past time for an upgrade anyway and our wonderful friend Cory (aka - the Computer Dr.) built us a brand new one that's very spiffy and has gobs of space for all of my pictures and anything else I might like to keep around. We also now have Wild Blue internet so I'm finally not a slave to evil dial up!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That means I can finally post pictures regularly! Perhaps even a video! Oh happy day!

In other news, Jake has had a very interesting week. He was bitten on the arm Wednesday morning by another child at preschool. It broke the skin. They called me and said there had been a "little incident at school." These are never words a Mommy wants to hear. I definitely didn't want to hear that he had been BITTEN. I raced to the school and he was of course perfectly fine. He didn't even cry when he was bitten. They told me that it was completely unprovoked and that the other child had a history of biting. Great. They called his Mom to come get him and they showed her pictures of Jake's arm. They wouldn't tell me who the child was. Probably for the best. I was pretty upset when it all happened, but of course now that I'm calm I realize that sometimes children bite, hit, push, etc. I feel really bad for the other Mom. I'm sure it's tough having a child who bites. I'm blessed that neither of my children do (so far at least.) They also haven't been known to push or hit either. Well, Olivia has hit Jake a few times, but she also spent the first 2 1/2 years of her life defending herself at an orphanage. She's since learned that it's not okay to hit.

The worst part of the biting incident was that Jake had to have a tetnus shot. He should have had one at his four year checkup, but apparently in the insanity of coming home in December, then having his birthday party and us all coming down with the stomach flu, oh and then Christmas - I forgot to take him for his checkup. There was a LOT going on. So we spent an hour at the health clinic getting a tetnus shot. Again, he didn't cry. He's so tough! I'm so proud of him. We had a long talk about how even though sometimes other children bite, hit, push, etc. that it's not okay and that we're proud of him for not doing those things. I can't believe how lucky I am. God truly blessed me with two awesome kids. They are just amazing!

Not much else is going on around here. We, along with other members of the church, have been busy busy on the parsonage so we're hopeful that we'll be able to move in by the end of the summer, early fall. I'm so excited now!!!! It's neat picking out paint, floors, etc. I've painted three rooms in this house and needed to paint all of them, but just never have. I'm not one of those people who can paint a room in one day. It takes me like two months. It's an ordeal. I want to be handy with a paintbrush, but it's just not my thing. I'm too much of a perfectionist and it ends up taking me forever because I want to look perfect. Luckily, several of the women in our church love to paint so I'll at least have some help in that department. It's very exciting!

I'll try to get some pictures up soon! Happy Memorial Day Weekend everyone!!!!!!!!!

2007-05-14T22:27:00.000-06:00

The REAL Napster, big move, our fabulous new church & an update on my angelic children

I haven't been a very good blogger lately. I am absolutely amazed that there are people who are able to blog every single day. Some even several times a day. Apparently I'm not much of a time planner. This is not much of a shock to those who know me. Speaking of time and not doing anything useful with mine, are there any other nappers out there?

Taking a nap isn't a luxury for me. It's a requirement. Even Mike requires that I take an afternoon nap. Apparently, not unlike my beautiful children, I'm a bit grumpy if I don't get my nap in. It makes me feel lazy, but I truly am useless and unpleasant if I don't at least get a little sleep after lunch. Although taking a daily nap may appear lazy, I am actually much more productive after my nap. I've always been this way. I remember being a senior in high school and coming home every afternoon and sleeping for an hour or so after school. When I worked in the real world, I had a tough time getting anything done in the afternoons. There are countries in this world that encourage napping. Why aren't we one of them? If there are other nappers out there, let's see what we can do to change this insane way of living! We nappers must unite!

While I'm actually taking the time to blog, I'm also going to take the time to explain about us moving. For those of you who are good friends of mine in "real life," please forgive me for letting you know via that blog that we're leaving the great piece of the world that is McNeil, Arkansas. We're actually not moving for several months so it's not like I'll be gone anytime soon. I have to stay with my garden for goodness sake! I can't very well leave my beautiful tomatoes to dry in the sun. I can't believe that I finally planted 4 fruit trees and 2 dogwood trees this spring and now we're moving!! I'm definitely going to have to get my head wrapped around this whole pastor's wife thing. I thought we would live in this same general area for our entire lives. As it's been said, if you really want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. He laughs at me incessantly, I'm sure.

Anyway, we're going to move to Sparkman, AR eventually. Our new church has a parsonage next door and we want to be closer to our church home and new church family. They are currently completely remodeling the house and adding a master bedroom and bath and a carport. I also heard just last week that since the preacher's wife asked for it (that' me!!), I'm getting a front porch! I asked for it in jest, but I'm thrilled that they are building it! I am definitely a front porch sitting kind of girl. Now if only I can talk them into an in ground pool...
I'm joking. Only joking.

So, once the renovations have been made we can figure out when we'll be moving. At the earliest it will be fall before we move an hour north. Of course deer season is always a factor as well. It would be senseless to move in October when rifle season starts in November. Mike is excited about living closer to the Ouachita River. Duck hunting will be much closer now! We'll only live about 10 minutes from the river. It's really beautiful over in that part of God's country.

Things are going really great at Ouachita Baptist Church (I'll probably just refer to it as OBC from now on.) Attendance is up and we're making all sorts of plans. Mike is starting a new Sunday school class for couples this Sunday. I'm very happy about that. We're going to study the Bible as it pertains to our lives today and issues we deal with - marriage, parenting, finances, etc. There are lots of couples around our age and they are all just wonderful. We love our new church and already feel very at home there.

As far as my gorgeous children, they are doing great. I can't say enough about how wonderful it is having them so close in age. 18 months apart seems to be perfect. They play together SO well! They are all about baseball right now because of Emma and Amy playing. They LOVE to go to their games. Olivia is absolutely adorable telling about them. I wish all of you could see her in person. She's amazing! It's wild how well she's talking! We've mostly been spending our time having picnics, riding fourwheelers, fishing, and swimming in the kiddie pool. Our lives are all about playing outside. Soon enough it will be too hot. I can't believe summer is already here.

I really do need to blog more often. I've got a million things I want to say! We drove out to Dallas a couple of weekends ago and spent the night with our good friends Arnaud & Mandy and their sweet babies, Louis and Anna. We had such a great time. I'll have to post pictures soon of our kids together. It's weird how much they favor Jake and Olivia. After we left our friends, we traveled onto Canton for lots of shopping. I managed to only spend $23. That's a miracle. I love Canton. The next time I go I'm taking a girlfriend instead of my husband. I'll no doubt manage to spend more. We went to Dillon Zoo Day in Little Rock this past weekend. It was lots of fun seeing old friends and meeting friends I've only met via the internet. I can't wait for the big Dillon Vietnam reunion in Tulsa this summer. If you're a fellow Dillon family, I can't wait to meet you!!

I have more to say, but I suppose it will have to wait for another day. My wonderful husband is telling me it's bedtime. Everynight I plan to go to bed early (that means around 11) but it's always after midnight. We have such good intentions. Here I am still typing and not going to bed. Oh good grief!

2007-05-11T10:06:00.000-06:00

Cow Pokes

This is probably my favorite picture I've taken of Jake & Olivia. We own 10 acres near the town where I grew up and they are standing on the fence checking out the cows. There is an ancient barn there that was beyond repair, but we went down a couple of months ago and salvaged most of the weathered barn wood. We planned on using part of it in our house, but now that we're moving (yes, we're moving) we'll use it for other purposes including a lovely frame for this picture. (My husband is so handy! He can build anything.) Mike also uses some of it for his taxidermy mounts.

For some unknown reason I have a thing for old chains, locks, barbed wire - essentially anything old and rusty - so I really love this picture of Olivia with the old rusted chain. I also started collecting antique glass doorknobs when I was a teenager and poor Mike will have to transfer them off the doors in this house to the new house. I'll no doubt be turning these same beautiful door knobs in countless houses through my lifetime. They go where I go.

Here's Miss Olivia climbing the fence and looking pretty cute doing it!

Jake climbed onto a cypress tree we cut down when we were clearing the land to build a house. I can't believe that just over a year ago we thought we would move onto this property and live there forever. Our plans weren't working out the way we had hoped and I wasn't sure why at the time. I had no idea just 15 months later, I'd be a pastor's wife and moving into a parsonage an hour and a half from this property! God works in mysterious and wonderful ways! I guess we can always retire here one day! We'll just have to wait and see what God has planned :<)

2007-05-09T22:20:00.000-06:00

Happy Birthday Uncle Joby!!!!!!!!

I'm sleepy so I won't write much, but I wanted to take this opportunity to say a great big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my wonderful big brother Joe, also known as Joseph, but best known (at least at our house) as Uncle Joby. I started calling him Joby when I was little. He's 10 years older than me, but he doesn't look a day older than I do. We have good genes. :<)

Joby, I love you SO MUCH!!! You have always been and will always be one of my very best friends in the world. I couldn't get through this life without you. You mean the world to me and of course Jake thinks you're the coolest guy in the world next to his Daddy. Happy Birthday from your biggest fans - Mike, Casey, Jake & Olivia. WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2007-04-24T22:14:00.000-06:00

Easter Pictures

better late than never!

Now these are four gorgeous children! Here are Jake and Livi with their most favorite cousins, Amy and Emma. (They are Rhonda and Lance's daughters - Mike's sister and brother-in-law)

Trying to get these two monkeys to both look at the camera and smile at the same time is IMPOSSIBLE! They still look cute making silly faces at each other though. The hand holding is the most precious thing in this picture and it's not staged at all. Those two are great buddies. They are such sweet kids!!!

Here's Livi before church. She thought her rubber boots (or bubber roots as we call them) would be just fine for Easter Sunday. I personally think they look awfully cute with her dress. We decided we better go with sandals though.

2007-04-23T22:10:00.000-06:00

Turkey Tales

I'm finally getting around to telling our turkey tales and posting pictures! I killed my very first turkey last Saturday - the first day of the season! It was unbelievable! Jake and Olivia spent the night at JuJu's and they did great! Jake of course loves staying at JuJu's but it was Olivia's first time and she did really well. I was super proud of her and so grateful to my wonderful mother-in-law for taking such good care of my babies. I am BEYOND LUCKY to have such an awesome MIL. She's fantastic in every way. I love her to death.

Back to my hunting story... Mike and I got up at 5:30 that morning and headed for the woods. I should mention that the weeks leading up to turkey season have been both exciting and emotional for all of us, but especially for Mike. He and Daddy Don always went hunting together during turkey season and it was the favorite season for both of them. I love their turkey hunting stories the best. So because of this Mike was missing his Dad even more than usual. We knew from the get go it was going to be a tough season. Anyway, we get up and head for Munn Hill which is about a mile from our house. We were driving Daddy Don's truck. This is completely coincidental. We've only had it a week or so while JuJu uses Papaw's black truck to haul gumballs from her yard. It was definitely emotional driving to Munn Hill that morning in Daddy Don's truck. That was the beginning of what would become a VERY emotional day. So we get on a bird really early and head in his direction. There is nothing in the world like hearing a turkey gobble. Nothing. It sends chills up your spine. If you're not a hunter this means nothing to you, but if you are, you know exactly what I'm talking about. It's an amazing feeling. So we get out into the woods off the highline and set up by a tree to wait for him to fly down. The goofy turkey flew down into the highline instead of to us, so after calling to him with the sweetest hen purr my husband could muster (he's incredibly good at calling turkeys - and all animals for that matter) the gobbler still wouldn't budge. At some point I realize that Mike's shotgun has a scope on it and mine doesn't. I always hunt with Mike's Benelli, but we borrowed one of Daddy Don's Benelli's so that we could both hunt with our favorite shotgun. I ask Mike about this and he reluctantly offers to trade with me. I said no, that it was fine - which is was of course. No big deal. After a moment it occurs to me what my husband had going on in his head. So I said to him, "you want me to kill the first bird of the season with Daddy Don's gun don't you?" He said yes. Holy cow. NO PRESSURE here people. I was already emotional and here I was with this new weight sitting on my shoulders to kill a turkey on opening day with DD's gun. Oh dear me.

We start slithering on our bellies towards the highline. We end up getting about 45 yards from the bird. I think this is too far. Mike is sitting next to me and we're not leaning up against a tree or anything. I'm up on my knees waiting for - heck I don't know what. The gobbler comes around a tree and all of a sudden he's just - THERE. He sees us. Mike says shoot. Shoot. Shoot. I froze. I was completely frozen. I thought he was too far. PRESSURE. He was already moving because he had seen us. His head was going back and forth. He started to run. Shoot!

I shot. I missed. The turkey flew away.

Mike stood up and he was irritated. That's actually putting it mildly. He was mad at me for not shooting the first time he said shoot. I had ruined it. I had this perfect turkey on this perfect day and I ruined it. I didn't kill the turkey. I ruined the idea Mike had in his head of this kill in memory of Daddy Don. In all actuality, I probably had this way too built up in my own head by this point. I am not an overly emotional person. I don't generally cry. I am proud of the fact that I'm not one of these girly girls who worries about their nails and how their hair looks. I'm just one of the guys. I was NOT myself that day. I started balling. Not crying - balling my eyes out. I couldn't fix this! I screwed up the entire "moment" and there was nothing I could do to fix it. Mike thought I had lost my mind. For those of you who know me in real life, this is completely out of character for me. I was SO upset. Mike told me it was ok and all of that nice stuff that he's required to say as my husband. I still felt terrible about the whole thing. I wanted to go home. Unfortunately this is not an option. You don't go hunting with a Munn and leave because things don't go just as you'd planned. JuJu would back me up on this point. No matter how irritated you may become with the Munn man in your life, you're still hunting and that takes priority over pretty much anything else. Mike wouldn't have taken me home even if I had REALLY wanted to (which I didn't.) So I blew my nose and we hiked on.

We try to get another bird a couple of hills away to come visit us, but he wasn't budging. We continued on and heard a bird in a cutover not far in front of us. We set out out a hen decoy and found a nice tree to sit against. Mike called and he gobbled. This went on for a few minutes but he wasn't moving closer. I suggested that we gobble at him. Mike gobbles and that's all that was needed. The next few minutes seemed like 15 seconds. It all happened SO quickly. I'm excited even typing about it. It was so amazing! So the turkey comes around the corner and Mike asks me if I was on him. I said I was. He said shoot. I shot. Down he went. Mike jumped up this time absolutely yelping. He was as excited as I have ever seen him! It was hysterical. We were like two little kids. It was one of the neatest moments of my life. The first thing I wanted to do was take it home to Jake. He was SO EXCITED to see my turkey. Jake is obsessed with turkey hunting (all hunting actually - I wonder why.) Olivia was excited too despite the look on her face in this picture.

So we hunted a bit longer after I killed my gobbler, but I was so anxious to get home to show Jake that Mike had to wait a couple of days to get a turkey for himself. He killed this one Monday morning. He then tagged out on a limb hanger he killed this past Saturday morning. I haven't downloaded those pictures yet though. He's rightfully proud of it with a 9 3/4" beard and 1" spurs. That's pretty good for an Arkansas bird.

I love that this is something we can do together. Mike and I love each other so much and it's really neat to be able to share his love of hunting with him. I'm glad that we can also share this with our children and pass on our love of hunting that we've inherited from both his side of the family and mine.

I sure hope I made Daddy Don proud.

2007-04-22T22:37:00.000-06:00

BREAKING NEWS!!!!!!!

ANNOUNCING:

Ouachita Baptist Church
Pastor - Bro. Mike Munn

I am SO EXCITED to announce that my most wonderful husband is now the PASTOR of Ouachita Baptist Church near Sparkman! It's about 25 miles south of Arkadelphia. Their pulpit committee came to hear him preach last month at New Hope where Mike has been the interim preacher since October. We went to lunch with them and had a really great time. They were "very impressed" with him and invited him to preach for their congregation. He preached a.m. and p.m. last week and they invited him back this Sunday in view of a call. He preached this morning and then this evening we answered questions from the congregation. We then left the sanctuary and in private ballots, they voted UNANIMOUSLY to call him as their pastor! We have been praying about this for several weeks now and Mike felt called to Ouachita so he very happily accepted their offer! We are SO EXCITED!!!!

For any of you who have known me forever, the idea that I am now a PASTOR'S WIFE is absolutely insane! I am completely amazed at how God can use the least of us to do His work. Mike and I both feel like Paul. I guess we are co-chiefs of the sinners. God can see things in us that we can't even see ourselves - and isn't that an amazing blessing?!?!

