What we've been up too...

Well, after 8 days and 7 nights, Adam is home from Haiti. He was chosen to go on a relief team with Thirst No More Ministries with our church. It was a team of eight people and they worked doing everything from providing medical care and sorting supplies to distributing food/water. We are slowly working on putting together a post of pictures and commentary to show everyone... so look forward to that!
Before he left Avi Joy and I made him a envelope with notes inside, one for each evening. It said, "Adam to Haiti" with a verse from Esther, "And who knows, but that you have come to a royal position for such a time as this."
At the airport! He is home with a suntan and lost almost 15lbs. Smokin' hot, if I do say so myself. There were tears and they were not from the ladies! Adam has not cried in a loooong time. And that is actually something I like about him, his strength and his emotional stability. But he was happy to be home and they gently flowed. Nehemiah also greeted him with tears of joy or rather, hold-me-right-now-dada tears!
With his two precious peanuts.
Chris was the leader of the trip. He has four kiddos under 5 and his little guy was clinging onto him as well. Chris did an amazing job of leading the group and keeping all of us back home up to date with all they were doing through international posts on twitter.
So since we are not posting yet about the details of the trip, the kids and I are going to share all the things we did while dad was away...
First, I armed myself with some essentials. Something healthy, the fruit strips, something crunchie and of course Nutella. All yummy treats! (And I loved the pecan sticky bun granola over the top of blueberries and yogurt.)
There was much hugging and much laundry, observed in the background... maybe 12+ loads.
Made the anti-adam meal. He HATES tailgate sandwiches. Happened to catch a stomach bug and had this for dinner a year back or so. Will not let me cook them in the house, just the smell alone pushes him over the edge. They are soooo yummy, I will have to share the recipe sometime.
We made a new homemade batch of playdough. So easy and fun. Again, will have to post recipe.
We made tents in the living room.
Played peek-a-boo under the covers.
Grandparents stopped by on Saturday afternoon and we had lunch. It was a great break. They played hopscotch to entertain us.
I walked by the window in the dining room and thought to myself, "You know you have children in your home when you find a dried Ramen noodle stuck through the blind."
We had some fun dinners. We had a fruit and cottage cheese dinner, Rotel with chips dinner and of course, "Why are we having cereal for dinner mama? Dinner." Because that is what mama wanted. Yum.
Played dress-up.
And more dress-up. Please note the blue pimp hat.
We also did 3 big activities that I will post soon. (Made our VN '09 scrapbook, painted her baby highchair and made a chalkboard wall.)
We attended our community group bible study, had a couple playdates with friends, went to VN lessons, had an inside snow day, went to Wal-Mart and there was much cleaning house in between!!!

We also did LOTS of praying for daddy as a family. Every time Avi Joy asked about her daddy, i.e. "Why is daddy in Haiti? Why is he gone for 7 days? Where's daddy?" I told her we were going to stop and pray for him. It was a great reminder throughout the day! Another thing I thought of was that we basically fasted from daddy. And we all know what happens when we fast from food, it forces you to pray!

On a side note:
Reminder Tulsa Vietnam Families... You are invited to a luncheon at the Vietnamese Baptist Church to celebrate Lunar New Year on February 14th at 12:00pm. Location- 101st and 129th in Broken Arrow. Hope to see you there! (It may be rather dressy, so stay dressed in church clothes. I am sure they will be in Ao Doi's, at least my other VN church said they all would be...)

"May the Lord direct your hearts into God's love and Christ's perseverance." 2 Thess 3:5

The Perryman Family