Hearts, Tummies and Nests

November/Thanksgiving 2008 pictures click here

NEHEMIAH NEWS
Had a meeting with the VN director today. Its tough knowing we could have left tomorrow had our DNA not been lost, but she encouraged us the best she could to make it though the next few weeks.

Our DNA was resent 11-25-08 and we are waiting for confirmation from HCMC that they received it. Once received they will take ? time to give us pre-approval. Then we will be issued a G & R date about 2-3 weeks from that. We have asked it be set quicker as we are ready to travel.
Our hope was to be there during Christmas, but now we are just waiting at their mercy to see if that is possible or if it will be after that (pray no!).
We received a copy of our DNA today. Here is our precious sons DNA picture, taken 10-31-08.

Recipe to help one make it though waiting... I am on my seventh day of it helping me : )

Pumpkin Crumble

bottom layer
1- 16oz can pumpkin
1- can sweetened condensed milk
3- eggs
1- tsp vanilla
3- tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2- tsp salt
1- cup sugar

topping:
1- yellow cake mix
1 1/2- sticks butter melted

Mix all bottom layer items together, pour into 9 x 13 baking dish. Sprinkle yellow cake mix on top, pour melted butter on top. Bake at 350 for 50-55 minutes.
Serve hot with cool whip melting on top- enjoy!

A Christmas project... our first gingerbread house. She loved decorating her house and eating the snowmen cookies.



Avi Joy strikes a pose.
She is such a ham these days.
I could list pages of funny stuff she says but here are my current two favorites.

1. We talk about where babies come from a lot. So one day in the car she said, "babies come from hearts and tummies and do not forget nests." Which is true, God does put baby birds in nests and she did not want to leave any baby out. She says she is currently carrying Nehemiah in her belly and 4 babies from Africa in her heart.

2. Listening to the Christmas song "Hear the angels sing," she belts out as loud as she can, "Hear the Asians sing." Yeah toooo funny.

"O Lord Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in You." Psalm 84:12
Love,
The Perryman Family

Good news ~ Bad news

Lets start with the good news shall we...
New picture of precious lil'perryman.

We are very excited that we will most likely be having a Vietnamese Christmas this year!
Which leads us to the baaaadd news.
HCMC lost our DNA.
So now Dillon is contacting the US Lab and they will resend it to HCMC, then we again wait for pre-approval to travel.
Leaving on the 4th and having our G & R on the 10th was just not meant to be.

"I wait for the Lord,
my soul waits,
and in His word,
I put my hope.
My soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen
wait for the morning,
more than watchmen
wait for the morning."
Psalm 130:5-6 (said twice for emphasis)

Thank you for following our journey.
With Love,
Adam, Natasha, Avi Joy and Nehemiah

we hear ya trumpet.

NEHEMIAH NEWS
Remember this from the last post?
Well here is Avi Joy's trumpet and we heard it blaring today...
Nothing is too hard for God.

We were expecting an update today, hoping that the lab was finally done with our DNA. But instead we got an email from Mary Anne at Dillon saying the DNA Lab was having trouble with its fax machine, so the fax about our case must not have come through.
Not only had our DNA been complete, it had already been sent to HCMC and arrived!
It has been there since Nov 14th, but no one knew : )

Such a sweet surprise.
Our direct prayers now are for everyone currently waiting for pre-approval to travel to Can Tho to receive the same G & R date of Dec 10th. We will see how everything unfolds.

"Put your hope in God." Psalm 42
(I like the action word here- put, it just doesn't happen on its own, we have to put it.)

Adam, Natasha, Avi Joy and Nehemiah

Triple wedding?

Are Avi Joy, Sarah and Andrew all getting married? Esp Sarah, look at those folded hands! HA!

We have finally updated all our pictures!