I am so unbelievably PROUD of my husband. He is an awesome, Godly man and he is a fantastic preacher. I am very proud to be the pastor's wife! I can't wait to see how God uses him, and us, at Ouachita. Please pray for us! Pray for Ouachita, too. They don't know what they've gotten themselves into! :<)

2007-04-13T18:47:00.000-06:00

Empty Nest

We picked Jake up at noon today from preschool so we could all go to Texas to purchase our new pets. He goes to preschool two days a week and absolutely loves it, but he was elated to go on what I call a "mini-vacation." I love day trips. I also love week long trips. I love all trips actually - as long as we're ALL together. I could live in Vietnam as long as the four of us were there. We absolutely love Vietnam and I really would have loved that trip so much more if Jake had been with us, but I digress. Jake has been bugging Mike for the last couple of weeks about going camping and canoeing. It's slightly possible that I may have put him up to it, but Jake loves camping too so I think it's alright. This goofy cold weather we're having is not making me want to camp right now though. I can't believe some of you out there have had snow! I am beyond ready for spring to come and actually stay, but I would always welcome snow. All of our vegetable plants were killed in the frost last week. We had to buy new plants, but I'm going to wait a couple of weeks to plant them. Mike's corn is looking great but essentially everything else is going to have to be replanted.

Let's see... what will we have have growing out in the garden? TONS of tomatoes for sure. I am not Rachael Ray by any stretch of the imagination. I don't really like to cook, despite the fact that I cook at least 2 and sometimes 3 meals a day. I am a southern girl though, so I learned to cook early in life. If it's edible, I can fry it. Teeheehee. There is one thing that I'm particularly proud of though. I make the best fresh salsa this side of Mexico. I drove myself crazy for at least 2 weeks a couple of years ago trying to come up with a perfect salsa recipe and I finally succeeded. I can pretty much cook anything, but I'm known for my salsa, my homemade Chinese food and my fudge. I asked Mike if there was anything else I'm known for. He said my green bean casserole. I use the recipe from the side of the fried onion can, so I don't think I can claim that one. He's so sweet though! Back to the vegetable garden - we'll also have sweet corn, field corn, okra, cherry tomatoes, squash, peppers, cucumbers, radishes, turnips, sunflowers, and potatoes. I think that's it. It keeps getting bigger every year. We love to garden.

As for the empty next title, our children are NOT HERE!!! Very bizarre. JuJu picked them up about 45 minutes ago and they're spending the night with her. This will be Livi's first time to spend the night away from home and we're all very nervous about that. I pray she'll be fine, but there's always the possibility that I'll be going to pick her up at 2 in the morning. We'll see how it goes. Tomorrow is the first day of turkey season, and we have to be in the woods before sunrise, so we can't very well wake the kids up and take them over to JuJu's at 5 a.m. while she's still fast asleep. Well, I guess we could, but I don't think any of them would be very happy! Livi loves JuJu and JuJu is the most wonderful, amazing grandmother in the world, so I feel certain Olivia will be fine. This is Jake's first time to spend the night since we've been home from Vietnam, so it will be really strange not having anyone to tuck in tonight. I don't look forward to getting up at 5:30 a.m., but I'm very excited about turkey hunting tomorrow! This is without a doubt Mike's favorite hunting season. It will be hard this year without Daddy Don though. It's bringing up lots and lots of memories. He has on one of Daddy Don's camo shirts today and he smells just like him. It's strange to have his scent around again - but calming all at the same time. We sure do miss him.

We're going to watch the new James Bond movie tonight so I should probably be popping some popcorn. Oh! We have two very smelly pet turkeys now and 4 baby ducklings. They are so cute!

2007-04-12T21:05:00.000-06:00

Sad news

Our sweet little puppy, Lightning, got out into the road early Tuesday morning and was killed. At this point I'm mostly wondering how much God thinks Jake really needs to learn about death at the ripe old age of 4. I know God knows what He's doing and to many of you losing a puppy may not seem like a big deal, but my animals are my family and I'm unhappy. It's difficult explaining to Jake about death again so soon. I'm worried that he'll start thinking that he may die too since Daddy Don recently died and now his puppy. I should also mention that Monday afternoon Phideaux managed somehow to catch our greenhead (that's a mallard drake duck for those of you who may not know) and kill it and brought it to the front yard for me to find. Good grief. Olivia seems to be oblivious to animals coming and going but Jake is very aware and I really am concerned that he may start thinking he's next, or me or Mike or Olivia. Explaining death to a 4 year old may be the very hardest thing in the world to do. I explained of course that Lightning is in heaven and that we'll see him again just like we'll see Daddy Don again one day. (Yes, I most certainly do believe that animals go to heaven, too!) I used the opportunity to talk to Jake about salvation and how to get to heaven. I also used the opportunity to reiterate how dangerous the road is and how he and Livi should always stay away from it.

We're driving to New Boston, TX tomorrow to get some baby turkeys and ducklings. Perhaps that will cheer us all up. I'll post pictures of our new babies next week.

2007-04-06T21:51:00.000-06:00

SCATTERGORIES
(an interesting game sent to me by my friend Rebecca and I hope to see it on my other friends' blogs next!)

Rules: Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following...They MUST be real places, names, things...NOTHING made up!

My Name: Casey

1. Famous singer/band: C.C. Deville (from Poison - telling my age again! I had a poster of him in my locker in 7th grade!)
2. 4 letter word: call
3. Street name: Chinquepin (my mother-in-law lives on that road)
4. Color: Cadmium Red (Mike assures me this is a color - this game is harder than it looks! Mike has since come up with cobalt blue but I like his original answer, so I'll leave it. As a side note, I used to collect cobalt blue depression glass, but I don't anymore.)
5. Gifts/presents: CHOCOLATE!!!!!!
6. Vehicle: Cabrera (as in Porche)
7. Things in a Souvenir Shop: Coloring books (Can you tell I have children?)
8. Boy Name: Chase (my nephew!)
9. Girl Name: Carolina (my niece!)
10. Movie Title: Cool Hand Luke (I have never seen this movie, but Mike thinks it's great. It's also mentioned in the movie Serendipity with John Cusack - another great movie.)
11. Drink: Coke (This was my Mama's very favorite drink)
12. Occupation: Caricaturist
13. Flower: Carnation (I hate carnations)
14. Celebrity: Carrot Top!
15. Magazine: We can't think of a single magazine that starts with a "C"
16. U.S. City: Chicago (I had a layover there on my way to DC when I was 17. I went to DC for Clinton's inauguration. Wow. That was a long time ago. I've since gained a few brain cells. Vote Mike Huckabee for President!)
17. Pro Sports Team: Colts (I have no idea what sport they play, but I know they're a team)
18. Fruit: Cherry (I LOVE fresh cherries! I also love cantaloupe and clementines. We ate lots of those in Vietnam. Actually - I love nearly all fruit.)
19. Reason for Being Late for Work: Car broke down (This never happened to me, but I was always late for work when I worked outside of home.)
20. Something You Throw Away: Celery (I absolutely, positively DESPISE celery)
21. Things You Shout: Cheers!!
22. Cartoon Character: Chicken Little (I was not impressed with this goofy movie at all, but while I'm talking about movies again, I would like to recommend The Illusionist with Edward Norton. It's one of the best movies I've seen in a long, long time.)

MIKE is sitting over there on the couch helping me think of stuff for a "C" so we'll do his name now.

1. Famous singer/band: Metallica (how old are we anyway?)
2. 4 letter word: milk (Jake's favorite drink - and the one Olivia won't touch with a 10 foot pole)
3. Street name: Main St. (something we used to drive up and down listening to Metallica)
4. Color: Magenta
5. Gifts/presents: Money
6. Vehicle: Mercedes (I suspect Mike has never sat in a Mercedes.)
7. Things in a Souvenir Shop: Map (something my husband would never look at because he's a MAN)
8. Boy Name: Miguel (this is what Mike calls himself when he tells me stories in his Spanish accent about Miguel & Casena (what he calls me in the story.) These are very funny, ridiculously exaggerated, off the wall stories that he's been telling me since we first started dating that are all about us.)
9. Girl Name: Michelle
10. Movie Title: Men in Black
11. Drink: Mt. Dew (we drink the diet version)
12. Occupation: Male stripper (Isn't my husband a preacher? Ok. I came up with that one. Mike actually said machinist, but I didn't think that was nearly as interesting.)
13. Flower: Mum (good grief)
14. Celebrity: Meredith Viera (Mike has a little crush on her.)
15. Magazine: Men's Health (Mike would never read this magazine.)
16. U.S. City: Magnolia (where Mike is from!)
17 Pro Sports Team: Magic (Mike thinks this may be a basketball team. (I happen to know it is. I used to love the NBA.) We don't watch sports unless it's rodeo.)
18. Fruit: Melon (I love watermelon. Mike likes it with salt. Yuck.)
19. Reason for Being Late for Work: Making out with my wife. (Oh! What a sweetie he is and a very good kisser, as well!)
20. Something You Throw Away: moldy cheese (so that's where that smell is coming from...)
21. Things You Shout: MOMMY!!!! (we hear this ALL DAY LONG)
22. Cartoon Character: Mickey Mouse

This was actually a lot of fun! We've had a good time laughing about our answers. I expect to see these on your blogs in the coming days! If you do play along, leave a comment so we can get to your blog and check it out!

2007-04-05T20:41:00.000-06:00

A few pictures of my sweet babies!

Daddy's boots are awfully big shoes to fill, but I think he's up to the task.

Is that Olivia or Debbie Gibson?

Jake and Olivia with their cousins, Emma and Amy. When these four are together, it's wild!

Jake and Olivia on a VERY windy day at Lake DeGray a few weeks ago.

2007-04-05T13:07:00.000-06:00

and now a little something to lighten things up...

I have a very good friend who I would love to cheer up right now in person but she lives too flipping far away! These ridiculously corny jokes are for you my beautiful friend!

* WHY DON'T BLIND PEOPLE BUNGEE JUMP?
It scares the crap out of their dog

* WHY DOESN'T SMOKEY THE BEAR HAVE ANY CHILDREN?
Because whenever his wife gets hot he beats her with a shovel

* WHY DO THEY CALL IT PMS?
Because "Mad Cow Disease" was already taken

That last one is Mike's favorite. Can't imagine why. I hope you're smiling!!!

For the rest of you in the universe, I ask that you pray for my friend and her family. You may not know her name, but God does and He'll know who you're talking about.

2007-04-05T11:52:00.000-06:00

War & Peace (& everything in between)

I would like to believe that no one is actually FOR this war or any war for that matter, but I am most certainly FOR my fellow Americans fighting in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. I am incredibly proud to be an American and all of the rights and privileges that entails. I am also incredibly proud of the men and women who have fought all these many years throughout every war to give me the freedoms I enjoy - and generally take for granted.

Whether you are opposed to this war or not isn't really the issue. The issue is whether or not you support our brothers and sisters who are fighting. Our family supports them and prays for them daily. I had a really interesting thing happen to me while we were in VIETNAM. On one of our last days in Saigon, Mike, Olivia and I went to the War Remnants Museum. I should mention that it used to be named the American War Crimes Museum. I have obviously seen pictures and footage of the Vietnam war, but to be in that country and feel so much love and respect for it's people and THEN see the pictures and actual guns and clothes of the soldiers and the remains of the innocents caught in the middle of it, is a very different - and sobering - thing. There were actually two babies in large jars that had been born and consequently died (or were born dead) due to the affects of Agent Orange. I'm not going to pretend to understand anything about Agent Orange and or how it was truly used, but I can't ignore having seen those two little babies forever frozen in time - one with two heads and another so grossly disfigured that it was hard to distinguish it's parts. I'm also not going to pretend to understand anything about the Vietnam war in general. I was born in 1975 when the war was ending. No one in my close family was in the war, so I don't even know any war stories. I know that the US made mistakes, but they also did a great service there and we never felt anything but love and respect from the Vietnamese people while we were there adopting Olivia.

One of the things at that museum that struck me the most was the award winning picture of the little girl running naked down the middle of the street because her clothes had literally been burned off of her. To me that little girl was Olivia. All of those children are Olivia. They were all innocents trapped in a country at war. I can't help but think of all the little children in Iraq that have lost their lives. There are thousands of children who live in fear of death every single day while my children run and play with their endless supply of toys believing that everything in the world is good.

My life changed when we visited the Navy museum in Pensacola last September. There was a room set up to look like the cells where our troops were held at the "Hanoi Hilton" prison during the war. We visited the real Hanoi Hilton while we were in Vietnam. John McCain is the most well know soldier who was held there. It was in that moment last September, when I was first surrounded by these images from my daughter's birth country, that I realized that without the sacrifices of those thousands and thousands and thousands of soldiers who lost their lives fighting in Vietnam, I may not have been allowed to adopt from there. Because of the course history took there many years ago, doors were opened that allowed me to bring my beautiful daughter home in 2006. I am not usually a publicly emotional person, but I openly cried that day in Pensacola with strangers all around me as I thought about the men and women who died to make it possible for me to have a daughter from Vietnam. I have been to the Vietnam memorial in D.C. and I know how far the names stretch. I had no idea when I was there at 17 years of age that one day those names would mean so very much to me. They are to be partially credited for helping us bring our precious Olivia home. I thank the soldiers who fought in my daughter's country and their families. I thank my government for standing up for what is right. I thank GOD most of all for peace in a place that many thought would never be peaceful. I love VIETNAM and I love AMERICA and I'm so grateful that Olivia gets to be Vietnamese American. Just for the record, we now consider ourselves to be Vietnamese Americans as well. Her flesh may not be my flesh nor her blood my blood, but she is in my heart and she courses through my veins.

I believe that peace can be found in Iraq as well. I have faith in my GOD to heal that country. Pray with me and support our troops. Who knows. One day you might have a child or grandchild adopted from Iraq. If you are in the military - there isn't a big enough font for the THANK YOU that you deserve.

2007-03-30T14:12:00.000-06:00

Lightning McMunn

Despite the fact that my good friend Jennifer voted for Riblet all the way from Lebanon, my puppy name wasn't the winner. We had to take the puppy to the vet on Tuesday because he had a large, infected area on his left shoulder. Luckily it wasn't a big deal and we're treating it. Apparently he had been bitten by something but he's doing much better now that he's been on medication for the last three days. He's also not looking much like a Riblet anymore! He's packing on muscles! He's so cute!!! Anyway, Jake finally decided to name him Lightning. SHOCKING I know! So his name is Lightning McMunn of course.

2007-03-27T15:38:00.000-06:00

Redneck Recreation

In case you've ever wondered what people who live in the country do to keep themselves occupied, here's your answer! We participate in REDNECK RECREATION! Jake came up with this little gem all by himself. It's amazing what you can do to entertain yourself when you put your mind to it! Jake attached a ratchet strap to a creeper and started pulling Olivia all over the drive way. Of course she had to return the favor. This was good for at least 20 minutes of hysterical laughter on my part. The kids had a pretty good time too!!!

2007-03-27T14:44:00.000-06:00

PUPPY LOVE!

We were driving on a dirt road near our house this past Saturday when I spotted this sweet little puppy in the ditch. You can literally see every bone in his poor little body. I spent 10 minutes climbing through briars to get to the little fellow when I finally had to enlist Mike's help. Of course it took him all of 20 seconds to catch him. Good grief! My inability to pass by a stranded dog is not one of my better qualities in Mike's eyes, but even he couldn't argue with the fact that we had to bring this puppy home. It irritates the heck out of me that people throw puppies and dogs out that they don't want. We have an animal humane society in our county for goodness sake! Regardless, God allowed our paths to cross and we now have a new - yet to be named - doggy at our house. We've been discussing names. For now the kids are just calling him Puppy. Our friend Robby thought we should name him Spuds McKenzie for obvious reasons. I want to name him Riblet, simply because you can see all of his little ribs, but so far I'm not winning the name contest. Perhaps Jake will come up with something soon so our new pet can have a much deserved name. In the meantime, Jake and Olivia are having lots of fun playing with their new friend and even Phideaux likes him! He's a sweet little guy and we're happy to add him to our family.

Puppy cuddling!

Olivia isn't usually all that fond of dogs (especially Deacon since he outweighs her by about 75 pounds) but she loves our little puppy. Perhaps it's because she's actually bigger than he is!

