Happy Sum Hop Day

Four years ago today, September 7, 2006, we were standing in court in Ninh Thuan, Vietnam, becoming a forever family.
We are filled with deep gratitude thinking upon our great love for Avi Joy. We are beyond blessed to have her as our daughter. And as I told her so today, she responded, "Yeah, and I am not anybody elses."
She is our girl through and through and we are so thankful to the Lord and to her birthmother for allowing her to be our child. She is pure joy, wise, patient, loving beyond compare, gentle, smart, talented, seriously- simply amazing.

Here we are hanging out at our hotel in Vietnam. Age 5 months.
Sum Hop Day 2007. Age 1 1/2.
Sum Hop Day 2008. Age 2 1/2.
Sum Hop Day 2009. Age 3 1/2.
Sum Hop Day 2010. Age 4 1/2.
Sum Hop in Vietnamese means, "to come together, to unite." We celebrate our Sum Hop day by going somewhere fun as a family (this year will be Incredible Pizza) and by taking pictures in traditional Ao Doi, the native Vietnamese dress. We also made a delicious cake to eat after dinner.
This year we were able to wear one of the dresses that Miss Anna, her Vietnamese teacher, gave to us. I love that I can see the stitching of each bead on the inside. I revel in the thought that someone in HCMC was sitting (probably on an itty-bitty plastic stool) hand stitching this beautiful ao doi for my baby!

I am head-over-heels for all these pictures of Avi Joy in ao doi, she is so beautiful. (And I will be posting all soon.)

The verse that popped into my mind about Avi Joy has a preceding story.
One morning we stopped at a donut shop that we had never been too before. We went in and sat down and Avi Joy said, "Mom, I am going to sit on this side, facing away from the t.v., because Sponge Bob is on and that is not an appropriate show for me to watch."
Wow the praise she received for desiring to keep her eyes pure and also willingly obey her parents rules. She excels in character and the following verse reminds me of her:
"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." Philippians 4:8

The Perryman's