August, Two Family Weddings, September & Sum Hop Day, October 2008

Sum Hop Day, September 7, 2008- home two years
(Vietnamese for "to come together, unite" sounds like Sue-mm Hop)

September 7, 2006, Ninh Thuan, Vietnam

Lots of emotions today... (and you know women- probably a million more that are not listed : )
Amazed: at Julie's perseverance, she has waited one year to travel, G & R is on Dec 4th!
Delighted: that God can exceed our wildest dreams, Jessica received I-600 pre-approval to travel.
Ready: for DNA to be complete.
Thankful: for friends who attended my pityparty today and picked me up.
Nesting: we are going to finish packing soon.
Convicted: by the scripture on my daughters bible school trumpet, its in all caps:
"NOTHING IS TOO HARD FOR GOD" Story of Joshua & Jericho from Joshua 6, go read it!

I love that Avi Joy is so ready for her brother, she loves hangin out in his crib.

NEHEMIAH NEWS
Waiting for DNA to finish, we are on day 8 (usually takes 5-10 days)
Then sent to HCMC, (about 3-5 days)
Then wait for pre-approval to travel (? days)
Then told our G & R date, leave!

"The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the people, 'Shout! For the Lord has given you the city! The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the Lord.'" Joshua 6:16-17

The Perryman's

Jazzercise and DNA

Happy Halloween to all (if you choose to participate that is...)
Here are our little Trick or Treat'ers doing some Halloween Jazzercise. We enjoyed an afternoon with the Homan family at their churches Truck'or'Treat celebration. Sarah was a black kitty, Andrew a lion and Avi Joy an artist. We played lots of fun games, collected candy and took an awesome hay ride.

We are silly-happy this morning and thrilled to announce our DNA is complete.

Dillon just received an email from our staff in Vietnam and they said everything went fine with the DNA testing. They will let us know when the lab receives the samples from the consulate, which can take approximately 3-5 business days to reach the lab here in the states.

Thank you to all who prayed for our birthmother. I know that God gave her strength through this emotional day. We felt great peace as well and are excited to be moving one step closer to traveling for Nehemiah.

"Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs. But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to You. What I have vowed I will make good. Salvation comes from the Lord." Jonah 2:8-9

The Perryman's

Celebrating Nehemiah!
We were blessed by family, friends and church family with showers for Nehemiah. More than the "stuff" posted below, we know our relationships are a gift from God and we are so grateful for each of you celebrating Nehemiah's arrival.

We dressed in our Vietnamese Ao Doi's for Nehemiah's shower.

Favorite shirts. Special Delivery, New in Town, NSP and the tie, just too cute.

Very special gift from Nene, big sister tee-shirt.

A new supersoft brown polka-dot changing pad cover.

Nehemiah's dresser from Natasha's mom, NanNa.

Awesome blankets. One handmade by Adam's mom.

Vietnamese plates from NanNa and Rhonda.

Craft at the shower. Everyone painted pictures from Vietnam on wooden spoons.

A "thing of beauty" by Evie. She made this just as a shower decoration, but it was too perfect not to be in his room.

We are ready for you precious son. Love, The Perrymans

"He who loves a pure heart and whose speech is gracious will have the king for his friend." Proverbs 22:11

Ready and blessed in the waiting

Ready for a brother...
Today, Avi Joy took a pen and wrote scribbles in her palms, then put out her hands and said she was spiderman. I asked Adam and my mom if they taught this to her, they didn't. I am guessing she is feeling the brother vibe from Vietnam!

Nehemiah is doing well. He is now 15lbs and 24 inches.
We have been packing and getting the house organized, I feel so much more prepared this time around.
We are hoping to hear something about travel sometime between Nov 20-Dec 15.
(Nov 20th is about the time HCMC will receive the completed DNA and Dec 15th is the 60th day of waiting after receipt. Hopefully we will not go much further past that... we shall see.)

In other adoption news, we will be grandfathered in with our I-600 process with China. Basically what this means is it will save $820 by not having to refile our fingerprints for another adoption. Whoo-hoo!

Here are some beautiful pictures from my cousin Sarah's wedding. It was a barefoot wedding at sunset in Panama City Beach, FL, Avi Joy was the flower girl. We will post new pictures from Aug, Sept and 2 weddings soon.




The Perryman's

"Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders You have done. The things You planned for us no one can recount to You; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare." Psalm 40:5