How cute is he?!?!?!?!

Yep, this definitely looks like puppy love!

2007-03-23T20:49:00.000-06:00

Olivia as Buzz Lightyear and Jake as Spiderman!

Where in the heck is Nemo?

Nemo was all the rage in our house just two years ago. We've loved Elmo, Bob the Builder, The Wiggles (Mike has since exiled our 4 colorful friends from our house completely), Barney... you get the idea. Now all of a sudden our house is filled with Spiderman, Batman and Superman (are you seeing a trend here?) Then two or three weeks ago, completely out of the blue, the Power Rangers took over my 4 year old son's interest and it's all I hear about. Lightning McQueen is about the only animated character that is surviving at our house these days. So again I ask, where in the heck is Nemo? Where is lovable old Barney or ticklish little Elmo????

My point: my baby is growing up, but let's not go crazy yet. I'm very pleased to say that Jake is still a Mama's boy. I can see him growing though right before my eyes. If he's given the chance to go out and work in the shop with his Daddy, he's out the door faster than you can say, "to the Batmobile!" For the last week or so he's been working on his "web throwing." Olivia doesn't have a favorite character. Although she looks awfully cute in a Buzz Lightyear costume as you can see! She can generally be seen with her Barbie cell phone though. It's rarely out of her hand for long.

My children aren't even in school yet and already I'm mourning the passing of their childhood. They are just growing up too quickly!!!

2007-03-21T13:15:00.000-06:00

Four Months Today!!!

Olivia has been an official member of our little Munn family for 4 months now. In some ways it seems like it's been two weeks and in others it seems like years. 1/4 of a year down! I can't believe how much she has changed in that short amount of time. I was tucking her in for her nap and she asked me to sing "little star" as she calls it. Usually half way through the song she says, "WAIT!!!! ME ME!!" and she'll sing it so beautifully with her sweet, soft little voice. Of course only a few of the words are right, but it's still absolutely beautiful to this Mommy's ears. She just takes my breath away. Both of my children do. Oh my goodness. I just can't tell you what these beautiful babies mean to me. They are so so precious. God loves me SO SO SO much to give me these sweet angels. Time is flying though. They won't be my "babies" for much longer. Olivia will be 3 in just 3 short months. Jake is 4 but that 5 looming in December is awfully foreboding. I certainly want him to grow another year older, but 5 isn't a baby anymore. 5 is a big boy who will go to school next year. 5 is big enough to play league t-ball. 5 is too darn old, too darn fast. Where did the time go? My days and nights keep zooming by, but I'm loving every single minute of it. Again, I am so blessed!!!

Speaking of loving every single minute of life, Mike and I actually had a date night last week!!! That is the first time the two of us have been away from Olivia at all since she's been our daughter. She and Jake stayed with JuJu for about 3 hours while we went to El Dorado for dinner. We also went by to see our friends Mary and Bobby and their new baby boy, Landon at the hospital but he was being poked and prodded so we didn't get to see him that day. We were able to visit with our good friends though and that was nice. Mostly it was nice going out with my husband!! The nicest part of the whole evening were the quiet rides to and from El Dorado. It was so strange being in the car for 30 minutes without hearing Mommy 10,000 times from the backseat. It was strange having a conversation without being interrupted. It was also very strange eating an entire meal without having to take someone to the bathroom, cut someone's food up, or wipe up a spill. Very strange - and very wonderful! I'm also thrilled to say that Livi did GREAT at JuJu's!!! She has really taken to JuJu over the last month or so and we are so happy about that. They all went to my sister-in-law's for supper and then back to JuJu's and Livi never cried one time all night long!!! JuJu said she asked about us once but that was it. I was so proud!! I'm also excited because that means we can go out again! More importantly, it means I won't miss the first day of turkey season. I thought for sure there was no way I would get Olivia to spend the night away from us, but I think it's certainly possible now. I'm so excited!!!!!!!!!

Other excitement at our house is my new landscaping project in the front yard. I planted three new flower beds yesterday and Mike made me a beautiful new path from the driveway to the front door. It's made from cuts of cedar trunk and it's really neat looking. I'll try to get pictures posted when we're all done. It's looking really good!

2007-03-15T22:33:00.000-06:00

We like MIKE!

In case you haven't noticed, my blog is now wearing a nifty new presidential campaign "button." Please click my lovely campaign button to read more about former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, who this family sincerely hopes will be the next President of our GREAT UNITED STATES!!! Ok. I'm done talking politics for now.

2007-03-15T12:57:00.000-06:00

jewels from JAKE & OLIVIA

* So the other day I was standing in front of the sink in my bathroom. I had just gotten out of bed and wasn't dressed yet. Jake came up to me and said, "Mommy, what's your booty doing?" To which I aptly repled, "growing." Jake said, "Mommy, you have a little booty." I love this kid!

* Occasionally Olivia comes to me while I'm in the middle of something and says, "Mommy, potty." She also holds her little girl "area" with her hand at the same time which is super cute. Depending on what I'm doing, sometimes I say, "Ok. Wait just one second and I'll take you." Then she goes into whatever room Jake is in, wailing to her brother, "JAKE!!!!!!!! POTTTTTTTTYYYYY!" She adores her big brother and he LOVES helping take care of her. He takes her to the potty, picks her up, puts her on the toilet and gets her some toilet paper. It is the cutest thing you've ever seen. Then he comes back up there with her and says, "Mommy, Livi teetee'd in the potty." He just wants to make sure I know he's taken care of it. He's such a good boy!

* Olivia loves to dress up. Not necessarily in her "dress up" clothes, but just in her everyday clothes. The other day she came into the living room wearing panties, pants over them, then shorts over the pants, then more panties over the shorts. Did I mention she also loves shoes? Oh dear.

* I bought the soundtrack to Walk the Line back several months ago because we all - especially Jake - love Johnny Cash. Walk the Line is one of his favorite movies. It's the only thing he wants to listen to in the car and he has memorized nearly every song on the soundtrack. There are a couple we don't listen to. One is about cocaine - we don't listen to this for obvious reasons. The second is an Elvis song about his "milk cow" referring to his significant other. Hmmm. Wonder why Mommy isn't crazy about a song referring to women as milk cows. Anyway, if you're ever around Jake, ask him to sing his favorite Johnny Cash song and if he's not feeling terribly shy he'll start belting out "It ain't me, babe" which happens to be #11 on the cd and our family's favorite secular song. There's a song by TobyMac that I love called Gone that Jake also has started asking to listen to and he's learning the words to it as well. I LOVE that my children love to sing!!! I should also point out that Olivia likes to sing along, too. She doesn't know the words but that doesn't keep her from mumbling loudly!

* The beginning of spring is apparently a time for babies! Three of my friends have had babies in the past three weeks and another good friend of mine just found out that she is very unexpectedly, but happily, pregnant. I sure hope there isn't something in the water. I better quit drinking from the tap just in case. We went to visit my friend Jennifer yesterday who just gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Kalli three weeks ago. She was a preemie, but is doing great. Jake just loved her to death and wanted to take her home with us. I asked him if he wanted a new baby brother or sister and he said yes. I laughed and told him he would have to pray about that. Mike wasn't amused. Hmmm. We're planning to go see our good friends Bobby and Mary's baby this evening. He was born on Monday night. I can't wait to get my hands on a 3 day old baby! I've seen pictures of little Landon and he's absolutely precious!!!! A couple of cries and a dirty diaper later though and I'll be completely over my new baby thoughts. Mike will be pleased.

* There have been a series of mishaps at our house lately. I'm sorry to say that Jake seems to have inherited his father's proneness to accidents. Mike tried to cut the end of his finger off with a table router last week and nearly succeeded. This is one of MANY MANY MANY accidents he's had in his lifetime. Back to Jake's story now. Daddy Don's four wheeler trailer is at our house and the ramp on the back is held up by two large pins. Jake decided to load his Lightning McQueen car on the trailer last week - by himself. This is what happens when you take your eyes off your children for 15 seconds. Jake let the pins out and the ramp (which ways 40 or 50 pounds) FELL. We can only assume that it hit Jake's car on the way down because something broke it's fall a bit. Regardless, it hit Jake on the side of the head on the way down, knocking him onto the concrete and pinning him between the concrete and the ramp. Mike got to him seconds after it happened and ran him into the house to me. I've never seen Mike so panicked in my life. Jake cried for a few minutes then I washed him face and put a bag of frozen veggies on his scrape and waited to see what would happen. Luckily he was fine and it ended up just being a couple of bumps on the head and a scrape down his cheek. It could have been MUCH worse. I was definitely thanking God that it wasn't as bad as it could have been. If you have a trailer with a ramp, PLEASE either leave the ramp down or take the ramp off. The ramp is off Daddy Don's now and it will remain that way.

* Jake has a Pirates of the Carribean parrot that repeats what you say. Right this second Olivia is holding it saying, "bubble gum." It's repeating it back to her. She thinks this is fabulous. She is so precious!!

* Speaking of Olivia talking, people often ask me if she can talk yet and if so what can she say. The question isn't what she CAN say, but what CAN'T she say?? She talks all the time. It's amazing!!!!!!! She can ask for essentially anything and lately her favorite word is "alright." She says this in answer to all of my questions. I like that word. It's much better than, "no." Ha! She's also a good whiner which isn't a good thing. We're working on it though. Maybe that's just a girl thing. Regardless, it's incredibly annoying and it's certainly not something we tolerate at this house. Unless of course I'm the one doing the whining then it's okay :<) Mike would argue with that point, but he doesn't write on this blog (or even read it for that matter) so he doesn't get a say! This will be the one time he reads it and he'll give me a stern look. Even Mike's stern looks are adorable though so I'm not too worried. Have I mentioned how crazy in love I am with that man? Just thinking about him now makes me smile. I'm the luckiest girl in the world.

2007-03-13T09:12:00.000-06:00

How do you like my new hair style? It is compliments of Princess Olivia. I've waited my whole life for a daughter who wanted to fix my hair, and here she is! I personally think it looks lovely, but I am a bit biased. I happen to be crazy in love with the stylist! My Mom was a hairdresser for many years before her hands became to crippled by rheumatoid arthritis to work in her salon. Then she became the secretary at the elementary school in the small town where I grew up. She would be proud to see Olivia playing with my hair. Of course she's got a great view of it all from heaven. I can't wait until Olivia's old enough to actually fix my hair. It's a pain to flat iron the back. It will be most helpful to have a daughter around who wants to do it for me!

2007-03-05T13:58:00.000-06:00

Who is this kid???

Olivia is fast asleep in my lap with her head on my chest as I type this. I remember very well the very first time I blogged with her asleep like this. I was sitting in a fabulous resort hotel on the beach in Phan Rang, Ninh Thuan, Vietnam and it was November 21, 2006 - the day Olivia officially became our daughter.

More than three months have passed since that day and it shows! Everynight, Mike and I sit with the kids in the living room and we sing two lullabies and then say our prayers. Then we tuck Jake in and say goodnight and then it's Livi's turn. She climbs into her little toddler bed and I sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to her. I've know from the time Jake was four months old that we would one day adopt and I chose to save that song just for her. If I ever sang it to Jake it wasn't very often. He has his own special songs, but Twinkle Twinkle Little Star belongs just to Olivia. It's our song. I rub her back and then she puts her arms up in the air for a big hug. I hug her tight and give her a kiss on the lips and she puts her index finger up and says, "one more!" She does this 5 or 6 times before I finally quit giving in. She blows me a kiss goodnight as I walk out the door.

That's where my blog title comes in. Who is this kid??? This is definitely not the same little girl we met three months ago on the other side of the world. She's not even the same little girl that we knew on Christmas. She's changing everyday. It's just amazing. She has become more and more comfortable with us as time has gone on and just in the last couple of weeks it seems like she's finally decided that this is her home and she feels safe and free to do whatever she wants.

She is talking up a storm, too. I was so worried about the language barrier, but it really hasn't been an issue at all. She picked up English SO QUICKLY! She even said her first 5 word sentence last week. Our neice Emma gave her a shamrock pin (actually JuJu gave it to Emma to give to Livi) and later at the house I asked Olivia where she got it. She said perfectly clearly, "Emma gave it to me." I was SO PROUD!!!!!!!!!!! She is just amazing!

She and Jake are - in the words of Forrest Gump - like peas and carrots. They are just best friends and it's absolutely awesome. They fuss over toys sometimes but that's it. They are crazy about each other and love to play together. I'm so glad that they are so close in age. They are 18 months apart and it's perfect.

There were days in the beginning that I thought we would never mesh as a family. It's amazing what a little time, faith and hard work will do! I honestly can't imagine life without Olivia now. She is the funniest, sweetest, most beautiful little girl in the whole world. Mike and I are so blessed to have these two precious children!!!

2007-02-23T21:56:00.000-06:00

The last day

What would you do if it were the last day of your life? I've been thinking about that a lot over the last few weeks since Daddy Don died. He woke up like he did every other day. He went to work, but for some reason he went around and visited with people he hadn't seen in months. After work instead of washing the mud off his always clean truck, he spent his afternoon with JuJu visiting Rhonda, Lance and the girls and then coming to our house to visit with us. I wonder if he would have done anything differently if he had known it would be his last day. He did the things that were most important. He spent time with is wife, his kids and his grandkids. That's really all anyone could wish for on their last day of this temporary life, isn't it?

I started thinking about what I would want to do on the last day of my life which took me back to that day. I took these pictures of Jake on January 10, 2007, the last day of Daddy Don's life on this earth. I spent the morning with my children and had lunch with them and Mike. After naptime, the four of us went over to some property near our house where Mike duck hunts on a beaver pond. Mike had found some flint there a few days before, so we went to look for arrow heads. That's a favorite pasttime of our family and something handed down through the generations of the Munn family. We didn't find any but I found a piece of flint that had a rounded out place in it. It's still in the pocket of the camo jacket I was wearing that day. Jake was dressed head to toe in camo. He really is starting to look like a big boy. He and Olivia had such a good time scouring the ground for arrowheads. We walked about a half mile down from the road and on the way back Olivia rode on Mike's shoulders. Jake and I took our time as we always do, much to Mike's dismay. Jake and I tend to lollygag. We get very caught up in our surroundings and what we're looking at and forget the rest of the world exists. He and I are so much alike in that respect. It had been raining for days and the logging road we were walking back on was muddy and of course had huge mud puddles. Despite the cold weather, Jake wanted to walk through the puddles. I would say that's what little boys do, but I'm a girl and I still love to play in the mud myself. Jake meandered around and laughed mischeviously and then ran right through the first mud puddle we came to. It was hysterical. Mike was yelling from around the bend, but he couldn't see us, so we continued to take our own sweet time. I was laughing at Jake and taking pictures of him and he was lost in his own little boy world. Life was just as it should be. Easy and full of laughter. We managed to finally make our way up to the road, but not before stopping at every mud hole along the way. By the time we got to the car, Jake was wet and muddy from the waist down, but he was smiling from ear to ear and so was I! I stripped him down to nothing but a shirt and we headed home. As soon as we got home, I gave the kids a bath and they were just getting out and toweled off when Daddy Don and JuJu arrived to visit. Jake and Livi were running through the house naked just as cute as could be.

If that had been my last day on this earth, I couldn't have spent it in a better way. I hope when I get to heaven, I have mud on my boots and kisses on my cheeks.

2007-02-23T21:22:00.000-06:00

Olivia is such a GIRL!!! It's still so bizarre to have a little girl in the house. I've been surrounded by boys for so long! Even our two dogs, Deacon and Phideaux, and our cat, Crookshanks, are boys! Our house has been swallowed by pink! It's everywhere! Even though Olivia is a girly girl, she's still a girl after her Mommy's heart. She loves Hotwheels, she loves playing in the dirt and she loves being outside. She also loves pretending to hunt, which is a good thing since she'll be going hunting with me this year. Jake has been hunting since before he was born so she has a lot of catching up to do! I killed a nice 7 point buck that hangs over my computer desk when I was 8 months pregnant with Jake. He loves that the name plate says Casey & Jake Munn on it. Maybe this fall we'll have a new one to hang somewhere that says Casey & Olivia Munn. Jake has moved onto hunting with his Daddy most of the time now and he has two European deer mounts hanging on the wall in his room to show it. Jake LOVES to hunt. I can't wait for him to actually pull the trigger on his first deer, then duck, then turkey. Those will be proud moments for this Mommy. Mike once held the record for the youngest child in Arkansas to get the triple trophy award. That's a deer with a bow, a muzzleloader and a rifle all in the same season. I'm hoping Jake will be getting the triple trophy award in the next few years. I'll be equally proud if Olivia chooses to continue to hunt as well. If she doesn't, at least I'll finally have someone to shop with! She'll be awfully bored through the end of fall and winter though!

