Avi Joy and I had the honor of working for Dillon International Adoption Agency this month. We worked in the nursery (birth-3) for China, Korea and India Heritage camps.
At Heritage camp, a child learns about their culture in many ways... they create artwork, dance, cook, eat, write, read, learn sports from their homeland and fellowship with children who look like them/adopted from the same country.
It was wonderful to see young children and adult adoptee's attend camp.
Dillon will begin a Vietnam camp next year. Within the next five years Vietnam camp will have lots and lots of kiddo's & will be SO much fun!
The Dillon staff did an amazing job organizing these heritage camps. They put their heart and soul into the children attending camp. The added bonus of camp is that parent classes are offered throughout each day. Families drove in from all over the country to attend camp. All the colorful families were a joy to see!
There are some pictures under the Photo section, along with pictures of Dillon's Fun Run and many others from July. Please take a look : )
Avi Joy likes to call this picture:
"Don't tell mom but when she went to get the camera,
I pooped on the kitchen floor!"
How is baby number two?
We are updating our homestudy. We have one more visit with Rebecca, our social worker, and we will have a homestudy in hand.
We have filed for our I-600A. An I-600A is a petition filed (U.S.) to adopt an unidentified orphan internationally.
We are looking forward to our upcoming fund-raisers.
* Silent Auction held at Liberty Elementary for teachers.
* Family Chili Day, October 20th
* Selling Adopt(ed) tee's for Christmas
So we have something planned for Sept, Oct and Nov.
Please keep these events in your prayers. Pray they are successful and blessed financially.
Special Visitor:
Thomas is a lawyer/social worker in Vietnam. He lives in Ho Chi Minh City and works for Dillon International. In country, he was our translator, lawyer, director, friend and every thing in between. Thomas was able to come to Tulsa and Dillon asked several Tulsa families to cook him an American meal.
Along with the Sweets and Homans we were able to cook Thomas an authentic Thanksgiving meal. He was able to try deviled eggs, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls, corn, chocolate torte and of course, turkey.
He said all items were new flavors and he like the deviled eggs the best!
The evening was filled with laughter and we know it was a pleasure for him to see all three children doing so well.
We all prayed that he would feel Christ in our homes and feel His Light in our company.
The evening was blessed and Jynger, the director of the Vietnam program, said that in the future Dillon is going to try to plan Thomas' visit for during the Vietnam Family day (Vietnam Heritage Camp.) So that is WONDERFUL news for all families!
We regret to say that pictures will not be posted of our event. This decision is out of respect for Thomas' position as an international representative between countries. He has asked this personally in the past and we will grant his request.
Avi Joy is 15 months and is quite the talker, you may not believe us, but just ask our family...
here are words that she loves to say:
Uh-ohhh , Mama, Dada, NanNa, Papa, Amen, dog, bow, book, bath, diaper, bible, poo-poo, bye bye, hi, hello, cow, ouch, banana, up, baba, wawa (water), elmo, on, off... I can't think of any more right now...
She has said many one time words, repeating me (which all mom's know is sooo cute) but these are words she actually uses and knows the meaning of. All children have different gifts from the Lord and right now it seems she going to be a talker like her mama.
Hugs and Kisses
Adam, Natasha and Avi Joy
"Lord, I have heard of Your fame; I stand in awe of Your deeds, O Lord. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known..." Habakkuk 3:2, A Prayer of Habakkuk the prophet from the Bible.
