Like Mother, Like Daughter

Last night was the first home football game. Before it began, one of the banks in town hosted a tailgate party. When we got there, we found one of my good friends whose daughter is one of Rachel's good friends. Rachel was in the picture taking mode and wanted a picture of my friend and I. The first picture she decided was too dark so we needed to do it again. My friend decided we should do a silly picture. Well, then my daughter decided that her and J should do the exact same pose. Oh, the crazy things that make us laugh!

Our Sleeping Angel

Jynger took pictures of Levi while she was in Can Tho last week. Enjoy!!

Height and Weight Update

Today we received a height and weight update on Levi. He is now 22 in. and 10.8 lbs., according to the online conversion tool I used. I am so glad to know that he is growing. I can't wait to hold him in my arms!!! Now I am just anxiously awaiting a report of where we are in the process. I guess it is a good thing that I am back at school. It keeps my mind occupied.

Resemblances

Tonight I was talking to a childhood friend about our adoption journey and the miracle of Levi. When we began this process, we were set on a girl. But through all that has happened in Vietnam, we had to make the decision to be open to either if we still wanted to continue with Vietnam. I don't know why God has chosen to give us a little boy but I do know that I am so in love with that little face already that I can't imagine any other child for us. My friend pointed out the fact that Levi resembles my late husband Brent. I know that she was a little hesitant to point this out for fear that it would cause me pain but I am glad she did. I have to admit that I had noticed some similarities as well but had never said anything out loud. I can't help but think that God has a reason for this and that maybe there is more healing that will take place in my heart as a result of this fact. Brent and I had decided in premarital counseling that we were going to adopt but along the way Brent changed his mind about having any other children besides Rachel. Maybe this is God's way of redeeming what has been lost in my life through Brent's death and what I thought was the death of a dream. I believe that God has promised to restore that which the enemy has stolen from me. I believe that Levi is the part of that restoration.

We Have Official DIA Approval

We are officially to the place that we needed to be before September 1st!! I cannot believe how quickly this happened. God is definitely good!!!

New Pictures - Part 2

I wasn't able to put all the pictures on the last post, so here are the rest!

More Pictures of Levi

The start of a new school year today and new pictures of Levi that were taken by a family who was recently in Can Tho. I don't know who they were but I am extremely thankful to them. As you can see, he is absolutely adorable! However, as much as I enjoy looking at his pictures, I would much rather be holding him in my arms and taking pictures of him myself.

New Pictures of Levi

Tonight I found new pictures of Levi. He is soooo cute!!

Beautiful Poem

I hold you in my heart and touch you in my dreams.
You are here each day with me, at least that's how it seems.

I know you wonder where we are... what's taking us so long.
But remember child, I love you so and God will keep you strong.

Now go outside and feel the breeze and let it touch your skin...
Because tonight, just as always, I blow you kisses in the wind.

May God hold you in His hand until I can be with you.
I promise you, my darling, I'm doing all that I can do.

Very soon, you'll have a family for real, not just pretend.
But for tonight, just as always, I blow you kisses in the wind.

May God wrap you in His arms and hold you very tight.
And let the angels bring the kisses that I send to you each night.

**This is a poem that was posted by another mom waiting to bring her son home from Vietnam. It was too beautiful not to post here.

A Scare

Yesterday we had a bit of a scare. I got a call from Dillon saying that my acceptance paperwork, which should have arrived on Tuesday, had still not arrived at their office. I checked the post office website with my tracking number and I was informed that my tracking number couldn't be tracked on that website. Then, I stopped at the post office and the only thing they could get on it was that it left the post office here on Saturday. After shedding a few tears, I made another call to Dillon and when Mary Anne checked her mailbox, it was there!!! Praise God!! Why do I doubt Him?!

Sad News

Yesterday morning, one of the teachers that I work with lost her battle with cancer. All through this fight, she has been the most amazingly positive person I have ever met. I cannot imagine the amount of pain she was in at times - and yet she never complained. Her faith remained unwavering throughout and now she is whole and complete in the loving arms of her heavenly Father. My heart aches for her family. She will most definitely be missed at our school. I can't imagine not seeing her smiling face this year.