Here are a couple of pictures of Princess Olivia. Please note her earrings! She is so PROUD of her earrings! She shows them to everyone we see, even strangers. We went to Wal-Mart right after I took these pictures and even though it was dark, she insisted on wearing her sunglasses the entire time we were in the store! She's so beautiful and I wouldn't trade this girly girl for anything in the world.

2007-02-19T22:39:00.000-06:00

Happy Birthday, Mikie Poo!!!

Today is Mike's (aka Mikie Poo, Daddy & Michael - I'm the only one who calls him Mikie Poo and Michael though - and I often call him Daddy along with the kids despite the fact I said I would NEVER do that) 31st birthday! For the next six months we will be the same age, but he'll continue to remind me that I'm his "old lady." Hmmm. I would post a picture of my husband, the most gorgeous man on the face of the planet, but of course my computer isn't allowing that this evening. Ugh. I get to look at him face to face though which makes me the luckiest woman in the world! I would just like to take this opportunity to tell everyone in the world that my husband is an awesome man and an unbelievably wonderful father. He's as good as it gets. I am blessed to be married to a man who also works from home, so I'm with him nearly 24/7 and believe it or not, we actually think that's a good thing! Maybe sometime when I'm not so tired I'll tell the story of how Mike and I came to be. It's a fun story. Tonight though, I'm going to retire from the computer, snuggle with my hubby on the couch and watch a movie. Happy Birthday to the love of my life - the greatest blessing I've ever received from God!

2007-02-16T21:55:00.000-06:00

I'm feeling old

I can blame fellow Dillon adoptive Mom, Rachel for the last ten minutes that I spent at retrojunk.com. Thanks Rachel! I feel awfully old now though.

I thought, hey I'll look at the 80's movies. That was a fun decade. Then I started looking specifically at movies made in 1987. That was 20 years ago. TWENTY years ago!!!!! That sounds like a million years to me! Ok. Get ready for the titles:

Can't Buy Me Love - This is one of my favorite movies of all time!!! I still have every word memorized. Not to mention this was the future McDreamy's debut. I even own this one on DVD!
Adventures in Babysitting - I used to watch this while I was babysitting!
Dirty Dancing - need I say more???? My best friend Jenni and I still sing the Sylvia and Mickey song.
Overboard - who doesn't love Goldie Hawn?!?!
Some Kind of Wonderful - gave us all hope for true love even when it's hiding in unsuspecting friends.
The Lost Boys - yet another of my favorite movies of all time. I love love love Keifer Sutherland and he was beyond hot with his blonde mullet :<) Ah... those were the days. I can't believe though that these movies came out TWENTY YEARS AGO!!!! If you know these movies as well as I do then you are probably feeling a little bit old now, too. Be thankful that I didn't post a list of all my favorite 80's movies! I'll give you clues to a few of them though. Enjoy reminiscing!

Bueller. Bueller.

Who ya gonna call?

Best Prince soundtrack to a movie - EVER!

Ralph Macchio (I had a poster of him next to my bed)

Yee haw!!! Jester's dead!

Freddy Krueger

Fast Times at ????????

Gizmo

2007-02-13T23:30:00.000-06:00

Tuesday, February 13th - the day of flowing bodily fluids

Poor Jake. He has had a terrible cough the last few days and at times he coughs so much that he throws up. Well, last night we added diarrhea to the mix and he had an accident on the way home from town last night. He also had an accident first thing this morning. So all of the sheets, etc. have now been washed. Then Olivia wakes up and is wet. This is highly unusal for her. The day goes on. Jake hasn't had any more accidents but he feels so terrible that he actually fell asleep on the living room floor. More unusal stuff. I tried to get him an appointment with the doctor (I just took him last week) and of course there are none today and his pediatrician is out the rest of the week. We can see a different one tomorrow but we have to call between 8 and 8:15 am tomorrow to get an appointment. We will probably get a 9 am appointment and we live an hour and fifteen minutes away. Fun. Regardless, I just want him to see a doctor. Then Olivia wets herself again, but this time just a little bit. Again, unusual. We all eat lunch - did I mention we have NO food in the house? I have to go shopping this afternoon. Jake had corndogs and strawberries. Not so unusual - but still weird! Olivia had rice with soy sauce. Her most favorite thing in the whole world. Mike and our friend Robby had bologna sandwiches. (I'm such a good wife! I did cook pancakes for breakfast though, so that should count for something.) I had instant mashed potatoes with ketchup. Again, not so unusual, but still weird. I bet you couldn't spell unusual in a Scrabble game. Are there 3 u's in the box? Hmmmm. Then, Olivia for whatever reason wasn't wearing clothes - she does this somewhat regularly (taking her clothes off for no reason I mean) and she peed on the living room floor. On the carpet! I was two feet away from her so it wasn't that she couldn't find me for help. She just stood there and peed on the floor. I had to call Mike to come wrangle the kids long enough for me to get the steam cleaner out and clean the carpet. UGH!!!!!!!!!!! I am either going to strangle the kids or myself. I haven't decided which yet. Anyone want to come over and eat chocolate by the pound???

2007-02-12T13:41:00.000-06:00

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.

2007-02-08T22:33:00.000-06:00

Your mission... if you choose to accept it:

One of my very best friends is opening a catering business. I'm so excited for her!!! She's going to be fantastic. Anyway, she's having trouble coming up with a name. I've thought of several - two of which I personally think are just right - but I thought someone else out there might have the perfect name for her new business! I won't tell my ideas just yet so as not to clog your thought processes! Let's brainstorm people! I welcome any and all suggestions!!!

2007-02-03T23:27:00.000-06:00

earrings, green bean casserole & assorted ramblings

Well, I like to keep you guessing. No, there weren't earrings in the green bean casserole, but there may be soon enough because Princess Olivia had her ears pierced yesterday! Mike has been bugging me to get them pierced since we returned home from Vietnam, but I wanted to let her settle in to life at home before we put her through the trama of having holes put into her baby earlobes! Incidentally, I was two when I had mine pierced as well. Anyway, Olivia has been irritated the last several weeks because I put on earrings and she can't. She pulls on her earlobes and points to the earrings and says, "Mommy!" with her 'I want them, too' look. She's so cute! So, I relented and we took her yesterday. They did both ears at the same time and I was so glad of that. She cried for just a couple of seconds but as soon as we put her in front of the mirror and she saw her earrings, she was smiling from - well - earring to earring! She was so happy! She looks absolutely adorable. I'll get a picture of her up sometime this week with her fancy new look. Have I mentioned how cute she is?

Ok. Now for the green bean casserole. Olivia hates fruit. She also hates all varieties of milk. She is just not a healthy eater which is not something I'm accustomed to! I have a house full of fruit and veggies! Vegetables are another thing she generally dislikes. I am thrilled to report though that she LOVES green bean casserole. As she ate her THIRD helping of it yesterday, I couldn't help but think of that old Saturday morning commercial where the celery stick (or whatever it was) sings, "Don't drown your food!" Perhaps the green beans are still healthy even with mushroom soup and fried onions mixed in. At this point, I'll take what I can get.

We had dinner with part of my family tonight and it was so much fun. My Aunt Judith and Uncle Jimmie were visiting from Texas and were very excited to meet Olivia. We had dinner at my sister Cathy's. Her family was there, my sister Caren and her family and my Dad and stepmom. I am the youngest of five. I have three sisters and one brother. Oddly enough, my brother is one of my very best friends. I'm closer to him than I am any of my sisters although I certainly love all of my sisters, too. It was nice just being with some of my family. Lots of adults and 7 children under the age of 12. It's always fun when we get together. I just wish we did it more often. Life is too short not to make time for the ones that matter in your life.

Oh I nearly forgot! It snowed Thursday night!!!!!! Of course by Friday afternoon it was all gone, but we took advantage of it while we could. We all got up Friday morning, bundled up and went out to play in the snow! This was Olivia's first time to see snow and Jake hadn't seen it since he was 14 months old. He was SO excited!!! It was so much fun. Jake and I had snowball fights and he, Olivia and I attempted to make a snowman. Attempted being the key word. We rode the fourwheers all over the place and then came in for hot chocolate. I would give anything for a few days of good snow! Jake would have such a good time. He's finally old enough to really get our and play in it. Olivia is still adjusting to the cold weather much less snow! She still had fun though. I made snow ice cream Thursday night and we all enjoyed it. My Mom always made snow ice cream. She loved snow even more than I do and that's saying something! I love living in South Arkansas, but I wish we could see a bit more winter weather.

I'm done rambling now.

2007-01-31T15:05:00.000-06:00

Jake & Olivia

brother & sister, and more importantly - best friends

All bundled up and ready to go play outside!

Why walk when you have a big brother to carry you around?

Snuggle time!

Jake is sweet enough to drive Olivia anywhere she wants to go!

2007-01-29T15:56:00.000-06:00

Olivia's 1st mud riding adventure!

I decided it was time to introduce Olivia to one of my favorite pasttimes - mud riding! We were actually on Jake's fourwheeler, while he and Mike were on Olivia's. The four of us went riding the other day and I found a huge mudhole on the pipeline in the woods out behind our house. Mike and I are both adventurous in different ways. He drives fast and takes curves on two wheels while I prefer to fly through mud, spinning tires and covering everything in mud. I'm very happy to report that Miss Olivia also seems to have her Mommy's affection for mud riding. She loved it! She's so funny though when she has mud on her hands. When we got off the four wheeler, she just held them out in front of her like she didn't know what to do with them. I'm sure by summer she'll be out in the yard making mud pies just like I was doing at her age.

2007-01-26T22:37:00.000-06:00

Daddy reading 'The Pokey Little Puppy' to Jake and Olivia

Have I ever mentioned that I have the most wonderful husband in the world? I'm sure I have, but if not, let me take this opportunity to say just that. Jake, Olivia and I are SO LUCKY because Mike preaches on Sundays and works in his taxidermy studio the rest of the week. His shop is next to our home, so we get to see Daddy whenever we want! He has breakfast, lunch and supper with us and often comes in just to visit. Jake is able to go out and help him at work and if we ever have somewhere we need to go, there's no issue with asking for a day off. He's his own boss! (Ok, in all honestly, we know who the real boss is. Wink wink.) People often ask how Olivia is with Mike. Except for bedtime, she's just as happy with her Daddy as she is with me. She and Jake both still want their Mommy to tuck them in though. Jake and Olivia adore their Daddy, just like I do. I think they are incredibly lucky children to have such an amazing father. I know I'm certainly lucky to have him as my husband and best friend. Incidentally, in the picture Mike is reading 'The Pokey Little Puppy' to the kids and that was his favorite book as a child. I LOVE it when Mike reads this book to them, because he looks SO cute when he says, "I smell something." He says it like summfin. I know this sounds ridiculous, but if you know him, you know what a goofball Mike is and it's just so adorable when he says summfin. I'm so head over heels in love with him, everything he does is wonderful to me. Five years later and I still get butterflies everytime he walks through the front door. I am blessed!

2007-01-25T17:07:00.000-06:00

Is this not the most beautiful little girl you've ever seen!?!?! Even with spaghetti sauce on her face and shirt, she is still absolutely breathtaking! I am blessed to look at her all day long, yet I continue to be amazed at how beautiful she is. I'm surprised we even have to have electricity at our house. I would think she and Jake could light the world with their gorgeous smiles. The neat thing about my children is that they aren't just beautiful on the outside. They are both so sweet and funny. They can both make me laugh no matter what my mood is. It's hard not to smile when you have such beautiful smiles in front of you! Even with the heartache in our family, our children keep us smiling. I don't know how we ever lived without them.

2007-01-25T16:49:00.000-06:00

Livi's 1st play date!

Emma, Miley, Olivia & Olivia

Olivia had her very first playdate yesterday! Poor Jake was overtaken by girls! Our wonderful social worker, Kimberly, came down yesterday for our first post-placement visit and I was tickled that she let her daughter, also named Olivia, skip a day of kindergarten just to come meet my Olivia! Our friend Michelle, who was with our group in Vietnam, also came down to visit and brought her newly adopted daughter, Miley and Miley's big sister, Emma. Olivia of course spent a good bit of time with Miley while we were travelling in Vietnam with her family, but she had never met the "other" Olivia before. The weird thing was that as soon as she saw Olivia, she ran right to her and gave her a huge hug! You would think she had just seen her long lost best friend! I can't wait to see how she reacts when she sees Kennedy again who she grew up with. By the way, if all goes well Miss Kennedy will be flying home tomorrow and she'll be an American girl on Saturday! Please say a prayer for them! We loved having Olivia, Miley and Emma down for a visit. I wish that all of our Vietnamese friends didn't live so far away!

2007-01-22T15:54:00.000-06:00

I wanted to share a few of my favorite pictures of Daddy Don throughout the 5 years I was fortunate enough to be his daughter. Mine and Mike's 5th wedding anniversary was January 12th. It was going to be the first time we left Olivia with JuJu & Daddy Don since we got home from Vietnam. They were going to keep her and Jake while we went out to dinner. They were definitely looking forward to it. None of us ever dreamed how we would end up spending that day. I hope you enjoy getting a glimpse of the life he lived.

This is the entire Munn family except for Olivia! From left: JuJu, Daddy Don, Rhonda, Mike, Jake, Me, Joyce (JuJu's sister), Emma, Lance and Amy. This picture was taken in 2005.

This is one of my very favorite pictures. This is me and Daddy Don when Jake was about 5 weeks old. Papaw (DD's Dad) had just passed away and he was famous for pointing his finger and smiling in pictures, so Daddy Don was imitating his Dad. Those two men were amazing guys and both incredibly missed.

This is a great picture of Daddy Don doing what came naturally to him - being very silly!

This is from 2004. Mike and Daddy Don both got really good turkeys that year on the same day. Jake was VERY proud!

I love this picture of Daddy Don because it looks just like him on a regular day - sitting in his recliner.

This is a huge buck Daddy Don killed in 2004. This was one of his favorite pictures and it's also one of mine.

Here's JuJu stealing a kiss from the love of her life.

This is Daddy Don's stand on Munn Hill. Mike, DD and Jake worked very hard building it!

Daddy Don and JuJu doing one of their favorite things - spending time with Jake.

3 very silly Munn boys!

Jake flying high in the safety of Daddy Don's arms

I adore this picture! I took it in October. This was the first time Daddy Don and JuJu had seen Jake in his suit and they were super proud of him. They are a good looking bunch, aren't they!?

Here is Daddy Don with Olivia the day we got home from Vietnam. He was the first person to hold her besides us and she liked him from the very beginning. He was one of the few people besides us that she felt comfortable with. They took us to McDonald's where Daddy Don bought Olivia her very first Happy Meal. He was looking forward to taking her to The Cow for an ice cream cone, too. He and JuJu ate there all the time. It's hard for us to even drive by there now.

A picture of Daddy Don and Olivia at Jake's birthday party in December. He was so proud that he was one of the VERY few people she would let hold her. As I type this Olivia is sitting in my lap saying, "Daddy Don."

Here are some precious pictures of Jake giving kisses to his very favorite guitar player. Daddy Don even inspired me to buy my own guitar, but I'm sorry to say I haven't learned much. I hope that all of DD's grandkids choose to learn to play. He would've loved that.

2007-01-19T23:05:00.000-06:00

I forgot to mention something very important about Daddy Don. We weren't the only ones who loved him. I have always known that he was funny, loyal, hard working, smart, and definitely charming, but I didn't know how many other people knew it too. Over 700 people - seven hundred people - came to the funeral home. They each waited in line for nearly an hour just to pay their respects. Over 92 people sent flowers. At least that many brought food and paper products. Sympathy cards are still pouring in everyday. Most days Judy gets at least 30 and we get them at our house as well as Rhonda. We were in awe of the amount of love shown for our Daddy Don. It was unbelievable. He touched so many lives and we were so blessed to be his family. We are all still just amazed at how many people cared about him. He was an awesome man. I'm really so thankful that I was his daughter. I would say daughter-in-law, but Daddy Don didn't really think like that. My brother-in-law Lance and I were no different in his eyes. Mike, Rhonda, Lance, Emma, Amy, Jake, Olivia and I were his children and we were blessed. JuJu was the most blessed of all to be the love of his life. Tomorrow is her birthday, and it will be a difficult day for her. If you think of it, say a little prayer for our Mom, JuJu.

2007-01-19T13:40:00.000-06:00

Jake shooting Silly String at Daddy Don

Learning to breathe again

When you lose someone that is incredibly important to you, it's almost like you have to learn to breathe all over again. In those first days after they die, you just walk around in a shell of a body doing things you have to do and saying things you have to say. After a week or so, you realize that you haven't been breathing - just going through the motions of life. We're trying to learn how to breathe again here at our house and it's tough.

My Mom died in 2001 just a few weeks before my 26th birthday. She was barely 58 years old. I was absolutely, positively devastated. I had sold my house the year before and moved back in with her for several months so she and I were together every single day. She was without a doubt my very best friend in the world. She was the only person who never judged me and always loved me just the way I was. I thought I would fall off the earth when she died. I don't know how long I went around without breathing after her death, but it was a long long time. She had suffered for years with rheumatoid arthritis and had problems with blocked arteries that had required surgery once before. I nearly lost her when I was 12, again when I was 19 and then God chose to take her home when I was 25. My only consolation was that I knew she was in heaven. She was no longer suffering from the debilitating pain she had felt for so long. She would have to endure no more surgeries. She would never have to be in a wheelchair or use a cane. She was at peace with our Lord and would never hurt again. That didn't make losing her any easier, but I was grateful that she was no longer suffering.

That has been the hardest thing to deal with about Daddy Don's death. He wasn't suffering at all. He was probably one of the healthiest people I know. He spent two weeks every year climbing mountains in Colorado elk hunting and two weeks every year in Missouri hunting turkeys. He spent every day of deer season in Arkansas in the woods. Bow season starts in September, then comes muzzleloader and then rifle. He hunted them all. Turkey season starts in the spring and that was probably his favorite time of all, because he and Mike often hunted together. He spent his summers fishing on Lake Columbia, usually with JuJu reading a book alongside him. There was absolutely nothing wrong with Daddy Don. He was probably in better physical shape than most 30 year old men, much less 59 year old's. I can't say he was taken too soon, because God's timing is always perfect, but we weren't ready to let him go.

Last Wednesday, he went to work and came home like he always did. He and JuJu went over to Rhonda's house and saw her and Lance and the girls, Emma and Amy. Emma is 7 and Amy is 4. Then he and JuJu came over to our house to visit. Jake was so excited because Mike had just finished his eight point skull mount that day and hung it on the wall in Jake's room. He was so proud and couldn't wait to show Daddy Don. They played in Livi's room and she put bows in his hair. He got down on the floor and growled at Olivia and she would hide behind my legs and cackle. She loved it and he did, too. Daddy Don absolutely adored all four of his grandchildren. The funniest thing they did that day was with Jake and I'm so thankful that I took pictures and video. Santa brought him a can of Silly String in his stocking, and he brought it out while Daddy Don was sitting on the couch and showered him in Silly String. It was absolutely hysterical. He and Jake laughed and laughed. Daddy Don was one of the funniest guys in the world. We all went out so he could see the mountain goat Mike had finished that day. I went in the shop first intentionally because I wanted to be able to see Daddy Don's face when he saw it. It was priceless. He was so so proud of Mike. Mike quit his job at Albemarle in March of 2006 and everyone, especially his Dad, was nervous about it. It's scary to quit a really well paying job and start a business of your own, but Mike did it, and God has definitely blessed us. It was so neat so see Daddy Don's eyes light up everytime he saw some of Mike's work. "That's perfect!" he would say. That was definitely his trademark expression. I don't know how Mike is going to get through the coming weeks, months and years without hearing that. It's going to be so tough. He and his Dad were really great friends.

After they left here, Daddy Don and JuJu went home. He had a peanut butter sandwich, looked some stuff up on the computer, watched part of the game on the tv and fell asleep in his recliner. All normal stuff. He hadn't complained with anything and he was absolutely fine. Judy woke him up to go to bed and he sat down to turn off the computer. There is of course more to the story, but the just of it is that he had an aneurysm and was pronounced dead just a short time after that at the hospital. It all happened SO quickly. Mike, Rhonda and Judy were all at the hospital and when Mike called me so soon after he left home and told me that Daddy Don had died, all I could say was that I didn't understand. That's essentially how we all feel. We don't understand.

Daddy Don was probably as happy as he had ever been in his life. He had a wonderful, sweet wife, two successful children who are very happily married, and four grandchildren that he loved more than anything in the world. We all lived close by and saw each other often. He had started giving the devotions in church before Sunday school and was just finishing out deer season getting ready for turkey season. Life was about as good as it could get. Why God chose this time to take him home we don't know. We don't understand any of this. We love him and we miss him and right now it just seems really unfair.

So, we're learning to breathe again. It hurts to breathe and I don't know what we're going to do without him. Judy, Mike and Rhonda need your prayers so much. We all do, but especially them. Judy is much too young to lose her husband of 40 years. Mike and Rhonda still had things to learn from their Daddy. You don't even want to get me started on how much it hurts that our children won't be able to know him more, love him and learn from him. I can at least say I have no more regrets about our adoption. I am INCREDIBLY thankful that we left Jake here with Daddy Don and JuJu for the 3+ weeks we were gone. Jake spent nearly all of his time with him. Daddy Don sent me some pictures of him and Jake in the deer stand while we were in Vietnam. I wouldn't trade those weeks with them together for anything in the world. God knew what he was doing. I just couldn't see it at the time.

Thank you all so much for your prayers over the last week. Please continue to pray for us as we learn to live without the man that meant so much to all of us. I want to leave you with just a few random words and phrases that remind me of Daddy Don. I started writing them down the day after he went to heaven. If you knew him, they'll no doubt bring up a memory or two for you as well.

Dr. Pepper, cooncats, mouse in the Kleenex box, Mike Mike, Jake's huntin' buddy, playing the guitar, perfect, doin', The Cow (aka JuJu's Moo Moo), hating corn, throwing corn, can tabs, VW beetle, the carwash, Wal-Mart hunting section, Daddy Don's hunting room, starched Albemarle shirts, target practice, I got just the thing, give me a smack, in the hole...thanks for cleaning my toilet bowl, Dr. Pepper (it deserves to be mentioned twice), ticklish feet, check the fluids, flashlights, looking for blood, scouting for turkeys, Munn Hill, the pipeline stand, camo overalls, Hershey's Kisses

2007-01-11T23:42:00.000-06:00

We love you Daddy Don

Mike's Dad, who we all call Daddy Don, died very suddenly and unexpectedly last night. He was only 59 years old and he and Mike's Mom, Judy (better known as JuJu) had been married for over 40 years. He was an amazing, wonderful man that we loved so so much. I can't even begin to tell you what he meant to us and especially to Jake. Daddy Don loved us all so much but he loved his four grandchildren, Jake, Olivia, Emma & Amy more than anything in the world. We are all completely in shock and I ask for your prayers for our family, especially for JuJu, Mike and my sister-in-law Rhonda. His funeral will be Saturday at 2 p.m. It's been such a long day and we are all so exhausted. I will write more in a few days. I have so many things I want the world to know about this great man that we were blessed to have as a father and our children were blessed to have as a grandfather. Please pray for the Munn family as we try to get through this. We know that God's will is perfect and just, but sometimes it's very hard to understand. Now is definitely one of those times. We know he was taken at just the right time, but for us it was far too soon.

2007-01-10T13:29:00.000-06:00

Olivia & Kennedy

(with me in November 2006 at the orphanage in Vietnam)

Sometime back I posted a picture that another family sent me before we went to Vietnam of Olivia and her best friend Kennedy. While we were there, we were able to spend lots of time with Kennedy giving her hugs and kisses and letting her know that she had a wonderful family back in the states waiting for her. I am so thrilled to say that Kennedy's Mom is currently in Ninh Thuan and they had their g&r ceremony yesterday. Kennedy is officially theirs! I remember those first days with our new baby quite well, so I'll definitely be praying for them as they adjust to each other. Kennedy was such a sweet girl and smiled all the time. Her Mommy posted on her blog that she is smiling for her as well! That's great news. I hope that you'll be in prayer for her family and the other two families currently in Vietnam. It's a tough trip especially when you leave other family members at home. We can't wait to see Kennedy again and meet her new family. I know Olivia will be thrilled. I'm so happy that they will be able to remain friends way over here on the other side of the world. God is so good! Hurry home Kennedy!

2007-01-08T13:17:00.000-06:00

Here are some photos of the orphanage where Olivia lived in Vietnam. It may not look like much, but it is a very special place to us and we will always hold it close to our hearts. If you want to do something to honor Olivia, please pray for the children left behind in Ninh Thuan and other orphanages around the world. Every child in this orphanage deserves a loving Christian home and family. If these children aren't adopted, they may never hear of the love of Jesus Christ. I can't tell you how much that breaks my heart. I was holding Olivia in church Sunday morning as her Daddy preached and I thought about the fact that until she joined our family, she had never been to a church, and had probably never heard the name of Jesus. We take church for granted. We even take Jesus for granted sometimes. We take everything for granted here in the states. I hope these pictures are a reminder to you to pray for the children left behind.

"Bathroom" in Olivia's room

This is a picture of the "bathroom" in Olivia's room at he orphanage. It consists of a squatty potty, which I'm unsure about since the kids actually go on the floor. I still don't get that. It also consists of the tubs you see there where the children are bathed. I don't know how often they get baths, but the children were all clean. Olivia was bathed here just before we met her for the first time.

Olivia's room

This is a picture of the room Olivia shared with about 10 other children. There were four beds in the room. Two of them were pushed together so you can see the corner of those beds and then the other two. They were wood slat beds with a grass mat on them. One of the beds had linoleum on it. There were no pillows, blankets or sheets. Olivia's head is an interesting shape from sleeping only on wood slat beds or the floor her entire life. The tiny infants upstairs sleep in bamboo cribs that can swing from side to side. They are very neat. They also have blankets and pillows. The older babies and children upstairs sleep in wood slat cribs that look about like a pack and play except it's made from wood. They nap on grass mats on the floor though. I'm not sure if there are not enough beds for all of them, or they just lay them on the floor for naps. Olivia's room was very simple. Four beds, some shelves, a desk and chair, a "potty" room and if you notice in the back by the window there is a clothes washing machine. Every room had one and they looked pretty new.

Ninh Thuan Orphanage

This is a picture of the orphanage in Vietnam where Olivia spent most of her life prior to becoming a Munn. The building you see is where about 60 children live ranging from newborn up to about 16 years old. The entire top floor are children under the age of 2 and the rest of the children live downstairs. If you look at the middle of the building, there is a staircase that sort of circles around. Olivia's room was to the left of the staircase. You can see the windows. The orphanage is older but still in good shape for the most part. It was also pretty clean. Of course, if you follow my theory, love grows best in houses that aren't spotless! It's hard to love your children as much as they deserve and still keep a perfectly clean house. I opt to love my children lots and lots and keep a semi-clean house. In Olivia's orphanage, the children were very loved, so I am happy that love and attention for my daughter and the other children took precedence over a spotless room.

2007-01-06T15:01:00.000-06:00

Thank you!

I just want to say thank you to those of you who read my last post and left nice comments. When I published it, I wasn't sure what kind of reaction I would get. I felt sure that I would get a few negative comments and I was pleasantly surprised when I didn't! You all have been so kind! Even my big brother (Uncle Joby) who rarely gives compliments! I love him to death, but he's just one of those guys that doesn't compliment, so for him to think it was "awesome" (his words) I am TICKLED PINK! Thanks everyone for not throwing stones at me. When we first adopted Olivia, I felt very alone in the world and thought no one else had ever felt the way I was feeling. I don't want anyone else to ever feel alone like that. That's the only reason I chose to tell the hard parts of our adoption story. If you are an adoptive parent, know that God loves you and your family. If you allow Him to direct your family, he PROMISES that He will make it work. God is just so good like that! If you ever need my prayers, don't be afraid to ask for them. Even though some of us have never met, I am your sister in Christ and that makes us family! I could not have gotten through these last few weeks without the abundance of prayers from my faithful friends, church, and family. I've decided to put my email address on my profile so that if you ever need to talk to email me a prayer request privately you may.

2007-01-04T18:13:00.000-06:00

regrets, realizations, resignations, redirection and REJOICING!

I'm going to do something I'm famous for. I'm going to tell you the cold hard truth. This post is mostly for all of you out there reading this who have or will be adopting in the future. Settle in for a long post and please read it through to the end. The rejoicing comes last and it's the best part!

I'll start with regrets. I'm very happy to say that we only have one regret regarding this adoption. If we had it to do over again, we would have taken Jake with us to Vietnam. I will not blame anyone but us for leaving him here, but we were encouraged by essentially everyone to do so - particularly our adoption agency and social worker. I have no doubt that for many or even most families perhaps leaving their other children at home is the best decision, but it wasn't for us. We are a family. We've always been inseparable and this shouldn't have been any different. Jake is a fantastic traveler and we have no doubt that he would have done great on this trip and enjoyed it immensely. We also believe that it would have helped in the first days with Olivia if she had someone her own size to relate to instead of just some big white people (me and Mike) who didn't speak her language. Kids have their own language. We absolutely believe that having Jake there would have helped and not hinder Olivia's attachment. I know without a doubt that it would have made it easier for us to have Jake there and he would have loved it. It was incredibly difficult for me to focus on Olivia because of my incredible - nearly indescribable - sadness over missing Jake. If he had been there it wouldn't have been an issue. Maybe this doesn't make sense to all of you, but if you have a young child at home who has been with you 100% of the time since he was born, you probably get what I'm saying.

Onto realizations. The reality is that I have wanted a daughter for as long as I can remember. I have searched for her for 3 1/2 years and I finally found her in Vietnam. I prayed and prayed for this child and God gave me a beautiful darling little 2 1/2 year old girl. Well, that was the reality that I knew going to Vietnam. The reality I found once we were there was a bit different. I'll never forget the first moment I saw my Olivia. We were on the second floor balcony of her orphanage and she was coming up the stairs to meet us fresh from a bath. She had wet stringy hair and she looked exactly like her pictures except that she was teeny tiny! She was beautiful and everything that I had ever imagined she would be. She came to us and ate Cheerios from our hands. She sat in my lap and let Mike hold her and even fell asleep in his arms. It was like heaven only better because it was right here on earth! She never shed a tear and she wasn't afraid of us. I had read books about adoption and read all of the horror stories and I of course knew from the very beginning that we would have a picture perfect adoption story and here it was coming true!

Olivia was calm and quiet the first two days. We even went to the beach the first afternoon we had her and she wasn't even afraid of the water. She held onto me so tightly and would only sleep if I was holding her. I took these as all good things. We drove from Ninh Thuan to Saigon the day after our g&r. That was an 8 hour drive and Olivia was fine the entire time. She also refused to use the bathroom the entire trip. She held it for 8 hours. Wow. She really is potty trained!

We got to the Kimdo hotel in Saigon and settled in. She was still doing great. Quiet and calm, looking us in the eyes a good bit, but not smiling. Then came the first night there. Olivia was TERRIFIED of the bed. She would scream bloody murder whenever we even sat on it much less try to lay down. Oh my gosh at the screaming. Feel free to ask any of the other families traveling with us that stayed on our floor. Olivia could crack glass with that scream. Then she became TERRIFIED of the hotel room itself. I can't tell you how many hours we spent walking Olivia up and down the 7th floor hall of the Kimdo hotel. The hotel staff certainly knew who we were. We finally got our first smile from Olivia when I threw her up in the air for the first time standing outside the Park Hyatt looking for Brangelina. That was a great great moment. Of course at some point we had to go back to our room. The screaming would begin as we approached room 723.