Wild Weather and Things

Yesterday around suppertime we had a wicked storm come through here. Just across the river there were tornado warnings and the sirens did go off in town. Thank goodness no tornado went through. But, we did have straight line winds that I believe I heard were 50-60 mph. I know they must have been strong because they picked up our trampoline and carried it clear over to our neighbor's house. My neighbor said it made it's first bounce in front of their fire pit and then landed on the other side of it. It snapped the metal frame in half in two places. It is a mangled mess! The sad part is that grandpa and grandma just bought this new one for us in May. I am thankful that nothing else was damaged at our house nor was anyone hurt. Rachel was working at the nursing home. It sounds like that was interesting!!

Today another family with our agency accepted a referral of a little boy born in April. I didn't find her post until just before I was going to head up for bed so I had to take some time to share the good news. I can only hope now that all of us will make it to the official referral before September 1st. "Father God, please speed our paperwork along so that we will soon be able to bring these precious little boys into loving families."

Now the Fun Begins

Yesterday I got all the acceptance papers filled out, notarized and sent out to our agency. They should arrive by Tuesday. There are a series of letters that have to be sent out once they receive the acceptance papers. All these have to be done by September 1st. So, please pray that they speed through!

Before we travel, we need to raise $9,000 to cover the country costs. Praise God it is only $9,000 as we have received a grant from Shaohannah's Hope for $2,000. I am planning to do a number of fundraisers, beginning with selling tubs of cookie dough and Little Caesar's kits. If you are interested in ordering anything from either of these, please let me know. I plan to sell them in the month of August.

My daughter has decided that now that we know Levi is going to be coming into our lives, it is time to prepare the nursery. The soon-to-be nursery is currently our spare bedroom that for the last month and a half has been housing a number of things from the basement. But now that the basement is dry it is time to get that moved back to the basement. We actually spent some time today doing just that! I can't wait to get going on the painting. The only problem we have come across is that when we began this process we were set on a girl. And now that we have a little boy coming, we realized how "girly" our house is. Oh well, that will soon be changing! I can't wait! I'm all up for it! Good thing I like football!

Introducing Levi Elijah Binh Senior

It's a boy!!!! Yesterday I was working at school trying to get my classroom in order for the start of a new school year. With VBS next week and school only 2 weeks away from starting, I knew I had to work this week. The phone rang in my room. It was our school secretary. She told me there was a Mary Anne on the phone and asked if I knew a Mary Anne. Well, of course I know two Mary Annes. I couldn't imagine that either one had my number or would call me at school but I told her I would take the call. Well, it was Mary Anne from Dillon asking if I had a minute to talk. I had my daughter turn down the radio and whispered to her why. Mary Anne told me she had a little guy and asked if I wanted to hear more. Of course I did!!!That's when she introduced me to Binh Thanh(Levi Elijah Binh). He was born in Can Tho on June 14th. He was 6 lbs. at birth and is now 9 lbs. and 21 in. long. His mother relinquished him on July 1st.

I couldn't believe my ears!! I didn't think that I was going to get a referral before the September 1st cutoff. I had prepared myself to wait longer. I was completely at peace with it. But we serve an amazing God!!! Not only did He spare my daughter from death and serious injury, He has blessed me with the most adorable little son!!! Needless to say, even though I stayed at school for about another hour, I didn't get anything accomplished. Let's just say, I didn't get much accomplished the rest of the day. Nor did I sleep much last night!

I know you are all wondering why I didn't post yesterday. Well, I didn't officially accept until today because I was waiting to hear back from the pediatrician I had asked to look over his test results. Although she had promised to get back to me before she left yesterday, she didn't. It wasn't until about 2:30 this afternoon, after calling several times, that I got word that everything looked good. Actually, I was too impatient to wait for her and called Mary Anne back before hearing from the doctor. I believed that everything would be alright because I know that this is the little guy that God has chosen to bring into our family. He is the one we have been praying for for sometime.