I want to explain something about the bed situation. When we first saw Olivia in the orphanage one of the things we noticed immediately were the sores on her legs and feet. She had fresh sores, scabs and scars. We weren't sure what they were until a week or so later when we met another American couple who had been living in Saigon for the last 2 1/2 years. They told us they were bed bug bites. That explained a lot. Whenever we would lay Olivia down in the bed (screaming at the top of her lungs) she would kick her feet up and down her calves wildly. We realize now that she was doing what she HAD to do at the orphanage, which was try to keep the bugs off of her so they wouldn't bite her. This absolutely positively breaks my heart. It's a horrible thing to watch. Now that we've been home she's quit doing it entirely. The sores have healed but our pediatrician says that even Mederma won't help the scars. Hopefully they will fade with time. They are a constant reminder to us though to continue to pray for the children left behind. I'll never forget the image of her kicking her tiny little feet as fast as she could and crying her poor little eyes out. I just wish I had understood at the time what was going on. We were so frustrated that she wouldn't lay down in the bed even when she was clearly exhausted. She still wakes up in the night crying but it's becoming less and she lays much more still than she used to. I'm hoping that her memories of the bed bugs will be soon forgotten. I can't tell you how many hours I've spent in the night praying for her as she cries - when she's awake and asleep. Sometimes she cries in her dreams and never even wakes up and on occasion she has full blown night terrors.

The true reality of adopting our daughter was not a picture perfect post card as we had hoped it would be. It was hard. Not sort of hard, REALLY hard. Here comes the part that I'm very hesitant to share, but I feel like I have to if I'm going to be really honest about our adoption. I'm incredibly ashamed of some of the things I felt in the first few days with Olivia. I was missing my sweet, loving, affectionate son terribly and I was stuck in a foreign country with a child who down right hated me and did nothing but scream. I spent a good part of two days sitting on the bathroom floor of the Kimdo hotel crying my eyes out while Olivia cried her eyes out with Mike in the room. I wanted to go home. Here's the hard part. I didn't just want to go home. A big part of me wanted to go home without her. If someone had offered me an out at that point I'm not sure I wouldn't have taken it. I was scared to death. I didn't fall in love with Olivia the moment I saw her. We didn't have this amazing moment when I first met her where I immediately felt like she was my daughter. I certainly didn't feel about her the way I felt about Jake and that made me feel horribly guilty. I was so naive going into this. I truly believed that once I saw her that I would just melt and fall in love and never look back. The reality was that she didn't like me and sadly it made it very difficult to like her either. I thought we had made a huge mistake. What had I done to our family? What had I done to Jake? What had I done to poor innocent Olivia? I can at least say that in the middle of my pathetic pity party I hadn't forgotten about Olivia. I thought I had ruined her life. I had kidnapped her. I had taken her from what she knew to be a happy life. I believe that she was pretty happy at the orphanage. It was all she knew. She was very comfortable with her nanny and playmates. They told me she enjoyed school and loved to sing. Where in the heck was this child they had described to me? I wanted to go home. All I wanted was to go home.

Ok. Here come the resignations. After my two days of crying I realized that I wasn't helping matters and that I needed to suck it up. Mike was miserable because he was stuck with two crying lunatics. My poor husband. He is such a good good man. The fact is that we had adopted a 2 1/2 year old child and this was life. I know how that sounds. It sounds like I'm the worst person in the world. I think that if more adoptive parents told the whole truth, many of them would say they felt the same way I did. I had to resign myself to the fact that we came to Vietnam, we adopted Olivia - screaming and all- and she was our daughter. She was our daughter forever. After I broke down and accepted that, things started to look a little bit better. Olivia started acting happier in large part probably because I started acting happier. I accepted that she was here to stay and my focus became loving her.

Most of you are probably sitting there with yours jaws on the floor right now thinking I'm a horrible, wretched person who didn't deserve to adopt this beautiful child. I felt the same way if that makes you feel any better. I felt like the worst Mom ever. I wanted to love her. I really really really wanted to love her, but I didn't. She was a stranger to me. I hadn't carried her in my tummy. I hadn't nurtured her since her conception. I hadn't held her close to me and breastfed her while she looked up lovingly at me. I was so confused. I thought I was going to feel all these great feelings once Olivia was in my arms, but I didn't really feel anything at all. I felt like I was babysitting a very unhappy child who wanted nothing more than to get as far away from us (and most certainly the hotel room) as possible. Top all of this off with the fact that we were 10,000 miles away from Jake and our home and everything comfortable.

In this midst of my meltdown there was Olivia. A frightened little girl who had been taken from her home to live with people who didn't speak her language, didn't smell or look Vietnamese, and didn't know what in the heck to do with her. I'm not a complete idiot. I have a 4 year old son for heaven's sake. You would think having a 2 1/2 year old would be a piece of cake. Well, it wasn't. We were totally unprepared for her. We were unprepared for this fit throwing, stuff throwing, hitting at us, biting, screaming, crying child. I don't blame anyone for our lack of preparation. I'm not sure we could have been prepared. For the most part, adoption books, adoption agencies and social workers told us to be prepared for a developmentally delayed child because of institutionalization. "Expect her to be like a baby." A baby? Ha! We expected a "delayed, baby like child" and got a defiant, hard headed, stubborn, incredibly smart 2 1/2 year old little girl who was in no way baby like. She is VERY smart. She has been imitating since she first came out of her shell. She will say pretty much anything we ask her to say now and she says lots of words on her own. She has the sweetest little soft voice - especially when she says potty or night night. I love it when she says night night and blows a kiss to Jake as he goes to bed. It just melts my heart.

I started righting this post on December 16th and I had all of these things in my head to write about and it's really funny that I've already forgotten so much of it. God is so good! He is already clouding over the bad memories and helping me to only remember the good ones. I feel terrible about this post. I have gone back and forth about whether or not to put it out there for the world to read. I feel strongly though that I need to be honest about the truths of adoption for those of you who are adopting yourselves, and for those of you who have adopted and felt the same way and thought you were all alone.

Alright. Redirection. Once we got home, I was able to start focusing my attention a bit better. Let me say that I was worried to death about how things would go with Jake and Olivia. Jake is an incredibly sweet boy, but he's also been an only child for 4 years and I was afraid that he might be jealous. If anything, it was the other way around. Olivia wasn't crazy about this other child suddenly taking her Mommy's attention! From the moment they met though, they liked each other. They sat right down and started playing together. That's the only part of this that has actually seemed like the perfect adoption dream I had. They love each other so much. They play all day together and love taking baths together every night. They give kisses and hugs and wake up asking about the other one. They light up when they see each other. It's the absolute sweetest thing in the whole wide world. I could not have asked for my children to be more compatible. They are fantastic together. God still works miracles!

Rejoicing. Yes, there is rejoicing! I saved the best for last. Olivia has been our daughter for over six weeks and we've been home for nearly four weeks. There was a time a couple of weeks ago that I put Olivia down for her nap and she woke up crying. I laid down on the couch with her and she fell back to sleep. I was so exhausted that day. I really needed her to take a good nap so that I could take one, too. I closed my eyes thankful that she had fallen back to sleep. Ah - finally rest for me. Then I opened my eyes and looked at her again and I closed them. I opened them again and closed them again. The third time I opened them and I just looked at her. She was the most beautiful little girl I had ever seen in my entire life. God opened my eyes and for the very first time I saw my daughter. I didn't see My Diem Thi Tran, the little girl we adopted from Vietnam. I saw my DAUGHTER. I saw MY daughter. She was mine. It was in that moment that I claimed her. God had given me this precious gift to care for and on that day He opened my eyes and my heart to her. Things have been very different from that moment.

I'm not going to tell you that things have been perfect since then. That would be a lie. I'm not going to tell you that I feel this amazing perfect Mommy love for her 100% of the time, either. I will tell you that I love Olivia. I LOVE HER. I love her completely and totally and she is my daughter forever and ever and I am completely and totally THRILLED about that. You would have to rip her out of my cold, dead hands to get her away from this Mommy! It's almost impossible now for me to believe that I ever felt differently, but I did and I felt like I needed to tell the truth about that.

One of the things that helped with how I felt about Olivia was when I quit comparing her to Jake. In another of my posts I wrote about how I felt the spirit leading me to pray that I would love Olivia as God loves her. I had been praying to love her as much as I love Jake and that was the wrong thing to pray for. I have spent the last 4 years with Jake plus the nine months I carried him in my tummy. I don't really think it would be possible to love a child that much, adopted or biological, after knowing them only 6 weeks. Adopting a toddler, particularly an older toddler like Olivia, is tough. Truthfully, sometimes is downright sucks. Most of the time though, it's absolutely wonderful. We have had more fun in the last couple of weeks than I could have ever imagined possible with two wild kids! This house is more fun than ever and we are so incredibly grateful that God saw fit to allow this very unworthy family to adopt this very worthy little girl. She is funny, sweet, drop dead gorgeous, happy, sad, hopeful, loud, quiet, and mostly - she is ours. She may not be perfect (just as we aren't), but she's perfect for us.

It is still hard sometimes, but as I type, Olivia and Jake are sitting on the floor together playing a game and laughing. We definitely have way more good times than bad. We're still adjusting and getting used to each other, but we're so happy that God led us to adopt, and especially that God led us to adopt this beautiful child. 5 weeks ago I would have told you to run screaming from a toddler available for adoption, but once you get over that first mountain, it's all worth it in the end. Olivia is amazing. I keep thinking of the word delightful. That sounds like something an 80 year old woman would say, but that's what she is. She makes us smile. All of us. She makes us complete. We absolutely positively can't imagine life without her. THANK YOU GOD FOR THE MIRACLE OF OLIVIA. She makes us - well us. As I always say, and it's always true - we are so blessed. Those are the truths of our adoption. They aren't all pretty, but they're all true. I've said it before, adoption isn't for the weak at heart. Adoption is for families led by God because I firmly believe the only way you'll get through it is with Him.

Ephesians 1:11 says

In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.

Mike and I were destined to be married. We were destined to lose a child through miscarriage and then give birth to a beautiful little boy we named Jake. We were destined to adopt a precious little girl born on the other side of the earth and bring her home to be a part of our family. I am so grateful that God is in charge of our destinies! What a mess we would be in if we were in charge of our own. Everything is working out perfectly according to His will. We've put our family in His strong hands and He has made us whole. Thank you God.

2006-12-30T17:47:00.000-06:00

Sometimes on the way to a dream you get lost and find a better one.

Many years ago my friend Kimmy Swimmy gave me a little plaque that had that saying on it. At the time, I was going through a difficult breakup with an old boyfriend and it really struck me as just the right thing to focus on. Obviously I'm deliriously happy that I got lost on the way to that particular dream. Mike Munn is the best dream I could have ever imagined! That song that says 'God blessed the broken road that led me straight to you' is exactly how we feel about each other. I would never have allowed myself to dream this big!

Anyway, back to the saying. I lost the little plaque sometime or another and as it turns out it was under the edge of the carpet in my bedroom in the house I lived in before we were married. I found it after Mike and I got married and moved furniture around. It held a really wonderful meaning for me then. I was so grateful that I found the better dream by marrying my amazing husband.

At some point the glass on the plaque broke so I cut out the saying and put a magnet on the back of it and stuck it on the refrigerator. I've noticed it occasionally and smiled at whatever was going on in my life at the time that it seemed to reflect. Today my friend Mary called and commented that I finally had just what I had always dreamed of. I told her that it wasn't exactly the dream I had, but that it was still great. After we got off the phone, I went over to the refrigerator and read the little magnet.

Sometimes on a way to a dream you get lost and find a better one.

I have dreamed of having a little girl for as long as I can remember. At some point in my dreams she had blond ringlets just like I had. Other times she looked like various boyfriends who I thought I might one day marry. Later she became Chinese, then Korean and finally Vietnamese. I had great dreams for this little girl of mine. She's been an assortment of ages in my dreams upon becoming my daughter. Newborn, 13 months old, 4 months old and finally 2 1/2 years old.

Having Olivia isn't everything I ever dreamed it would be. I got lost on the way to that dream and found a better one. Life with Mike, Jake and Olivia is better than any dream I've ever had.

2006-12-29T23:14:00.000-06:00

The first picture of us as a family of four!

All dressed up for church on Christmas Eve

(Just for the record, I have the two most gorgeous children

on the face of the planet!)

2006-12-29T22:57:00.000-06:00

Jake & Olivia

Finally a picture of my beautiful babies for all the world to see! This is the photograph I sent out in our Christmas cards. I took these just a couple of days after we got home from Vietnam and trying to get these two to sit still next to each other, smile, and look at the camera all at the same time was absolutely impossible!!! They were funnier that way though and definitely show their true characters! Several people have laughed at me for having Olivia in overalls, but I wish you could see her feet, because she was also wearing rubber boots! They both looked so cute in overalls and their rubber boots. I can't tell you how much fun these two have together. They have their little sibling arguments over toys occasionally but for the most part they are great friends and love playing together. I never thought our house could be more filled with laughter than it already was - but it is! God is so good to put four goofballs together and call them a family! I am blessed to be the goofball Mommy.

(Now that I've figured out yet another way to add low quality pictures :<) I'll try to add them more often until of course that program falls apart, too. My poor computer.)

2006-12-29T14:38:00.000-06:00

Tummy bugs & Christmas presents

I am sad to say that three-fourths of the Munn family have spent at least part of the last week sick with the stomach flu. Amazingly, Miss Olivia has yet to show any signs of tummy bugs. That's very good news of course for her (and me) but the rest of us have been down right miserable! Jake is such an angel though. Even when he's sick he tries to be sweet and funny. He felt terrible yesterday though. He spent the entire morning on the couch and then took a 4 hour nap. This is definitely not normal behavior for him. He's not usually one for being a couch potato. I'm very happy to report that he's much better today. Mike is really the only one still not feeling well. Send up a little prayer for my wonderful husband if you don't mind.

It has been warmer today and not raining so we finally got to go out and play today. Olivia jumped on the trampoline for the first time and had so much fun! She and Jake are absolutely hysterical together. He laughs at everything she does and she just goes around with wide eyes in amazement at all the stuff to play with. For her of course, this is like living in Disney World. It's sort of sad to me that in a few months she'll be just as spoiled as the rest of us. I'm glad of course to be able to spoil her, but I try so hard to make Jake aware of all he has and here I have this child who is aware and I'm just going to make her rotten. What a peculiar situation.

We had a very good Christmas despite me being ill over the holiday. Luckily Mike and Jake waited until after Christmas was over to get sick. The kids didn't sleep well at all on Christmas Eve so they weren't as animated as I had anticipated they would be on Christmas morning. They had a big time though. Santa brought them a kitchen and that was a big hit with both of them. Jake was of course thrilled with anything that had Lightning McQueen on it. Olivia got a tricycle at JuJu and Daddy Don's and you would have thought she had just been given a Porche. She was so happy.

Aunt Cerra bought them both four wheelers. Yes - four wheelers. Gas powered, electric start, 90 CC four wheelers. Two of them. Holy cow and thank you. That's all I can say about my silly sister and her extravagant gifts. She doesn't have children of her own and she has taken mine to spoil much to their delight. Jake was elated of course and much to our surprise, so was Olivia! You would think she had owned one already. She hopped right on ready for a ride with Mommy on her new four wheeler. It was so funny! We have had so much fun riding them this week even though it's been in the 40's and we've nearly frozen to death. The kids are oblivious to the cold temperatures. They just want to ride their new contraptions. Jake has three other battery powered ride on vehicles so he's a pretty good driver, but we're still showing him the ropes on the four wheeler. I think it will be a while before we let go of the reigns. Even though Mike has them governed down a bunch, it still makes me nervous. The neat thing is that they both have remotes so if Jake is doing something crazy or going faster than he should we can hit a button and it kills the motor. They also have alarms so if Jake goes outside and even touches it the alarm will go off. Poor child. It will probably give him a heart attack.

I so wish I could post pictures. One day surely they'll offer something other than dial up out here in the boon docks. By the way, I wanted to let you know that we are about as settled in as we're going to get, so feel free to come visit us now and you can certainly call anytime. A friend of mine told me that she hadn't been calling because she wanted to wait until I was settled in. Call! Visit! I'm more than ready to talk to grown ups again! If you do visit, please remember my motto: houses are for free expression not for good impressions! The house may be a mess, but it's full of love and laughter!

2006-12-24T01:40:00.000-06:00

What is the value of a life?
Olivia didn’t deserve to be born
To unwed parents.
She didn’t deserve to be orphaned
As a helpless infant.
She didn’t deserve to live
Her first two and a half years of life
In an orphanage.
She didn’t deserve to be taken away
From the only home and family
She had ever known by strangers
From a foreign land.
What does she deserve?

I have been asking God to help me love Olivia as much as I love Jake. Tonight I realized I was asking for the wrong thing. A mother’s love can fail. She has already been failed by one mother and she doesn’t deserve to be failed by another. I knew what God wanted me to pray. The Holy Spirit impressed upon me not to ask God to help me love her as a mother loves her, but as HE loves her. God’s love never fails.

What is the value of her life?

To God, her life is worth His own. He gave His own beloved son’s life for hers. Olivia was not the property of an orphanage or province nor is she our property. Olivia was never an orphan. She is now and always has been - a princess of the King. She deserves everything God has promised her as such.

In Jeremiah 29:11 God promises, "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

God has plans for Olivia. He has plans to prosper her and not to harm her. Plans to give her hope and a future! She is His princess!

You know what the most amazing part of this is to me? I get to be a part of that life. I get to be the earthly mother to not just one of God’s children, but TWO of his precious babies! He chose me! I am the mother of a prince and princess and God has great big plans for them! I am blessed that He is allowing me to take part in those plans.

In this season as we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, I am certainly reminded of two other innocent children of God born on this earth. I pray above all else that my children live their lives to serve God and others. Thank you God for the gift of Jesus, and thank you God for the two precious children you are allowing me to take care until you return.

Merry Christmas

from a very blessed Mommy of two children of the King

2006-12-22T14:32:00.000-06:00

You'll have to try and imagine how cute my kids look together...

I have been trying in vain to post a picture of Jake and Olivia together with no luck. Darn slow internet and goofy computer that I'm quite sure has a virus. Speaking of viruses, I've been sick the last two days with a stomach virus. So far Mike and the kids are fine. My poor Dad has been sick though, too. My wonderful husband (aka Super Daddy!) has been taking such good care of me and the children. Olivia has had no choice but to rely on her Daddy for everything and I think it's been really good for them. I just can't put into words how great we're doing as a family. We had a rocky first couple of weeks with Olivia but things have settled down now and I think she gets that she's one of the family now and we're not going anywhere. She and Jake get along even better than I ever could have imagined. They play together so well and we all just laugh all day. Life at the Munn house is so so good. We are so incredibly blessed to have two beautiful, healthy, funny, sweet children. I actually have another blog post that I've been working on for about a week now. It will kind of tell you what life was like from when we first got Olivia to now. It will be ridiculously long, but an interesting read.

In case I don't write agan in the next couple of days, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!! We are also thrilled that the other Dillon families who have been in Vietnam the last few weeks picking up their children are all either home or on their way and will be here by Christmas. This is such a huge blessing and I am beyond excited for them! This will no doubt be the best Christmas of my life. They just keep getting better and better!

Merry Christmas!

Love,

Mike, Casey, Jake & Olivia

2006-12-15T08:02:00.000-06:00

HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY, JAKE!!!

My sugarbear's 4th birthday was yesterday. I can't believe how the time has flown. I'm sure Olivia will be 4 before I know it, too. He has been SO excited about his birthday. He is as such an incredibly fun age. Santa Claus has also become very real to him. We have frequent discussions about where Santa lives and yesterday he watched The Polar Express for the 10,000th time so he could see the North Pole. He requested and had a Lightning McQueen (from the movie Cars) party. It was a big hit. My friend Stephanie and I bought a jumping castle together about a year ago and the kids love it more than anything else. Jake got lots of good presents including a child friendly digital camera from us. Hopefully I'll be able to post some pictures by photographer Jake in the near future. Olivia had a good time at the party. She was shy and quiet at first because of all the people, but by the end of the night she was jumping around the jumping castle and running across the room to jump in my nephew Chase's arms. Jake and Olivia both had a really good time and we were all beyond exhausted last night! I'm beginning to wonder if I'll ever get over this jetlag. Everyone tells me it's normal for it to be worse coming this direction than going that direction, but it's been a week! I am starting to feel a little less tired though.

Speaking of feeling less tired, Miss Olivia slept in her own bed last night until 4 o'clock this morning!!!!!!!! This is HUGE!!!! I was so excited. It was very nice to snuggle with Mike again. I've sure missed cuddling with my husband these last few weeks! When she woke up I went and got her and put her in bed with us and she fell right back to sleep and slept until 7. This is such an amazing improvement. You just don't know! Now if I could get naptimes going well, we'd be a happy bunch. I've tried several different things with Olivia at nap time and none of them work. She's absolutely exhausted so I know she needs a nap. It's not that she's out grown naps. She just hates hates hates laying down. When she realizes that I'm going to start trying to get her down for a nap that's when the screaming starts. Yesterday it went on for over an hour before she finally fell asleep. I've tried walking her, rocking her, singing & not singing, laying down with her in assorted places, letting her lay on top of me. None of this works. She just screams. This is as you can imagine frustrating beyond belief. Our social worker keeps telling me to think of her as a newborn and that she was born when we got her so I should expect her to sleep like a newborn - which is of course very unpredictable. I'm trying to remember that. I really am trying, but it's difficult when I'm watching a 2 1/2 year old scream bloody murder. I'm sure that it will get better with time.

Other than nap time, things are going great! Olivia and Jake get along really really well. I'm so happy about that. She's really just a funny funny girl. She and Jake together are just as I expected - a total riot! They are so much fun! Well, except at Wal-Mart because neither one of them wants to ride in the buggy. Mike had been trying to figure out how to keep me from shopping at Wal-Mart so much and I think he's found a way. Right now I've put in a Baby Einstein DVD to see if she'll watch it and this is the first video she's been interested in. Jake is still fast asleep. He woke up around 3 crying his eyes out. I held him for at least half an hour before he calmed down. He never would tell me what was wrong. I thing he must have had a bad dream. It was so terrible. My poor angel. He never wakes up during the night. He's the best sleeper in the world. Probably why I'm having such a difficult time adjusting to Olivia's sleeping. Mike reminds me that Jake wasn't born this way and that I "conditioned" him to be a great sleeper and that I can do the same thing with Olivia. I had a lot more time and energy when Jake was growing up though! I have a 4 and 2 year old now! Holy cow!!!!!! How in the heck did that happen? I wish you could see Olivia. She's sitting in a little mushroom chair with her pink pj's on and a little Vietnamese flag on a stick in her mouth. Well, now she's trying to stick the flag in the vcr. Oh dear. I'm never going to get this post finished!

Alright. I have to get back to being a Mommy now. By the way, Happy 1 week as an American girl, Miss Olivia! (Now she's naked and saying bath. I've got a busy day ahead of me!)

2006-12-11T08:11:00.000-06:00

Alive and well in the great state of Arkansas!

Just wanted to let everyone know that we are home! We made it home about noon on Friday. Our trip was essentially uneventful thank goodness! Olivia did really well on the trip. She slept a good part of the time. She did much better than we thought she would. She even tolerated the car seat on the way home for about 30 minutes. Then she screamed the rest of the way (another hour of so.) Considering she has never been strapped into anything in her life, I think she did pretty well. It was all we could do to drive (sort of) the speed limit. We were so beyond ready to see Jake as you know. Judy and Don took the rest of the afternoon off so they could be home with Jake when we arrived with Olivia. I'm not sure I can even put into words what it was like to see him after being gone so long. Mike was getting Olivia out of the truck and he - being the most wonderful husband in the whole wide world - let me go into to see Jake first. Judy and Don opened the door and there was Jake bundled up in his coat. The most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life. Oh my goodness. He had a huge smile on his face and he said, "Mommy?" Like he just couldn't believe that I was actually there in front of him. He ran into my arms and I picked him up and he hugged me so so tight. I just held him as tears welled up in my eyes and he put his hands on my cheeks and just looked at me in amazement. He really couldn't believe his eyes. I was certain he had grown at least 4 inches. He's enormous compared to Olivia! I didn't remember him being nearly that heavy! He was definitely a sight for incredibly sore eyes. I've never in my life been so thankful to be home. Finally - a family of four - and very much complete.

Jake was also incredibly excited to see his Daddy as you can imagine. They are best buddies. Jake says he's Daddy's hunting buddy, and my sugarbear and baby. He's the sweetest thing! He was thrilled to finally see Olivia, too. He has been the best big brother! He's been even better than I could have imagined. He helps her do everything. He even gets her toilet paper when she uses the potty. It's so cute. I am grateful to say she also likes him, too. That was of course a big worry of ours. Jake has been our only baby for 4 years so we didn't know how he would react to suddenly having to share his parents and we didn't know how she would react to having to share them, too. We have devoted 100% of our time and attention to her the last 2 1/2 weeks, so we weren't sure how she would like having to share that time. They've both done great. She and Jake just play and play and run all over the house. I was so worried that she would be clingy when we got home and never let me put her down, but she's being doing awesome. The only times we really have problems is with sleeping. That's a big big big big issue. I'm not sure what we're going to do. She's sleeping in the bed with us but she flys all around the bed and wakes up crying - often screaming - all through the night. She absolutely positively refuses to lay down without me there with her and she doesn't like it then either. Time. It will all come in time. I have to keep reminding myself of that.

As I speak she is peeking around the Christmas tree trying to see our cat, Crookshanks, as he hides from her. She was absolutely terrified of the cat for the first two days, but he's growing on her. She even meows at him now. It's very cute. A lot of people ask me if she likes her room and oddly enough I think she prefers Jake's room! She loves Hot Wheels of all things! She and Jake have had so much fun playing with cars and riding in his big dump truck. I can't wait until it's warm enough for them to ride in his gator outside or on his motorcycle. It's been in the 30's here since we got home. Very peculiar weather! She also has a baby doll with a blanket that she has started playing with. She lays the blanket out and lays the baby on it. This is what they do with the babies at the orphanage. I'm glad to see her taking such good care of her baby doll. I think that says something about how she feels about the care she received herself as a baby. Perhaps I'm reading too much into that, but maybe not. Who knows.

Jake's 4th birthday is this Thursday! He's having a Lightning McQueen party and he's beyond excited! I can't wait. He will have such a fun time. This is my favorite time of year. Jake's birthday and Christmas. Now if I could only get over this wretched jet lag, I'm sure I could properly enjoy it. No doubt many of Olivia's sleeping issues will get better once we figure out when night and day are again!

That's about all the typing I can manage this morning. I'll do my best to share some of our unsual and amusing Vietnam stories in the coming days. I have to take the lap top up to our dear friend Cori who loaned it to us so he can get our pictures off of it and onto a disk so I can share them as well. A plug for Cori here - if you live near Magnolia - call the Computer Dr. if you have any problems at all. He's a genius when it comes to computers.

Please keep us in your prayers as we continue to adjust as a family. It will be a long bumpy road, but I have no doubt the destination will be worth it. Thanks for all of the prayers while we were gone. They were definitely felt!

2006-12-06T07:48:00.000-06:00

We're still in Hanoi, but we did get Olivia's visa today! Unfortunately, we couldn't get a flight out today, so we're stuck in Vietnam another day and night, but we're flying home tomorrow. Our flight out is at 5:25 p.m. Vietnam time on Thursday which is 4:25 a.m. Thursday Arkansas time. We hope to be back in Magnolia picking up our sugarbear by 5 p.m. on Friday. We now have an overnight layover in SanFrancisco which is depressing because we'll be SO close to home and yet still so far away. Yes, at this point we actually consider California to be close to home. I can't wait to have my feet on American soil! We also can't wait for Olivia's feet to hit American soil, because the minute they, do she'll be an American girl! She's really doing great. We are all bonding well and she is just a sweet funny girl. She will blow you all away in time. She'll no doubt be very shy for a while, but once you get to know her she's hysterical. She does the funniest stuff. She and Jake and going to get along great. I'm going to have my hands full!

We took advantage of our extra day and visited the Hanoi Hilton today. That's the name they use for the prison here that kept many Vietnamese war prisoners by the French and also the US POW's. It was really humbling. It made us thankful to only be stuck here two extra days in a very nice hotel. We really can't fathom what it must have been like for those soldiers who were shot down just two days after Christmas who spent 5 long years imprisoned here. Being in Vietnam has really put a lot of things into perspective for us. It's an amazing country and we're so thankful to have spent so much time here and mostly to have the awesome gift of a beautiful daughter from this country. We are still beyond ready to come home though!!! We miss Jake!!!

Anyway, we're flying out tomorrow so please pray for our trip. At this point who knows what could happen! The other family that was waiting for a visa was able to fly out today so they are already on their way home. We'll see you in just a couple of days!

2006-12-05T06:22:00.000-06:00

STUCK IN VIETNAM

We packed up our bags, checked out of our not very nice hotel, and headed to the American Embassy to pick up Olivia's visa at 1:30. We were very happy people!!! At 1:35 we were NOT happy people anymore. Two of our group got their visas, and us along with another couple did not. Apparently there was a glitch in the computer system and our file was lost in cyber space. Obviously that doesn't sound like that big of a deal. Just resend it right? Well, once it's in the system you can't put it in again and you can't resend it. Great! So they were trying to contact the software company all day to figure out what to do but of course they are asleep in the US and unable to assist anyone. This completely sucks. It SUCKS. I was balling in the embassy office. The two families who got their visas left for the airport and headed for the US, while us along with the other family waited - and waited - and waited. Finally they declared that we would not get our visas today but to come back at 8:30 a.m. and he felt certain they would have it by then. I'm not a big believer in certainty anymore. We scrambled looking for a new hotel, trying to get to the airline office by 5 and lug around TONS of luggage all while Olivia napped on my shoulder. This has been such a fun day. Hmmm.

We got a room at the Hanoi Horison Hotel which is a five star hotel. No doubt the first one Mike and I and most certainly Olivia has ever stayed in. It's very nice and the food is yummy. It's nice to be somewhere clean where there aren't small living worms coming out of the faucet in the bathroom. (We didn't see the worms at the last hotel, but two of our other families did. Yuck.) This hotel is lovely. We thought we would be here one night and could swing it. Yeah right. Not with our luck. Even if we get Olivia's visa in the morning, there are no openings on the flight from Hanoi to Taipei, so we're stuck in Vietnam until THURSDAY. We are trying desperately to be optimistic and count our blessings. It of course could be much worse. We could be stuck here until next week or longer. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE pray for her visa to be here in the morning. We DESPERATELY want to come home. No, we NEED to come home. I can't put into words how much we miss Jake. This has been just a horrible horrible day and we're all at our wits end. One bright note for today was that Santa arrived at our hotel tonight and Olivia saw Santa for the very first time and got her very first Christmas present. JAKE - guess what it was!!! A FISHING POLE!!!!!!!!! I know you will be pleased that your baby sister has her own fishing pole! It's very cute. She's very tired though - as we all are- and whimpering behind me on Mike's hip as I type as quickly as possible. We're going to our room to call Jake and give him the very sad news that we're coming home two days late. I beg you to pray for us to get her visa and make all of our flights to be home by Friday afternoon. Please also pray for the other family with us here. If they get their visa tomorrow, they'll be able to fly home tomorrow night. We'll see you all soon.

Jake - we love you more than words can say and we'll come get you just as soon as we can. Hang in there Sugarbear! We love you!!!! Mommy and Daddy (and Olivia!)

2006-12-01T01:44:00.000-06:00

We're coming home!!!

I am incredibly thrilled to tell you that we're scheduled to fly home on Tuesday night!!! Our visa appointment is on Monday afternoon in Hanoi and we can pick up Olivia's visa on Tuesday and head to Arkansas! We are THRILLED!!!!!!!! We're flying to Hanoi in the morning, so I have a lot of packing to do. Please remember to pray for us as we continue to travel throughout Vietnam and of course across the ocean home! This will be Olivia's first plane ride and of course we're a little bit nervous about that. One thing we would specifically ask you to pray for is our trip on Tuesday. We should be able to pick Olivia's visa up at 2 and our flight is at 5:25. The trip to the airport is an hour long, so we'll be cutting it a little close. Please pray for all to go well picking up the visa so that we can make our flight on time. If we don't we'll be in quite a pickle. Please also pray for our other three families that are traveling with us. We are all ready to come home! While you're praying, if you would send up a few prayers for Jake, Daddy Don and Amy we would appreciate those, too! Daddy Don and Amy have both had pneumonia and JuJu took Jake to the doctor today and he doesn't have pneumonia, but is taking breathing treatments at home. Please pray for Jake not to get pneumonia again and pray for DD and Amy as they get better.

We should be home in time to have lunch with Jake on Wednesday!!!!!!!! We are SO SO SO SO excited!!!!!!!! I know many of you will want to see Olivia asap, but please give us a couple of days to get adjusted to being a family of four and get over the jet lag. This will no doubt be a huge adjustment for all of us and we have no idea what will happen when we get home. We just know that we'll need a bit of time to get settled. Also, unless I'm completely wrong (which of course never happens lol) Olivia will be scared out of her mind at all of the new people wanting to look at her. She's a bit shy at first and she's just now coming out of her shell with us so I can't even imagine what she'll be like around strangers. Be patient with her! She's worth the wait! I promise! She's just a doll and I mostly can't wait for she and Jake to finally be together.

This may be my last post of the trip, but be prepared for a ridiculous amount of pictures when I get home! We can't wait to get home. We'll see you next week!!!!

Jake - you better get ready because Daddy and I have three weeks worth of hugs and kisses to catch up on and Olivia has 2 1/2 years worth to catch up on! You're going to be a very busy boy! We love you sugarbear and we'll see you soon!

2006-11-28T05:01:00.000-06:00

Finally! I'm sharing Olivia's beautiful smile with the world for the first time! My dear friend and traveling partner, Mandy, allowed me to use her computer to put it on the blog. (She insisted that I write nice things about her - wink wink) This was actually the first time we even saw Olivia smile. We were standing outside the Park Hyatt anxiously looking for Brangelina when I for whatever reason decided to throw Olivia up in the air. Just like her big brother Jake, she LOVED it! She and Mike now do this almost constantly! They have such a good time together. Getting smiles out of her is getting easier and easier. She and Mike also like to play hide and seek and throw me on the bed and tickle me. Also without prompting, she opens Oreos and eats the white stuff first and she loves Dr. Pepper. I know Daddy Don will be pleased. I'm sure we'll convert her to Diet Mt. Dew when we get home. Don't worry everyone - we don't keep our kids hopped up on caffeine. It's just an occasional treat.

We had our meeting with CIS this morning and we were approved! We are taking Olivia for her mandatory health exam in the morning. We got her passport today! We are supposed to hear tomorrow about our interview date for Hanoi. This will determine when we can come home. They are only open Mon, Tue and Wed, so we would VERY MUCH like for our interview to be Monday so we can be home by the end of next week. Please please please pray for us to have our interview Monday and for everything to work out so that we can come home to our sugarbear!!!

All of the other families are doing well. We are all just anxious to get home. I do have one other prayer request. There is another family here using another agency that are having a LOT of unusual and very difficult problems. I won't go into detail but please pray for this family. God will of course know who you're talking about!

We love you guys and can't wait to come home!!! Enjoy Olivia's smile. I can't wait to have a picture of her and Jake smiling TOGETHER!

2006-11-25T00:24:00.000-06:00

Comments on Olivia's life as a Munn

Olivia is doing much better! I know that all of your prayers have made a big difference. She went to bed last night without fussing and also this afternoon for her nap!!! This is a MAJOR improvement! She also very happily took a bath without fussing. We went to eat last night with Mandy and Arnaud and another family from Dillon who are here now and we had such a great time. Mike would tickle Olivia and she would laugh and laugh! It was so funny. She smiles a lot more now even when it's not coaxed out of her! She's quite a character. I think she'll fit in just fine with us! She and Jake together are going to be a riot. I can't wait to see it!

We called to talk to Jake this morning but he was already asleep for the night. I hate it when we miss him, but we can call him this evening when it's his morning. It's already 1:27 p.m. on Saturday here and all of you back home are fast asleep. It's 12:37 a.m. there. Mike looked for Saturday morning cartoons this morning for Olivia but couldn't find any on the tv. We did see Bob the Builder speaking Vietnamese last week! That was quite a treat. Jake would have loved it. Daddy Don said that he's doing just great. They have been hunting together and Daddy Don and JuJu have become quite attached to our sugarbear. It's not hard to do! I'm really thankful that he's going to have had this time with them. Most children won't ever have the opportunity to form such a strong bond with their grandparents. I wish my Mom were still here. She would absolutely adore Jake and Olivia, too. Just in case my Dad happens to read this by some technological miracle, we love you, too!

I was fitted yesterday for a traditional Vietnamese outfit that's called something that I can't spell. It's pronounced ow-yie. The yie would rhyme with dye. Ow is like when someone smacks you and you say ow! Anyway, they are just gorgeous. Olivia and I will have matching ones. She also has a little pink on and I put her in it yesterday and put her hair up in pigtails and she looked so so so precious! I can't wait to see all of your faces when you meet her. She is absolutely darling.

As much as I love her, it's a chore to carry that child around all day! She refuses to let Mike carry her and it's not always appropriate for her to walk holding our hands, especially on the streets. It's kind of wild here. Scooters are zooming everywhere! I can't really explain what I mean by that. They are EVERYWHERE. They even ride on the sidewalks! Crossing the street is absolute insanity! Also, the Vietnamese people on the sidewalks sometimes try to pick her up or touch her and that's not ok with us. It's very important for attachement that we be the only ones who hold her for quite some time. I suspect this will be difficult for a couple of sets of grandparents I know! Regardless, she doesn't want to get more than an inch away from me anyway. She follows me all around the hotel room. It's really cute.

Let's see - things Olivia likes to do. She loves to color and she loves to pour food like Cheerios from one thing into another and stir it around and eat it with a spoon. We bought her a Barbie purse that has a cell phone, keys with clicker, compact and sunglasses in it. Whenever we go somewhere she finds her purse, puts on her sunglasses and prepares to leave. This is completely unprompted and untaught. Isn't that bizarre? She just knows that little girls get their purses and their sunglasses. She looks so cute in them too because her nose is SO tiny that her sunglasses can't even sit on them. Her head is fairly wide though so they stay up.

She apparently smashed one of her index fingers recently at the orphanage and last night the entire nail came loose from the nail bed. I have never seen such a thing. Mike trimmed it off this morning so it wouldn't catch on anything, so she has no nail on her right index finger.

She seems to be very healthy except for a cough and cold that we are treating. She is SO smart. She can do just about anything and she mimics everything we do. It's wild. I can't believe how smart she is. She's been going to what they call Kindergarten. It's what we call pre-school and it's obvious. She's very bright and has a gorgeous smile. I can't wait until she's really comfortable with us and smiles and gives kisses all the time.

This has gotten long! I so wish I could send pictures. You'll just have to wait and see her for yourself! (Jake, you're going to love being a big brother to Olivia! She's a very sweet little girl. You two are going to have lots of fun together. We can't wait until we get back so we can take you home and we can finally all be together! We love and miss you sugarbear!)

Thanks for all the prayers! Keep them up. We also love hearing from home so please feel free to leave posts or email us. We can't wait to see you all!

2006-11-24T01:21:00.000-06:00

Our laptop has officially quit working so I most likely won't be able to send out anymore pictures. I'm very sad about this because we finally saw Olivia's smile today! She's absolutely gorgeous when she smiles!!!! You are all just going to love her! We heard this morning that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were in Saigon if you can imagine! So Mike looked in the paper and there was a picture of them saying they were staying in the Park Hyatt. We asked our waiter where it was and found out it's just around the corner!!! So of course being the lunatics that we (Mandy and I) are, we all trotted down to the Park Hyatt in hopes of seeing Brangelina. No such luck. We finally gave up after about an hour and a half. Mandy and Arnaud spoke to the manager who happens to be French and he said that it would be impossible for us to see them because they would be going out a back entrance or something. It was crazy but we had fun anyway. While waiting at the hotel for her, I threw Olivia up in the air and she had a HUGE smile on her face! We were so excited! She has such a beautiful smile! She has really good looking teeth too which is of course good news. Now she loves for me to throw her up in the air or twirl her around. She'll just smile and smile. She's definitely coming around. I can't wait to see the real Olivia emerge. She also pointed to a picture of an elephant today and said a Vietnamese word. This is all good progress. We are pleased. We're having some problems with her not wanting to lay down for naps or bed and she doesn't like going into our staying in the hotel room. We're working on it though. I know it will get better. This is tough. I'm not going to pretend like it's not. Mike and I are having a really hard time trying to do the best we can. She won't go to Mike anymore which is of course really hard for him because he just loves her to death. It's also hard for me because she's not crazy about me either, but she tolerates me pretty well. You have to understand that this is all normal though. We didn't expect her to just miraculously know we were her Mommy and Daddy who love her and will never leave her. It sure would have been nice though!

If I can ask for you prayers, please pray for God to comfort Olivia and allow us to comfort her. Pray for her to let her guard down and let us in. Pray for us to know the right things to do and say. Pray of course for our paperwork that we'll be able to get home ASAP and pray for Mr. Jake back at home and everyone taking care of him. Thank you guys so much for your prayers! We can't wait to get home so you can all see Olivia's gorgeous smile in person! Give Jake kisses and hugs for us if you see him!

P.S. Steph, I miss you! It's been a whole week since we talked on the phone! I was going to call you, but realized it was the middle of the night there. I'll try to call you soon though. Sometimes I just need to talk to my Stephanephanie :< )

2006-11-23T02:22:00.000-06:00

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!!!

It's Thursday at 3:47 p.m. so I'll be the first to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving! I'm definitely missing the mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes, and most of all the green bean casserole! We made it to HCMC (Saigon) yesterday afternoon about 5 p.m. 7 or 8 hours in a van with Olivia and Anna was an experience. Olivia actually did incredibly well. She slept through a good bit of it and checked out the scenery a bit. Poor Anna had a bit of motion sickness though. She's such a happy baby though. She smiles and laughs all the time. Olivia is spending a lot of time checking out her surroundings from the comfort of her Mommy's hip. She did great yesterday with no crying. She HATES the bed though. She doesn't want to lay on it under any circumstances! This is obviously a problem. Actually, it's not just the bed, it's the hotel room in general. Mike thinks it's because she's spent her life in a place without windows or doors so she feels very confined. I think he's probably right. He finally had to walk up and down the hall with her today until she fell asleep. She was SCREAMING in the hotel room. I'm sure they heard her all the way down in the lobby and we're on the 7th floor. I am heart broken for her. I can't even begin to try and imagine what must be going through her head. As far as she was concerned she was perfectly content and happy living in the orphanage where she had spent almost all of her life. Then here we come speaking a strange language that she doesn't understand and we take her from the only life she's ever known on a van for 8 hours and into a bustling city with people everywhere going every direction. Then we seclude ourselves into a small room without open windows and doors and expect her to be fine with it. We don't know what else to do though. We can't very well sleep on the sidewalk. This is very very frustrating. I know it will get better with time, but right now it's just plain tough.

I'm also getting very homesick for Jake. I had been doing really well up until now, but we've hit the 1 week mark and it's definitely starting to set it. I just need to smell his hair and kiss his sweet cheeks. I need yucky boo boo kisses and for him to hold something behind his back and say in his most adorable voice, "Mommy, I have a surprise for you!" Usually it's gum or a diet Mt. Dew. He's such a sweet boy. Oh my goodness. I miss him so so much. I actually ache for him. My arms are aching for him. I don't know if that makes any sense at all.

Anyway, I want to write about a few interesting things here. Number one, Ho Chi Minh - the deceased and most loved president of Vietnam whom they renamed Saigon after - looks just like The Colonel from KFC. (If you are Vietnamese and reading this by chance, please forgive me for saying that - but it's true.) There are statues and pictures everywhere of him and on all of the money. There is also an actual KFC around the corner, but we haven't checked it out yet. We'll be here probably until at least Monday or Tuesday and then we'll fly to Hanoi once we know what day our Visa interview is. Please pray for it to be next week so that we can be home by the end of next week or the first of the next week!!!! That would be such a huge blessing to us. We love Vietnam but we're SO ready to come home.

Secondly, the potties. Most of the places we go they have western potties which are like the ones we use in the US. They also have squatty potties everywhere. These are potty "holes" that you obviously squat over. We were expecting that. So far I haven't had to use one, but I'm a country girl, so it really wouldn't be that big of a deal. I've been squatting in the woods my entire life. I know I know, too much information. The weird thing is that when we were at the orphanage Olivia's Nanny took her to the potty and I followed. She pulled her pants down (they don't wear panties by the way - I of course think this is fabulous and perfectly normal) and had her squat on the bathroom floor. NOT over the potty, just on the floor. She said ssshhhh sssshhhhsssshhhh and Olivia teetee'd on the floor. Ok. Interesting. So then when we went to the G & R ceremony yesterday at a government building, she took her to the potty there and did the same thing. Just right on the bathroom floor and didn't clean it up either time! I was puzzled and of course a bit, um, grossed out. Especially since I thought back to all of the wet bathroom floors I had traipsed across recently. So I asked Thomas about it, who is our Vietnam facilitator and attorney here who works for Dillon and he said that's just how they do it here. What? Oh dear me. I'm very happy to say that Olivia has only used the toilet since we've had her. We had to introduce it to her, but she took to it quickly. She's also like her Mommy and doesn't like to use unclean ones! She refused to potty on the way to HCMC from Ninh Thuan yesterday. That's 8 hours! My girl has a good bladder! She went at the hotel when we got here. She'll also go to the bathroom or tug at her pants when she needs to go. We're very happy that she's potty trained! We put her in diapers at night, but she hasn't wet them yet. She's doing just great. If only we could get this hotel room/bed situation figured out we'd be perfect.

She started waving bye bye and blowing kisses last night and this morning Mike got the coveted FIRST KISS!!! It was so precious. He was beaming of course! I have gotten several since then as well, but he got the first one. Lucky Daddy! She's just a sweet, beautiful girl and we are very proud to be her parents. We can't wait to see her with Jake. He'll love her to death. I can just imagine all the yucky boo boo kisses now! For those of you who haven't been fortunate enough to receive one, those are VERY wet open mouthed kisses from Jake on the cheek. Although these days, he tends to give puppy kisses more often which are obviously little licks on the cheek. Yucky, but sweet! I miss them very much.

I have a million more stories, but they'll have to wait for us to come home. I also am not sure I'll be able to post anymore pictures because the laptop we have isn't working properly right now so I'm having to use the hotel's computer downstairs. You can all see the MILLION pictures I've taken when we get back. If you see my Jakey Poo, give him a big hug and kiss from his Mommy, Daddy and baby sister. He talked to her on the phone yesterday, but she hasn't started talking for us yet. She's still holding herself in a bit. She's opening up little by little but it will take time. HAPPY THANKSGIVING everyone!!! Enjoy some casserole for me and some turkey for Mike.

Please pray for us and our traveling partners that we'll receive our passports and I-600 interviews tomorrow and we'll get our visa interviews next week!!! We're ready to get back to the good old USA and make Olivia an official American girl!

2006-11-21T01:44:00.000-06:00

As I type (one handed) Olivia is fast asleep in my lap! This has been such an awesome day! She is ours FOREVER!!!!!!!!!! She is doing really well. Checking everything out. Very cautious yet will sit in our laps and snuggle a bit. She's tiny!!!!!!!!!!! I brought all 2T and 24 month clothes and the only outfit that fits her is a dress that ties in the back. Oh dear me. We're going to have to do LOTS of shopping in HCMC tomorrow. Mike is off applying for her passport. She cried for 5 minutes when he left. I think that's a good sign. Regardless, he'll be sad she cried but tickled that she cried for him. She is absolutely precious! (Jake, you will love her to death! I can't wait for you to meet her!!)

I would like to say a huge thank you to Daddy Don and JuJu for taking such good care of our sugarbear while we're gone. They are the best grandparents in the world. Jake is doing really well. He misses us and asks about us a lot, but he's doing well so far. Please remember to pray for him.

I'll may not post any more pictures until we get to HCMC tomorrow night. Olivia is a cutie and loves to chat on her Barbie cell phone. Leaving the orphange today was very bittersweet. It has been her home for 2 1/2 years. The people there have been - and will continue to be - her family. It is a beautiful place and full of more love than you could ever imagine. I wouldn't trade this trip for anything in the world. It has been a blessing to us to see her country and her people. We will definitely make many more trips here when our children are a bit older.

I'll try to write more later! Sleeping beauty needs her rest!

2006-11-19T22:26:00.000-06:00

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.

2006-11-19T09:37:00.000-06:00

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!

2006-11-19T07:52:00.000-06:00

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!!!!!!!!

2006-11-18T08:35:00.001-06:00

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!

2006-11-15T23:15:00.000-06:00

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2006-11-13T09:49:00.000-06:00

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.

2006-11-12T23:10:00.000-06:00

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!